bob dylan and the band - the basement tapes / the complete basement tapes

tosches and marcus are both good at describing music in vivid ways - marcus a bit better i think. i can't think of many critics who can do it, even the good ones. to be honest i find tosches' macho asides a lot more annoying than marcus's loopy tangents.

my favorite basement tape track is "million dollar bash" - it sounds so stately, and at the same time so sloppy. i don't know how he managed that.

"the old weird america" isn't a dylan quote, it's a twist on a kenneth rexroth quote about "the old, free america."

whoops--is it possible marcus is quoting dylan quoting rexroth? or am i way off track?

marcus seems to veer toward the ridiculous (the "music like a thunderbolt, like a revolution, etc." sort of thing) when discussing a piece of music and his impact--he doesn't describe the "surface" qualities of the music so much as some sort of imagined transcendent power it has. the subjective fallacy or whatever you want to call it, i guess. tosches sometimes indulges this as well which is where i get tired of him, but frequenly he just finds a nice phrase that encapsulates a peculiar formal quality of a singer's voice or a rhythm section or something.

One interesting note about all the complete basement sessions ... when I finally heard them all on the various releases (first the Complete Basement Tapes 1-5 series and then the great, much better Tree With Roots) was that I missed the pacing and well, the very *presence* of those Band songs that were on the original Columbia 2-LP set.

I mean .. you grow up with the Columbia set, and now you're supposed to sit through 4 CDs *without* ever hearing "Bessie Smith" or "Orange Juice Breakfast" ??

the complete sessions are amazing, essential, but there really was something to that snappy, adulterated set that came out in the 70s

i've heard that some tampering--overdubbing etc.--was performed on the basement tracks that made it to 1975 double lp. haven't checked to see. certainly the officially released tracks sound a lot fuller than the stuff on "a tree w/roots"--i supposed they are just closer to the 1st generation masters.

as for that 2lp set... they made wise choices, but notably only chose to include dylan/band originals. when some of the highlights of the full sessions are the covers.

interesting that dylan seems most ok w/releasing archival stuff when he's on a winning streak with his new material (e.g., 1975, and the last 5 years). probably just doesn't want the old stuff to overshadow the new.

i doubt the whole basement tapes thing will be released in full any time soon. unless columbia starts some kind of miles davis-esque trainspotting dylan reissue program. which i don't expect we'll see before dylan passes.

I've heard some of the other tracks, and "I'm Not There (1956)" really is incredibly beautiful. I like the Ian and Sylvia covers, too.

Santa Fe's cool, too...

P.S. -- I love the 1975 2 LP version, even though it's historically inaccurate (Band songs were studio demos purposefully muddied-up). Of course, what could be more American than a distorted version of historic fact? Weird, indeed.

i figgin love "teenage prayer" they sound like a bunch of loaded fraternity brothers...

as for "i'm not there"...its been said..and its right...mostly...i do think marcus overstates the glory and power of things quite regularly. and i, too, have felt let down when i get to finally hear things after the fact...but there are points in the o,w a where he does nail things so very very well.

well, there's no been no official release of the 1969 dylan/cash sessions or of anything from 70–71. then again, "self portrait" hasn't even received a remaster yet...

http://a1055.g.akamai.net/f/1055/1401/5h/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/19900000/19908277.jpg
Just ordered this. Anyone read it yet?

I'd very much like to read this - going to amazon to order it now. I just pulled down Tree With Roots from dimeadozen.org and damn if it isn't the best Dylan I've ever heard.

just saw this in the record store yesterday -- had never heard of it before, but it looked pretty good. not that i don't have enough books about bob dylan ... or do i?
anyway, hell yeah, the basement tapes! that tree with roots set is truly mindblowing in about ten different ways. a whole world to get lost in. amazing it hasn't been officially released (except for the 2LP set and a handful of stray tracks on biograph and the bootleg series), but i get the feeling Dylan )or dylan's people) are holding on to it for a big moment, since it's so legendary ... i guess "i'm not there" will be on the "i'm not there" soundtrack ...

I'm not There is the final track on the soundtrack...

Finally got to hear "A Tree With Roots." It's a HUGE improvement, sound wise, over the 1975 release. There's lots more stereo separation (Richard Manuel's harmonizing on "Million Dollar Bash" is on a separate channel and sounds gorgeous). The official release was inexplicably mixed down to near mono, and doesn't sound nearly as warm. A good portion of Griffin's book focuses on the fine engineering job Garth Hudson did, considering the limited equipment he had.
Of course, you get all the extras too, minus The Band stuff (some songs, like "Bessie Smith" and "Ain't No More Cain," weren't recorded at those sessions, anyway.)
Couple sites where you can find it (not sure if downloads still work):

http://poundforpound.blogspot.com/2006/12/dylan-monday-tree-with-roots-volume-1.html
http://doctormooney.blogspot.com/

"Million Dollar Bash" (the book) wasn't bad, but I'm still looking for the definitive account of the woodstock/basement tapes period. Given the amount of speculation that griffin resorts to, it doesn't seem like we're going to get it. (You know, where did they record what, where did Dylan crash his bike, how hurt was he, so on). The chapter on hudson's engineering was really interesting. the book is printed on very heavy stock, and it's more than a little bit distracting. Wait for a cheaper paperback.

Good comments on this and other Dylan eras in Luc Sante's new collection, Kill All Your Darlings. "I Is Someone Else": basically a review of Chronicles, but you know how that goes (the Dylan virus takes the train of thought for another ride).

x-post

speculation is all we have for a lot of this stuff. griffin interviewed robertson, john simon, peter yarrow, and several others who were either there or were close to the source. (dylan didn't want to talk, helm wasn't there for most of it, danko is dead, manual is dead, grossman is dead...) there's simply no concrete documentation about thse recordings. it's not like they kept studio logs or anything. i don't know what's up with hudson. he comes off as a bit distant. i mean, the at one point sold all his basement tapes, which were sitting unmarked inside a chest!

pre-coffee

...at one point HUDSON sold...

"I Is Someone Else"

Is that not a lolcats caption?

xpost

Yes I didn't mean to sound unfair with that comment. It's completely about my expectations being a little unrealistic, I think. In a way i'm just relating griffin's own frustration at not being able to write a more 'definitive' book, such frustration being explicit and palpable at different places in the book...

lolcats or no, it's deadpan use of a quoted quote/translation, from Chronicles: "I came across one of (Rimbaud's) letters called 'Je est un autre,' which translates as 'I is somebody else.' When I read those words the bells went off. It made perfect sense. I wished someone would have mentioned that to me earlier."

minus The Band stuff (some songs, like "Bessie Smith" and "Ain't No More Cain," weren't recorded at those sessions, anyway.)

oh is that why some of that stuff isn't on there? I've been listening to Tree w/ Roots for the first time too and I was scratching my head over why some of the best stuff on the '75 version isn't on there (mainly Yazoo Street Scandal, probably my favorite basement tapes track)

I think that's because Yazoo Street Scandal was recorded in the city at columbia's studios. can't reach the book from here though...

Yeah, I thought I read that "Ain't No More Cain" was recorded shortly before the 1975 release. I always had my suspicions about that recording — it sounded too flawless, although they obviously mixed it so it would have a grungy, bootleg-quality sound.

according to griffin that's right. he also says that, inter alia,

orange juice blues has 1975 overdubs

yazoo street scandal is probably from the big pink basement in 1967. (don't know why it's not on tree with roots)

katies been gone has 1975 drums

bessie smith was recorded in 1975 (or possibly before stage fright)

tears of rage might have 1975 vocal overdubs

too much of nothing has overdubbed drums, backing vox, and keys

ain't no more cane was recorded in 1975

you aint going nowhere has guitar overdubs from 1975

don't ya tell henry was recorded in 1975

long distance operator was cut either in nyc or l.a.

this wheel's on fire has an acoustic overdub

HMMMM -- anyone tracked this down?
A new CD release from the Hollow Horn Encore Label that features the first ever release of the legendary Basement Tapes Safety Master. This was a tape reportedly made by Garth Hudson in early 1968, under full studio conditions, of the best available original master tapes made in the summer of 1967 and it features the bulk of the original songs that were recorded. This safety tape features truly breathtaking sound quality and also, in the majority of cases, features the material in its original glorious stereo (virtually none of this material has ever been heard in it’s original true stereo… including on the ridiculous official release!) The first time I got to listen this material my jaw nearly hit the floor! It really is a whole new listening experience!!

Four bonus tracks from other sources have also been included as bonus tracks, which also means that this set also stands as a close to perfect one disc compilation of the Basement Tapes Dylan compositions. The packaging is the usual high quality fold out mini album design complete with an eight page booklet of notes, pictures and some lovely reproductions of the cartoons from the classic vinyl album Little White Wonder. An early contender for the best, and most important release of 2009!

The track listing of this set is as follows:

The Basement Tapes Safety Master Tape
1. Million Dollar Bash
2. Yea Heavy and a Bottle of Bread
3. I’m Not There (1956)
4. Please Mrs Henry
5. Down in the Flood
6. Lo and Behold
7. This Wheel’s On Fire
8. You Ain’t Going Nowhere
9. I Shall Be Released
10. Too Much Of Nothing
11. Nothing Was Delivered
12. Odds and Ends
13. Get Your Rocks Off
14. Clothesline Saga
15. Apple Suckling Tree
16. Open the Door Homer
17. Nothing Was Delivered
18. Tears Of Rage
19. Quinn The Eskimo
BONUS TRACKS
20. Tiny Montgomery
21. Sign On The Cross
22. Going To Acapulco
23. All You Have To Do Is Dream

hadn't heard of it, but would definitely be interested if the hyperbole is true

haha, yeah. "GLORIOUS. BREATHTAKING." Funny that this is popping up right at the same time as the official Basement Tapes remaster, which I haven't heard yet.

Here you go, the Safety Tape, download the zip file, unzip, and voila:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DDT8WSLO

thanks!

holy shit this is amazing!

you ain't lyin

Thanks for sharing thirdalternative - I'll Pepsi challenge with Tree with roots at first opportunity. The Sid Griffin book 'Million Dollar Bash' makes for a nice listening companion. Highly recommended book if you 'all are fans of this era.

oh man early xmas, gonna have a Dylan party today

Wow!!

thanks, thirdalternative! i'd been hunting around in my usual spots, but hadn't turned up anything yet. is this the "speed-corrected" version? seems that there's some chatter about one of them being too fast/too slow/too something.

thirdalternative, you will always be first in my heart. Thanks man!

thirdalternative u r redeeming urself with that post, cheers

already kinda drunk at 2 PM, worked my way thru that glorious set and am now on a serious Dylan kick as I paint the upstairs of the house. I'll probably play it again after I get done with these 3 discs of 1966 live stuff.

One of the things I really noticed was that at least three of these songs are arguably better known as Grateful Dead songs due to them playing 'em live for years while the originals languished in bootleg collector obscurity.

thirdalternative you rule. These definitely sound better than Tree With Roots. I noticed a couple of "flaws" in a few spots however - a couple beeps and one part with the bottom seems to fall out momentarily. Anyone else? Maybe these were in the original tapes and corrected for TWR. Also, a different take is used for "Apple Sucklin' Tree" than the one on the 1975 release. Whatever - this is the best I've heard the Basement Tapes yet. There are details here that I'd never heard before.

har. sleeve, i'm painting too ... good painting music.

i kind of like when the bottom falls out on 'odds and ends'! it's a different version of 'too much of nothing' too.

yeah that 'too much of nothing' is weird! And the mix on the chorus of 'lo and behold' surely wasn't anybody's idea of 'done'. But for the most part it's definitely amazing.

"Nothing Was Delivered" is diff than the official version also, i think. great great stuff. great sound; noticed the bass for the first time ever on a couple of these tracks. 3rd alt. rules!

xp though now I notice that 'lo and behold' is a lot better on speakers than on headphones so

Pretty fucking tedious to figure out which letters to type to get to download this, though. Next time choose something else than megaupload. Thanks.

haha really?

"This wrapping paper is pretty fucking tedious to unwrap, don't you think? Thanks for the birthday gift, by the way."

yeah, really. Get one fucking mediafire or sendspace or some other site for god's sake.

Remember those cats on rapidshare?

way to be an ungrateful dick.

hahah no prob dude I'll have more to say when I've actually downloaded it. I already know you're one of my enemies on this board anyway. Not a prob at all.

Look, maybe it wasn't the dude's fault that he chose a bad site for his upload but I and anyone else reading this thread don't exactly appreciate being made to decipher impenetrable mishmashes of letters just to get our downloads on. End of sermon. Not the original dude's fault, maybe, but a bitch to deal with for the rest of us.

not a bitch for me!

Maybe so. Maybe you saw something different than what I saw. Not a prob. What I saw was impenetrable bullshit about ten times.

Got it now, though, 80% as of now.

I'd just like to know, though, anyone else coming to this thread for the first time...what was your experience on clicking on that link?

it was the most taxing puzzle ever devised

Okay I got 'em now folks, but I want to know why the fuck I can't rename the tags so I can actually add them to my iPod. Talk about a Rubik's Cube.

Elitism at its finest.

http://wahmbulance.ytmnd.com/

http://croutonboy.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341da62d53ef0112790aace728a4-800wi

http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/7AiYy8cKE7s/default.jpg

I'd just like to know, though, anyone else coming to this thread for the first time...what was your experience on clicking on that link?

I'll tell you what it wasn't: "you have to come up with a better way of giving me something for free"

I mean I know you'll just go on thinking of things in an infantile & narcissistic "oh these are my ENEMIES, that's why they're telling me to check myself" instead of even for a second considering that you are in the wrong here & should check yourself

I'd just like to know, though, anyone else coming to this thread for the first time...what was your experience on clicking on that link?
I typed in the letters and then clicked. Within 5 minutes I had the download. It was quite simple, and I'm very grateful to thirdalternative.

There is another supposed version of this floating around, with slightly different track listing; the sound is better than on Tree With Roots but not as good as the link above, IMO. Available for the moment here:
http://croz.fm/files/bob_dylan_and_the_band_basement_safety_tape.php

listening to this on a decent soundsystem now (yesterday I had to make due with the cheap guest room player) - definitely sounds good! A bit crisper, some organ/piano stuff that I haven't noticed before. not like the holy grail or anything, but it's always good to be reminded how amazing the basement tapes are. i always think about how much of a game changer this would've been had it been released in 1967-68. Obviously it WAS released via bootleg, and was super-influential in its own way, but if Dylan had actually put it out as an official statement, warts and all, I think it might have totally changed music history, and the way people look at albums/recording/etc. whaddaya think?

and oh man, "I'm Not There"! That song always starts and I think: "Eh, what's the big deal here?" And by the end I'm totally wrapped up in it. You can certainly hear the band a bit better on this track.

Yeah, similarly entranced by "I'm Not There."

Richard Manuel's voice — which I hear better than ever now — is entrancing me as well.

yeah, richard sounds great -- as does Dylan. The idea that this is the same guy who less than a year before was tearing through the UK on that insane tour is astonishing. Total reinvention.

i'm not big on dylan but "i'm not there" is incredible here

listened to this new safety reel on the bus to work this morning -- stereo separation is really nice, you can hear bits and pieces of instrumentation that were murky before. loved "rocks off" -- Dylan's cackle in the middle of it, and the way he sings "greeeeyhound bussss" ... Robertson's guitar on "I Shall Be Released" ...! The clicking drum part on the chorus of "You Ain't Goin Nowhere" ... Just a ton of wonderful stuff.

I didn't realize how great "Goin' to Acapulco" was until this past week.

oh man this just made my favorite record better.

thirdalternative for president.

oh wow. big brother rears his head:

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.

Hmm, well that megaupload still works, and no 'numbers' needed to be entered, etc.

"Ferdinand the Imposter" from the '75 release is so pretty and haunting. Reminds me of Screen Prints.

Probably doesn't count as true "basement tape" song.. Demo from just before recording Music From Big Pink, i think?

you know what song from the basement tapes is good? the french girl.

thrreee silver ringgsss

sign on the cross is pretty good too. has anyone written about this stuff? /joke

it *is* kind of amazing that they -- (ok, COLUMBIA) are up to this "official bootleg" box set number NINE or something? -- and have *still* not released these tapes in official form.

I can only guess that it is somewhere in Bob's will ... it's like, "ok, 'Bootleg series' 11 should have been '{whatever you call it}', and if I am dead and gone, you have my full release to fully release 'The Complete Basement Tapes' as the next issue in the series"

Well, I guess it's in the same bag as the "Dylan" album, i.e. it's been out in a form already so cannot revise it back into "bootleg" status, official or no.

Gene Clark did 'the French girl'. That's good.

french girl is so good, such a cheesy song, but dylan (and clark too) make it seem so intense. "no englisssshhh words for meeee"

one of my fave basement tapes things is "one man's loss" which is just kinda gibberish, but the chorus is fab
one man's loss always is another man's gain
one man's joy always is another man's pain

and have *still* not released these tapes in official form.

one problem might be all the covers in the full tapes ... would have to pay lots of licensing rights.

does anyone know of a good list of all the released covers of basement tapes songs from before their official (1975?) release.

it *is* kind of amazing that they -- (ok, COLUMBIA) are up to this "official bootleg" box set number NINE or something? -- and have *still* not released these tapes in official form.
Yeah, really. Columbia could just release its own version of the Safety Master and it would be the most written-about, critically acclaimed Bootleg Series entry yet. The original release and subsequent remaster pale in comparison.

does anyone know of a good list of all the released covers of basement tapes songs from before their official (1975?) release.
i think there's an extensive list of covers in that million dollar bash book that came out a few years ago. not sure if there's one online though.

one problem might be all the covers in the full tapes ... would have to pay lots of licensing rights.

There are no "licensing rights" - they'd have to pay the standard mechanical royalty rate to the songwriters, which is the same amount they'd pay to Dylan or Robertson or whomever. So, covers wouldn't cost a single penny extra.

does anyone know of a good list of all the released covers of basement tapes songs from before their official (1975?) release.

From the wiki page:

Peter, Paul and Mary, managed by Grossman, had the first hit with a basement composition when their cover of "Too Much of Nothing" reached number 35 on the Billboard chart in late 1967.[47] Ian & Sylvia, also managed by Grossman, recorded "Tears of Rage", "Quinn the Eskimo" and "This Wheel's on Fire".[48] In January 1968, Manfred Mann reached number one on the UK pop chart with their recording of "The Mighty Quinn".[49] In April, "This Wheel's on Fire", recorded by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity, hit number five on the UK chart.[50] That same month, a version of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" by The Byrds was issued as a single. Along with "Nothing Was Delivered", it appeared on their country-rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, released in August.[51] The Hawks, officially renamed the Band,[a 5] recorded "This Wheel's on Fire", "I Shall Be Released" and "Tears of Rage" for their debut album, Music from Big Pink, released in July 1968. Fairport Convention covered "Million Dollar Bash" on their 1969 album Unhalfbricking.[52]

There was also that Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint album "Lo and Behold," which was entirely comprised of covers of unreleased Dylan tunes.

digging back into the tree with roots set. oh man, so good. how is this dylan the same dylan of previous years? like he's inventing a different voice for every song.

Here you go, the Safety Tape, download the zip file, unzip, and voila:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DDT8WSLO

― thirdalternative, Sunday, 12 April 2009 12:56 (2 years ago)

I've had "Tree With Roots" for a long time but any additional fidelity would be sweet -- re-up that link if possible.

Just found this:
http://www.mediafire.com/?zmt3bhdnyuz

that coulson/dean/mcguinness/flint lp is pretty damn good.

barf - http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-bob-dylan-lost-lyrics-new-basement-tapes-20140325,0,1813349.story

Burnett and Costello spoke of trying to honor the spirit of the original recordings

...

“This is the exact opposite of ‘The Basement Tapes’: We’re in the best recording studio in the world, and we’re not in a basement.’ ”

ffs

And they're not using tape!

"I just came across some tapes of incomplete Coltrane solos. I'll take it upon myself to honor the spirit of -" FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

Marcus Mumford, ugh...

A spokesman for Dylan said he has offered no explanation of why he decided to offer the unfinished songs to Burnett to complete. It's hard not to speculate that the decision is at least partially driven by Dylan's experience helping to bring lyrics left unfinished by Hank Williams at his death in 1953 to life by having a variety of rock, pop and country artists set them to music and record them for the 2011 album "The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams."

Never listened to that one.

basement vapes

i never listened to that hank williams thing either! for some reason i thought it had never come out. i will hand in my dylanologist credentials.

this is no big deal, i don't think. it would be super cool if they hung out in a basement and recorded there, though

I hope Dylan releases the complete basement tapes edition of the bootleg series a week before to fuck these folks over. Would laugh and laugh...

barf - http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-bob-dylan-lost-lyrics-new-basement-tapes-20140325,0,1813349.story

― tylerw, Wednesday, March 26, 2014 9:57 AM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this will end up in so many landfills right next to "mermaid ave, part 2"

this is no big deal, i don't think. it would be super cool if they hung out in a basement and recorded there, though

― waterbabies (waterface), Wednesday, March 26, 2014 10:39 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

except it can't be some romantic basement of big pink, it would have to be someone's wood-paneled rec room in long beach.

that would be cool too

I repeat:

that coulson/dean/mcguinness/flint lp is pretty damn good.

― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, May 28, 2011 4:49 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it is!
anyone checked this out yet?
http://lightintheattic.net/releases/1007-dylans-gospel-aqd
on topic, the versions of "i shall be released" and "mighty quinn" are super good. "mighty quinn" seems like an odd choice for a gospel re-make, but then you listen to it and it's kind of about the second coming. kind of!

i have that from a long-ago download, it's better than you might expect. or that one might expect. i enjoy it.

Merry Clayton and Gloria Jones on it, makes me want to investigate it

i like the first mermaid avenue quite a bit

but this sounds horrible

i can't really handle elvis costello anymore

love you declan though, up through imperial bedroom u were my dogg

Merry Clayton and Gloria Jones on it, makes me want to investigate it

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 26 March 2014 16:18 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Oh, this sounds like the album I have a single from..

1968 or thereabouts..

i like the first mermaid avenue quite a bit

it might have been nice if they had hired somebody who could sing

xp yeah it is very enjoyable for the most part -- some of the wordier stuff (chimes of freedom, my back pages) doesn't translate that well, but there are plenty of very nice arrangements/performances.

i like the first mermaid avenue quite a bit
it might have been nice if they had hired somebody who could sing

― espring (amateurist), Wednesday, March 26, 2014 11:31 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eh i don't know if a better singer would have made it better really, i liked the kind of casual feel to it....the one thing i will say is it doesn't feel like an album weighted down by "importance", which is its triumph imo

i should rephrase that: someone who can sing better than jeff tweedy and billy bragg

But its not as if Guthrie was a baptist gospel singer

yeah i guess to me bragg fit p well

^^^ this

actually bragg was OK, tweedy's affected nasality irritates me. i don't really see the point of jeff tweedy in general.

Every time I think of Elvis Costello now doing things like this, just brings back the painful memory of watching the Harry Smith Project DVD and him trying to do some southern bluegrass ballad and it just sounding miserable and just making me incredibly embarrassed for him.

yeah as he gets older he has a bigger and bigger problem with knowing this limits, vocally and otherwise.

knowing HIS limits

The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams is really good; unusually good in terms of reflecting Williams' range as an entertainer, the way he mixed the happy, sad, devout, and joeky stuff into his live radio variey shows. I really like all three volumes of Mermaid Avenue (Vol. 3 is available as a sep. download on Amazon, if you don't want the box, which only adds a making-of DVD). I had no use use for the Vol.1-era Wilco, even or esp. performing these songs live, minus Billy Bragg (and Natalie Merchant)(and Corey Harris). But the Nels Cline-etc line-up can be very fine, and he even shows up on Vol.3. Burnett might do okay, but agree re EC's vocal limitations. Still the songs might come through.

That's the deal with even Tweedy singing (in the studio, anyway): the songs do come through, as Wilco etc add some right nice & appropriate toons.

at the height of their critical and popular approval the love for wilco bemused me. it wasn't offensive; it just sounded like sort of humble, none-too-exciting dadrock/roots rock gussied up (or stripped down) with some vaguely post-rocky production. and i lived in the epicenter of wilco fandom. to this day i cannot hum or recall a single bit from any wilco song. again, i have nothing against them, no hostility or whatever (they even come across as reasonably OK people in that documentary that friends dragged me to), i just don't get it. i mean, were people making arty documentaries about mark-almond in the 1970s?

sorry i sound more than a bit challopsy but it's true.

I'm with you. This kind of sounds like an attempt to make the most boring music possible.

I see the marketing material now: "don't ever say that these geezers aren't up to a challenge" --ILXOR

I still like Wilco's Summerteeth album and the first Mermaid Avenue (both Bragg and Wilco).

I agree that Costello and T-bone Burnett and company will likely not impress us. I do like the Carolina Chocolate Drops vocalist Giddens, although I have not kept up with her group (and the membership changes).

totally w/you on this one amateurist

i liked the carolina chocolate drops but they took a kind of crowd-pleasing route that I can hardly blame them for and I sort of lost interest. there were always warning signs, as when the crowd got real excited when they'd do string-band covers of "hit 'em up style."

they are amazing musicians though.

and i'm just a jerk, basically.

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bob_bootleg.jpg
Someone mentioned this in another thread, but worth repeating here. Is this real? Can't find many articles on it so far. Coming in November, apparently. Hope it sounds at least as good as the Mixin' Up the Medicine/A Tree with Roots bootlegs.
http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/bob-dylan-the-bootleg-series-vol-11-the-basement-tapes-complete/

It's real and available for pre-order on Amazon. Trimmed-down, 2-CD version will also be available.

!?!! I had no idea. So basically, when this comes out, the circle will be closed and no label will ever release recorded music again, right?

whoa, really?

dang, even looks like there is some un-bootlegged material in there.

daaaaaamn

as I said on the other thread, I will buy this

one question i have is: i wonder if there are full length versions of stuff that gets cut off early on a tree w/roots like "lock your door" etc

That might just be where the original tape cuts off. But who knows? They obviously have access to some other sources for these things.

i'm probably just wishful thinking but that would be amazing some of those snippets are kind of heartbreaking when they cut off

Haha, this is scheduled for release exactly one week before T-Bone Burnett's Look What I Found In The Basement or whatever it's called.

holy fucking shit, it's happening.

http://theseconddisc.com/2014/08/26/they-shall-be-released-bob-dylan-and-the-bands-the-basement-tapes-complete-arrives-in-november/

is aug. 26 the new april fool's day or something?

one question i have is: i wonder if there are full length versions of stuff that gets cut off early on a tree w/roots like "lock your door" etc

― ruffalo soldier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, August 26, 2014 9:46 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i hope so! some of the best songs on the boots are cut off midway.

Six discs would expand on my "Tree with Roots" version; getting the best available source material is nice; the 120 page booklet may be cool....

But $150 seems a bit steep, no?

it sure does. kind of think it'll come down, but who knows...
the smile deluxe box set was 6 CDs + double LP + a couple seven inches + a pretty lavish book and I think it was $125 or thereabouts?

Unless the book is really REALLY cool, this set appears to be priced about double what is reasonable. I can see a complete vinyl set for $150; i might even pay more.

Well, the deluxy versions do come down thanks to fopp etc.

"Tell tale signs" was silly, another cd plus a book of ep covers, got it for £25 in the end.

I don't recall how much "Another selfie" was, but it wasn't full price. That was mail order though.

either i'm going to get this used or i'm just going to dl it illegally b/c bob dylan does not need my $150 for 45 yr old stuff

btw i'm sure this will sound 10x better than existing boots (except for mixin up the medicine)

Agreed on the sound; i'll absolutely dl some flacs just to hear how they sound before i make any purchase decision.

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/news/basement-tapes-track-track

iTunes was offering it for $58, but I couldn't get the listing again; Amazon's got the CDs (and book, I guess) for $120, last time I looked. Marcus on the mostly unbootlegged tracks/alts (says 33 in all; 2 are unlisted, in Disc 6): http://rol.st/1z01jPC

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-basement-tapes-complete-gives-you-all-the-bob-dylan-1654918549/+robharvilla

Good to spotlight the humor, but not to leave the serious tracks offstage: they're mostly just as good, which is saying a lot.

That Matos thing is good!

Matos piece is awesome! But why does it say "+harvilla" in the url?

There's some sublime stuff on the complete Basement Tapes, but it's also several hours of Rick Danko trying to find the root of the chord and succeeding about half the time, which makes it a stressful listen for me. I wanted it to be the great lost grail it's sometimes purported to be, but on a basic level it's really just demos. I'm really loving The Auld Triangle today though

I think of a demo as a formalist run-through, usually bare-bones, although Prince was known for resplendent demos, which were apparently like the finished product of almost anyone else, and Dylan's solo demos could be very intense---these are largely one-offs, first time heard and played by The Band, it seems (though one day we may get The Completest, with every take, every false start, every fart etc., as with Charlie Parker): fresh and speculative call and response, kicking it back and forth---maybe tennis without a net, but that can be a discipline. (Good discussions can also be found on threads for The Bootleg Series and The Band.) Yeah, up this thread, I should have referred to the '75 version as "overdubbed," rather than "re-recorded," in terms of basic tracks being replaced, apparently (anyway, that's good too, and some prefer it: incl. most of his originals from these sessions, and you get all those Band tracks, maybe the only place for that entire grouping?)

I love the Basement Tapes, and I actually do enjoy throwing them all on and letting them play, but like any informal sessions, it's often very casual and I think downplaying really oversells the box set to new listeners. The two-CD set was a great idea, it's probably the best way for most people to hear this music, but they messed that up a bit - for starters, it made no good sense to choose inferior alternates for some of those songs.

*downplaying that

I've found my favorite way to listen to the Complete Tapes at this point is to just have a playlist of the all six discs and toss it on shuffle, then dip in for a bit. It's helped to highlight some stuff I blew past before and definitely doesn't feel as overwhelming.

That "One Too Many Mornings" with vocals from Danko and Dylan is so fragile and so good.

I've read that the 2009 re-reissue (on CD) of the 1975 double-LP has good audio, and I think a nice-price used copy might be worth getting for the sake of those Band tracks Robertson stuck on there, otherwise sprinkled across various collections. They added a bit of compatible variety, perky enough that they may have helped the album get to the Top Ten. But I didn't realize 'til I read this that some critics found their inclusion a pisser: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Basement_Tapes#Criticism_of_1975_album Lots of other stuff in there I didn't know!

i'm fully in favor of those Band tracks on the original Basement Tapes 2LP, even if they aren't actually from the "basement" — some of my favorites in their entire catalog.

Fuckin’ bummer of an intro, Wikipedia:

This article is about the 1975 album. For the 2014 box set, see The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete. For a full list of 1967 Basement Tapes recordings, see List of Basement Tapes songs. For the videotapes made by the Columbine shooters, see Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold § Journals and investigation.

I have the 3LP from the Bootleg Series and the sound is really great. There is nothing else quite like it.

I'm Not There can stand with any of his 1965-66 songs.