The Basement Tapes

[holyzombiejesus]

I've been listening to Bob Dylan a lot recently and today finally remedied the fact that I'd never heard The Basement Tapes. I'm playing it for the first time as I write and am struck by how shit some of it is. Some of it is fucking great too. Bessie Smith is playing now and it's so good and definitely makes up for the foul stench coming from the opening couple of tracks.

[grassbath]

I've never been a huge fan in honesty. They obviously represent a really important moment for Dylan as an artist, turning away from everything, writing any silly stoned old shite he wants and jamming out with nothing to prove, and an important historical document being essentially the first instance of the roots-rock that would become de rigeur in the latter half of the '60s. But yeah, the actual tunes on there I'd keep I could count on one hand.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

I got the six disc set when they released it a few years ago and about half of it is unbelievable drivel, half-arsed covers and half-written riffs and the other half is some of the best stuff he's ever done and certainly the most fun. 'I'm Not There', 'Sign on the Cross', 'One For the Road', 'Tears of Rage', 'I Shall Be Released', 'Million Dollar Bash', 'Clothes Line Saga', 'You Ain't Goin' Nowhere', 'Too Much of Nothing', 'Goin' to Acapulco', 'Nothing Was Delivered', 'Quinn the Eskimo', all great shit

[Ferris]

This chimes with my memory. Not bothered to revisit since my early 20s, but even back in my heyday as an evangelical Bob-fan, I was a bit uncomfortable about some of the turds on there.

Not that I'd ever admit it, of course. Lots of it is great.

[SteveDave]

I bought a 4 disc bootleg in the early 2000s and my excitement quickly waned.

I would add "Odds And Ends" and "All You Have To Do Is Dream" (not the Everly Brothers song) to Monsieur Verdoux's list.

[a duncandisorderly]

haven't listened to it for ages, but my feeling when I did was that it needed the sort of curation & editing that people have been afraid to offer dylan, with the notable exception of lanois.
more definitely isn't always more.

[Cuellar]

Lots of great moments, as MV has said. I'd add 'Lo and Behold', quite like the silliness of 'Apple Suckling Tree' too.

Also there was a girl at university called Tara Montgomery, and whenever I saw her I used to think of 'Tiny Montgomery' so I like that one too.

[Cuellar]

Oh, and 'Ruben Remus', and 'Ain't No More Cane'.

Actually there are loads of good songs on this. It is a good album.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

slap that drummer with a pie that smells

[DukeDeMondo]

How are folks finding the new instalment in The Bootleg Series? First disc covers John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline, mostly, and then there's a disc and a bit devoted to some fooling around and figuring other out with Johnny Cash that's absolutely delightful to hear and throws up some really fucking beautiful takes. The version of "I Still Miss Someone" that opens that disc just had me beaming from tits to tonsils. Third disc tosses in a couple Cash-related outtakes from Self Portrait too, ones that didn't make the astonishing Another Self Portrait set.

I absolutely love it, but the first disc is the only one I can imagine playing over and over, and to be honest the takes on that don't sound all that different to the ones that ended up on the parent albums, give or take a couple notable exceptions.

I haven't fully taken the third disc into myself yet, but what I have heard has veered between the fun but inessential and the absolutely phenomenal.

So, loving it. It's not at all revelatory in the way the Gospel set was, it won't replace the parent albums they way that one absolutely did, but then it's not £140 either.

One thing that sort of disappointed me was that the booklet - which is largely as good as you would expect - doesn't include a track by track breakdown, the way the booklets in most of the other sets did. I'd have liked that.

The booklet also pointed out how strange it is that everyone talks about how different Bob's voice sounds around the Nashville Skyline era. Bob never had a consistent "voice." The young Woody Guthrie aping fellow on the debut sounds nothing like the doom-drunk despairing howling Jeremiah of The Times They Are A Changing, who sounds nothing like his giggling corpsing cousin on Another Side Of... who sounds nothing like the speed-fried wild man of Subterranean Homesick Blues who sounds nothing like the stoned done slurring barely-in-key heavy-eyed somnambulist that wanders through Blonde On Blonde, etc etc etc.

I thought that was an interesting wee aside.

But. Beautiful stuff.

EDIT: The third disc is absolutely fucking wonderful. Wonderful, now. And even better once it gets to the Earl Scruggs stuff. It really demonstrates the extent of Bob's knowledge of the genre. Scruggs will just throw out a "how about we play such and such?" and Dylan launches right in.

I really love this set. And it does have a Basement Tapes sort of feel to it here and there, to sort of connect with the OP.

I never got the full massive big box of The Basement Tapes. I couldn't afford it. I have the bootlegs and I honestly think there's very little shit in there. I might ask for the box for Christmas. If it's still available.

[DukeDeMondo]

My hints paid off, my wife bought me the Complete Basement Tapes for Christmas. Aw Jesus Christ I love it.

I've just made my way onto disc five, was up to the eyeballs in disc four for a while there, the one with no less than three versions of the utterly fucking beautiful "Tears Of Rage," two of "Quinn The Eskimo" (a song I never really liked and still don't) and three of the masterful "Nothing Was Delivered." Yes the first couple discs have some silly old nonsense on them, but the experience of listening to them figuring other out and inspiring other and pulling this song now that no wait I wrote one, well so did I... Aw fuck me. Like I've done with all of the Bootleg Series releases, I've spent a lot of time with the packaging and a lot more time with each disc before moving on. I've had bootlegs and half-officials and all the rest  and I had the official album but this is something else. Inspiring beyond belief.

I fucking love it, love it to bits. A huge, sprawling tapestry of false starts, abandoned songs,, multiple takes, chest-puffing and writing a bunch of songs that are as good as any songs that anyone has ever written.

Too many highlights to mention (so far). Some original songs, some traditional. "Young But Daily Growing," "Be Careful Of Stones That You Throw," "The Hills Of Mexico," "I Shall Be Released" (take two), "I'm Not There," "A Fool Such As I,""Big River" (Take Two). "The Auld Triangle," for fuck sake!! Dylan singing Behan! Whover heard of the like of it. "This Wheel's On Fire." Christ

"Santa Fe" has been a favourite since I first heard it on The Bootleg Series I-III. It still is.

But. Little point listing every track I love, I'd be listing most of each disc. I spent weeks upon weeks with the Trouble No More set and still throw certain discs on regularly,  I'd imagine it's gonna be a similar sort of deal with this.

So it's a "not shit" from me.

[DukeDeMondo]

I've found myself with a lot of time on my hands and I'm unfit for very much of note, so I've been thinking about how you might go about editing the individual discs of the Basement Tapes. I mean sometimes I just want to listen to the whole disc, whichever disc it is, however silly it gets, but other times I prefer to hear it like this.

I dunno why I've started with Disc 5. Probably because it's my favourite and the one I listen to most.

Here's what I'd do to sharpen it up. Keeper unless there's some strikethrough going on. Ones in bold are proper all time favourites.

Blowing In The Wind (I don't hate this or anything, it just doesn't do very much for me, sounds like what it is: a not very excitingly arranged plod through a classic Dylan song. Maybe at half the length I would dig it some, but near seven minutes of this is nothing I can really be bothered with.)

One Too Many Mornings (My favourite of all of the various takes on classic Dylan tunes that pepper the sessions. Absolutely beautiful.)

A Satisfied Mind

It Ain't Me Babe

Ain't No More Cane (Again, one of my favourite tracks across the whole thing)

Ain't No More Cane (Alternate Version) (take two)

My Woman She's A-Leaving

Sant-Fe

Mary-Lou, I Love You Too

Dress It Up, Better Have It All

Minstrel Boy (I know it's only tiny but I find it incredibly evocative and haunted sort of sounding and all the more so for its brevity)

Silent Weekend (The best of the barroom batter about sorts of tunes on this disc by far, I think)

What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up? (One of the worst tracks across the whole shebang, for my money, but then it's just a bit of arsing about, really, isn't it?)

900 Miles From Home

Wildwood Flower (I'm not sure really how spectacular this is in and of itself but the autoharp really lifts it, turns up into something if not especially "special," then at least novel in the context of the Tapes in their entirety.)

One Kind Favour (This take on See That My Grave Is Kept Clean is properly tipping into John Wesley Harding / New Morning territory. More autoharp on the go, although more sparingly used here. Probably whole load of bother pulling it out from under the stairs, probably figured they might as well keep using it, and here we are.)

She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain (I love that they recorded this, I love that it's here, but, well. I mean come on.)

It's The Flight Of The Bumblebee  (As above. Almost salvaged by the delivery of the last "scratching still!," which makes me laugh, but only almost.)

Wild Wolf (Another that sounds like a New Moring outtake, albeit in a scratchy, lo-fi, ears up to the speakers now sort of way. Real sense of rumbling
sort of menace to this, intentional or otherwise.)

Going To Acapulco (One of my favourite Dylan songs of all the different Dylan songs that there are. First heard it on Bootleg Series I-III and it blew my boots backways then and I still adore it. It's not show offy or anything, nobody's ever going to mistake if for "Gates of Eden," but it's just absolutely fucking joyous and the harmonies are sublime. The delivery on "it's a wicked life / But what the Hell?" is one of my favourite bits of Dylan vocal performance ever. The version in I'm Not There is lovely an' all, but this is where it's at for me.)

Gonna Get You Now

If I Were A Carpenter

Confidential

All You Have To Do Is Dream (Take 1)

All You Have To Do Is Dream (Take 2) (The keeper of the two takes of this, obviously. Far tighter, far more compelling. Properly soars.)


What the fuck use any of this is to anyone I don't know.

[Monsieur Verdoux]

The cover of Blowin' in the Wind is a bit lethargic, but the cover of People Get Ready on there is unexpectedly quite lovely