News

"Bob Dylan Worldwide -The First Twenty Years" - the first instalment of what will hopefully be the definite Dylan discography, published by Christoph Maus/Maus of Music, Hamburg, Germany

. This was published in advance of Bob's 75th birthday, in mid-April 2016. Heartfelt thanks to the contributors to this site who have helped with preparing this book - they are credited for their contributions. Please buy this book from "Isis" here

. Thanks to Sonny Boy McFitzson for news the book can be bought in Japan from Disk Union here

. Sample pages from the book are shown here.

	1 Jan 2021: Happy New Year to all contributors and visitors to Searching For A Gem! Let's hope 2021 is better for all of us, sees a gradual return to normality and maybe even a Bob tour! 23 Dec 2020: Thanks to Sonny Boy McFitzson for news of what looks like a Japanese Rough And Rowdy Ways cassette in a clear case with an insert with handwritten song titles on the inside. It's actually a phone charger and can be bought online from the Udo Bob Dylan merchandise shop! Sonny Boy McFitzson also says that Bob Dylan 1970 will be released in Japan on 26 Feb 2021 as a set of three Blu-spec CD2 discs, Sony Music SICP-31421~3, price ￥4,200+tax=￥4,620. The package will include Japanese liner notes and a booklet with lyrics in English and Japanese. 18 Dec 2020: Thanks to Badlands for information that the very limited 3CD set 50th Anniversary Collection 1970 (see 30 Nov 2020) will be reissued with new artwork as Bob Dylan 1970 on 26 Feb 2021. More information will be added when available, but if it becomes a regular release the 74 tracks it contains will no longer be rarities. The front photo was used for several European single releases of Watching The River Flow in 1971. 14 Dec 2020: I am pleased to announce the inclusion of an essay by "Percy Song" on the very first acetate of the replaced version of Blood On The Tracks from A&R Recording Studios, New York, dated "9/25/74" and which contains three unique rarities not found on the later test pressing. This essay can be found on the 1974 page and also here .

"By popular demand", the latest Bob Dylan Rarity News notified to me. If you have any news not shown that will interest site visitors, please contact me here. Please make sure the subject of your message includes the word "Dylan"- this will ensure it's not put in the trash by the site's Spam filter. This is absolutely vital - incoming Spam can be as much as 13,300 messages per day, and I'm sure some of your valuable messages have been missed! Please retry if your message was rejected or if you haven't received a reply.

The font used for the titles of each page is appropriately called "Jokerman", if you can't see it, download it here:

This is a fan site with no connection to Bob - that means you can't contact him through me! I used to have a postal address for Bob's New York business office that I thought was correct, but I have since been informed by someone who wrote to that address that their mail was returned. I have never had an email address. I can only suggest you contact Bob's publisher Simon & Schuster or use the feedback page at www.bobdylan.com. I also have no means of helping anyone who wants to meet Bob Dylan or obtain his autograph!

For much wider news coverage of interest to Bob Dylan fans, see Karl Erik's amazing "Expecting Rain" site

. It's always up-to-date thanks to his astounding dedication!

News and Updates are now two separate pages - for Updates (including all site structure changes), see here.

Old news items are kept on here until the rarities referred to actually surface, or until it becomes clear that they're not going to!

24 Nov 2015: Please note, in order to reduce the huge number of submissions, only submit scans of new items. If you have variant copies of items already listed on the site, please submit only a text description of your item that can be pasted into the web page. That will make the additions significantly easier to handle, and avoid web pages becoming too long. This is a new permanent policy for the site. Thank you for your co-operation.

Counter restarted 24 Dec 2015! Please add around 5 million visits since mid-1998.

	7 Jul 2014: Thanks to Jeff Gold, Bruce Mulle and several others for news of 149 Dylan acetates from the Nashville Skyline/Self Portrait/New Morning era that were found in a New York building in West Houston Street, Greenwich Village, that was once rented by Bob as a studio. These have been named "The West Houston Street Acetates" and contain many unreleased versions of Dylan songs from the period. They will be listed in full on the 2014 page when time permits. For full details, see here.
	26 Nov 2013: So long, eBay! This web-site has an ongoing huge backlog of additions, all with high quality artwork, and several important new Dylan releases to add between now and Christmas. In view of the poor quality of description and illustration of items from eBay and other online auction sites, together with the high probability that items are counterfeit, no more items from such sites will be considered for inclusion here. I've also been told that featuring eBay items on this web-site has led to higher prices. Thanks to those who have submitted eBay links in the past, but please don't do so in future under any circumstances. As an example, look at the scan by Manuel García Jara and a photo of the same single from an online auction site. The digital photo is appalling (and shows the wrong side of the sleeve)!

Searching For A Gem: News