Jesse Jarnow

the great white wonder project

“Quinn the Eskimo” (take 1) – Bob Dylan and the Band (download)

A few weekends back, at the WFMU Record Fair, I picked up a copy of Bob Dylan’s Great White Wonder. The first ever rock bootleg, it was originally released by the Trademark of Quality underground label in 1969. Famously, it came in almost totally blank packaging: white jacket, white labels, sometimes a rubber stamp with the title.

The copy I bought comes with a handwritten title on the front, obviously scrawled by a dealer at some point along the way. Likewise, the labels on the vinyl itself only contain simple simple black dots, indicating the A-side (I think) of each disc. Others, it looks like, had more formal packaging.

Surely, though, with a batch of brand new, unknown songs, many people must have annotated their copies, guessed at the titles, etc..
Got one? What does it say on it? Join the Great White Wonder Project pool or upload to flickr with the tags “bob dylan great white wonder” and I’ll deal with it.

(Thx, Andres!)

2 Comments

  1. jeff thomas says: - reply

    First GWW was totally blank, no marks of any kind. Gatefold sleeve, completely white. Trade Mark of Quality came later as did copies with hand stamped titles (usually red or green stamp). Original GWW available immediately in Europe, days after it’s first ‘release’, by airmail from Ray Avery’s Rare Records in Pasadena, California.

  2. Darryl's Mama says: - reply

    Hm, he says he is waiting “on” somebody rather than “for somebody”. V. NY of him.

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