The Basement Tapes

784:, with a different crew of accompanying musicians. The same month, drummer Levon Helm rejoined his former bandmates in Woodstock, after he received a phone call from Danko informing him that they were getting ready to record as a group. In his autobiography, Helm recalled how he listened to the recordings the Hawks had made with Dylan and remembered that he "could tell that hanging out with the boys had helped Bob to find a connection with things we were interested in: blues, rockabilly, R&B. They had rubbed off on him a little." 796: 963:

of 'homemade' which meant a Basement Tape to us." Robertson has suggested that the Basement Tapes are, for him, "a process, a homemade feel" and so could include recordings from a wide variety of sources. "The idea," he said, "was to record some demos for other people. They were never intended to be a record, never meant to be presented. It was somewhat annoying that the songs were bootlegged. The album was finally released in the spirit of 'well, if this is going to be documented, let's at least make it good quality.

2197: 2041: 703: 2375:, in a New York studio in January 1968, they employed a recording technique similar to the one they had become familiar with during The Basement Tapes sessions. As Robertson described it, "We used the same kind of mike on everything. A bit of an anti-studio approach. And we realized what was comfortable to us was turning wherever we were into a studio. Like the Big Pink technique." That technique influenced groups including the Beatles, writes Griffin, who calls their Twickenham 2095:... And while a Dylan fan might understandably grumble that he wanted to hear another Bob song, a fan equally versed and interested more generally in late 20th-century American music would only smile and thank the Good Lord for the gift of this song." Of the Band's version of "Don't Ya Tell Henry", he writes, "True, the argument could be made that Robertson was way outside his brief in including this on the two-LP set, as this wasn't from Woodstock or '67, and has no Dylan on it. 512: 7084: 599: 48: 2000:". Heylin similarly argues that compiler Robbie Robertson did Dylan fans "a major disservice" by omitting those two songs as well as "I'm Not There" and "Sign On The Cross". He writes, "The album as released hardly gave a real idea of what they had been doing in Woodstock. Not even the two traditional songs pulled to the master reels—'Young But Daily Growin' and 'The Banks Of The Royal Canal'—made the final twenty-four cuts." 958:'s "Going Back to Memphis", did not end up being included. There is disagreement about the recording date of the other three songs: "Bessie Smith", "Ain't No More Cane" and "Don't Ya Tell Henry". While Fraboni has recalled that the Band taped them in 1975, the liner notes for the reissued versions of the Band's own albums state that these songs were recorded between 1967 and 1970. Ultimately, eight of the twenty-four songs on 1837: 819:: "They weren't demos for myself, they were demos of the songs. I was being PUSHED again into coming up with some songs. You know how those things go." In October 1967, a fourteen-song demo tape was copyrighted and the compositions were registered with Dwarf Music, a publishing company jointly owned by Dylan and Grossman. Acetates and tapes of the songs then circulated among interested recording artists. 1899: 1894: 1889: 1884: 1879: 1832: 1827: 1822: 1817: 1787: 1782: 1777: 1772: 1754: 1749: 1744: 1739: 1734: 2190:'Nothing' and 'nowhere' perplex and nag" in these songs, he writes. "The 'nothing' echoes the artist's dilemma: death versus life, vacuum versus harvest, isolation versus people, silence versus sound, the void versus the life-impulse." A second group, comprising "songs of joy, signaling some form of deliverance", includes most of the remaining songs in the collection. 2330:' music—mostly facile paeans to universal love draped in interminable guitar solos." Patrick Humphries itemizes the ways in which Dylan's songs dissented from the dominant ethos of rock culture: "While the rock world vented its spleen on parents and leaders, Dylan was singing privately about parental fidelity. While 2246:, Greil Marcus wrote, "What was taking place as Dylan and the Band fiddled with the tunes, was less a style than a spirit—a spirit that had to do with a delight in friendship and invention." He compared the songs to fabled works of American music: "The Basement Tapes are a testing and a discovery of roots and memory 562:... He remembered too much, remembered too many songs too well. He'd come over to Big Pink, or wherever we were, and pull out some old song—and he'd prepped for this. He'd practiced this, and then come out here, to show us." Songs recorded at the early sessions included material written or made popular by 477:, Dylan said, "I had a dreadful motorcycle accident which put me away for a while, and I still didn't sense the importance of that accident till at least a year after that. I realized that it was a real accident. I mean I thought that I was just gonna get up and go back to doing what I was doing before 2763:

When Albert Grossman was shopping around for a recording contract for the Hawks in late 1967, the group instructed him to sign them under the name The Crackers—a derogatory term for poor white Southerners. The Band also mischievously dubbed themselves The Honkies. It was only when Helm joined them in

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double album, which critics praised for its improved sound quality. According to reviewer Scott Hreha, there was "something about the remastering that makes it feel more like an official album—the earlier CD version's weak fidelity unfairly emphasized the 'basement' nature of the recordings, where it

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holds a certain cultural weight which is timeless—and the best Americana does that as well." The songs' influence has been detected by critics in many subsequent acts. Stuart Bailie wrote, "If rock'n'roll is the sound of a party in session, The Basement Tapes were the morning after: bleary, and a bit

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in the photograph. The identification of Young has been disputed by Bill Scheele who has written that Young was not present. Bill Scheele and his brother John Scheele worked with the Band from 1969 until 1976 and were present in the cover photo. Some photos by John Scheele of the 1975 Hollywood YMCA

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In January 1975, Dylan unexpectedly gave permission for the release of a selection of the basement recordings, perhaps because he and Grossman had resolved their legal dispute over the Dwarf Music copyrights on his songs. Clinton Heylin argues that Dylan was able to consent following the critical and

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did not feature Dylan, several of the studio outtakes postdating the sessions at Big Pink. In justifying their inclusion, Robertson explained that he, Hudson and Dylan did not have access to all the basement recordings: "We had access to some of the songs. Some of these things came under the heading

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story headlined "Dylan's Basement Tape Should Be Released". Wenner listened to the fourteen-song demo and reported, "There is enough material—most all of it very good—to make an entirely new Bob Dylan album, a record with a distinct style of its own." He concluded, "Even though Dylan used one of the

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wrote in 1990 on the significance of the crash: "A quarter of a century on, Dylan's motorcycle accident is still viewed as the pivot of his career. As a sudden, abrupt moment when his wheel really did explode. The great irony is that 1967—the year after the accident—remains his most prolific year as

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was released, which includes the 1967 Woodstock Band recordings "Words and Numbers", "You Don't Come Through", "Caledonia Mission", "Ferdinand the Imposter" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken". In 1968, the Band re-recorded "This Wheel's on Fire", "Tears of Rage", "I Shall Be Released" and "Caledonia

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The songs on the demo were: "Million Dollar Bash", "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread", "Please Mrs. Henry", "Down in the Flood", "Lo and Behold", "Tiny Montgomery", "This Wheel's on Fire", "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "I Shall Be Released", "Tears of Rage", "Too Much of Nothing", "The Mighty Quinn",

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For his detailed account of the Manchester concert, C. P. Lee interviewed members of the audience about the reasons for their hostility. One explained, "It was as if everything we held dear had been betrayed. He showed us what to think, I know that's a stupid thing to say but there he was marching

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and Dylan fits in because he's this storyteller with an ancient heart. At the time everything he did was so scrutinized, yet somehow he liberated himself from all that and enjoyed making music again. You hear an unselfconscious quality on this record which you don't ever hear again." "He mocks his

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and reported that Dylan was not in the studio very often. The stereo recordings made by Hudson were remixed to mono, while Robertson and other members of the Band overdubbed new keyboard, guitar, and drum parts onto some of the 1967 Woodstock recordings. According to Fraboni, four new songs by the

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ideas into popular culture: "At the very moment when avant-gardism was sweeping through new cultural corridors, Dylan decided to dismount. The dandified, aggressively modern surface was replaced by a self-consciously unassuming and traditional garb. The giddiness embodied, celebrated, dissected in

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which I didn't like at all. I thought that was a very indulgent album, though the songs on it were real good. I didn't think all that production was necessary." Of the sound and atmosphere of the basement recordings, Barney Hoskyns wrote that "Big Pink itself determined the nature of this homemade

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With Helm singing "with characteristic Southern brio", Hudson's honky-tonk piano and Robertson's lead guitar, this track reflects the distinctive sound that the Band developed. This is one of several Band-only songs on the album whose recording history is disputed: Bowman dates it to late 1967 or

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must have been intentionally muddied in the studio in 1975 so that they would fit better alongside the Dylan material recorded in the basement with a home reel-to-reel." Heylin also takes exception to Robertson's passing off the Band's songs as originating from the basement sessions. By including

626:, "Bob and Robbie, they would come by every day, five to seven days a week, for seven to eight months." Hudson added, "It amazed me, Bob's writing ability. How he would come in, sit down at the typewriter, and write a song. And what was amazing was that almost every one of those songs was funny." 2367:

recalled, "Every artist in the world was in the studio trying to make the biggest-sounding record they possibly could. So what does do? He comes to Nashville and tells me he wants to record with a bass, drum and guitar." Dylan summed up the gap: "At that time psychedelic rock was overtaking the

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Greil Marcus calls the song a "half-written ditty about almost nothing but a country beat that swings and a drawl that would be at home anywhere in the South any time in the last couple of centuries." Comparing this second take of the song to the first, never officially released, he writes, "The

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For the first couple of months, they were merely "killing time", according to Robertson, with many early sessions devoted to covers. "With the covers Bob was educating us a little", recalls Robertson. "The whole folkie thing was still very questionable to us—it wasn't the train we came in

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album tracks—and it is unclear whether the drums overdubbed on "Too Much of Nothing" in 1975 were played by Helm. Griffin believes Helm drummed on eight unreleased recordings made by Dylan and the Band in the house on Wittenberg Road that Danko and Helm shared after vacating Big Pink

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reporter Michael Iachetta, "Songs are in my head like they always are. And they're not going to get written down until some things are evened up. Not until some people come forth and make up for some of the things that have happened." After discussing the crash with Dylan, biographer

903:: "Dylan is a heavy talent and he's got all those songs nobody's ever heard. We thought we'd take it upon ourselves to make this music available." The process of bootlegging Dylan's work would eventually see the illegal release of hundreds of live and studio recordings, and lead the 2030:

eight Band recordings to Dylan's sixteen, he says, "Robertson sought to imply that the alliance between Dylan and the Band was far more equal than it was: 'Hey, we were writing all these songs, doing our own thing, oh and Bob would sometimes come around and we'd swap a few tunes.

2436:"sound like they were made in a cardboard box. I think was trying to write songs that sounded like he'd just found them under a stone. As if they sound like real folk songs—because if you go back into the folk tradition, you will find songs as dark and as deep as these." 2185:

revolves around two sets of themes. One group of songs is "tinctured with the search for salvation": "I Shall Be Released" (on the demo, but not on the album), "Too Much of Nothing", "Nothing Was Delivered", "This Wheel's On Fire", "Tears of Rage" and "Goin' To Acapulco".

353:, toward songs that were more intimate and which drew on many styles of traditional American music. While some of the basement songs are humorous, others dwell on nothingness, betrayal and a quest for salvation. In general, they possess a rootsy quality anticipating the 2126:

reached the public in an unorthodox manner, officially released eight years after the songs were recorded, critics have assigned them an important place in Dylan's development. Michael Gray writes, "The core Dylan songs from these sessions actually do form a clear link

1975:, the poll's creator and supervisor, said the recordings sounded richer and stranger in 1975 than when they were made and concluded, "We don't have to bow our heads in shame because this is the best album of 1975. It would have been the best album of 1967, too." 335:

in July 1966, four members of the Hawks came to Dylan's home in the Woodstock area to collaborate with him on music and film projects. While Dylan was out of the public's eye during an extended period of recovery in 1967, he and the members of the Hawks recorded

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While removed from the public's gaze, Dylan and the Band made music very different from the recordings of other major artists. Andy Gill writes, "Musically, the songs were completely at odds with what was going on in the rest of the pop world, which during the

2279:). In it, he quotes Robertson's memory of the recording: " would pull these songs out of nowhere. We didn't know if he wrote them or if he remembered them. When he sang them, you couldn't tell." Marcus calls the songs "palavers with a community of ghosts. 753:. Anna Dylan was born on July 11, 1967. Both Heylin and biographer Sid Griffin suggest that recording had to move from Dylan's home to Big Pink when it became clear that the sessions were getting in the way of family life. Domesticity was the context of 372:

prepared the album for official release in 1975, eight songs recorded solely by the Band—in various locations between 1967 and 1975—were added to 16 songs taped by Dylan and the Band in 1967. Overdubs were added in 1975 to songs from both categories.

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brew." "One of the things is that if you played loud in the basement, it was really annoying, because it was a cement-walled room", recalled Robertson. "So we played in a little huddle: if you couldn't hear the singing, you were playing too loud."

2165:: "It's the sound of Dylan letting his guard down. 'Clothes Line Saga' and all those ridiculous songs, he's obviously just making it all up, they were having such a great time. The sound of the Band is so antiquated like something out of the 537:

area of Woodstock. In June, the recording sessions moved to the basement of Big Pink. Hudson set up a recording unit, using two stereo mixers and a tape recorder borrowed from Grossman, as well as a set of microphones on loan from folk trio

649:". Two of these featured his lyrics set to music by members of the Band: Danko wrote the music of "This Wheel's on Fire"; Manuel, who composed "Tears of Rage", described how Dylan "came down to the basement with a piece of typewritten paper 533:, a rarely seen account of Dylan's 1966 world tour. At some point between March and June 1967, Dylan and the four Hawks began a series of informal recording sessions, initially at the so-called Red Room of Dylan's house, Hi Lo Ha, in the 340:

together, incorporating original compositions, contemporary covers, and traditional material. Dylan's new style of writing moved away from the urban sensibility and extended narratives that had characterized his most recent albums,

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writes of the album, "The interspersed tracks by the Band alone merely disrupt the unity of Dylan material, much more of which should have been included. Key songs missing here include 'I Shall Be Released' and 'The Mighty

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album chart. Subsequently, the format of the 1975 album has led critics to question the omission of some of Dylan's best-known 1967 compositions and the inclusion of material by the Band that was not recorded in Woodstock.

6387: 622:... We'd play the melody, he'd sing a few words he'd written, and then make up some more, or else just mouth sounds or even syllables as he went along. It's a pretty good way to write songs." Danko told Dylan biographer 2010:, on the other hand, said of the 1975 release that, in comparison to the complete recordings released in 2011, "Robertson, with some exceptions, knew which the good songs were" and was right to clean up the recordings. 503:. He had to find ways of working to his own advantage with the recording industry. He had to come to terms with his one-time friend, longtime manager, part-time neighbor, and sometime landlord, Albert Grossman." 2634:, an official 6-CD box set containing 139 tracks which comprises nearly all of Dylan's basement recordings, including 30 never-bootlegged tracks. A companion 2-CD set containing highlights from the recordings, 2215: 405:

was widely acclaimed. From September 1965 to May 1966, Dylan embarked on an extensive tour across the US, Australia and Europe backed by the Hawks, a band that had formerly worked with rock and roll musician

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album, here he works with his own band for the first time. Dylan brings that instinctual feel for rock and roll to his voice for the first time. If this were ever to be released it would be a classic."

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observed that both the seclusion of Woodstock and the discipline and sense of tradition in the Hawks' musicianship were just what Dylan needed after the "globe-trotting psychosis" of the 1965–66 tour.

2025:, but now "in stereo and with improved sound quality beyond what the remastering process alone would provide". Hopkins declared, "The cat's out of the bag: 'Katie' and the other Band-only tracks on 7333: 6303: 2110:... making music and watching time go by. So, in the meantime, we made this record. Actually, it wasn't a record, it was just songs which we'd come to this basement and recorded. Out in the woods 6289: 2494: 2507: 661:... so I just elaborated a bit, because I wasn't sure what the lyrics meant. I couldn't run upstairs and say, 'What's this mean, Bob: "Now the heart is filled with gold as if it was a purse"? 614:

Dylan began to write and record new material at the sessions. According to Hudson, "We were doing seven, eight, ten, sometimes fifteen songs a day. Some were old ballads and traditional songs

430:. Dylan's audiences reacted with hostility to the sound of their folk icon backed by a rock band. Dismayed by the negative reception, Helm quit the Hawks in November 1965 and drifted around 296:. Two-thirds of the album's 24 tracks feature Dylan on lead vocals backed by the Band, and were recorded in 1967, eight years before the album's release, in the lapse between the release of 2459:

magazine awarded the record five stars, its highest rating, commenting that "Dylan's work is by turns haunting, hilarious and puzzling—and all of it taps into centuries of American song".

5436: 4848: 6074: 6039: 893:. The double album consisted of seven songs from the Woodstock basement sessions, plus some early recordings Dylan had made in Minneapolis in December 1961 and one track recorded from 4826: 696:

the songs of the mid-sixties had left him exhausted. He sought safety in a retreat to the countryside that was also a retreat in time, or more precisely, a search for timelessness."

6338: 2178:. In place of that album's strangled urgency, Dylan adopts a laconic humor, a deadpan tone that speaks of resignation and self-preservation in the face of absurdity and betrayal." 6380: 2057: 1655:. It poses Dylan and the Band alongside characters suggested by the songs: a woman in a Mrs. Henry T-shirt, an Eskimo, a circus strongman and a dwarf who has been identified as 2511:

in 2013. In the early 1970s, Dylan released new recordings of five compositions from The Basement Tape era: live performances of "Minstrel Boy" and "Quinn the Eskimo" from the

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era. In a 1978 interview, Dylan reflected on the period: "I didn't know how to record the way other people were recording, and I didn't want to. The Beatles had just released

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marked their first official release. The remaining eight songs, all previously unavailable, feature the Band without Dylan and were recorded between 1967 and 1975.

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in November 1965. By the time the basement sessions started in Big Pink around June 1967, he had two children: Maria (Sara's daughter from her first marriage) and

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Engineer Rob Fraboni was brought to Shangri-La to clean up the recordings still in the possession of Hudson, the original engineer. Fraboni had worked on Dylan's

7429: 6345: 2697: 2655: 2630: 1682: 17: 851:, released in August. The Hawks, officially renamed the Band, recorded "This Wheel's on Fire", "I Shall Be Released" and "Tears of Rage" for their debut album, 1542: 527:"; Robertson lived nearby with his future wife, Dominique. Danko and Manuel had been invited to Woodstock to collaborate with Dylan on a film he was editing, 1470: 1524: 1345: 822:

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

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As tapes of Dylan's recordings circulated in the music industry, journalists became aware of their existence. In June 1968, Jann Wenner wrote a front-page

542:. Dylan would later tell Jann Wenner, "That's really the way to do a recording—in a peaceful, relaxed setting—in somebody's basement. With the windows open 2723:

Griffin writes that Helm's arrival in October meant that he did not play on most of the Dylan–Band 1967 Woodstock recordings, including the sixteen Dylan

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sessions in early 1969 an effort to record "in the honest, live, no frills, no overdubs, down home way that the Hawks/Band did for The Basement Tapes".

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still contained some of the greatest music either Dylan or the Band ever recorded." Sid Griffin similarly defends the inclusion of the Band's songs:

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Dylan was rethinking the direction of his life while recovering from a sense of having been exploited. Nine months after the crash, he told New York

5122: 2131:... two utterly different albums. They evince the same highly serious, precarious quest for a personal and universal salvation which marked out the 1987:

has centered on two issues: the recordings by the Band on their own, and the selection of the Dylan songs. In his book about the basement sessions,

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During his 1965–1966 world tour, Dylan was backed by the Hawks, a five-member rock group who would later become famous as the Band. After Dylan was

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In 1997, after listening to more than 100 basement recordings issued on various bootlegs, Marcus extended these insights into a book-length study,

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The intense collaboration between Dylan and the Hawks that produced the basement recordings came to an end in October 1967 when Dylan relocated to

2283:... These ghosts were not abstractions. As native sons and daughters they were a community. And they were once gathered in a single place: on the 1956:

declared, "He may perplex, irritate, and disappoint, but Dylan has to rank as the single greatest artist modern American pop music has produced."

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describes how the basement recordings represented a radical change of direction for Dylan, who turned his back on his reputation for importing

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in late 1967. The songs on that record, according to Howard Sounes, revealed the influence of Dylan's daily reading of both the Bible and the

2099:... But it is a song from The Basement Tapes era and it swings like a randy sailor on shore leave in a bisexual bar. So give Robbie a break." 763:: "Chopping wood and hitting your thumb with a hammer, fixing the tape recorder or the screen door, wandering off into the woods with Hamlet 2577:, with "I Shall Be Released", "Down in the Flood" and "Don't Ya Tell Henry" appearing on the album's 2001 reissue; "I Shall Be Released" on 7955: 6797: 2616:

In the early 1990s, a virtually complete collection of all of Dylan's 1967 recordings in Woodstock was released on a bootleg five-CD set,

586:. Linking all the recordings, both new material and old, is the way in which Dylan re-engaged with traditional American music. Biographer 838: 29: 7945: 7394: 4730: 7063: 6502: 6060: 2648: 904: 837:

reached number one on the UK singles chart with their recording of "The Mighty Quinn". In April, "This Wheel's on Fire", recorded by

7935: 6727: 6014: 5344: 2034:" Heylin asserts that "though revealing in their own right, the Band tracks only pollute the official set and reduce its stature." 672:

that sets it apart from contemporaneous works is its simple, down-to-earth sound. The songs were recorded in mid-1967, during the "

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no longer had the status of a final reminder of Dylan's lost genius". In 1975, as well, the Band purchased Shangri-La ranch in

462:, suffering cracked vertebrae and a mild concussion. The concerts he was scheduled to perform had to be cancelled. Biographer 7965: 7930: 7849: 7551: 6131: 5229: 5054: 4922: 4499: 2545:. Versions of other Band Basement Tape compositions, recorded in various locations between 1967 and possibly 1975, appear on 2453:, number 292 in a 2012 revised list, and number 335 in the magazine's 2020 list. In a special issue devoted to Dylan's work, 2140: 2470:": "From basement tapes, beyond them dollars and cents / Changing of the guards spent, now where the hell the majors went?" 7236: 6893: 6681: 6490: 6260: 6253: 6117: 2527: 256: 2400:. "The thing about alt.country which makes it 'alt' is that it is not polished. It is not rehearsed or slick. Neither are 629:

Dylan recorded around thirty new compositions with the Hawks, including some of the most celebrated songs of his career: "

438:, England, in May 1966 when an audience member shouted "Judas!" at Dylan for allegedly betraying the cause of politically 7839: 7537: 7526: 7056: 6776: 6428: 5614: 4839: 2479: 2450: 2161:

is that Dylan found a way out of the anguish and verbal complexity that had characterized his mid-sixties albums such as

980: 638: 7925: 7873: 7120: 6137: 5884: 5649: 5259: 833:, also managed by Grossman, recorded "Tears of Rage", "Quinn the Eskimo" and "This Wheel's on Fire". In January 1968, 6952: 6900: 5563: 5535: 5516: 5482: 5461: 5421: 5398: 5324: 5305: 5248: 5172: 5149: 5092: 5035: 5016: 4997: 4974: 4903: 4882: 4812: 4692: 4666: 4595: 3552: 771:

songs, such as "Clothes Line Saga" and "Apple Suckling Tree", celebrate the domestic aspects of the rural lifestyle.

2225:, apparently nicknamed Homer. In his vocal delivery, Dylan "sounds like someone exorcising a certain kind of ghost". 7970: 7857: 7800: 7649: 7257: 6466: 5891: 2285: 2102:

By 1975, Dylan showed scant interest in the discographical minutiae of the recordings. Interviewed on the radio by

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Clinton Heylin suggests that in this song Dylan may have been invoking the memory of his recently deceased friend

7401: 6734: 6440: 6239: 6021: 5933: 5744: 2547: 2517: 2050: 949:, both released in 1974. Fraboni has described Robertson as the dominant voice in selecting the final tracks for 434:, at one point working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The tour culminated in a famously raucous concert in 4956:

Harris, John, ed. (October 2000). "Q Dylan: Maximum Bob! The Definitive Celebration of Rock's Ultimate Genius".

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Note: The cassette version includes LP sides 1 and 2 on side 1, and LP sides 4 and 3 (in that order) on side 2.

7684: 7670: 7635: 7415: 6124: 5898: 5664: 634: 25: 523:, a few miles from Woodstock, in February 1967. The three of them moved into a house on Stoll Road nicknamed " 7825: 7408: 7362: 7311: 7013: 6845: 6824: 6761: 6146: 5688: 5216: 2573: 2499: 2206: 2154: 2144: 1950:

called its contents "the hardest, toughest, sweetest, saddest, funniest, wisest songs I know". The review in

1870: 1808: 646: 2565:. Live versions by the Band of various Basement Tapes songs have also been issued: "I Shall Be Released" on 7830: 7698: 6872: 6423: 6398: 6232: 6110: 5940: 2621: 976: 712: 337: 21: 2478:

Between 1985 and 2013, Columbia issued five additional 1967 recordings by Dylan from Big Pink: take 2 of "

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The authenticity of the 1975 album was questioned by a reviewer of the remastered version of the Band's

7761: 7733: 7691: 7387: 7007: 6967: 6865: 6053: 5828: 2343: 767:... it was relaxed and low-key, which was something we hadn't enjoyed since we were children." Several 455: 332: 7960: 7795: 7047: 6879: 6478: 6454: 6225: 6081: 6046: 5919: 5709: 5702: 2732:, pp. 201, 221, 236–241). Heylin has suggested that Helm might be the drummer on four tracks on 2489: 2271: 2255: 2017:, issued in 2000. Dave Hopkins noted that "Katie's Been Gone", which appears as a bonus track on the 520: 442:. Returning exhausted from the hectic schedule of his world tour, Dylan discovered that his manager, 845:

was issued as a single. Along with "Nothing Was Delivered", it appeared on their country-rock album

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Band were also recorded in preparation for the album's official release, one of which, a cover of

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This aspect of the basement recordings became obvious when Dylan chose to record his next album,

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had reached number three on the US album chart in November 1965; the recently released double-LP

4606: 2696:, one of the basement recordings that was bootlegged but never officially released until 2014's 2679:, and suddenly he was singing this stuff about himself. We made him and he betrayed the cause" ( 7747: 7515: 7113: 7027: 6856: 6838: 6815: 6674: 6669: 6664: 6659: 6654: 6649: 6644: 6639: 6634: 6629: 6624: 6619: 6614: 6609: 6604: 6599: 6594: 6589: 6584: 6579: 6574: 6569: 6564: 6559: 6554: 6549: 6544: 6539: 6534: 6529: 6524: 6519: 6508: 5912: 5644: 2335: 813:

Dylan referred to commercial pressures behind the basement recordings in a 1969 interview with

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describes the album's contents as "sixteen basement recordings plus eight Band demos". Critic

841:, hit number five on the UK chart. That same month, a version of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" by 7881: 7034: 6831: 6720: 6496: 6484: 6472: 6159: 5905: 5870: 5634: 5211: 2467: 1992: 1672: 1668: 728:

group is looking for that beat, the second time through the tune they find it, they push it".

486: 5260:"The Basement Tapes Reid Miles Bob Dylan Genuine Photo Outtake Photo Shoot by Jim Linderman" 5103: 4776: 4738: 7785: 7768: 7576: 7380: 7340: 7215: 7001: 6741: 5993: 5947: 5926: 5800: 5716: 2589: 2166: 2083:

Barney Hoskyns describes "Heylin's objections the academic ones of a touchy Dylanologist:

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Top LPs & Tape chart, and reached number eight in the UK. It was acclaimed by critics.

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concluded that he "was saying there must be another way of life for the pop star, in which

395: 343: 8: 7533: 7522: 7504: 7201: 6007: 5779: 5730: 4658: 2393: 2351: 2294: 2114:..." Heylin has commented that Dylan seemed to "dismiss the work as unfinished therapy". 1952: 918: 883:

Reporting such as this whetted the appetites of Dylan fans. In July 1969, the first rock

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of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "I Shall Be Released" and "Down in the Flood" appeared on

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Rick Danko recalled that he, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson joined Robbie Robertson in

7754: 7663: 7544: 7486: 7087: 6962: 6804: 6414: 6186: 6168: 5849: 5842: 5765: 5600: 5472: 5410: 5123:"Bob Dylan: New Morning / The Basement Tapes / Before the Flood / Dylan & the Dead" 4652: 4648: 3961: 3823: 2736:: "Odds and Ends", "Clothes Line Saga", "Apple Suckling Tree" and "Goin' to Acapulco" ( 2676: 2594: 1935: 931: 889: 801: 5492:

Spencer, Ruth Albert (March 21, 1985). "Conversations with The Band: Richard Manuel".

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early 1968, while Griffin lists it among the songs Fraboni says were recorded in 1975.

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to describe Dylan as the most bootlegged artist in the history of the music industry.

7740: 7422: 7106: 6748: 6713: 6514: 5863: 5807: 5737: 5681: 5559: 5531: 5512: 5478: 5457: 5417: 5394: 5320: 5301: 5244: 5225: 5145: 5088: 5050: 5031: 5012: 4993: 4986: 4970: 4941: 4918: 4899: 4893: 4878: 4808: 4688: 4662: 4591: 4585: 4495: 4489: 3819: 3548: 2536: 2389: 2377: 2091:'Ain't No More Cane' may be included under false pretenses, but it is stirring stuff. 2001: 1907: 884: 823: 555: 534: 361:, which circulated widely in unofficial form, mounted a major stylistic challenge to 354: 321: 116: 5371: 2222: 1939:

hailed it as "one of the greatest albums in the history of American popular music."

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The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963–1965

6755: 6706: 6218: 5877: 5835: 5723: 5501: 4625: 2702: 2484: 2327: 2298: 1972: 1918: 1631: 1078: 583: 579: 529: 423: 401: 369: 349: 313: 298: 293: 152: 899:. One of those responsible for the bootleg, identified only as Patrick, talked to 7815: 7608: 7493: 7229: 7222: 7170: 5509: 5177: 2561: 2331: 1763: 1656: 1647:. The cover photograph for the 1975 album was taken by designer and photographer 1615: 830: 795: 571: 567: 443: 393:

By July 1966, Bob Dylan was at the peak of both creative and commercial success.

159: 5193: 2289:". A collection of blues and country music recorded in the 1920s and 1930s, the 7810: 7642: 7622: 7447: 7155: 7020: 6987: 6923: 6699: 5954: 4834: 4822: 4752: 2605: 2429: 2414: 2006: 1687: 1621: 1040: 863: 759: 673: 587: 463: 419: 407: 4754:"500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #335 The Basement Tapes [2020 List]" 4731:"500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #291 The Basement Tapes [2003 List]" 4712: 7919: 7805: 7726: 7712: 7594: 5221: 4853: 4772: 4242: 2693: 2441: 2422: 2363:

songbook. And its sound came as a shock to other rock musicians. As producer

2360: 2251: 2171: 1968: 1930: 815: 688: 642: 623: 575: 469: 378: 4827:"Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll: Getting back to rock's funky, essential essence" 2692:

Robertson is referring to "Banks of the Royal Canal (The Auld Triangle)" by

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was celebrating the birth of the hippie movement with a gaudy explosion of '

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collection—yet they are soaked in the same blocked confusion and turmoil as

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For a comprehensive list of the 1967 Basement Tapes session recordings, see

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Wenner, Jann (June 22, 1968). "Dylan's Basement Tape Should Be Released".

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The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down: The Best of the Band Live in Concert

6982: 6935: 6929: 5751: 2793:'The Basement Tapes', a classic double album of experimental roots rock." 2707: 2522: 2410: 2397: 2339: 2139:. 'Tears of Rage', for example, is an exact halfway house between, say, ' 955: 750: 692: 677: 563: 474: 103: 5241:

Like The Night: Bob Dylan and the Road to the Manchester Free Trade Hall

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now possesses a clarity that belies its humble and informal origins."

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a sense of alchemy, "and in the alchemy is an undiscovered country".

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photo shoot were included in the book accompanying the 2014 release

377:

was critically acclaimed upon release, reaching number seven on the

7820: 7479: 7129: 6957: 5856: 5168: 4849:"Bob Dylan's Complete, Legendary 'Basement Tapes' Will Be Released" 1726: 1660: 1644: 1607: 1587: 524: 317: 289: 225: 64: 5047:

Revolution In The Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Volume One: 1957–73

1643:

The art director/design consultant credited on the 1975 album was

5586: 809:—its release and popularity created demand for the official album 4915:

Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, The Band, and The Basement Tapes

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The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991

2495:

The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991

16:

This article is about the 1975 album. For the 2014 box set, see

6075:

Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings

6040:

Live 1961–2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances

1634: – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, backing vocals 943:

album, with backing by the Band, and the live Dylan–Band album

30:

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold § Journals and investigation

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The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969–1971)

3659:

insert liner notes for "Million Dollar Bash" (Columbia, 1985).

2508:

The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969–1971)

446:, had arranged a further 63 concerts across the US that year. 5528:

The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles & Albums

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Woodstock that they settled on calling themselves the Band (

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This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band

6388:

Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996–1997)

4967:

This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of The Band

2250:... they are no more likely to fade than Elvis Presley's ' 1925:

on June 26, 1975. The album peaked at number seven on the

6311:

Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall

5009:

Bob Dylan: A Life In Stolen Moments: Day by Day 1941–1995

3357:, p. 228. Capitals as printed in original interview. 2624:, was later remastered and issued as the four-CD bootleg 2593:; and "Ain't No Cane on the Brazos" recorded live at the 2409:

rueful but dashed with emotional potency. Countless acts—

2338:, Dylan was taking his potatoes down to be mashed. While 2305:

of the 1950s and the 1960s. Marcus suggests that Dylan's

1664: 558:', and you'd say, 'This is so beautiful! The expression!' 20:. For a full list of 1967 Basement Tapes recordings, see 4491:

The Songs He Didn't Write: Bob Dylan Under The Influence

653:... and he just said, 'Have you got any music for this?' 7430: