DAG BRAATHEN - The Boston Harold Interview (2022)

The DAG BRAATHEN Interview (2022)

I don’t know the exact moment Dag Braathen entered my life, but it must have been quite some time ago. I'm certain that it was via social media, where we follow each other on Twitter and Facebook. It soon became apparent that Mr. Braathen has an encyclopedic mind when it comes to many things, especially two of my main musical interests - Bob Dylan and the Beatles.

When someone on Twitter in particular, or some other platform, asks about a particular song, album, show, or photograph, if Dag is aware of it, he will answer it. If someone posts just about anything about Dylan or the Beatles, Mr. Braathen will expound on it, improve upon it, or otherwise provide receipts to confirm it. However, Dag doesn't do this with any kind of condescension. He just shares his knowledge in a very kind and generous way.

It doesn't stop there, either. I've yet to be let down or disappointed when I've asked Dag for some help answering a question. He not only usually has the answer at his fingertips, but often goes above and beyond what is asked of him. It also goes without saying that he has never been wrong.

But just who is this Dag Braathen? Over the course of a few email exchanges this year, I've tried to find out. I sent Mr. Braathen a handful of questions, and his answers, as well as sample photographs showing part of his Dylan collection, can be seen below. 

Without further adieu, here’s Dag!

(All photos courtesy Dag Braathen. Dylan product: Sony)

How do you pronounce your name? 

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I was born in 1973. I live in a small town in southern Norway, about a 3 hour drive south of Oslo.

I've had all sorts of jobs, mainly in factories, never was happy in any of them. Welding can be fun, though. I wouldn't mind doing it as a hobby. I somehow ended up working in a used bookstore which is perfect for me.

When did you get into Dylan? Beatles? Others?

On my seventh birthday in 1980, I was given a little Phillips cassette player, and from then on it was mainly music I was interested in. My Beatles obsession started when my older cousins gave me a bunch of their old tapes, among them The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl and Let It Be.

I started spending all my pocket money on anything I could find: 

• "Say, Say, Say" * was the first 45 I ever bought. 
• My parents bought me Abbey Road on vinyl.
• Picked up ** Somewhere in England on cassette and Gone Troppo on vinyl. 
• Found a semi-official tape of the (Beatles') Decca audition in a supermarket.
• Give My Regards to Broad Street * cassette at a gas station. 
• A kid at school sold me his parents' copy of the “Red” album (The Beatles 1962-1966). He also threw in Dylan's Shot of Love on cassette. I assume it also belonged to his parents. Don't recall ever listening  to it at the time.
• Stop and Smell the Roses *** cassette on a ferry to Denmark.
• Red Rose Speedway * in Denmark. 
• Ram* on a family trip to Oslo. 

I can vividly remember almost every Beatles-related thing I got from age 8 to 11, and in some cases, what the weather was like that day. In the summer of 1982, I taped the Beatles at the Beeb radio show off the radio so I heard stuff like "The Honeymoon Song" and "Clarabella" years before I heard Revolver. I can only recommend this non-linear way of getting into stuff.

When I was 11, I also had a cassette with 1950s rock & roll so I was into that stuff as well. My dad used to play Charlie Rich and Kris Kristofferson in the car, loved that stuff too. Of course I still listened to the Kids from Fame, Break Machine (!), Michael Jackson's Thriller and Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual on my walkman, (so) it's not like I was a total outcast.

I was aware of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits. The one with the giant Zippo (lighter) was among the tapes my cousins handed down to me.

We used to sing "Blowin' In The Wind" in music class at elementary school. I once brought the Dylan tape in to show them how it was supposed to be phrased, "FORever banned," not "Fore-e-ver banned." I also played the Hollies’ version from Hollies Sing Dylan to show them a different way of doing it. Don't think the other 10-year olds were really that interested. Street-Legal was another tape I was given but I don't remember listening to it.

Music really took over my life. My main memories of secondary school are sitting in class reading the Beatlefan magazine or the Hot Wacks bootleg guide or just daydreaming about McCartney B-sides.

I found out early how to get hold of rare singles and bootlegs by placing ads in music papers and fanzines. Don't know how many 15 year olds in Norway had a subscription to Musician magazine, but I did.

20 years to the day after Abbey Road came out, I saw Paul McCartney in concert. I was 16. It was a big deal to see an actual Beatle in the flesh.

1966 Bob Dylan Test Pressings

Bob Dylan gradually snuck in. I bought Knocked Out Loaded on vinyl not long after it came out. Saw Hard to Handle **** on TV in 1987. And the cassette version of Biograph. Infidels and Empire Burlesque also somehow ended up in my collection. Then the (Traveling) Wilburys came out. I thought "Congratulations" and "Tweeter and The Monkey Man" was so brilliant and funny. I was still mainly a Beatles fan so I picked up Under The Red Sky when it came out because George was on it. Absolutely loved the album. I didn't get Oh Mercy until 3 years later. It was the same non-linear approach as with the Beatles. His first six albums were probably the last ones I got. When I saw my first Dylan show in Sweden in June 1992, he did "Stuck Inside of Mobile," and that was the first time I heard that song.

What is your collection like? 

I have the usual Bob Dylan fanzines, ISIS, The Telegraph, The Bridge and a few others. Not an awful lot of books, mainly coffee table books, songbooks for most of the albums. Reference books, which I prefer. Analysis and critique just annoys me, and I haven't read a Dylan biography in 20 years.

I've got all the official releases and unreleased audio and video on hard drives for easy access, sold most of my bootleg CDs but I've got around 90 vinyl bootlegs from the 70s and 80s. I collected 45s for years, went down the rabbit hole of label variants so I have over 600 Bob Dylan singles. For a while I collected pressings of the same album from different countries. 

You're my "go-to" person when I need some fact-checking or an instant answer. How do you do it?  I seem to remember or half-remember an awful lot of stuff and I know where to look certain stuff up. I've spent a lot of time obsessing over different aspects; collecting audio and video, researching record releases, collecting info and reviews from tours. And, with a lot of help from my friends, I've been collecting photos and dating them, that's probably been the best education of all. Besides the Beatles and Dylan, are there any other artists that you are really into collecting?  There's a lot of stuff by The Band. Emmylou Harris is another favourite. I have an unusual amount of Kinky Friedman 45s. Which version(s) of Dylan's Rough and Rowdy Ways did you buy?  Just the regular CD. I haven't been a completist for 12 years, 8 months and 16 days. (Note: As of November 6, 2022) Anything you'd specifically like to see released in the near future?  I do believe we need a Street-Legal bootleg series: Rehearsals, live recordings and  soundcheck recordings from December 1977 until December 1978. Also, I wanted to ask about how much unreleased stuff you have on your computer (or elsewhere?). Example: Every possible Dylan show? I think I have everything that's in circulation, but a lot of people do. These days you can find everything online, every single circulating Dylan show is out there. If there's anything you can't find, just ask a friend. Thanks, Dag!  * Paul McCartney-based ** George Harrison *** Ringo Starr **** Bob Dylan/Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 1986 cable concert film

Follow Dag on Twitter: @dagbraathen

(c) Harold Lepidus 2022

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