Post Description

Karen Wallace's Apartment
St. Paul, MN 
May 1960


The Armpit Tape 

01 - Gotta Travel On
02 - Roving Gambler
03 - Bay Of Mexico
04 - The Two Sisters
05 - Go Way from My Window
06 - This Land Is Your Land
07 - Pastures Of Plenty
08 - Saro Jane
09 - Take This Hammer
10 - Nobody Wants You When You're Down And Out
11 - The Great Historical Bum
12 - Mary Ann
13 - Every Night When The Sun Goes In
14 - Sinner Man
15 - Abner Young
16 - 500 Miles
17 - Blues Yodel No 8 (Muleskinner Blues)
18 - One Eyed Jacks
19 - Columbus Stockade Blues
20 - Payday At Coal Creek
21 - Wop Da Alono

The most complete of the recordings, The Armpit Tape has become part of Dylan folklore. The story goes that Brian Stibal borrowed a tape recorder from Richard Weddle and, with his friend Paul, surreptitiously recorded the tape when played for them by Mrs. Moynihan. The microphone is said to have been secreted in Mr. Stibal's arm pit - hence the moniker, "The Arm Pit Tape." The muffled sound, abrupt stops and starts, and overlying banter by Karen, Brian, and Paul lend some credence to the assertion. Not for the timid! The poor sound quality and the considerable background noise make for a rather rough listen. The frequent stops and starts result in clipped songs and some are represented by barely recognizable fragments. The last fragment has been attributed to Wop Da Alono, with which I am not conversant. I hear "... iana, Louisiana, break, 
break, ..." and it seems most familiar.