Fifteen Years of Bootlegs

Though I started this blog in 2004 it wasn’t until 2008 that I started posting bootlegs for download. That’s approximately fifteen years (more or less, there have been some stops and starts along the way) of me posting shows on this blog. I don’t have any real idea of how many shows I’ve posted in all those years. I’ve got 6,960 of them that I’ve labeled “Bootleg Bonanza” which is what I used to call those posts. But that doesn’t include any of the shows that are still locked away in private mode, nor any of the more recent shows that I’ve thrown up on Google Drive. That’s a lot of sharing. I’m proud of that.

Five years ago I did a series of posts where I celebrated Ten Years of Bootlegs. I did a little countdown of my Top Ten most popular bootleg posts, according to my hit counter. I thought it would be fun to revisit that post with an update for the 15 Year Anniversary.

As always there are caveats. My hit counter is wrong. Over the years I have switched a time or two between WordPress and Blogger. I’ve had my own website, I’ve downloaded counters, and relied on whatever WordPress uses internally. I went private for a few years, blocking all search engine access. I urged everyone to sign up for my e-mails (which means most people never actually come to the site, they just download from the e-mail.) And now that I’m doing daily posts where I mostly link directly to Google instead of doing individual posts for each show. All of that has massively messed with my stats.

But with all of that in mind, I still think it is fun to see what is most popular.

Here’s the original list, with original stats.

10. Bob Dylan – Abandoned Desire – 2251 hits
09. Bob Dylan – 1978 Tour Collection – 2125 hits
08. Bob Dylan – The Genuine Never Ending Tour Covers Collection (1988-2006) – 2345 hits
07. Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour – 3015 hits
06. Bob Dylan – The Complete Supper Club Soundboards – 3302 hits
05. Bob Dylan & Mark Knopfler – The Complete Recording Session – 3254 hits
04. Bob Dylan – Santa Cruz, CA (03/15-16/00) – 2874 hits
03. Bob Dylan – A Couple More Years – 3646 hits
02. The Allman Brothers Band – San Francisco, CA (12/31/73) – 3552 hits
01. Bob Dylan – The 1974 Soundboard Collection – 4367 hits

And here’s the updated list.

10. Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – San Rafael, CA (06/01/87) – 3802 hits
09. Bob Dylan – 1978 Tour Compilation – 3891 hits
08. The Grateful Dead – The Entire Warfield Theatre 1980 Run – 3963 hits
Van Morrison – Shows by Year – 4251
07. Bob Dylan – Santa Cruz, CA (03/15-16/00) – 4459 hits
06. Bob Dylan – The Genuine Never Ending Tour Covers Collection (1988-2000) – 4641 hits
05. The Allman Brothers – San Francisco, CA (12/31/73) 4880 hits
Grateful Dead: Shows by Year – 5103
04. Bob Dylan & Mark Knopfler – The Complete Recording Sessions 1979-1986 – 5191 hits
03. Bob Dylan – Complete Supper Club Soundboards – 5323 hits
02. Bob Dylan – 1974 Soundboard Collection – 6487 hits
01. Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour – 8139 hits

So as you can see it mostly stayed the same, which makes sense, I guess. What was popular then stayed popular now. The positioning has changed a bit which is interesting.

The Dead’s Warfield run of 1980 joined the list. It wasn’t posted until the middle of these anniversary posts which explains why it wasn’t on the original list. And a single Dylan and the Dead show also entered the list. I’m not sure why that particular one is popular. Pushed out were two Dylan outtake sessions – Abandoned Desire and A Couple More Years.

And there you have it. I don’t know if anyone but me cares about this stuff but I think it is pretty interesting. It does sadden me a little to realize that the way I post shows now pretty much eliminates my ability to know which shows are the most popular. Maybe someday I’ll go back to posting individual posts for individual shows, but that day isn’t today.

Ten Years of Bootlegs #1: Bob Dylan – The 1974 Soundboard Collection

And here we are, the #1 most popular bootleg post. When I started this blog I had no idea how long it would last. When I first started posting bootlegs it was really just one more thing in the big pop cultural potpourri that I was posting to my little plot of webspace. I couldn’t have guessed they would completely take over the blog within a few years and that I’d still be plugging away ten years later. I have no complaints, this blog has brought me a lot of joy. I’ve met some pretty cool people and listened to and learned a lot about some really great music. So once again to all of you, thanks for making The Midnight Cafe such a great place, it wouldn’t exist without you.

Ten Years of Bootlegs #1: Bob Dylan – 1974 Soundboard Collection

Of course, this is the biggest bootlegs on my site. It is Dylan, It is the Band, and it’s all from glorious soundboards.

First posted on September 2, 2015
Total number of hits: 4367

I don’t know about you all, but I’ve had a lot of fun trolling through these old posts and see what’s most popular. It has been really interesting to watch all the numbers go way up after I write a new Ten Years post and see everybody flock to the old post. I’m thinking about doing a regular post where I highlight some old shows I posted ages ago. Might be a fun way to remind people of something maybe they didn’t see the first time. Maybe I’ll even ask for some guest writers to pick out a favorite show or something.

Anyways thanks for hanging around.

Here at the other Ten Years of Bootlegs posts.

#10 Bob Dylan – Abandoned Desire
#9 Bob Dylan – 1978 Tour Collection
#8 Bob Dylan – The Genuine Never Ending Tour Covers Collection (1988-2000)
#7 Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour
#6 Bob Dylan – The Complete Supper Club Soundboards
#5 Bob Dylan & Mark Knopfler – The Complete Recording Sessions
#4 Bob Dylan – Santa Cruz, CA (03/15-16/00)
#3 Bob Dylan A Couple More Years
#2 The Allman Brothers Band – San Francisco, CA (12/31/73)

Ten Years of Bootlegs #2: The Allman Brothers Band – San Francisco, CA (12/31/73)

Ever since coming up with this list, I’ve pondered why The Allman Brothers Band would be the only non-Bob Dylan show to crack the top ten. Why is there no Jerry? No Van on this list? I don’t have a good answer. My best guess is that Jerry and the Dead both exist in abundance on the Internet and that my little site is one of many places you can download and stream those artists. One thing you might notice in my top ten list is that most of the shows on it are either alt-cuts of a specific album or compilations of some sort. Thus far there hasn’t been a single show appearing on the list. The closest we’ve come is #4 which includes two complete shows from Dylan in 2000. The thing is I haven’t posted very many compilations from Jerry or the Dead. I suspect there just isn’t a single show from them that can push them above a Dylan comp.

As for Van, he doesn’t have that large a presence online. He’s kind of the opposite of the Dead where very few places exist on the Internet that are sharing his shows. Part of this is due to Van himself taking measures to stop the spread of his music being shared online. For years he used the Web Sheriff to take down anything that wasn’t officially sanctioned. He’s calmed down over the last few years but that still leaves people a little gun-shy. Van also doesn’t seem to be as popular as Bob and Jerry. At least he doesn’t seem to create the sort of fans that create passion websites about him.

All of this is just me guessing. I really have no idea.

So why the Allman Brothers? Over the ten years I’ve been doing this I’ve only posted a handful of shows from the Allmans. Fans are certainly not tuning into these pages for ABB bootlegs. I’m sure many of you are fans of the band, but The Midnight Cafe is not the place you are coming to for their shows. Similar to Van Morrison you can’t find a ton of places for ABB bootlegs. They officially allow tapers to record their shows but they get a little wonky in terms of letting people like me post the shows online. I suspect there is a high demand for the shows, but not as many places to find them. Thus when I posted this show people gravitated toward it. Or more likely someone posted a link to this show on some ABB forum or another.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that this is a pretty epic show from the band’s peak. Oh, and it does feature Jerry Garcia, Bill Kreutzman & Boz Scaggs.

Whatever the reasons the Allman Brother Band comes in at #2 in my Top Ten viewed bootlegs of all time. Here are the stats.

Allman Brothers Band
December 31, 1973
Cow Palace
San Francisco, CA

First posted on November 7, 2011.
Total number of views: 3,552

Here at the other Ten Years of Bootlegs posts.

Ten Years of Bootlegs #3: Bob Dylan – A Couple More Years

The completist in me wants to own every tape of every show ever made. The realist recognizes that will never happen, but it hasn’t stopped me from trying ;). The listener in me really rather likes compilation tapes. I was making mix-tapes of my favorite songs back when I was a wee lad. I still make mix playlists for my wife. I always enjoy it when folks make mixes of the best songs from an artist or a decade or a tour.

Nellie over at Expecting Rain regularly makes excellent mixes of Bob Dylan’s music. This one includes outtakes from the albums Hearts Of Fire, Knocked Out Loaded & Down In The Groove. Those aren’t exactly three albums that burned up the charts, nor received a lot of love from fans, yet somehow these outtake sessions come in at #3 in my most popular posts of all time. Go figure.

I suppose that due to the fact that those albums aren’t universally lauded the outtakes sessions don’t show up in a lot of places which ironically makes them more popular when they do show up in places like my blog. Or something. Whatever reason here are the numbers.

The Third Most Popular Show of All Time:
A COUPLE MORE YEARS
Lost songs from 1986 and 1987
Outtakes from Hearts Of Fire, Knocked Out Loaded & Down In The Groove

Total number of views: 3646.

Due to the ever-changing nature of my hit counts due to me linking to every post in this Top Ten list this set now sits in at # 7, but it was # 3 when I first started which remains impressive to me. Only two more shows to go until we’ve completed the countdown. I’ve already let the cat out of the bag at what’s #2 on the list with the Allman Brothers being the only non Dylan-related show to make an appearance. Does anybody want to guess what Dylan boot will be #1?

As always thanks to everyone who makes this blog so much fun to do.

Here at the other Ten Years of Bootlegs posts.

#10 – Bob Dylan – Abandoned Desire
#9 – Bob Dylan – 1978 Tour Collection
#8 – Bob Dylan – The Genuine Never Ending Tour Covers Collection (1988-2000)
#7 – Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour
#6 – Bob Dylan – The Complete Supper Club Soundboards
#5 – Bob Dylan & Mark Knopfler – The Complete Recording Sessions
#4 – Bob Dylan – Santa Cruz, CA (03/15-16/00)

Ten Years of Bootlegs #4: Bob Dylan – Santa Cruz, CA (03/15-16/00)

This past week I started looking through some really old bootleg posts. Well, in fact, I went back to the very beginning. I’ve been slowly working my way through those posts systematically from oldest to newest. The idea is to update the links, update the photos, properly label everything and generally get everything looking uniform. This is all part of my larger organizational blog project. It is quite tedious but also kind of fun. Some of you are aware of this already as apparently the blog automatically posts these old blog posts to Facebook whenever I go back in and make changes. It is likely annoying as many of those posts no longer have good links (and I no longer have the shows to update those links with).

Some of you have already sent me some new links and I am grateful. I’ll eventually make a big master list of everything I’m missing and send out a request for them. In truth, a lot of the shows are things I’m not actually all that interested in. When I first discovered bootleg blogs I went a little mad and downloaded everything. Then when I started this blog I just uploaded everything to this space, regardless of quality, bit rate, or if I really even liked the artist very much.

This organizational project continues to grow. What I’d really like to do is have all the old posts cleaned up, have a master list of all the shows I own and where they are located, and make everything perfectly organized with the blog easily accessible and complete. I’m working on it, but every time I make a process I think of something else that needs to be cleaned up. I’ll still continue to post shows, but it will continue to be a little unorganized for a while longer.

The Fourth Most Downloaded Show Of All Time:
Bob Dyan – Santa Cruz, CA (03/15-16/00)
Total Number of Download: 2874

When I first started this little anniversary series I did not think about the fact that reposting these popular shows would only make them more popular. It took me a couple of posts to realize that the numbers were changing pretty quickly due to my linking to the popular posts. Eventually, I made a list in a notebook so that I could keep my numbers straight. I seem to have neglected this show. In my notebook, this show comes in at #9. Obviously, I posted #9 months ago and have since moved up to #4. This show isn’t really #4 but I need to mention it before I move on to #3 – #1. It currently resides at #10 so do with that what you will.

Even at #10, this is a bit of an anomaly. All the other posts in the top ten are compilations of some sort. There are entire tour collections, alt-cuts of popular albums, etc. I suppose technically this is a collection of two shows but it’s still fascinating to me that it became so popular.

I did post a whole bunch of Dylan shows from the year 2000 so I suspect that gained some traction in some other places. These two shows are extraordinarily great (both in terms of sound quality and performance) so maybe they are a fan favorite and the show got linked to some other popular Dylan sites. I have no idea. Whatever the reason you should definitely grab it if you haven’t already.

As you will see next month this is not the only time a non-compilation post makes it into the top ten. It is also the only non-Bob Dylan post in the countdown. Stay tuned.

Here at the other Ten Years of Bootlegs posts.
#10 – Bob Dylan – Abandoned Desire
#9 – Bob Dylan – 1978 Tour Collection
#8 – Bob Dylan – The Genuine Never Ending Tour Covers Collection (1988-2000)
#7 – Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour
#6 – Bob Dylan – The Complete Supper Club Soundboards
#5 – Bob Dylan & Mark Knopfler – The Complete Recording Sessions

Ten Years of Bootlegs #5: Bob Dylan & Mark Knopfler – The Complete Recording Sessions

June slipped by and half of July before I realized I’d missed posting this. These posts have been fascinating for me to write and then watch as the blog changes. I’ve noted before that I don’t really pay a lot of attention to my counter stats and the like, but doing this list has made me look at some of the numbers at least. It has been amazing to watch how whenever I write one of these anniversary posts and link back to an original post that original post then explodes in terms of hit count. After a couple of months, I made a text file listing the TOP Ten shows because the numbers were changing too much.

The numbers are changing on shows I haven’t talked about, too.

The fifth most downloaded bootlegs of all time:

Lossless Bootleg Bonanza: Bob Dylan & Mark Knopfler – The Complete Recording Sessions 1979-1986
Total number of hits: 3254

When I made my text file this show had 2874 hits. In the last few months, it has received an additional 380 hits all on its own. Obviously, that’s not a huge number but considering I originally posted that show back in 2015 and blogs are all about the new I think that’s pretty cool.

I’m actually not a huge expert on this period of Dylan’s career (compared to some of you I’m not an expert on any part of Dylan’s career). Which means I don’t have a whole lot to say about this bootleg. Mark Knopfler has played on a few of Dylan’s albums and played with him on tour. This boot collects some of the b-sides for Infidels, plus tour rehearsals and a couple of live songs. It’s a pretty eclectic mix, but an interesting one, especially for fans of Knopfler’s work.

#7 – Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour
#6 – Bob Dylan – The Complete Supper Club Soundboards

Ten Years of Bootlegs #6: Bob Dylan – The Complete Supper Club Soundboards, 1993

Ten years ago I had just come home from living a year in Shanghai, China. My wife and I were living with my folks until we could figure out what we were doing. Pretty quickly I started getting back into bootleg collecting but the methods had changed. Certainly, I had downloaded plenty of torrents before then but up until this time, I’d also traded quite a bit and gotten heavily into vine trading. By 2008 most of that had dried up. For a while, it was torrents, torrents, and nothing but torrents. I have no problem with torrents. I like torrents. I still torrent. But torrenting takes up a lot of bandwidth, time, and disk space. This was still in the days when disk space was a real concern as hard drives did not have the massive capacity they have now. I would torrent shows, convert them to MP3 then back up the FLAC files onto CD and DVD disks. Eventually, I found other MP3 blogs and it was heaven. Suddenly I could get cool shows at half the bandwidth and disk space. Now I try to avoid obtaining lossy files and I put everything on any number of external drives.

I don’t know why I mention this except that it’s interesting how things come back around. Writing these pieces always makes me nostalgic. Always make me think of my life over the last ten years. Like I said, when this first started my life was in limbo. I didn’t have a real job, I was living with my parents, and my wife and I had no idea what we were going to do. Since then we’ve moved at least five times into three different cities and two states. We did a couple of stints taking college students to Europe. We had a kid. I became a stay-at-home dad. Then my wife told me to get to work so she could stay home. Now I’m working with my Dad and brother. For the first time in my life, I’m a homeowner.

Through all of this, there has been the music. And the blog. There will always be music. I hope there is a blog for many years to come.

Anyways, writing these things always makes me nostalgic.

The 6th most downloaded bootleg of all time:

Bob Dylan – The Complete Supper Club Soundboards
Total hits: 3,302

For two nights in November of 1993, Dylan played four shows on two consecutive days at the Supper Club in New York City. They were acoustic performances presumably played as a warm-up to his appearance on MTV Unplugged the following night. Much like that album, the performances here are excellent. If you don’t have this set I highly recommend it.

#7 – Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour

Ten Years of Bootlegs #7: Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour

I mentioned last time that Bob Dylan held every spot in this Top Ten Countdown except for one. This was actually surprising to me as I figured some of the other artists I post regularly around here would show up more. Though I post lots of Van Morrison, Jerry Garcia, Neil Young and others none of them will show up on this list. This is the only time the Grateful Dead will appear. Can anyone guess who the other artist will be?

I suppose it makes sense that Bob would dominate. Dylan fans are rather obsessive. Unlike the Dead his shows are relatively difficult to find online. Where the Dead exist on archive.org and a bevy of other sites where you can find essentially every show of their in existence no such place exists for Dylan (at least that I’ve ever found). He’s also got a very long history of performances and is still touring regularly which means there a ton of shows out there to collect.

For whatever reason Van Morrison doesn’t have that big of an online presence. He still makes records and tours but his heyday is many years in the past, at least in terms of popularity. While I’ve found he’s got a dedicated group of followers and bootleg collectors, its a pretty small group. Jerry Garcia solo stuff is similar in that way.

I don’t really know why Bob dominates on here so much but here we are at number 7 and this is the first time another artist has made an appearance.

#7 Most Visited Shows on The Midnight Cafe

Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – The Entire Tour
3015 Hits

On paper having the Grateful Dead tour with Bob Dylan sounds like a dream come true. The Dead would play a couple of sets on their own and then become Dylan’s backing band. What could be better? The Dead were clearly longtime fans of Dylan as they’d been covering his songs since nearly the beginning. Dylan too had a great respect for The Dead, especially Jerry Garcia. Putting them together should have been amazing.

And yet, it clearly wasn’t. 1987 was not a great year for either artist. Bob was still in the midst of his 80s funk with his early 90s resurgence still a few years away. Garcia had come out of a coma just a year earlier and had to relearn how to play the guitar. Though the Dead still had plenty of good shows left in them they were very much on a downward spiral. The officially released album they put out from this tour has been pretty well derided by critics and fans alike.

However, I really feel that listening to the entire tour shows that it really wasn’t as bad as its reputation, and in some moments its really quite wonderful. The Dead are clearly enjoying playing with one of their heroes and they help elevate Dylan in nearly every way.

With DylanDave’s help, I posted each show from the tour with multiple sources and then did a master post of the whole thing. It makes sense that this master post garnered a lot of hits as fans of both artists would enjoy various shows from the tour. All of the shows were originally posted via Mediafire and I have not replaced those links with ones from Amazon. Please do let me know if I am still missing anything or if any of the links are bad.

Ten Years of Bootlegs #8: Bob Dylan – The Genuine Never Ending Tour Covers Collection (1988-2000)

I must confess that the transition of The Midnight Cafe from a pop culture blog (where I posted about movies, music, books, and other assorted oddities) to solely being a bootleg blog was mostly due to hit counts. I had a brief but passionate affair with the idea that I could somehow become big enough of a site to, well not make a living from it, but at least supplement my income. I dreamed of being a cool little corner of the internet where people would come to read my thoughts on art and entertainment and maybe discuss them with me.

During this time I paid a lot of attention to my hit counter. I poured over my stats looking to see where folks were coming from and how they’d gotten to my little blog. As I started posting more bootlegs I noticed that a lot of searches were for various live shows. I also noted that since posting bootlegs my daily hits were increasing. The transition was slow but eventually all other non-bootleg things fell away.

I now actually do some pop culture writing, but it’s on other sites so that the Cafe could remain pure.

These days I pay very little attention to hit counts and all those stats. Now and again I like to see where people come from and what links they click on but it’s not something I keep up with. But were it not for those early days of counting I’d never have become The Midnight Cafe I am today.

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The Midnight Cafe’s #8 most viewed bootlegs of all time: The Genuine Never Ending Tour Covers Collection (1988-2000)
Because my hit counter really was fluctuating a lot due to me linking to the posts in this little countdown I finally got around to writing the top ten down somewhere permanent so as to not get confused as the numbers changed. Today’s post is technically now sitting at #10, because the original #10 and #9 have since moved up in the count so we’ll pretend its actually #8.

The always-great DylanDave gave me this compilation. It contains every cover song Dylan sang on the Never Ending Tour up until 2000 (I keep hoping someday someone will do a Part II to catch us up.) While Dylan is one of the great songwriters of our time it’s kind of fun to have a whole compilation of him singing other people’s songs.

It was originally posted in July of 2016 and has accumulated a total of 2,345 hits. Smart readers will note that this is actually more hits that I posted for #10 and #9 but again those have since moved up quite a bit. Those same readers may also notice this is the third Bob Dylan boot in a row for the countdown. Get used to that as all but one bootleg in the top ten comes from Dylan (there are a couple of others that have Bob playing with other artists, but he’s in 9 out of the 10).

That’s it. If you haven’t grabbed this boot I highly recommend it.

You can read about the #10 show here and #9 here.

Ten Years of Bootlegs: #9 – Bob Dylan – 1978 Tour Collection

When I first started posting bootlegs I had no idea what I was doing. I’d been collecting bootlegs for a long time but that was mostly through snail mail trades and vines. I grabbed some shows from torrents but Internet speeds and bandwidth allocations kept me from doing that with much enthusiasm. I’d not yet discovered bootleg blogs so I was pretty clueless as to how to actually host the boots. Initially, I found some janky MP3 hosting sites that were full of ads and likely a variety of Internet poisons. Eventually, someone suggested Megaupload so I tried that. I was so unskilled that I started uploading each song individually which must have driven my early readers completely mad. Eventually, I realized I could zip an entire show and upload it which made things much easier.

Around this time I discovered other bootleg blogs and learned a lot from them as to how my site should work. It also opened up a new world to me. Though I was a competent bootleg collector at this point the only places I’d ever gone were Grateful Dead-related circles. I had no idea there were so many other boots from so many other bands. I downloaded like a maniac.

More and more I was uploading like a maniac as well. Bootlegs were getting a lot of traction and at the time I was hungry for more blog visitors. Initially, I posted all the bootlegs I owned on CD. Soon that ran out and I started posting the MP3s I had downloaded from other blogs, but I couldn’t keep up. For a while I had two computers going. One was constantly torrenting new shows and the other was uploading and posting those same shows nearly as fast as I could download them.

Ten years later I am still uploading multiple shows a day but I have so many shows on my hard drive I sometimes feel I’ll never get through them. Especially as I continue to find other shows I simply “must” download.

When I posted the #10 show in this little anniversary collection there was a conversation in the comments about how one might start visiting your favorite shows in hopes of boosting their ranking so that they might be included in the list. Truth is that is quite a possibility. As I am going to be dolling out these posts over the next several months it is quite likely the rankings will change quite a bit between now and October when my #1 gets posted. In fact, as I write this now, just days after writing about the #10 ranking that post, Abandoned Desire, has moved itself up to the #5 position. I guess I shouldn’t have linked to it 😉

My next confession is that when I wrote about #10 I miscounted and Abandoned Desire was actually number 9 with this 1978 Tour Collection coming in at # 10. I would fix that posthumously but as noted it’s already changed places. Not that any of this matters. There is no prize for being in my top 10 bootlegs posts. This is just a way for me to say thanks to all of you guys for supporting the site for so long and for a fun chance to revisit some old posts.

I posted this compilation of songs from 1978 not all that long ago. I first hit the site in June of 2017 and have since racked up 2,125 hits. It was DylanDave who turned me onto it, pointing me to where it had been posted on another site. It is a nice little comp from a very good year for Bob Dylan. Turns out you guys like Bob Dylan an awful lot as he shows up in almost every single spot on this list. But that’s a discussion for another time.