Bob Dylan boxed set will include two songs recorded in East Orange — in 1961

The cover of “Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963.”

Bob Dylan’s upcoming boxed set, Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963, will include two songs recorded in East Orange in 1961. They are “Pastures of Plenty” (a Woody Guthrie song) and “Remember Me” (written by Scott Wiseman, and recorded by his country duo Lulu Belle & Scotty), and they were recorded at the apartment of Bob and Sid Gleason at 182 N. Arlington Ave., in February or March of 1961.

(OCT. 31 UPDATE: I have embedded “Remember Me” below, as well as a story about East Orange that is included in the boxed set.)

The Gleasons were folk music enthusiasts who hosted weekly gatherings at the apartment. Sometimes they would bring Woody Guthrie there; Guthrie, who suffered from Huntington’s disease, was a patient at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains from 1956 to 1961. Dylan started going to the Gleasons’ gatherings soon after moving to New York in January 1961, having learned that he could meet Woody Guthrie there; most Dylan experts believe that he first met Guthrie in East Orange, not (as depicted in the movie “A Complete Unknown”) at Greystone.

The two East Orange songs on Bootleg Series have been available on unofficial bootlegs for years, but this will be their first official release. It is not known if Guthrie was present at the time of the performances.

The boxed set will be released on Oct. 31. According to a press release, “The 8CD Deluxe set includes 139 tracks — 48 never-before released performances, as well as 38 super-rare cuts plus a hardcover book with extensive liner notes by Sean Wilentz and over 100 rare photographs. The 2CD and 4LP highlight editions include 42 tracks.”

Also, according to a press release, the boxed set “tells the story of Dylan’s emergence and maturation as a songwriter and performer, from Minnesota to the Greenwich Village bohemia in the early 1960s. Arriving amidst a global resurgence in appreciation for Dylan, the collection includes rare Columbia Records outtakes, recordings made at club dates, in tiny informal gatherings, in friends’ apartments, and at jam sessions in long-gone musicians’ hangouts. Many of the recordings are exceedingly rare; others have never been presented in any form.”

More information on the boxed set is available at bobdylan.com.

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