Bob Dylan

12 10-inch acetates (aluminum discs coated in acetate and cut in real time) with song titles and take numbers handwritten in pencil on the labels, in original plain paper sleeves with inked ownership ("J Hammond") in sleeve corner on each. Songs: "House of the Rising Sun" (CO 68729 TK 3), "Song to Woody" (CO 68731 TK 2), "House Carpenter" (CO68751 TK 1), "Highway 61" (CO 68749 TK 1), "He was a Friend of Mine" (CO 68728 TK 2), "Pretty Peggy O" (CO 68746 TK 2), "Ramblin Blues" (CO 68744 TK 2), "Man of Constant Sorrow" (CO 68745 TK 3)"In My Time of Dying" (CO 68733 TK 3), "Talking New York" (CO 68730 TK 2), "Fixin to Die" (CO 68727 TK 3), "Baby Let me Follow you Down" (CO 68732 TK 1).  Recorded 20 and 21 November, 1961.

Session producer John Hammond — Photographer Ted Russell

See: Heylin, Clinton. Bob Dylan The Recording Sessions 1960-1994. NY: 1996. pp. 7-9

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Dylan's first album sessions saw the 21 year old enter Columbia studios and over 2 days  record his debut album. In spite of producer John Hammond's worries about taking Dylan from the coffee shop to the studio ("I'd never worked with anyone so undisciplined before') the sessions went more smoothly as they progressed and many songs were captured in a single take.

The finished album, Bob Dylan, showcased a performer playing covers from his live shows and it wasn't until his second album that Dylan's own songwriting came to the fore. While "House Carpenter" was not officially released until the Bootleg series, it had long been sought out unofficially as one of the the superior takes from the sessions.

With likely no more than a handful of  acetates for each song pressed, the present is a rare set and also carries a distinguished provenance. John Hammond wanted photographer Ted Russell to possibly shoot the album cover and sent him the present acetates to get a feel for the performances. While any shots Russell took didn't end up as the album art, his candid 1964 session  of Dylan at home in his apartment is well known.