Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

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look at those upstanding young Christian gentlemen

I am so in love with this set, so funny (and weirdly typical Dylan) that this constitutes his Xtian period, cuz if you aren't listening close to lyrics, the music is fun, coked-up 70s rock. The band is awesome as has been mentioned but man props to the backing vocalists who are fucking great and couple times someone is busting out their best Roky Erickson scream.

yeah, i'm not sure who the raspy backup singer is, but she brings it ... totally into this set. I was a believer before, but the cleaned up live stuff (especially 79-80) is sounding so righteous. what a band! Drummond / Keltner are clearly really enjoying themselves.

Which version of this have people gone with? Would ideally like the big box, especially with the documentary, but don’t have the $ right now. Wondering if the 2CD set brings the cream and the rest would be overkill/diminishing returns?

Still haven’t bought the Cutting Edge in hopes of getting the unauthorized Japanese full set that was briefly around. Probably time to move on and “settle” for the 6 disc.

My soul wont let me get anything but the most complete version. My wallet says that shit is offensively overpriced, so just like the last few bootleg releases i won't be paying for any of em :-(

yeah, i'm not sure who the raspy backup singer is, but she brings it ... totally into this set.

is it Helena Springs?

she's up there, just not sure if she's the one who's belting out her vocals on things like "pressing on" ... will have to watch the doc at some point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K01EAM2TtD4

haha that guy at 4:23 is having such a good time

who's with dylan in those photos?

Keltner and Drummond (drummer and bass player, respectively)

Just got the 2-disc version. I've never really got into this stuff on the studio albums. Curious

here, take a brochure, it has the words to today's hymns in it

Jesus....rocks

have you heard the good news?

santana's solo on "the groom's still waiting at the altar" really goes in

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the "Blessed by the Name" on disc 2 of the 2CD set is so nuts, just a freight (not slow) train of a groove

sometimes it's so over the top with the fervor and the backup singers i wonder if nick cave had heard some of these boots when he was making lyre of orpheus/abbatoir blues

(or henry's dream)

Consideringg what a "Street-Legal" fan Cave is I am guessing he most have, I was thinking the same thing over the wknd but yeah this live band is totally a Lyre of Oh/Abby Blues template

From Mojo magazine, January 1997:
MOJO: What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album?
CAVE: I guess it's Slow Train Coming by Bob Dylan. That's a great record, full of mean-spirited spirituality. It's a genuinely nasty record, certainly the nastiest 'Christian' album I've ever come across.

esp. the more gospelly they get (away from the apex of 'slow train' sleaze), i think the band often sounds not far from what you can often hear on like those 'fire in my bones' comps, church bands playing, don't see why cave couldn't have heard some of that sort of stuff the normal ways back in the day (or since)

Reminds me: wonder if he ever heard this, before doing all that? Originally released in 1969, so maybe---see for yourself which songs, several I wouldn't have thought of for this, but I like it (also might have been an influence on New Morning, a little bit*, though not sure when that was recorded):
https://lightintheattic.net/releases/1007-dylan-s-gospel

*Also maybe the black gospel-associated harmonists x white country-associated steel guitar [before most of us listeners knew about the black church communities documented much later in Sacred Steel) on the chorus of "George Jackson" ( a rare if not unprecented musical move at the time, and taken as standing for solidarity): https://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/george-jackson-a-song-by-bob-dylan-1971/ Not great, but very much to the point, and unabashedly related then to some events still controversial in some respects (incl. Jackson's whole life, as well as death, and the Marin County Courthouse shoot-out afterwards)
(Also "Property of Jesus" etc. got covered later.)

In case that won't play, here's a key line: "Sometimes I think this whole world/Is one big prison yard/Some of us are prisoners/The rest of us are guards."

^^ has "George Jackson" ever been reissued? great tune.

think it was only included the mid-1970s Masterpieces comp (I might be wrong though ...)

the acoustic version is on this

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xp that's the (edited) "big band" version from the A-side, Number None's link is the acoustic B-side

so I guess it has been reissued, buried in two separate 3LP/2CD comp sets

on the plus side the starting Discogs price is $3

BS13 is mighty good

Finally listened to the sampler on Spotify last night---17 tracks, 76 minutes---and maybe it's an unfortunate choice of tracks, compared to the actual (2-disc standard, 8-disc/1 DVD etc. box) releases)--but, despite a few engaging cuts ("I can manipulate people as well as anybody!" Sounds even happier when he combines this with "I ain't gonna go to hell for anybody!" Not even victory over family is worth that!), I found much of this increasingly oppressive, especially on headphones. Like locking myself in the basement with something dead and rotting, someone else's reeking, blood-soaked dreams of vengence on shadows of will, bulletproof suits with flys open, tantalizing, do-wrong women---many of whom seem like shadows, projections of his own insatiable, paranoid drive, maybe xpost cocaine dreams and then some.
Yes, the performers, including him, are putting out, but so far, most of the time, just doesn't seem worth it. What I get for going once more into the charms of Spotify (b-but it's never been like this---at least the commercials brought fleeting relief)

"Everytime I say 'You' I mean 'I'," he once said in an interview, and he seemed to live that self-awareness in some writing, some performances, as I mentioned above--but he seems to have forgotten it here, and this phase went on for years---wonder how he came out of it, as the songs gradually got better (maybe he just decided to keep some shit to himself, but that seems like a major achievement, after hearing this).

I don't find this stuff to be less hectoring or joyless or whatever than most of his best stuff. I guess I can see for listeners sensitive enough abt being proselytized to that the condemned "you" scans as you the listener, it could make you feel like Sara Dylan w/ front row seats for Idiot Wind

Personally I could give a shit. This is hands down his best band. He's in peak voice, the energy is often up there w/ the best Rolling Thunder nights. The songs are by and large really good.

The Toronto discs 5-6 are just amazing

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This is hands down his best band. He's in peak voice, the energy is often up there w/ the best Rolling Thunder nights

Clearly this is a matter of taste, I don't rate his 70s live voice very highly, find it too shouty on both Before the Flood, Rolling Thunder and Hard Rain.

What's the best Dylan band? We might poll this one, if we're able to find an overview of all the constellations. John Wesley Harding trio is a personal favorite with Kenny Buttrey on drums and Charlie McCoy on bass.

picked up the 6-disc Basement Tapes for 50 bucks and have been wallowing in it all day, damn this stuff is great. I haven't gotten to disc 6 yet but I'll be the judge of "very poor sonic quality" thank you very much

love dow's posts about this upthread, all this stuff works as a whole with the throwaways, the fragments, the covers, and the staggering originals all mixed up in a stoned loose flow. I never went much further than the 1-disc Safety Tape, still am not very familiar with the rejigged '75 2LP, so most of this stuff is a revelation

The first few tracks with Joan Baez are fine.

The rest are dull, and if the sound quality had been great, they'd still be dull.

Joan Baez? She is not on the basement tapes. Dull? No!

as usual Mark G has absolutely no idea what he's talking about

get out of this thread, you're fired

also, FP

what is going on here?

still bumping Trouble No More a lot, Fred Hackett is my hero

what's going on here is that The Complete Basement Tapes are awesome, I know I'm late to that party and we're all talking about the new set but hey this is the Bootleg Series thread.

disc 6 sounds fine to me!

the version of "the auld triangle" on the basement tapes box is one of the best things

Oh, that was the other set, nm.

i know greil marcus builds up sign on the cross as the earthquake omitted from the 2LP but my favorite of the left-outs is definitely All I Have to Do is Dream

Trouble No More is so good.

I got the 2-disc set for Christmas. So far I've listened to the 1st disc. I already knew and loved most of the songs from the original studio albums, and in a few cases at least I think I still prefer the studio versions (especially the ones on Saved vs some of the early live performances where it seems like the road-testing of the songs improved them), but some of the performances reveal whole new sides of the songs or feature a particularly great vocal, so this for me is well worth having.

To me it's worth it just for the super cool intro he does for Solid Rock...

"Gonna do a request tonight. Somebody shouted out a song called Solid Rock. Hanging onto a solid rock made before the foundation of the world, is that the one you mean?"