THE DIME STORE
The Bridge offers its readers a buying and selling service for Dylan related material. The system is based on box numbers and prospective buyers can bid against the items offered for sale, the highest bid within a the time limit succeeding in purchasing the item offered. A few items are offered for sale in this issue to show how the system will work.
The system provides advantages to both buyer and seller. The auction system allows the seller to get the best price, while buyers will have a wide range of items offered, some we hope will be quite unusual. Both buyers and sellers will be able to take advantage of a reputable 'middle man' to ensure that no one is ripped off either by not receiving money for their goods or vice versa. The system (which is non-profit making) will operate anonymously and according to strict rules to ensure fairness to all.
The service may only be used for the selling of legal material. NO BOOTLEGS, unofficial tapes or other material which breaches copyright law.
Information Exchange
Most of us have our pet projects concerning Dylan related material and we try to gather information from friends and correspondents. But if you want to develop your project further, and you want to reach a wider audience for information then this is the place. Each issue The Bridge will publish (free of charge) requests for information from other readers to help build up an information base to form the basis of serious work. The hope is, by encouraging such information exchange, not only to provide a service to the readership but also to encourage the creation of future articles for publication in The Bridge.
To kick things off here are a couple of requests which might also give a flavour to the type of items we hope to publish in future:
Dylan's Official Releases
Most of us at some time will have attempted to produce a definitive list of all of Dylan's recorded work and various published attempts are available as books or computer programs. However, I have never seen an attempt to catalogue all of Dylan's official recordings. This catalogue would be far more extensive than you might at first suspect. The main albums have been issued in a number of different formats (LP, Cassette, CD, Mini CD, 8-track cassette etc.); similarly 'singles' have been issued as 45s, 12" singles etc. Then there are all the versions of records issued in different countries, some of the Japanese LPs for example even had different takes included (presumably in error) some Extended Play records released in France or Australia have interesting picture sleeves. Then there are a whole host of sampler albums (maybe only featuring Dylan on one track) and singles or albums by other artists where Dylan appears as a guest.
So can you please help me to compile as complete a list as possible Dylan's official releases. Please write to me listing all the unusual official items in your collection. Please let me know: the title of the album/collection (if there is one); the titles of the songs featuring Dylan (if that's not obvious), the sequence number(s) of the Dylan tracks, the name of the recording company; the record catalogue number; and the format (LP, CD, Cassette, 8-track or whatever). I would particularly like information on Cassette, 8-track and mini-CD, and on releases outside the UK or US. I intend to publish the list in future editions of The Bridge and following that I plan to make the list available on Internet.
Alan Hoaksey, 140 Perrinsfield, Lechlade, Gloucestershire, GL7 3SE
Interviews
I am attempting to compile a list of all the interviews given by Dylan which have been published in print. Please send me a list of all the interviews you know of, giving (where possible): the title of the book or magazine in which the interview was published; the name of the interviewer or author of the article; the publication date. I plan to publish the collated list in The Bridge.
Alan Hoaksey, 140 Perrinsfield, Lechlade, Gloucestershire, GL7 3SE