Bob Dylan

Guns n' Roses

Introduction
Guns n' Roses is best known for its classic Appetite For Destruction, and most people should be interested in hearing bootlegs from this era. This is when Axl arguably sounded the best, when Slash's guitar sounded the way it should and about as important: It was when Izzy and Steven both remained in the band.

Although Guns n' Roses is heavily bootlegged, very little of the material in circulation is of high enough quality to actually interest those who aren't completists. There are a limited number of live bootlegs that are soundboard recordings, and of these, a number are probably low generation recordings that survived.

Good quality bootlegs

Studio
Most of the band's studio recordings that ended up on bootlegs are of poor sound quality. These recordings may not have originally been poor, but as the tapes were treated poorly, these studio bootlegs are of little interest if you want more material that sounds as good as Appetite.

There are a few exceptions. The band's past manager Alan Niven has released a number of things worth having, including some studio recordings. These releases are terrific quality, but the material is heavily limited.

The things worth having include:

Jumping Ax Flash
A collection of seven outtakes from Appetite/Lies. The Lies outtakes are simply four songs recorded for the Live Like a Suicide EP (side A of Lies), before they were overdubbed with the live audience. This album also includes excellent demos of "Welcome To The Jungle", "You're Crazy" and two unreleased covers of "Jumping Jack Flash" and "Heartbreak Hotel".

Cornshucker
Recorded during the Lies sessions, this bootleg features five acoustic songs: "Patience", "Used to Love Her", "You're Crazy", "One In a Million" and "Cornchucker". The version of "Patience" is an unmixed album version, whereas the version of "You're Crazy" was officially released as a b-side (in higher quality).

Live
Most fans of Guns n' Roses are fans of the Appetite for Destruction-era. Only a few albums from this era can be found in soundboard quality. From better to worse, these include:
- Ritz 1988
- Marquee 1987
- Madison 1987
- Perkins Palace 1987

A few other bootlegs are also worth checking:
- Paris 92
- Oklahoma 92
- Chicago 92
- Buenos Aires 93

The Beatles

Introduction
The Beatles is probably the world's most famous band. The band had a relatively large official catalogue and a similarly large unofficial catalogue.

Since the Beatles has a large fanbase with many devoted fans, the band probably has the most thoroughly worked-through bootleg catalogue. People have worked to collect whatever there is of the band that was recorded live, in the studio or at home, and these bootlegs tend to aim to pick the best sources around. Sources are often even spliced to aid the completists around.

The problem with this trend is that there are few "best of" collections around. Many of the bootlegged items are hardly interesting, with the band performing roughly similar versions of the same songs multiple times in a row. Sequencing, moreover, is often chronological to ensure that you get 12 versions of "Strawberry Fields Forever" in a row. Sure, it's a great song, but you're more likely to go crazy than to get something from that.
One of the reasons why there's no "best of" collections of these bootleg tapes is that the band actually released such a set, with the six cd Anthology collection. This collection chronicles some of the better things the band did that remained unreleased until the 1990s.

For people who may want a little more than that, the alternative seems to be to go completely crazy and get whatever it is you can get by the band. If you don't wanna keep all of it, you can always delete whatever version you dislike and so on.

For the completist:

Purple Chick's deluxe editions of all albumsThe group Purple Chick has collected most (if not all?) released versions, studio demos and studio takes of all songs and put together deluxe editions of all albums the Beatles released. These editions include both the mono and stereo releases of the LP versions, rare mono and stereo mixes and other rarities. The discs also include a few outtakes.

Purple Chick's live editionsPurple Chick has also collected whatever the band did live. The quality here varies considerably. The band also never quite became a great live band. This is definitely only for those who are really interested.

Purple Chick's BBC
The Beatles released their double CD Live at the BBC in 1994. Since 1994, both many new and also a number of higher quality versions have surfaced and this makes the live album a little outdated. Someone should take another round at it, attempting to make a better version of that album. Purple Chick has - in their true spirit - aimed at collecting whatever the band did. Their BBC collection is thus as complete as it gets and includes all the highlights and flaws the band produced while doing these BBC sessions.

The "Complete Home Recordings"-collectionsPeople who are a little interested in what the Beatles did at home may want to check out the complete home recordings collections. These chronicles the Beatles at home and spans a total of six volumes. All are worthwhile, but all also differ in terms of artistic quality and sound quality. Much of it is simply unlistenable. There are gems, however.

Bootleg Guide

If you really do like an artist quite much, it is sometimes a good idea to attempt to get some bootlegs to get a little "more" by that artist. Many artists have very high quality bootlegs around, and they ought to be checked by fans of music. This especially goes for live recordings since many artists actually never release their best live efforts.

Finding the right bootlegs is always difficult. With many bands, it is easy to start simply downloading material, but if you're not a hardcore fan, low fidelity material of poor quality songs may not be the thing you're looking for. If you look for rarities of high quality, live performances of high sound quality and high artistic quality, it's difficult.

Some of the better bootlegs are often not even the most easy to get. Searching for a band or an artist, you may come across things that are uploaded by people who may not know a band very well, and what you end up getting is poor versions. I'll touch upon this with some bands.

The purpose of this blog is to identify whatever bootlegs casual listeners who want a little bit more, should be getting. I will not upload all that much material myself, but I will link to websites where these bootlegs I list can be found.