Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the
pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead
wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep
with the record.
— Paul, Vinyl Curator
Bob Dylan
"Love And Theft"
2001 · Columbia COL 504364 1 · Stereo · Germany (a "Made In: Germany" sticker is affixed to the back cover; the jacket and labels carry no printed country text) · 2xLP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Columbia |
|---|
| Catalogue number | COL 504364 1 |
|---|
| Year | 2001 |
|---|
| Mono / Stereo | Stereo |
|---|
| Country | Germany (a "Made In: Germany" sticker is affixed to the back cover; the jacket and labels carry no printed country text) |
|---|
| Format | 2xLP |
|---|
| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
|---|
| Genre | Rock - Americana/Blues-Rock |
|---|
| Producer | Jack Frost |
|---|
| Musicians | Bob Dylan (vocals, guitar, piano), Larry Campbell (guitar, violin, banjo, mandolin), Charlie Sexton (guitar), Tony Garnier (bass), David Kemper (drums), Augie Meyers (Hammond organ, B3, accordion) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: 5043641000 1A1
Side B: 5043641000 1B1
Side C: 5043641000 1C1
Side D: 5043641000 1D1
Condition
- Cover
- NM
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
2001 - Europe, Columbia COL 504364 1, red two-logo label <- this copy
2001 - UK, Columbia 504364 1, same red label design
2001 - US, Columbia CK 85975, 2xLP
c. 2018 - Music On Vinyl 180g import 2xLP (out of print)
2020s - current 180g audiophile 2xLP reissues
This Pressing
2001 European pressing (stereo) - standard Columbia red label of the release era; catalogue number and barcode place it in or after 1980, consistent with its 2001 date.
The Album
"Love And Theft" was recorded quickly in New York with the touring band Dylan had been using on the road, a group that gave the songs a loose, live-in-the-room feel after the more heavily produced sound of his comeback record a few years earlier. Released on September 11, 2001, the album drew on old-timey blues, Tin Pan Alley pop, rockabilly and Southern gothic imagery, with lyrics that freely folded in lines and phrases from older American songs, minstrelsy and literary sources, a magpie approach that later drew scholarly attention and some controversy over unattributed borrowing. It arrived as the second installment in the late-career renaissance that began with his prior studio album and continued the run of acclaim that reframed Dylan, then sixty, as a vital rather than nostalgic artist. Critics responded with some of the best reviews of his career, and the record is widely regarded as a high point of his output from the 1990s onward. Its blend of humor, menace and deep roots-music scholarship has made it a touchstone for the Americana genre that flourished in the following decade. The album's title, taken from a work of cultural history, signaled Dylan's open engagement with tradition as raw material rather than something to be merely preserved.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
2. Mississippi
3. Summer Days
Side 2
4. Bye And Bye
5. Lonesome Day Blues
6. Floater (Too Much To Ask)
Side 3
7. High Water (For Charley Patton)
8. Moonlight
9. Honest With Me
Side 4
10. Po' Boy
11. Cry A While
12. Sugar Baby
The Label
The labels are red with the Columbia "note and microphone" twin-circle device at the top, the Columbia wordmark repeated around the rim, a Sony Music Entertainment 2001 copyright line, SACEM/SDRM and BIEM rights-society marks, and a boxed "LC 00162" label code - a code that did not exist before 1977 and so cannot date this copy any earlier than that. The jacket carries a UPC barcode, a mark not used before 1980, which likewise forbids dating the copy to any year before 1980. Both marks are consistent with, and do not contradict, the plainly 2001 Columbia red-label design printed here; this is the standard European release-era label for the title, not a later reissue redesign. The catalogue number is printed as "COL 504364 1" on the labels and as "Columbia 504364 1" on the front cover, a minor inconsistency common to this release rather than evidence of a different pressing.
Fidelity
The album was mastered at a well-regarded mastering facility for its original vinyl release and pressed at a respected European plant; collectors generally consider the original-era vinyl pressings, including this European edition, to sound full and warm compared with the digital-era CD master, which some find more compressed. Among vinyl versions, later audiophile 180-gram reissues are prized by some collectors for quieter surfaces, but the original-era pressings like this one remain well regarded for their tonal balance and are not considered inferior to the newer cuts.
Notes
This is the European 2xLP release on Columbia COL 504364 1, stereo, with the red Columbia label bearing the note-and-microphone logo, LC 00162 code and SACEM/BIEM marks appropriate to a European pressing of this title. The runouts read 5043641000 1A1/1B1/1C1/1D1, matching the release's etched matrix codes side for side. A back-cover "Made In: Germany" sticker identifies the manufacturing territory for this copy. Nothing on the copy suggests a later reissue redesign; it sits with the original 2001 European release of the title.
Documenting collections
I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a
collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing
collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like
documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch:
email
This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/bob-dylan-love-and-theft/
