On May 1st, 1970, just weeks after the world learned that the Beatles were breaking up,
George Harrison and
Bob Dylan met up at Columbia’s Studio B in New York City. Joined by bassist Charlie Daniels and drummer Russ Kunkel, their stated purpose was to start work on Dylan’s album
New Morning. But midway through the day, they switched gears and started jamming on old favorites without any thought that the results would ever be heard by the public.
Unsurprisingly, word of their jam session leaked out almost immediately. “Denials that the session took place were issued by Dylan’s personal secretary,”
read a report in Rolling Stone later that month, “and by producer Bob Johnston, who chuckled: ‘Where did you hear that? Some people’ll say anything!’ But a session there was, and, according to reports, it was a monster.
Years later, the tape somehow leaked out of the Columbia vault and fans got to hear much of the historic session. It revealed that Dylan and Harrison began by trying out early renditions of
New Morning songs “Sign on the Window,” “If Not For You,” “Times Passes Slowly,” and “Went to See the Gypsy.” But after their fifth attempt at “If Not For You” (a song Harrison would cut on his own weeks later for
All Things Must Pass), they went back to Dylan’s early work and played “Song to Woody,” “Mama, You Been on My Mind,” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”