| Great White Wonder | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Compilation album (bootleg) by | |
| Released | July 1969 |
| Recorded | 1961–1969 |
| Venue | Various locations |
| Genre | |
| Label | Trademark of Quality |
Great White Wonder, or GWW, is a rock bootleg album, released in July 1969, containing unofficially released recordings by Bob Dylan. It is the first notable rock bootleg, and specifically the first release from bootleg record label Trademark of Quality (or TMOQ). Seven of the twenty-four tracks presented here were recorded with The Band in the summer of 1967 in West Saugerties, New York, during the informal sessions that were later released in a more complete form in Dylan's 1975 album The Basement Tapes. Much of the other material consists of a recording (of ten tracks) made in December 1961 in a Minnesota hotel room (referred to as the "Minnesota hotel tape"), studio outtakes from several of Dylan's albums, and a live performance on The Johnny Cash Show. It was the first time that these previously unreleased recordings came to the market; many more would be released in similar formats over the coming years, though most were single albums, not double albums like this record.
The album was nicknamed the "great white wonder" due to the original pressing's plain white gatefold cover; newer pressings contain the name stamped on. This name—or variations, such as "white wonder",[1] "little white wonder"—would surface in later bootleg releases or in the initials "G.W.W." that were printed on record labels or covers.