Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Ahah. It would have been a classic (and gutsy) thing to do !

I selected all Dylan songs, but they just had these crappy Byrds versions."I've been there.
Thanks, will def check his podcast too. I hadn't read it before because I thought it would be some cybermogul treating himself to a million-dollar bash, or a dying fan's request, thus too sad.

About 23 tracks in, and it's fine: coverage tends to over-emph. the "realness": laidback stoner vibe and the good business move of stockpiling no-budget new song demos for coverage by other hitmakers. These tracks are fluid, but intense, or intent, and mostly covers so far (think most of the total is not original, but I haven't checked allll those credits yet). We get the emotional/stylistic range and levels at the core of his appeal from the beginning. Incl. the humor: much enjoy that "Folsom Prison Blues" here sounds like the Band is playing "dum dum dum dum doo wah diddy, talk about the boy from New York City," which totally fits the loose flair of D.'s singing (the convict, still regretful, is also getting cranked up on cellblock cocktails). This performance of "The Bells of Rhymney" starts reminding me of "All Tomorrow's Parties," to the further credit of both songs and their performers, incl. writers.

*press* coverage tends to over-emph, I meant.

haha I almost copied that same karaoke quote

No matter how he tortures his voice, it all works out (though: he knows when to start over in another key (not very often) and the road vets are unfazed, they've seen it all (prob had the occasional club patron come up onstage, when there was a stage. and demand to sing). Roots seem to incl Beats (the Beats were often, maybe always, at their best as performers, at least as recorded): festive & fatalistically-inclined, which go w both blues & country o course---no fingerprinting or sneers here, tho' the laid-back zingers of "Clothesline Saga" are up ahead.
But no matter how self-mocking or plain fun-loving he gets, or deeply empathetic for that matter (and so often relishing the flavor and texture and structure of songs and singing), what's coming through more and more is a sense of freaked-out, unappeasable accountability, I can't un-know that this is when he was supposedly all happy as a young hubby and pappy (they're in the garage so as not to disturb the tots). And while. sure he's letting off steam, and already "yowling like a tomcat up the backstairs," as I think xgau said of Planet Waves, he's also not million miles from the strung-out, mental relationship trap of "Dirge, also on PW, or the version of "Ballad of A Thin Man" (which recalls an interview: "When I say "you" I mean 'I') on Before The Flood. Both of those albums have him back with the Band, like something else has to come out, at least for a while (even if it has to get by "Forever Young). All going back to these sessions, at least as much as the '66 tour weirdness.

I also can't un-know that a tape from '61 or '62 already has him dropping the cute Bobby D. mask long enough to snarl through "Wade In The Water" like he's commanding the audience to come be baptized in Shit Creek---speaking of a freaked-out, unappeasable sense of accountability, drawn on and distilled for protest, punk etc. purposes, and the gospel phase didn't seem so bad once I heard him start out preaching "Serve Somebody," and already veering away, resorting to "You can call me Ray," which was a line from a TV commercial, which I think starred Gallagher (or. even better, somebody doing a rip-off imitation of) the TV/club comic who had been a carnie and/or boardwalk hawker: a professional jive turkey, to use the 70 TV parlance: loud 'n'proud). So, a touch of the ol' Basement Tapes head-flow, and a clue that this too should pass, hallelujah, and another bottle 'o' bread. ("This" meaning the full-time evangelist bit, not spiritual quest, other underlying concerns, sometimes resurfacing in different forms).

Typing in this tiny font, on a Mac, which I'm unfamiliar with (and which keeps "correcting" me). Also going too fast. Sorry for all the typos.

great posts, dow, don't stop!

Thanks. Last night I made it through most takes of his songs selected for the '75 double-LP (didn't miss Robertson and engineer Frabroni's overdubs and other tweaks). Mostly, they chose the right ones, given the amount of room reserved for the Band's own tracks (incl. newly recorded tracks, according to recent Rolling Stones)What the heck, they pretty much earned it. They're always in combo, on point with Dylan: unobtrusive, upfront, adaptable as needed. Think I'm getting into Robertson specifically for the first time ever, despite having heard almost all their albums. Did he do anything worth hearing after he left these guys?
Tracks that made it to the double (though I still haven't made to most of the funny ones) continue re xpost accountability, though no longer freaked out: might sound like confrontations to outsiders, but citizens call 'em business meetings ("Wheel's On Fire" just following up), while the John Wesley Harding narrator skulks around the edges, and the kid in "Open The Door Homer" maybe trains to be a made guy (or girl? Is that why he actually sings "Rachel," despite "Homer" in the title??)
"All American Boy"---is this a parody of Bobby Bare's first, flukey hit of the same title?

Greil Marcus reads "All American Boy" as a parody of the Bare song iirc.

think he's singing open the door, richard there -- some kind of reference to this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_the_Door,_Richard
more via wiki as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Basement_Tapes_songs_%281975%29#.22Open_the_Door.2C_Homer.22

Yes.

Think I'm getting into Robertson specifically for the first time ever, despite having heard almost all their albums. Did he do anything worth hearing after he left these guys?

Robertson is probably right there with George Harrison as most talented member of a genius combo whose subsequent solo output does almost nothing to validate his reputation, except of course Robbie produced even exponentially less than George, never managed even one (let alone a triple LP) masterpiece, and gave up early to go A&R hack. It's one of those big maybe-not-a mysteries: if Robbie was so essential to the band, and at the least no one can doubt his guitar playing skills, then how did he manage next to nil after the Band broke up?

Your post has some much RONG cheek by jowl with a little bit of right that I cannot begin to pick it apart.

Sorry, maybe I was just taking umbrage at George Harrison being compared to Robbie Robertson.

Oh, no comparison, George Harrison is incredible! But returns diminished rapidly after "All Things Must Pass." And like I said, Robbie didn't even manage one solo masterpiece, and he was the one who tried grabbing so much credit for the Band's songs.

Thanks guys. Got from the grotesque yet sympathy-inducing-from-distance torment of "Sign On The Cross" (with the cute gentle radio preacher intermittently broadcasting more little chills---"maybe that door is closed" "don't worry 'bout it, just sing your song"---if you're not among the Elect, might as well) to don't ya tell Henry that weird thing I just disclosed to you, note to self even, and why is Henry the one to keep it from, to that good old apple suckling tree, only now I notice even this has something about hell in it, and all lil children hollerin at us, who are cruisin on the Greyhound bus, "Get your rocks off/getyourrocksoffMe" and the billowing sidewalk of gimme another "Bourbon Street" and this tube amp, balls up "Blowin In The Wind" "take 'til he KNOWS" the isolation and uncertainty, eh Heisnberg, cos there's always also one who knocks, the neighbor or somebody else.

Anyway, my only question tonight is, did Beefheart ever comment on this stuff, or on Dylan at all? And, thinking of the doowop, did Zappa?

"that weird thing I just disclosed to you about your fly," meant to say. Also meant there's always the original Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and yet also always someone like Mr Walt Heisenberg White of course, maybe young or old and daily growing somewhere within you without you (salute to good old Uncle George again)

Re: Robertson/solo records, I think Robertson coasted on "guitar player" cachet
that was worth more in the 70s, but did any of the other guys
make classic 70s recs? The Band is like the
perfect example of "the whole is more than the parts"

Robertson coasted on ego, because he didn't even play guitar on anything after the Band, did he? Did some film scores, but his first solo album did not come til 1987, and it rested on a lot more than his rep (see: Lanois, Peter Gabriel, U2). The other guys, it's not really fair. Danko and Manuel had serious substance abuse problems, and obviously both did not even live through the '90s. Garth, on the other hand, has played or appeared on all sorts of cool stuff, especially for a reclusive guy, while Levon put out some fine records. But Robbie, for his supposed/unearned prowess as a songwriter, never managed any truly great songs after the Band, and like I said, as a totally justified guitar hero similarly comes up oddly nil. Even the other guys kept it up as great musicians. Robertson sort of threw in the towel, and afaik never so much as sat in with any other groups, which would have been cool.

Come to think of it, I saw Rick Danko & Friends (didn't recognize the others) in the late 70s, on the same bill with Graham Parker & The Rumour. Danko's crew more than held their own, even though GP&TR were at a peak of live (and studio)performance in them days. Think I might try finding that online.
Fairly good reviews of a s/t Danko debut LP around then; don't think he ever did another.
When I met DA Pennebaker in the mid-ish-90s, he daid he'd just been in Canada, filming Danko, Eric Andersen and Bjorn Somebody in concert. Think I saw a set by them in the archives of the Public Radio show Mountain Stage.
Yeah, Levon did some good albums in '07, '09; also, I saw a VHS of Marriane Faithfull performing Blazing Away live, with Garth's keys holding forth.

Of course all of 'em except Robertson did Bobby Charles a solid on his s/t album, which still sounds good. Too bad those four couldn't have gotten him in there for their post-Last Waltz "comeback," although they did include members of the Cate Brothers Band, who were kind of in there between the Average White Band and the Crusaders (when the latter were responding to the former's trending with "Street Life," and backing BB King on two good albums). So that might've worked, adaptability-wise, but they were rejected by some biz powers like Bill Graham, and may not have tried all that hard, biz-wise. Seem to recall some good tracks, like a cover of Springsteen's "Atlantic City," though.

I meant to say clearly that "Street Life" was the Crusaders' hit, not AWB's.

I saw The Band maybe 3.0 at a 90s music fest; they sounded like a big ol' jukebox full of beardy covers, nice 'n' shiny, but there was a lot happening on other stages, so I didn't stick around.

yeah that Bobby Charles s/t is fantastic

^need to hear that badly. the first danko solo is pretty nice, features most of the band spread out over its length (minus robertson, i think). anyone checked out garth hudson's solo stuff? i mean this cover alone makes me want to hear it

http://eil.com/images/main/Garth-Hudson-The-Sea-To-The-No-248269.jpg

I remember seeing that Hudson album in the racks at Best Buy back when Best Buy racked stuff like that.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/85/cb/f2/85cbf2b0fefa205d7854477e05e6081c.jpg

yikes! canadians and their owls.

Danko was the opener at my first concert in '79-80, I was 13 or 14. He opened for Molly Hatchet. I had no idea who he was, but he was good!

So just what is up, then, with one of the best guitarists and sidemen of the '60s and '70s just hanging up his axe, more or less, after the Band broke up?

it is weird that he's never come back to reclaim some kind of guitar heroism (that I know of) ... i believe he's writing a memoir, so maybe he'll talk a bit about that.
no matter how many times he's cast as the villain in the band saga, the dude was one of the greatest rock guitarists of the 60s-70s.
danko's and helm's solo lps are generally a good time, if far from masterpieces.

Yeah, his guitar-silence and the crapulence of his solo output are pretty baffling, but I always felt his best post-Band works were the soundtracks he did for Scorsese films. As much as I love his playing, if he had to hang up the guitar to assemble, sequence, and edit the Casino soundtrack, I'm ok with that.

Yea, and also The Color of Money: in the theater, as the movie started going this way and that (later read that Scorsese started letting the cast improvise, about halfway through), the soundtrack took up the slack---although as an album, rather than a rich array of edits, "cues," as the pros say, would prob seem much more uneven. Allmusic's William Ruhlmann reports:

Ex-Band songwriter/guitarist Robbie Robertson put together this soundtrack, which allowed him to collaborate with blues master Willie Dixon and jazz master Gil Evans, though it was his collaboration with Eric Clapton that produced the album's hit song, "It's in the Way That You Use It." Also featured: Don Henley, Robert Palmer (three tracks), and B. B. King. Not to mention the Mark Knopfler track! But in the show, it all worked out, at least musically.
(It's a sequel to early 60s black & white saga The Hustler, with Paul Newman reprising his role of pool prodigy Fast Eddie, now mentoring Gen X hustler Tom Cruise.)

xpost Surely agree on his 60s/70s guitar work, Tyler; his contributions to The Complete got me hoping I'd overlooked something...

big thing with Robbie, as compared to Harrison, is that the big thing he always tried and failed to cover up is for how great a musician and songwriter he is Robbie couldn't SING for shit....sometimes it's hard to watch The Last Waltz for all his phony singing into a mic that's obviously mixed totally out....I think he sort of resented needing Danko/Manuel/Levon's voices to express his songs...but yeah he just sucks as a singer and obviously wasn't the type of dude to have a Jeff Beck guitar mag type career

I love his playing on "Obviously Five Believers" and on Live 1966, but to see Robertson as a guitar god, what other highlights would you single out?

bodying crapton during their showdown on the last waltz

think he always shied away from guitar superheroics on record -- though unfaithful servant and king harvest both have great solos. the isle of wight 1969 show, rock of ages, before the flood and last waltz all have fantastic Robbie playing.

yeah before the flood everyone really attacks dylan's material with a lot of cocaine urgency

yeah ok if it's live stuff then I'm down with that, but on Dylan's records Mike Bloomfield is just as great

bloomfield is amazing! i mean, even just for "East/West" alone

Granted it's not the series itself but I'm surprised not to see you all talking about this yet, the latest from the copyright extension vaults:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/rare-dylan-recordings-set-for-release-in-copyright-extension-bid/

i hadn't heard about that! this is really interesting:

a tantalizing tape, accounting for nearly three LP sides, that Mr. Dylan recorded with the folksinger Eric Von Schmidt, at Von Schmidt’s home in Florida

yeah thought there was talk on some other dylan thread? or maybe just on twitter, it's all blending...
tracks from the (un-bootlegged AFAIK) von schmidt tape seem like a dry run for the basement tapes. the royal festival hall show should be great -- first ever mr. tambourine man and I think it ain't me babe with an extra verse?

Can't believe anyone would doubt RR's skill. He always said he got the soloing out of his system touring with Dylan, which is why the Band is all awesome groove and rhythm stuff. Check him out around 2:54 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaKD1Vdarnw

Also Robbie's playing all over this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xetx-T6uIVY

But yeah, he's a player's player. Unless you know what to listen for it's easy not to hear it, especially in the context of the Band, where every element of every song is vying for your full attention.

Tell me what to listen for! No doubt, I just want to learn.

(yeah tyler you and I and others were talking bout the copyright xtension tapes on twitter; once the rich and/or crazies scarf 'em up, the rest of us will just have to wait for any Lady Bountiful to deign us some boots of Finnish digits, say, although, with the recent superbust of Pirate Bay, for one---) What's got me back into Robertson is all these perfect little interjections, fills, transitions, hinges on the CBTs' I know he can do the big solos when called on, like on Before The Flood, but that's still part of being such a good accompanist for Dylan (also on subsequent tracks like "Dirge," for instance), whatever the clashes with others (like maybe the Band, maybe that's part of the fairly quick diffusion etc, the precipitous drop-off in consistency re the their own albums). I wanna check their boxset, Across The Great Divide, right? Hope that's the title; applies to their internal probs.
Anyway, just came here now to be amazed by the first six tracks on Disc Six (seems like BD's touch on that early electric piano; those weren't very touch-sensitive, but his pawing works), and sure hope somebody covers some, especially/most likely "That's The Breaks," country soul casual stunner; could still hear Aretha or Jerry Lee doing this right (good BD rarity, "Stepchild," on JLL's new Rock & Roll Time, which should be called something like Country Boogie. He's done at least one good previous cover of Dylan, "Rita May," forget which album). Back to listening. (Also like the laffy yet attentive-to-details version of "Hallelujah, I've Just Been Moved.")