The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966

Three different versions of the set were released simultaneously: a two-disc 36-track Best of edition in the packaging and format standard to the rest of the series after the first installment; a six-disc 111-track box set Deluxe edition similar in packaging to its counterpart from the previous Bootleg set; and an 18-disc 379-track limited Collector's Edition available exclusively by order from Dylan's official website, which also came with nine mono vinyl singles reproducing ones released around the world by Columbia Records during this era. Only 5000 copies of this edition were produced, and it won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards presentation.^[10][11]

The Collector's Edition was unique as it included "...every note recorded during the 1965–1966 sessions, every alternate take and alternate lyric" on 17 discs, with an 18th disc of hotel room recordings of Dylan with Joan Baez or Robbie Robertson.^[12] All tracks on the standard two-disc Best of edition are also included in the Deluxe edition. Purchasers of the Collector's Edition were also offered 208 live recordings from 1965 as a free digital download.^[13]

The title of the set, “The Cutting Edge,” a hackneyed expression about being at the forefront of a movement, is used ironically by Dylan in his 2004 memoir Chronicles: Volume One when writing about the music scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He proleptically describes the era by alluding to the Rock Era that had not yet arrived:

[John Hammond] saw me as someone in the long line of a tradition, the tradition of blues, jazz and folk and not as some newfangled wunderkind on the cutting edge. Not that there was any cutting edge. Things were pretty sleepy on the Americana music scene in the late '50s and early '60s. Popular radio was sort of at a standstill and filled with empty pleasantries. It was years before The Beatles, The Who or The Rolling Stones would breathe new life and excitement into it. ^[14]

He also uses it later in chapter 5, "River of Ice" when describing "Pirate Jenny":

I took the song apart and unzipped it -- it was the form, the free verse association, the structure and disregard for the known certainty of melodic patterns to make it seriously matter, give it its cutting edge.^[15]

Duplicates of the following nine singles are included with the Collector's Edition:

• "Subterranean Homesick Blues" b/w "She Belongs to Me" (1965)
• "Like a Rolling Stone" b/w "Gates of Eden" (1965)
• "Positively 4th Street" b/w "From a Buick 6" (1965)
• "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" b/w "Highway 61 Revisited" (1966)
• "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)" b/w "Queen Jane Approximately" (1966)
• "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" b/w "Pledging My Time" (1966)
• "I Want You" b/w "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (live)" (1966)
• "Just Like a Woman" b/w "Obviously 5 Believers" (1966)
• "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" b/w "Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine" (1967)

• Bob Dylan — vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica
• Mike Bloomfield, Al Gorgoni, John Hammond, Jr., Jerry Kennedy, Bruce Langhorne, Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss, Kenny Rankin, Robbie Robertson — guitars
• Joe South — guitar, bass guitar
• Paul Griffin — piano, electric piano, organ
• Al Kooper — organ, electric piano, celeste
• Frank Owens — piano, electric piano
• Richard Manuel, Hargus "Pig" Robbins — piano
• Garth Hudson — organ
• John Sebastian — bass guitar, harmonica
• John Boone,^[16] Harvey Brooks, Rick Danko, Joseph Macho, Jr., Russ Savakus, Henry Strzelecki — bass guitar
• Kenny Buttrey, Bobby Gregg, Levon Helm, Sandy Konikoff, Sam Lay — drums
• Joan Baez — vocals, guitar on "Remember Me," "More and More," "Blues Stay Away from Me," "Weary Blues from Waitin'," "Lost Highway," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," "Young But Daily Growing," and "Wild Mountain Thyme"
• Angeline Butler — backing vocals on "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"

• Bringing It All Back Home
• Highway 61 Revisited
• Blonde on Blonde