The Band – The Basement Tapes

The boots are better. this has been tampered with so...

7 years later, Dylan gives all the rejected characters from The Doors’ Strange Days photo shoot another shot at album cover immortality.

In which Dylan and the Band catch up with the characters of Old Weird America.

This is a beautiful Bob Dylan album and to me maybe his the best. The atmosphere in the room you can feel and it helps very much. I love how the album is recorded and I think it sounds beautifully. it is not recorded in Rudy Van Gelders studio, but it is naturally beautiful sound and ambient. Is you can se I really love this album, pressing, recording and the sound. I have heard editions from Holland and England too, and they sound good as well.

Does anyone know which pressings of this record aren't auto-coupled? Are there any older pressings without auto-coupling? Or only the newer ones?

Has anyone seen this before? Looks really intriguing and isn't listed here http://www.ebay.com/itm/bob-dylan-the-basement-tapes-promo-reel-to-reel-new-2014-/152192687516?hash=item236f641d9c:g:MwIAAOSwbsBXmVx1

“The Basement Tapes” were rumored to exist for almost ten years, occasionally a song, or a bootleg would surface to this notion, but in reality most people thought they were just another of the many mysteries that surround Dylan ... but rumors persisted. We now know that these tapes made in the basement of the house know as Big Pink, in Woodstock, New York, just west of Saugerties, at 2188 Stroll Road [and in 1992 when I was there, the house was still pink] the rented home of The Band and were the working models for both Dylan’s release of “John Wesley Harding,” and The Band’s outstanding outing “Big Pink.”

This music, this music that celebrated Americana, was one hundred and eighty degrees from the contemporary music of the time which was of a psychedelic nature. There was nothing surreal about these songs, as was the nature of “Blonde On Blonde,” the sound was stripped down, straight forward and ed Bob’s need for the simpler things as he was recovering from his motorcycle accident. Bob would go over to the house every day, it was a very relaxed atmosphere, flush with ease and grace ... everyone was just bouncing ideas off each other, hence the incompleteness of so many of the numbers found here. I suggest that you read “Across The Great Divide” the story of The Band to get a really good feel for these times. Even the cover has a down home subterranean Sgt. Pepper feel to it, that ceases to bring a smile to my face

In any event there are some really fine numbers and the sheer volume will keep you going back for more. I know that each time I play these discs I find something that I had missed on the last listen. This is a sound body of work, one that should not be dismissed as it centers around both Bob Dylan and The Band, so if you are a fan of either or both you will want this release. As a turning point in American music “The Basement Tapes” can not be avoided ... everything changed as a result of these numbers, songs by everyone became more real, and by that I’m not speaking of the the late 1950’s early 1960’s versions of reality and love, this was the real thing, the core, the smile, the holding of your breath because this is the truth.

I don’t play this album often, it’s like the hundred dollar bill I have tucked in the brim of my cowgirl hat, I just have this sense of peace knowing it’s there ... same with this release, I' happy just knowing it’s part of my collection.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Yes, this is one of the least essential Dylan albums, as digale1974 pointed out. I t has been superseded by an allegedly complete 6 CD set in the Bootleg Series, so you need that instead, now. This Basement Tapes album was messed around somewhat by the producer. However, the 2009 remix and remaster is said to have righted those errors, and will probably make an interesting, if inessential, companion to the 6 CD set.

This is one of the least essential Dylan albums. There are a couple of OK tunes but this was never meant to be an album in the first place. I do like the fact that at the time that most of this was recorded in 1967 Dylan had for the second time in his career stopped moving in the direction everyone expected and wanted him to move in. As everyone else was emulating Sgt Pepper or immersing themselves in psychedelia, Dylan made John Wesley Harding which is the antithesis of Sgt pepper, and these recordings were made. He'd had a bad motorbike crash and by now had two kids too, he had changed. In the words from Maggie's Farm "I try my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them"...Ain't that the truth Bob