I highly recommend the book "Million Dollar Bash" by Sid Griffin ( Revised edition). It is the best book on the track by track of Basement tapes Sessions including the sessions by The Band alone as well as just the sessions/lives etc of the people involved.
I’m happy you guys covered this before JWH. this was actually a section of Bob’s career that I didn’t appreciate enough until fairly recently. I love hearing how much fun the guys were having on these recordings. it’s nice to hear something loose and fun and sometimes goofy after such an intense period. love it.
Another great episode. Right now this is the best thing on the channel. I wonder if Joe's feeling that The Band's contributions are more appealing may be the result of Robbie Robertson being the compiler. And The Band taking the time to overdub or possibly re-record some of their material. It does give their contributions more immediacy. Having said that, even as a Bob fan, there is no shame in thinking Music From Big Pink or The Band s/t are better than anything in Dylan's catalog. They are that good. What is wild is that for all the people who covered Basement Tapes songs, and even Bob revisiting some in the early 70s, when Bob slipped out of the Catskills to record John Wesley Harding he had a dozen new songs. None of which were from the 100s of Basement Tapes recordings. I would suggest if the Bible is a source for John Wesley Harding it is the old testament Bible. Unforgiving and brutal. if you like reading about music I would recommend Sid Griffin (ex-Long Ryders) track by track analysis, Million Dollar Bash, Bob Dylan, The Band and the Basement Tapes. And Greil Marcus' Invisible Republic (Retitled, The Old Weird America) where he puts the songs recorded in their musical and historical context. Thanks again for a great episode. PS - Pete Drake on pedal steel, not the wonderful Nick Drake
Agree, but how is just the Old Testament brutal and unforgiving. The New is worse. Jesus wants to send moral nonbelievers and billions to everlasting hell for being unable to believe in him or wisely skeptical of his godly powers.
@@oppothumbs1 I am more in my comfort zone discussing Dylan and The Band. But I would suggest the dilemma you bring from the new testament is philosophical in nature. And not scary to a non-believer as a non-existent god can't hurt them and believers don't think it will be them as they believe. While the old testament god deals with lot's wife, Abraham, Egypt, the great flood etc. like a vindictive, jealous, and cantankerous god-child like the Enterprise would encounter in early Star Trek. Far more brutal and unforgiving. The Jesus of the new testament preaches forgiveness. But do take anything I say on the subject with a grain of salt (maybe from Lot's wife). I would direct you to the likes of Dan McClellan for a real answer.
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 Thank you for your reply. Of course, it is not scary to a nonbeliever, but it is to skeptics who just aren't sure, and the punches on the playground come fast (ask Neil Young) from society and bullies who can be brutal. It never happened to me because in real life I don't mention such stuff. I only mentioned it to see if I would be censured. There is so much AI and censorship going on these days, which serves as a sort of scary New-Newer Testament or third testament. I'm afraid you are wrong about the Old Testament vs. the New Testament. Eternal suffering in hell by billions is far worse than a lot of Lot. Just like Jeff Dahmer's kills were limited, though horrible, they didn't come close to Jesus' wishes if they were real and if he were real. And he never talked to Daddy to try to ease punishment a bit due to the almost certain fact that evolution, genetics, and environment give mankind limited free will or limited ability to believe in things that are probably not true at all. J's preaching forgiveness is a crock in a sense. It means nothing to me, a person who will be going to hell. One day others will read the whole Bible as I have and see the bad dogma on page after page. It doesn't take smarts, just logic. I still can't find a single person in the world who considers Jesus' wants a terrible thing - just one stump of a question. J may be listening, I guess, and that is a fear to some. And as you can suspect, I know there are well over a thousand other problems with the good books.
I find it interesting that you can hear the influence of The Basement Tapes on John Wesley Harding, the title track especially, as it borrows from their cover of the folk song 'I'm Nine Hundred Miles Away from Home'. Dylan is once again taking from folk songs and reinventing them. They obviously had records such as the Anthology of American Folk Music by Harry Smith and maybe some books with chord sheets in them, but it appears they were going from memory and passing on songs, so inevitably they would change. We have hindsight, but without knowing about The Basement Tapes, this must have felt somewhat out of left field, yet I still find it somewhat less inviting than The Basement Tapes.
John Wesley Harding is probably my favorite Dylan album. From a poetry standpoint, it is wonderful. I manage a poetry magazine, and this collection speaks to me like no other. "I Dreamed i Saw St Augustine" is my personal favorite Dylan track. Thank you! Great Series!
Great to have this series back! I love The Basement Tapes, and think it’s both tremendously entertaining and very important. A clear 5 stars yet again for me, and I just love the sound and laid back variety of it. Of the 24 tracks, 8 are by The Band…and most of those post-date the ‘67 sessions and have overdubs. But they are among my favourite Band stuff, particularly Ain’t No More Cain and Yazzo. But come on, Dylan is the undisputed star of this show. His humour throughout is infectious, and his singing on This Wheel’s on Fire and (particularly as your Dylan points out) Tears of Rage and Going to Acapulco is among the best, most effective in his whole career. I just think this is a fun, breezy, cool and accomplished set of recordings…particularly so as they were just done for fun, or to serve as publishing demos (Bob, with his injury of however serious, decided to do his demos in Woodstock rather than drive down to New York City to do his demos in his publisher’s office, as he had done before…and because his tour was cancelled due to the accident, kept “The Hawks” on his payroll and used them to help with the recording…that was the initial broad thinking, but it evolved from there into a type of song writing and recording workshop). It’s just great…but you gotta listen to The Complete Basement Tapes in the Bootleg Series to get the full, authentic power. But this stuff is great…and it’s great to have you both back to kick off this ongoing discussion in 2024! Thx and cheers, JPE
I hadn't heard most of these songs before. Seems like a very good album. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere Dylan wrote and sings it well. 9 Goin' to Acapulco Sweet song sung, fine swirling organ, a bit sad but "he's gonna have some fun" 9 Katie's Been Gone - Richard sings . Soulful. "Dear Katie, since ya caught that bus/ Well, I just don't know how things are with us". The Band sounds great. 9.5 This Wheel's On Fire- 9 Even better later by the Band. Open the Door, Homer - Vaguely inspired or just homage to a '40s recording but this is all Dylan's melody and lyrics. 9 Tiny Montgomery. Dylan sings it with imitation black vocals. The song has strangely spooky lyrics and sound. It reminded me of Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" with its dark country campfire feel to it, except that song appears to make sense w/o almost incomprehensible surreal lyrics. Big Bad John: "Every morning at the mine, you could see him arrive. He stood six-foot-six and weighed two-forty-five. Kinda was broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip. And everybody knew ya didn't give no lip to big John. Big John, big John. Big bad John, Big John. The end, after a heroic rescue, goes, "At the bottom of this mine lies a Big Big Man. Big Bad John". But in the case of Basement Tapes it's "Big Bad Tiny Montgomery" and he's just saying "Hello." 9 Tears of Rage 8 Bessie Smith 7 Solid. Feel a bit like a future Randy Newman. Ruben Remus - Richard Manuel's singing helps this song; Richard's vocals might help any song. Rick Danko on backup. I'm remembering how much I liked Danko singing on "What Difference Does It Make" in the Last Waltz. 7.8 Million Dollar Bash 7 Oo baby oo ee Lo and Behold! 6 A humorous lament. Made me smile when they sang looking for my "Lo and Behold". Folsom City Blues 5 Not into Johnny Cash's song and less so into this.
Thanks so much for this series... What a unique album. Recording 150 songs in a few months and writing most of them as well, after going through all kinds of personal stuff, not many bands would come up with stuff of this quality, would they? One Band member, forgotten who, said that it was Dylan would go outside and find a song under a rock and come back in with it. How else would one come up with something like Clothes Line Saga -- WTF? "The Vice President has gone mad/ Where?/ Downtown/ When?/ Last night/ Well, that's too bad." No one can write like that. Goin' to Acapulco is an all time favourite of mine, and I honestly didn't realise it was Dylan singing it until Dylan S said it was... I even just checked, and yep, that's him. Maybe he learned how to sing from one of them.... I love that song so much, and have listened to it so often, that I'm a bit embarrassed at not having realised it was Dylan and not one of The Band singing it! I knew someone in the 1980s who was always playing You Aint Goin Nowhere on guitar and singing it in a very sentimental way that I absolutely hated. I never heard the original tilla couple of decades later, and fell off my chair laughing. I had no idea how funny it was, the way Dylan sings it.
I'm in that section of the Dylan fandom that thinks BTs is GOAT. It took me about half dozen listens to get it, but it has been my fav album ever for about 15 - 20 years. When the Complete BTs was released it was a further revelation - so many other originals (Im Not There, Sign On The Cross) and covers. Just 5 or 6 guys jamming and recording masterpieces. Think of all Dylan had already accomplished in the 60s and now this... Mysterious, surreal, profund, funny, and of course highly influential.
Goin’ to Acapulco is also my favorite of the Dylan led tracks. my favorite of the Band led tracks is Katie’s Been Gone. not sure how popular that latter pick is but I love it.
Part 2. For me what makes this a great compilation is the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. I hate to use the word but BT is pure Americana. There is a subtextual river that ties these seemingly disparate pieces together and that is the perpetual journey. Dylan always displayed a restlessness and rootlessness of place leading up to these sessions and his supreme skills as a songwriter are not just in his "poetic lyrics" but that primarily he is a storyteller, who weaves deeply original narrative devices and spellbinding unfolding of stories to achieve his aims. (Listen to "Who Killed Davey Moore) Desolation Row is a peak example. Dylan said that much of his career involved his relationship to America. But aside from this extraordinary gift of viewpoint and lyrical genius lies something more than just a troubadour. Dylan, when not being a savage, ruthless, social critic, or romantic with women, is infused with a deeply American raconteur nature and a picaresque sentiment. Subterranean Homesick Blues, Dylan's 115th dream, Absolutely Sweet Marie, Maggie's Farm and dozens of others carry this spirit. The unconventional edge is completely embraced ("to live outside the law you must be honest). On BT Dylan leaves social criticism behind and the sessions are like Picaresque episodes, montages, but not dishonest, just mischievous. The humor is constant, Chaplinesque. (One could argue Dylan is as original and impactful in genius as Chaplin). There is no real place, yet the sense of travel, of people of places is ever present. So we get flung from Mrs. Henry to Tiny Montgomery to Quinn the Eskimo, to Crash on the Levee, to Acapulco to Lo and Behold to the Million Dollar Bash. All infected with a distinct American folk, blues and sometimes country style. So we are on this rambling river of vignettes. But if this was all it contained, it would not be great. Interspersed are powerful songs that go deep, from the Biblical; "I shall Be Released" to the intense "Wheels on Fire" (which could have come out of Poe), to "Tears of Rage" and "Nothing Was Delivered" to the relaxed "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" to the understated "Too Much of Nothing". There are many others. When one puts these contrasting styles, arrangements, points of emphasis, sense of personal freedom, exploration, sense of movement, humor, yet deep contemplation of soul, one finds something remarkable, like being in a Mark Twain novel. The feeling of it all is palpable. Somehow there is a synthesis, a coherence to the whole thing. For me all these elements come out in truly mature fashion on Blood on the Tracks, especially the great "Tangled Up in Blue". Many people have claimed this is "the greatest album that never was" and we are truly fortunate to have its distillations and that it was so popular in underground form, Columbia was forced to release it. Top tier. "A" A classic in its own right. Even when fooling around, with Dylan, the sparks flew.
Nothing could make me care about Bob Dylan more than I already do. Which is not a lot outside of some songs. But. Dylan Sevey’s fresh haircut for the new Bob Dylan arc is really nice. 👍
I usually prefer the more famous reinterpretations to the Dylan originals, but weirdly, I feel like the Basement Tapes version of "This Wheel's on Fire" does more justice to the song than the Big Pink version. 1) Why does the Band play theirs so fast? Did one of the guys have a wedding to get to afterwards? I think the slower tempo of the Basement Tapes version emphasizes the song's ghoulish, sinister quality. 2) What the hell is Garth Hudson playing? Wikipedia tells me it's a "Rocksichord through a telegraph key." Not sure that was the best choice, is all I'm saying. I'm sure the goths out there are partial to the Siouxsie & the Banshees version, and I also really like the Byrds' fuzztone, harder rocking version, but my other favorite version is probably Ian & Sylvia's country-rock version. But the Basement Tapes recording just has a certain creepy-crawly unease in its veins.
I think this conversation demonstrates how much of Dylan and what he is/was about Joe just doesn't get, and can't get. There is no right or wrong here but Joe's predilection and gravitation for sound, which is who he is or a great part of him, has him miss Dylan's essence and why he was so powerful, even compelling to the point of obsession. Joe, when someone is a generational genius, like Picasso, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. If lyrics and groundbreaking intensity that define an entire country's feelings on issues and personal relationship to them, creating literally genres and undreamed of possibilities for other artists in his wake don't interest you, then you can't get it. Dave Van Ronk, no slouch in the village folk scene, heard "Hard Rain" and was so stunned he walked for hours in a daze at what he had just been exposed to. Leonard Cohen heard it, stunned him as well, and it spurred him to write songs. There literally was a higher order consciousness coming through Dylan that people felt was prophetic, throwing open the curtain on the depth of the society. Bob Dylan carried the energy of a modern day Jeremiah and people felt it. Now eventually, for a while it burned him out and he had to get away. He probably had not bargained for it. But when you express exasperation at people treating him like a "deity", you miss the point. It wasn't him personally, it's what came through him. When he produced crap, people knew it. ("What is this s*** wrote Greil Marcus for Rolling Stone about Self Portriat.) When Ginsberg said he was like a Shaman, "one with his breath" he wasn't kidding. If you see the snippet of "It's All Right Ma" in Don't Look Back, the audience is having a religious experience and in the car afterwards Dylan can feel it in the afterglow. He picks up a paper and they call him an *Anarchist*. THAT'S how strong his impact was. (He can't believe it and says "Give the Anarchist a cigarette.") I think the Beatles, and certainly Elvis had this to a degree also, but in a more musical form. I first heard the Basement Tapes in its original form as the bootleg "The Great White Wonder" in 1970. I was stunned by it and enraptured because it emitted a *feeling* all throughout the album. I wasn't enveloped or enchanted with it because "it's Dylan, he's a God, I have to like it." No there was something organic and authentic for me that went down to my toes. As opposed to, Joe, I liked the formal "full" songs (Tears of Rage, I Shall be Released, Wheels on Fire, etc- which I have come to appreciate more) less than the funky , jiving, more bluesy tidbits (Million Dollar Bash, Tiny Montgomery,, Please Mrs. Henry, Quinn the Eskimo, etc). Since these songs are not that lyrically adept or even close to what we would expect from Dylan, something else is at work. I have Marcus' book on this , have not read it, but suspect he is on a similar wave length. Now as a mature adult I can put it into words.(Getting tired, is late will finish tomorrow.)
I think my problem with Dylan is I don’t have an obsessive nature where as many people were looking for some kind of messianic figure to hold over others. And a lot of Dylan fans have this same attitude towards him. Listen, he’s great, inspired a lot of artists, but let’s not lose our minds. - Joe
@@TastesLikeMusic Thanks for responding. I think you are over generalizing. I think there is a spectrum. Yes a fairly significant number become like AJ Weberman and end up going through Dylan's garbage (If they had a chance). But a lot more had the guy have this incredible impact on their lives and he expressed himself at his height in amazingly non conventional ways. Although he is a popular artist, he is taught at Universities and won the Nobel prize. Now that's mostly because of lyrics but how many artists get that? And let's be honest. For a time he WAS messianic. I don't think he intended that but it flowed out of him. As was said "He wanted to be Elvis Presley, he never thought he would be Jesus Christ". (Lennon bragged the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus.") Now that's a little much but there is truth to that. Even as Dylan changed forms to rock for personal growth to get AWAY from being a poster boy (It ain't me babe) his art got BETTER and the power got personally greater. So I agree people wanted too much from him. But as I will write in finishing the BT comment, even when I wasn't looking for it, had no knowledge or expectation, the bootleg had a remarkable impact. I came to Dylan late for the era. Because of how shut down I was because of childhood trauma, I could not relate to R and R because of music and the beat. Because the lyrics were so insipid. But I was missing the entire point, the beat, the experience. It was Dylan because of lyrical complexity and meaning, and others who followed him in that era that I became able to open to the music. In 1970 I heard Blonde on Blonde for the first time. Dylan was personalizing the political, really going interior. I started with side two with the jaunty yet haunting, "I want you". Then came on "Stuck Inside of Mobile". The fifth verse came "Now the senator came down here Showing ev’ryone his gun Handing out free tickets To the wedding of his son An’ me, I nearly got busted An’ wouldn’t it be my luck To get caught without a ticket And be discovered beneath a truck Oh, Mama, can this really be the end To be stuck inside of Mobile With the Memphis blues again" I was with a younger couple and I burst into tears, sobbing. The guy looked at me and said, "you really look like you know what he is talking about"? I damn sure did. That song reached right to the center of my heart as he articulated EXACTLY what I was going through, the war, (which hung over every young mans head- I was in the first lottery- 113 when they were drafting to 250).my family, society, an incredible sense of abandonment. Later I actually was on the run. For those of us who were aware, were impacted by and had fury toward America, Dylan gave voice in unimaginable ways to those feelings. Who else was doing that? The Beatles? Eleanor Rigby? (which is a really high level song) Wooden Ships. Really? And the guy did it over and over and over again, over a stretch of about 6 albums, ascending ever more as he went. I can understand when it's not your wheelhouse. For a long time I never got the Beatles. Until in college I started smoking pot and Sgt Pepper came out. We had this little record player with two detachable speakers and I would lie with my head between them. THEN I got the Beatles. (Actually I saw Help in the movies in 1965, the songs filled the theater like a Cathedral but, I never bought their records) What they had done was like nothing I had ever heard. In 1965 Sound of Silence (electric version) was all over the radio and even on a transistor, the sound was immense and was so unlike so much before it. My point is for many people, Dylan, like the Beatles was beyond just a touchstone. As most of us matured there was a realization the guy was human but he had so tapped into something immense. Dylan is one of the most important artists, and lyrically by far the most important artist in popular culture post 1960. The reason people spend so much time with him is because of this personal impact and because of his innovation and depth. (It was said of him rather early on, "He wasn't just a folk singer, it was like he was a compendium of every folk singer who ever lived in one person".) Some people channel the collective voice. Elvis did that. If some people deify him, how does that impact you? For many periods I hated his stuff, Self Portrait, New Morning, Planet Waves, you name it and God help us the Evangelical period. Then the guy comes out with All Along the Watchtower, Knockin' on Heaven's Door and the phenomenal Blood on the Tracks. I am not as enamored of his post 90's stuff but he has done some really, really good songs, songs like Thunder on the Mountain, Not Dark Yet, Mississippi, songs that would make a really established career but most do not compare to his peak. I do think and have said because you gravitate toward music and sound rather than lyrics (62 songs without a bridge, I could care less, but it matters to you), it's hard to fathom the intensity of feeling toward him. (My mother ADORED Sinatra, he was on in the house all day, every day, until he supported Reagan, then she threw out all his records.) On BT you immediately gravitated to the Band and songs-arrangements, missing the ethos of Dylan's energy. I will explain in part II of my comment on the sessions what that meant for me and how it hit me. How could a guy sing songs with so little content, yet infuse them with remarkable feeling? What well was he drawing from? Thank you for your time in this. I like what your channel and especially what these videos with Dylan Sevey are doing. And I commend you. It probably has not been the easiest thing to put yourself out like this.
The Basement Tapes album from 1975 is fine for me, but I feel like the Complete Bootleg Series version helped me appreciate the recordings far more. The songs are short and sweet for the most part, so if you don't like one, there's sure to be one you like soon after. Songs like Santa Fe, Mary Lou I Love You Too, and Sign on the Cross are beautiful and warm, and they really should have been on the album proper. Plus, Dylan and The Band's version of One Too Many Mornings is the definitive version of that song for me. As for the album itself, I do love The Band on Ain't No More Cane, and Dylan sounds great on Goin' to Acapulco. Nothing was Delivered and especially You Ain't Goin' Nowhere are among my favorite songs by The Byrds, so I don't care for these versions as much, but they're still interesting. Great video!
Welcome back! I could definitely stand to revisit The Basement Tapes, I've only heard it the whole way through once. I enjoyed it a lot though especially as big fan of The Band. It was cool to hear many of these songs in their early form. It was really great to hear some more background on the album here, I knew the story from a basic standpoint but always cool to hear a little more. Great discussion, as always.
Great episode as usual. I was never much of a fan of the official Basement Tapes release. It had all of this mythology around it, and then when I heard it, it just sounded like a bunch of guys goofing around. I rarely returned to it, and always wondered why some folks held it in such high regard. When Volume 11 of the Bootleg Series was released, I got the 2 CD version thinking that would be more than enough for me. But then listening to that set, it finally clicked for me. I still don’t think it is the best of the best in Dylan’s catalogue, but I get it now. I get why it is significant, and I get that it served as a springboard for so much of what came after…for Dylan and for much of popular music. I ended up getting the Complete Basement Tapes version of that installment of The Bootleg Series in the end, which I never would have thought I would do. A lot of really cool stuff sprinkled throughout that collection. Just the whole loose experimentation of it all, and reading about the work days at Big Pink in Robbie Robertson’s book makes it sound very much like the musical clubhouse that we all imagine it was. It was like they were a real life roots rock version of The Monkees. Hanging out, quickly recording whatever came into their heads, and wrecking a lot of cars. And family man Dylan, living out in Woodstock, is so much more human and relatable than the zonked out, shades wearing rock star from a few years earlier. That guy was untouchable, but the guy hanging out and making music with his friends in the basement? That’s an attainable dream.
Think Joe is starting to get "his Bobness" in these videos and all the myth and lore that goes along with the great music. Guy literally does whatever he wants and doesn't stick in any lane that anyone wants for him. That's part of why I love him so much.
I listened to the Basement Tapes some years ago and then never again, I remember them mostly for giving me the „Quinn The Eskimo is from Bob Dylan?!“ moment.
it's not the music so much, it's the lyrics that has made him so important, like 80/20 lyrics, without that poetry he'd be pretty much like a lot of others, his music was never groundbreaking, forget his voice, it's the fact that he opened up everything for everybody--History will show him to be one of the most important artists of his time, probably the most important
I'm glad you went with this one rather than "Harding" - it's more historically consistent. I don't think of the "Basement Tapes" as an album per se. It's a bunch of demo tapes that give you an interesting look into the creative processes of this particular batch of artists. That's pretty fascinating on its own. They catch little bits of lightning here and there, but as a whole it's too unpolished to be compared fairly to the more refined stuff. I've always liked it, though - warts, and grime, and all. It's just a funky little demo tape collection and it should be cherished.
Basement Tapes is not my go-to record when it comes to Dylan. I like it, but very seldom reach for it. I think I am with Joe that I prefer The Band songs on here (especially Bessie Smith and Ain't No More Cane, which I love), but there are great Dylan tracka here as well, like Going to Acapulco. I also like some of the fun songs, especially Lo and Behold. I think it was the right time to cover this now, although that means I have to wait longer to hear what Joe thinks about my beloved John Wesley Harding (5 star album in my book). By the way, I fear Joe won't like JWH.
On a side note, you guys both spoke of Danko and Manuel in tandem; maybe I've missed it, but I haven't heard Drive-By Truckers mentioned much on TLM. I really like The Basement Tapes; partly, at least, that as I've gotten older, I do dig that spontaneous combustion thing. To have been a fly on the wall, riding this particular timeline in music; how cool would that have been? Great upload.
this is Dylans first album with someone singing harmonies with him.... thats a big deal... just like when he finally starts using bridges.... I think his singing is great here... clear tone... higher register... im guessing he's inspired by the bad ass vocalists of the Band.... unlike Joe however, I find myself skipping the band songs here and only listening to Dylans.... when TLM started this Dylan trek, I was completely blown away by the energy and persona in the first album... and have kept finding my self looking for that in his many subsequ3ent albums ... with the pinnacle being SubHomesickBlues... with basement tapes I think Dylan does link back up with some of that early youthful energy ...
My feelings towards The Basement Tapes as an album are quite different from my feelings about the sessions as a whole and the songs produced. I don’t particularly go back to the 1975 album much because I don’t think it’s well sequenced and it’s missing too many essential tracks from the Basement Tapes sessions. If Joe has not heard them, he should immediately check out some additional tracks from The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes “Raw”. I think these songs are in fact significantly better and more interesting than a lot of the stuff that ends up on the 1975 album. Check these out: Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) Minstrel Boy I’m Not There I’m Alright All You Have To Do Is Dream Sign on the Cross
Another great episode, guys. Personally, I don't think the Band tracks belong on the album at all. Although I'm not coming in hard, Clinton Heylin-like, about this aspect of the record, I always felt like their tunes ruined the flow of it. I agree with Dylan, some great Bob vocals on here... Tears Of Rage and Goin' To Acapulco, in particular, are two of his best. And I love the sillier surreal tracks too.
oops I then purchased the debut Band album which I enjoyed very much. I didn't have a large Dylan bootleg collection other than "the Great White Wonder". The basement tapes were therefore not part of my collection and only now an enjoyable part of his/their discography.
Difficult to assess The Basement tapes as a album as some of the most famous songs (The Mighty Quinn. I Shall Be Released) were not included on the 1975 release. Other fine songs (like "Sign On the Cross" "I'm Not There") were also missing. That withstanding there's some great stuff full of humour and mystery . I think Dylan's versions of "This Wheels On Fire" and " Tears Of Range" are the definitive .So many great ones here not forgetting " Too Much Of Nothing".
JWH is a very odd record. I love it but other than part of NS, to me, there’s nothing else quite occupying that space. Gonna be interesting to see Joe’s reaction to the direction
I don't like "Americana", at least if it don't have the anarchist and playful energy of the BT. I owned the record early when I was young, and I didn't dislike it, but didn't listen much to this, being fully absorbed by Blood on the Tracks, Planet Waves, Before the Flood, Desire. Greil Marcus made me listen to this, his book about the Basement Tapes is one of my top 5 favorite books. Decades later I now really like the music too, even finding "Clothes Line Saga" fascnating. "I Shall Be Released" has been the first song I ever have been forced to try to sing aloud with people being present (it didn't work well), but is such a great song. (I only knew it from "More Greatest Hits" then, which was a really important Dylan record for me, following - you guessed it - "Greatest Hits".)
I honestly love more or less every track on this record. I don’t really care that it’s not a proper album. The mixture of vocals and song styles is great. It’s one of my favourite summers day albums. Ruben Remus probably is the weakest track… but it does at least feature Richard Manuel’s incredible voice.
Honeslty prefer the version of Wheels on Fire from this. It’s a bit slower, darker, and Dylan gives it a grit and intimacy that isn’t present on the version from Big Pink. Tears of Rain could go either way for me depending on my mood, but I’ll give it to The Band.
My theory, with the motorcycle occident Bob had an epiphany about the life he had been leading, it's in "Eat The Document" for all to see, so he decided to stop, leave, and hibernate with his wife and children and relax by hanging out with his buddies in a basement throwing words out there to see what sticks, stuff they know will never get out for public to hear.
Yes! It’s not an album (to me, anyway) -it’s a collection of demos + the good times around the making of the music, doing covers, etc. I think far superior to the 1975 “the Basement Tapes” is the bootleg series ‘basement tapes’ - 5 or so discs, some EXCELLENT stuff not included on the ‘75 version (“I’m not there” “I Shall Be Released”)
It's unlistenable as a production, but it's a bootleg and some of the writing is interesting and some of the writing is great. It's all wonderfully new and creative and a welcome respite from the last album. Garth's keyboards are cool when you can hear them. My favorites are I'm Not There (1956) and the covers Banks of the Royal Canal, People Get Ready, and many which you mention.
Call me crazy, but I’ll take the BT version of Tears of Rage over The Band’s. Open the Door Homer and Too much of Nothing are two of my favorite Dylan songs. And Goin to Acapulco is amazing. It’s a 5 star record for me, I actually prefer it to BoB. The next album now… oh boy, can’t wait😊
@@TastesLikeMusic I strongly prefer Gene’s version on White Light to the Band’s as well. But Dylan’s on this album with Manuel singing harmony to Dylan’s lead is still my favorite
I've never been too into this one. I respect and admire the nature of hearing well-established artists going WAY back to their roots and thereby influencing country-rock and Americana for decades to come, but the songs themselves don't appeal that much to me, nor does the shitty sound quality. I guess you had to be there, huh?
You touched on this…but the 1975 release is not really the Basement Tapes! The BAND stuff is almost all from later and as you said LEVON HELM was not there yet in the 1967 main Basement Tapes. The real “BASEMENT TAPES “ is what came out later although you pointed that out the DYLAN material from the 75 release are from the BASEMENT….a couple of his songs may have been sweetened instrumentally. YAZOO STREET I think is a BIG PINK outake, along with a few others. To me DYLAN really did not stick with this sound..he went to Nashville to do John Wesley Harding , most of that record is minimalist , no keyboards really. I do love the 1975 record but it’s kind of mislabeled…as the Basement Tapes…
🎉 congrats Joe for almost saying what he really feels about this album. It’s basically a bunch of demos. I don’t like any of these songs on here as much as I like a couple songs on the bands last album islands. Just saying. I am joepinionated.
I could do without The Band studio recordings. And maybe one LP would have been enough. Favs... Silent Weekend All You Have to do is Dream (Take 2) This Wheel's on Fire Quinn the Eskimo (Take 2) You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Take 2) I'm Not There I Shall be Released (Take 2) Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood) Tears Of Rage
I will have to disagree with Joe like the band but bob a class above sorry Joe I one of those who think bobs versions of his song a better than cover maybe a couple of then better not many
I’m sorry you feel that way. Frankly I don’t think it’s even close. Bob simply doesn’t do them justice. This is probably why I dislike Bob for so long… too many people turning him into a deity. - Joe
@TastesLikeMusic we will have to disagree on bob love his music and his voice I couldn't change your mind you couldn't change mine so we will just disagree like the channel though
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for you, Joe) I don’t think you can be a true Dylan fan and not LOVE The Basement Tapes. Yes, some or most of The Band tracks are from other sources (Yazoo Street Scandal is a bonus track on a cd I have for Big Pink), yes it sounds like crap, and yes lots of other people covered some of these songs. But The Basement Tapes are the holy grail of weird, underground (literally) American roots music. Think about it-at the same time The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper, Bob and The Band were making the other masterpiece of 1967. Like Pepper, it was a record of far reaching influence. The fact that (some) of the tracks weren’t even officially released until 1975 doesn’t matter. The hip people knew what was going on. Dylan was and is the Picasso of popular music. So I guess you’re just not hip. Sorry.
@darthseamus8833 You can proclaim your love for an artist and their impact without being salty. 1967 was a year filled with groundbreaking albums, each prompting their own influential trajectory.
@@michelewiese48 Perhaps I went too far…I love The Who Sell Out and the first albums by Hendrix and The Doors as well. Being passionate about music can make us go a little crazy. But I don’t agree with Pitchfork’s absurd placement of The Velvet Underground And Nico as the number one album of the 60’s. Please tell me you aren’t one of those people.
@@darthseamus8833I’m not one of those people, although if the entire album reached the heights of “Venus In Furs”, I might’ve been. The Doors is an important album for me. Thank you for taking my reply to you in stride. Music is a reflection of passion, after all. I resonate, love and appreciate Bob’s 60s work. He just speaks to me in the mid to late 70s with even more volume. I prefer the musical shift that was bubbling up in that time period for genres that are the closest to my heart: disco, electronic, punk and everything that followed. (And I need to give props to The Stooges and Roxy Music)
@@michelewiese48 I definitely think the 70’s in general was probably the best decade for popular music. All the bands left from the 60’s, plus Bowie, Elton, Neil Young, Bruce, Steely Dan, punk, new wave, disco…I guess I was just trying to piss off Joe with my original comment.
Just the fact that we are attempting to critique this genius is very audacious. There’s shouldn’t be any question or debating b about the greatness of Bob Dylan. Some people just need time I guess.
Basically, the warrior by scandal. And the ultimate sin by ozzy os bourne. Are better albums than this. They are also better than any bob dylan album. they are both, generic and at the same time listenable. Therefore a little better than dylan's output. By the way , a shoutout to the warrior by scandal. It's underrated by everybody.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
I highly recommend the book "Million Dollar Bash" by Sid Griffin ( Revised edition). It is the best book on the track by track of Basement tapes Sessions including the sessions by The Band alone as well as just the sessions/lives etc of the people involved.
It's significant that the cover of Big Pink is contributed by Dylan. He's very much present in the music.
I’m happy you guys covered this before JWH. this was actually a section of Bob’s career that I didn’t appreciate enough until fairly recently. I love hearing how much fun the guys were having on these recordings. it’s nice to hear something loose and fun and sometimes goofy after such an intense period. love it.
Another great episode. Right now this is the best thing on the channel.
I wonder if Joe's feeling that The Band's contributions are more appealing may be the result of Robbie Robertson being the compiler. And The Band taking the time to overdub or possibly re-record some of their material. It does give their contributions more immediacy.
Having said that, even as a Bob fan, there is no shame in thinking Music From Big Pink or The Band s/t are better than anything in Dylan's catalog. They are that good.
What is wild is that for all the people who covered Basement Tapes songs, and even Bob revisiting some in the early 70s, when Bob slipped out of the Catskills to record John Wesley Harding he had a dozen new songs. None of which were from the 100s of Basement Tapes recordings.
I would suggest if the Bible is a source for John Wesley Harding it is the old testament Bible. Unforgiving and brutal.
if you like reading about music I would recommend Sid Griffin (ex-Long Ryders) track by track analysis, Million Dollar Bash, Bob Dylan, The Band and the Basement Tapes.
And Greil Marcus' Invisible Republic (Retitled, The Old Weird America) where he puts the songs recorded in their musical and historical context.
Thanks again for a great episode.
PS - Pete Drake on pedal steel, not the wonderful Nick Drake
Agree, but how is just the Old Testament brutal and unforgiving. The New is worse. Jesus wants to send moral nonbelievers and billions to everlasting hell for being unable to believe in him or wisely skeptical of his godly powers.
@@oppothumbs1 I am more in my comfort zone discussing Dylan and The Band. But I would suggest the dilemma you bring from the new testament is philosophical in nature. And not scary to a non-believer as a non-existent god can't hurt them and believers don't think it will be them as they believe.
While the old testament god deals with lot's wife, Abraham, Egypt, the great flood etc. like a vindictive, jealous, and cantankerous god-child like the Enterprise would encounter in early Star Trek. Far more brutal and unforgiving.
The Jesus of the new testament preaches forgiveness.
But do take anything I say on the subject with a grain of salt (maybe from Lot's wife). I would direct you to the likes of Dan McClellan for a real answer.
@@ihavenoquarrelwithyou3249 Thank you for your reply. Of course, it is not scary to a nonbeliever, but it is to skeptics who just aren't sure, and the punches on the playground come fast (ask Neil Young) from society and bullies who can be brutal. It never happened to me because in real life I don't mention such stuff. I only mentioned it to see if I would be censured. There is so much AI and censorship going on these days, which serves as a sort of scary New-Newer Testament or third testament.
I'm afraid you are wrong about the Old Testament vs. the New Testament. Eternal suffering in hell by billions is far worse than a lot of Lot. Just like Jeff Dahmer's kills were limited, though horrible, they didn't come close to Jesus' wishes if they were real and if he were real. And he never talked to Daddy to try to ease punishment a bit due to the almost certain fact that evolution, genetics, and environment give mankind limited free will or limited ability to believe in things that are probably not true at all. J's preaching forgiveness is a crock in a sense. It means nothing to me, a person who will be going to hell. One day others will read the whole Bible as I have and see the bad dogma on page after page. It doesn't take smarts, just logic. I still can't find a single person in the world who considers Jesus' wants a terrible thing - just one stump of a question. J may be listening, I guess, and that is a fear to some. And as you can suspect, I know there are well over a thousand other problems with the good books.
I find it interesting that you can hear the influence of The Basement Tapes on John Wesley Harding, the title track especially, as it borrows from their cover of the folk song 'I'm Nine Hundred Miles Away from Home'. Dylan is once again taking from folk songs and reinventing them. They obviously had records such as the Anthology of American Folk Music by Harry Smith and maybe some books with chord sheets in them, but it appears they were going from memory and passing on songs, so inevitably they would change. We have hindsight, but without knowing about The Basement Tapes, this must have felt somewhat out of left field, yet I still find it somewhat less inviting than The Basement Tapes.
John Wesley Harding is probably my favorite Dylan album. From a poetry standpoint, it is wonderful. I manage a poetry magazine, and this collection speaks to me like no other. "I Dreamed i Saw St Augustine" is my personal favorite Dylan track.
Thank you! Great Series!
Great to have this series back! I love The Basement Tapes, and think it’s both tremendously entertaining and very important. A clear 5 stars yet again for me, and I just love the sound and laid back variety of it. Of the 24 tracks, 8 are by The Band…and most of those post-date the ‘67 sessions and have overdubs. But they are among my favourite Band stuff, particularly Ain’t No More Cain and Yazzo. But come on, Dylan is the undisputed star of this show. His humour throughout is infectious, and his singing on This Wheel’s on Fire and (particularly as your Dylan points out) Tears of Rage and Going to Acapulco is among the best, most effective in his whole career. I just think this is a fun, breezy, cool and accomplished set of recordings…particularly so as they were just done for fun, or to serve as publishing demos (Bob, with his injury of however serious, decided to do his demos in Woodstock rather than drive down to New York City to do his demos in his publisher’s office, as he had done before…and because his tour was cancelled due to the accident, kept “The Hawks” on his payroll and used them to help with the recording…that was the initial broad thinking, but it evolved from there into a type of song writing and recording workshop). It’s just great…but you gotta listen to The Complete Basement Tapes in the Bootleg Series to get the full, authentic power. But this stuff is great…and it’s great to have you both back to kick off this ongoing discussion in 2024! Thx and cheers, JPE
I hadn't heard most of these songs before. Seems like a very good album.
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere Dylan wrote and sings it well. 9
Goin' to Acapulco Sweet song sung, fine swirling organ, a bit sad but "he's gonna have some fun" 9
Katie's Been Gone - Richard sings . Soulful. "Dear Katie, since ya caught that bus/ Well, I just don't know how things are with us". The Band sounds great. 9.5
This Wheel's On Fire- 9 Even better later by the Band.
Open the Door, Homer - Vaguely inspired or just homage to a '40s recording but this is all Dylan's melody and lyrics. 9
Tiny Montgomery. Dylan sings it with imitation black vocals. The song has strangely spooky lyrics and sound. It reminded me of Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" with its dark country campfire feel to it, except that song appears to make sense w/o almost incomprehensible surreal lyrics. Big Bad John: "Every morning at the mine, you could see him arrive. He stood six-foot-six and weighed two-forty-five. Kinda was broad at the shoulder and narrow at the hip. And everybody knew ya didn't give no lip to big John. Big John, big John. Big bad John, Big John. The end, after a heroic rescue, goes, "At the bottom of this mine lies a Big Big Man. Big Bad John". But in the case of Basement Tapes it's "Big Bad Tiny Montgomery" and he's just saying "Hello." 9
Tears of Rage 8
Bessie Smith 7 Solid. Feel a bit like a future Randy Newman.
Ruben Remus - Richard Manuel's singing helps this song; Richard's vocals might help any song. Rick Danko on backup. I'm remembering how much I liked Danko singing on "What Difference Does It Make" in the Last Waltz. 7.8
Million Dollar Bash 7 Oo baby oo ee
Lo and Behold! 6 A humorous lament. Made me smile when they sang looking for my "Lo and Behold".
Folsom City Blues 5 Not into Johnny Cash's song and less so into this.
I should give Johnny Folsom City Blues a 6.5, but I'll keep The Band's version at a 5.
Dylan stripped down to the bare bones is a revelation. So lucky these tapes exist.
Thanks so much for this series... What a unique album. Recording 150 songs in a few months and writing most of them as well, after going through all kinds of personal stuff, not many bands would come up with stuff of this quality, would they? One Band member, forgotten who, said that it was Dylan would go outside and find a song under a rock and come back in with it. How else would one come up with something like Clothes Line Saga -- WTF? "The Vice President has gone mad/ Where?/ Downtown/ When?/ Last night/ Well, that's too bad." No one can write like that.
Goin' to Acapulco is an all time favourite of mine, and I honestly didn't realise it was Dylan singing it until Dylan S said it was... I even just checked, and yep, that's him. Maybe he learned how to sing from one of them.... I love that song so much, and have listened to it so often, that I'm a bit embarrassed at not having realised it was Dylan and not one of The Band singing it!
I knew someone in the 1980s who was always playing You Aint Goin Nowhere on guitar and singing it in a very sentimental way that I absolutely hated. I never heard the original tilla couple of decades later, and fell off my chair laughing. I had no idea how funny it was, the way Dylan sings it.
I'm in that section of the Dylan fandom that thinks BTs is GOAT. It took me about half dozen listens to get it, but it has been my fav album ever for about 15 - 20 years. When the Complete BTs was released it was a further revelation - so many other originals (Im Not There, Sign On The Cross) and covers. Just 5 or 6 guys jamming and recording masterpieces. Think of all Dylan had already accomplished in the 60s and now this... Mysterious, surreal, profund, funny, and of course highly influential.
Goin’ to Acapulco is also my favorite of the Dylan led tracks. my favorite of the Band led tracks is Katie’s Been Gone. not sure how popular that latter pick is but I love it.
Katie is one of the top songs. Sung by Richard, written by Robbie.
Part 2. For me what makes this a great compilation is the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts. I hate to use the word but BT is pure Americana. There is a subtextual river that ties these seemingly disparate pieces together and that is the perpetual journey. Dylan always displayed a restlessness and rootlessness of place leading up to these sessions and his supreme skills as a songwriter are not just in his "poetic lyrics" but that primarily he is a storyteller, who weaves deeply original narrative devices and spellbinding unfolding of stories to achieve his aims. (Listen to "Who Killed Davey Moore) Desolation Row is a peak example. Dylan said that much of his career involved his relationship to America.
But aside from this extraordinary gift of viewpoint and lyrical genius lies something more than just a troubadour. Dylan, when not being a savage, ruthless, social critic, or romantic with women, is infused with a deeply American raconteur nature and a picaresque sentiment. Subterranean Homesick Blues, Dylan's 115th dream, Absolutely Sweet Marie, Maggie's Farm and dozens of others carry this spirit. The unconventional edge is completely embraced ("to live outside the law you must be honest).
On BT Dylan leaves social criticism behind and the sessions are like Picaresque episodes, montages, but not dishonest, just mischievous. The humor is constant, Chaplinesque. (One could argue Dylan is as original and impactful in genius as Chaplin). There is no real place, yet the sense of travel, of people of places is ever present. So we get flung from Mrs. Henry to Tiny Montgomery to Quinn the Eskimo, to Crash on the Levee, to Acapulco to Lo and Behold to the Million Dollar Bash. All infected with a distinct American folk, blues and sometimes country style. So we are on this rambling river of vignettes.
But if this was all it contained, it would not be great. Interspersed are powerful songs that go deep, from the Biblical; "I shall Be Released" to the intense "Wheels on Fire" (which could have come out of Poe), to "Tears of Rage" and "Nothing Was Delivered" to the relaxed "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" to the understated "Too Much of Nothing". There are many others.
When one puts these contrasting styles, arrangements, points of emphasis, sense of personal freedom, exploration, sense of movement, humor, yet deep contemplation of soul, one finds something remarkable, like being in a Mark Twain novel. The feeling of it all is palpable. Somehow there is a synthesis, a coherence to the whole thing. For me all these elements come out in truly mature fashion on Blood on the Tracks, especially the great "Tangled Up in Blue".
Many people have claimed this is "the greatest album that never was" and we are truly fortunate to have its distillations and that it was so popular in underground form, Columbia was forced to release it.
Top tier. "A" A classic in its own right. Even when fooling around, with Dylan, the sparks flew.
Nothing could make me care about Bob Dylan more than I already do. Which is not a lot outside of some songs. But. Dylan Sevey’s fresh haircut for the new Bob Dylan arc is really nice. 👍
You're a gem, Chase.
I usually prefer the more famous reinterpretations to the Dylan originals, but weirdly, I feel like the Basement Tapes version of "This Wheel's on Fire" does more justice to the song than the Big Pink version. 1) Why does the Band play theirs so fast? Did one of the guys have a wedding to get to afterwards? I think the slower tempo of the Basement Tapes version emphasizes the song's ghoulish, sinister quality. 2) What the hell is Garth Hudson playing? Wikipedia tells me it's a "Rocksichord through a telegraph key." Not sure that was the best choice, is all I'm saying.
I'm sure the goths out there are partial to the Siouxsie & the Banshees version, and I also really like the Byrds' fuzztone, harder rocking version, but my other favorite version is probably Ian & Sylvia's country-rock version. But the Basement Tapes recording just has a certain creepy-crawly unease in its veins.
I think this conversation demonstrates how much of Dylan and what he is/was about Joe just doesn't get, and can't get. There is no right or wrong here but Joe's predilection and gravitation for sound, which is who he is or a great part of him, has him miss Dylan's essence and why he was so powerful, even compelling to the point of obsession. Joe, when someone is a generational genius, like Picasso, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. If lyrics and groundbreaking intensity that define an entire country's feelings on issues and personal relationship to them, creating literally genres and undreamed of possibilities for other artists in his wake don't interest you, then you can't get it. Dave Van Ronk, no slouch in the village folk scene, heard "Hard Rain" and was so stunned he walked for hours in a daze at what he had just been exposed to. Leonard Cohen heard it, stunned him as well, and it spurred him to write songs.
There literally was a higher order consciousness coming through Dylan that people felt was prophetic, throwing open the curtain on the depth of the society. Bob Dylan carried the energy of a modern day Jeremiah and people felt it. Now eventually, for a while it burned him out and he had to get away. He probably had not bargained for it. But when you express exasperation at people treating him like a "deity", you miss the point. It wasn't him personally, it's what came through him. When he produced crap, people knew it. ("What is this s*** wrote Greil Marcus for Rolling Stone about Self Portriat.) When Ginsberg said he was like a Shaman, "one with his breath" he wasn't kidding. If you see the snippet of "It's All Right Ma" in Don't Look Back, the audience is having a religious experience and in the car afterwards Dylan can feel it in the afterglow. He picks up a paper and they call him an *Anarchist*. THAT'S how strong his impact was. (He can't believe it and says "Give the Anarchist a cigarette.") I think the Beatles, and certainly Elvis had this to a degree also, but in a more musical form.
I first heard the Basement Tapes in its original form as the bootleg "The Great White Wonder" in 1970. I was stunned by it and enraptured because it emitted a *feeling* all throughout the album. I wasn't enveloped or enchanted with it because "it's Dylan, he's a God, I have to like it." No there was something organic and authentic for me that went down to my toes. As opposed to, Joe, I liked the formal "full" songs (Tears of Rage, I Shall be Released, Wheels on Fire, etc- which I have come to appreciate more) less than the funky , jiving, more bluesy tidbits (Million Dollar Bash, Tiny Montgomery,, Please Mrs. Henry, Quinn the Eskimo, etc). Since these songs are not that lyrically adept or even close to what we would expect from Dylan, something else is at work. I have Marcus' book on this , have not read it, but suspect he is on a similar wave length. Now as a mature adult I can put it into words.(Getting tired, is late will finish tomorrow.)
I think my problem with Dylan is I don’t have an obsessive nature where as many people were looking for some kind of messianic figure to hold over others. And a lot of Dylan fans have this same attitude towards him. Listen, he’s great, inspired a lot of artists, but let’s not lose our minds. - Joe
@@TastesLikeMusic Thanks for responding. I think you are over generalizing. I think there is a spectrum. Yes a fairly significant number become like AJ Weberman and end up going through Dylan's garbage (If they had a chance). But a lot more had the guy have this incredible impact on their lives and he expressed himself at his height in amazingly non conventional ways. Although he is a popular artist, he is taught at Universities and won the Nobel prize. Now that's mostly because of lyrics but how many artists get that?
And let's be honest. For a time he WAS messianic. I don't think he intended that but it flowed out of him. As was said "He wanted to be Elvis Presley, he never thought he would be Jesus Christ". (Lennon bragged the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus.") Now that's a little much but there is truth to that. Even as Dylan changed forms to rock for personal growth to get AWAY from being a poster boy (It ain't me babe) his art got BETTER and the power got personally greater. So I agree people wanted too much from him. But as I will write in finishing the BT comment, even when I wasn't looking for it, had no knowledge or expectation, the bootleg had a remarkable impact.
I came to Dylan late for the era. Because of how shut down I was because of childhood trauma, I could not relate to R and R because of music and the beat. Because the lyrics were so insipid. But I was missing the entire point, the beat, the experience. It was Dylan because of lyrical complexity and meaning, and others who followed him in that era that I became able to open to the music.
In 1970 I heard Blonde on Blonde for the first time. Dylan was personalizing the political, really going interior. I started with side two with the jaunty yet haunting, "I want you". Then came on "Stuck Inside of Mobile". The fifth verse came
"Now the senator came down here
Showing ev’ryone his gun
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son
An’ me, I nearly got busted
An’ wouldn’t it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again"
I was with a younger couple and I burst into tears, sobbing. The guy looked at me and said, "you really look like you know what he is talking about"? I damn sure did. That song reached right to the center of my heart as he articulated EXACTLY what I was going through, the war, (which hung over every young mans head- I was in the first lottery- 113 when they were drafting to 250).my family, society, an incredible sense of abandonment. Later I actually was on the run. For those of us who were aware, were impacted by and had fury toward America, Dylan gave voice in unimaginable ways to those feelings. Who else was doing that? The Beatles? Eleanor Rigby? (which is a really high level song) Wooden Ships. Really?
And the guy did it over and over and over again, over a stretch of about 6 albums, ascending ever more as he went.
I can understand when it's not your wheelhouse. For a long time I never got the Beatles. Until in college I started smoking pot and Sgt Pepper came out. We had this little record player with two detachable speakers and I would lie with my head between them. THEN I got the Beatles. (Actually I saw Help in the movies in 1965, the songs filled the theater like a Cathedral but, I never bought their records) What they had done was like nothing I had ever heard. In 1965 Sound of Silence (electric version) was all over the radio and even on a transistor, the sound was immense and was so unlike so much before it.
My point is for many people, Dylan, like the Beatles was beyond just a touchstone. As most of us matured there was a realization the guy was human but he had so tapped into something immense. Dylan is one of the most important artists, and lyrically by far the most important artist in popular culture post 1960.
The reason people spend so much time with him is because of this personal impact and because of his innovation and depth. (It was said of him rather early on, "He wasn't just a folk singer, it was like he was a compendium of every folk singer who ever lived in one person".) Some people channel the collective voice. Elvis did that. If some people deify him, how does that impact you? For many periods I hated his stuff, Self Portrait, New Morning, Planet Waves, you name it and God help us the Evangelical period. Then the guy comes out with All Along the Watchtower, Knockin' on Heaven's Door and the phenomenal Blood on the Tracks.
I am not as enamored of his post 90's stuff but he has done some really, really good songs, songs like Thunder on the Mountain, Not Dark Yet, Mississippi, songs that would make a really established career but most do not compare to his peak.
I do think and have said because you gravitate toward music and sound rather than lyrics (62 songs without a bridge, I could care less, but it matters to you), it's hard to fathom the intensity of feeling toward him. (My mother ADORED Sinatra, he was on in the house all day, every day, until he supported Reagan, then she threw out all his records.) On BT you immediately gravitated to the Band and songs-arrangements, missing the ethos of Dylan's energy. I will explain in part II of my comment on the sessions what that meant for me and how it hit me. How could a guy sing songs with so little content, yet infuse them with remarkable feeling? What well was he drawing from?
Thank you for your time in this. I like what your channel and especially what these videos with Dylan Sevey are doing. And I commend you. It probably has not been the easiest thing to put yourself out like this.
The Basement Tapes album from 1975 is fine for me, but I feel like the Complete Bootleg Series version helped me appreciate the recordings far more. The songs are short and sweet for the most part, so if you don't like one, there's sure to be one you like soon after. Songs like Santa Fe, Mary Lou I Love You Too, and Sign on the Cross are beautiful and warm, and they really should have been on the album proper. Plus, Dylan and The Band's version of One Too Many Mornings is the definitive version of that song for me. As for the album itself, I do love The Band on Ain't No More Cane, and Dylan sounds great on Goin' to Acapulco. Nothing was Delivered and especially You Ain't Goin' Nowhere are among my favorite songs by The Byrds, so I don't care for these versions as much, but they're still interesting. Great video!
So agree about the underrated Going To Acapulco - stunning emotional version
Welcome back!
I could definitely stand to revisit The Basement Tapes, I've only heard it the whole way through once. I enjoyed it a lot though especially as big fan of The Band. It was cool to hear many of these songs in their early form. It was really great to hear some more background on the album here, I knew the story from a basic standpoint but always cool to hear a little more. Great discussion, as always.
Love this series!!!!!! Helps me re-think my assessment, my listening schedule, and my understanding of the two critics. Bravo!
Great episode as usual. I was never much of a fan of the official Basement Tapes release. It had all of this mythology around it, and then when I heard it, it just sounded like a bunch of guys goofing around. I rarely returned to it, and always wondered why some folks held it in such high regard.
When Volume 11 of the Bootleg Series was released, I got the 2 CD version thinking that would be more than enough for me. But then listening to that set, it finally clicked for me. I still don’t think it is the best of the best in Dylan’s catalogue, but I get it now. I get why it is significant, and I get that it served as a springboard for so much of what came after…for Dylan and for much of popular music. I ended up getting the Complete Basement Tapes version of that installment of The Bootleg Series in the end, which I never would have thought I would do. A lot of really cool stuff sprinkled throughout that collection. Just the whole loose experimentation of it all, and reading about the work days at Big Pink in Robbie Robertson’s book makes it sound very much like the musical clubhouse that we all imagine it was. It was like they were a real life roots rock version of The Monkees. Hanging out, quickly recording whatever came into their heads, and wrecking a lot of cars. And family man Dylan, living out in Woodstock, is so much more human and relatable than the zonked out, shades wearing rock star from a few years earlier. That guy was untouchable, but the guy hanging out and making music with his friends in the basement? That’s an attainable dream.
Great episode. I have to get some things out of my life so I can watch these episodes when they come out!
Think Joe is starting to get "his Bobness" in these videos and all the myth and lore that goes along with the great music. Guy literally does whatever he wants and doesn't stick in any lane that anyone wants for him. That's part of why I love him so much.
I listened to the Basement Tapes some years ago and then never again, I remember them mostly for giving me the „Quinn The Eskimo is from Bob Dylan?!“ moment.
I love the basement tapes
Ooh i like this chronological detour !
it's not the music so much, it's the lyrics that has made him so important, like 80/20 lyrics, without that poetry he'd be pretty much like a lot of others, his music was never groundbreaking, forget his voice, it's the fact that he opened up everything for everybody--History will show him to be one of the most important artists of his time, probably the most important
I'm glad you went with this one rather than "Harding" - it's more historically consistent. I don't think of the "Basement Tapes" as an album per se. It's a bunch of demo tapes that give you an interesting look into the creative processes of this particular batch of artists. That's pretty fascinating on its own. They catch little bits of lightning here and there, but as a whole it's too unpolished to be compared fairly to the more refined stuff. I've always liked it, though - warts, and grime, and all. It's just a funky little demo tape collection and it should be cherished.
Finally! 😃 Really enjoyed as usual! I'm in the middle with this album also, it's good but not great.
Basement Tapes is not my go-to record when it comes to Dylan. I like it, but very seldom reach for it. I think I am with Joe that I prefer The Band songs on here (especially Bessie Smith and Ain't No More Cane, which I love), but there are great Dylan tracka here as well, like Going to Acapulco. I also like some of the fun songs, especially Lo and Behold. I think it was the right time to cover this now, although that means I have to wait longer to hear what Joe thinks about my beloved John Wesley Harding (5 star album in my book). By the way, I fear Joe won't like JWH.
On a side note, you guys both spoke of Danko and Manuel in tandem; maybe I've missed it, but I haven't heard Drive-By Truckers mentioned much on TLM. I really like The Basement Tapes; partly, at least, that as I've gotten older, I do dig that spontaneous combustion thing. To have been a fly on the wall, riding this particular timeline in music; how cool would that have been? Great upload.
how much of teh 1975 double vinyl is basement? how much not from basement?
this is Dylans first album with someone singing harmonies with him.... thats a big deal... just like when he finally starts using bridges.... I think his singing is great here... clear tone... higher register... im guessing he's inspired by the bad ass vocalists of the Band.... unlike Joe however, I find myself skipping the band songs here and only listening to Dylans.... when TLM started this Dylan trek, I was completely blown away by the energy and persona in the first album... and have kept finding my self looking for that in his many subsequ3ent albums ... with the pinnacle being SubHomesickBlues... with basement tapes I think Dylan does link back up with some of that early youthful energy ...
You’re nuts
My feelings towards The Basement Tapes as an album are quite different from my feelings about the sessions as a whole and the songs produced. I don’t particularly go back to the 1975 album much because I don’t think it’s well sequenced and it’s missing too many essential tracks from the Basement Tapes sessions.
If Joe has not heard them, he should immediately check out some additional tracks from The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes “Raw”. I think these songs are in fact significantly better and more interesting than a lot of the stuff that ends up on the 1975 album.
Check these out:
Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
Minstrel Boy
I’m Not There
I’m Alright
All You Have To Do Is Dream
Sign on the Cross
Another great episode, guys.
Personally, I don't think the Band tracks belong on the album at all. Although I'm not coming in hard, Clinton Heylin-like, about this aspect of the record, I always felt like their tunes ruined the flow of it.
I agree with Dylan, some great Bob vocals on here... Tears Of Rage and Goin' To Acapulco, in particular, are two of his best. And I love the sillier surreal tracks too.
see clinton heylins book on dylan recording sessions ..small book w a chapter on basement tapes.
I knew the Band was Dylan's backup musicians in the mid-sixties when I purchased "Stage Fright" in 1971, my First Band albumDiscography,
oops I then purchased the debut Band album which I enjoyed very much. I didn't have a large Dylan bootleg collection other than "the Great White Wonder". The basement tapes were therefore not part of my collection and only now an enjoyable part of his/their discography.
Difficult to assess The Basement tapes as a album as some of the most famous songs
(The Mighty Quinn. I Shall Be Released) were not included on the 1975 release. Other
fine songs (like "Sign On the Cross" "I'm Not There") were also missing.
That withstanding there's some great stuff full of humour and mystery . I think Dylan's versions of "This Wheels On Fire" and " Tears Of Range" are the definitive .So many great ones here not forgetting " Too Much Of Nothing".
His wheels on fire and tears of rage are weak. That’s how I separate the Dylan zealots from the normal people. - Joe
@@TastesLikeMusic Ha ha touché !!! you sussed me out.
JWH is a very odd record. I love it but other than part of NS, to me, there’s nothing else quite occupying that space. Gonna be interesting to see Joe’s reaction to the direction
I don't like "Americana", at least if it don't have the anarchist and playful energy of the BT. I owned the record early when I was young, and I didn't dislike it, but didn't listen much to this, being fully absorbed by Blood on the Tracks, Planet Waves, Before the Flood, Desire. Greil Marcus made me listen to this, his book about the Basement Tapes is one of my top 5 favorite books. Decades later I now really like the music too, even finding "Clothes Line Saga" fascnating. "I Shall Be Released" has been the first song I ever have been forced to try to sing aloud with people being present (it didn't work well), but is such a great song. (I only knew it from "More Greatest Hits" then, which was a really important Dylan record for me, following - you guessed it - "Greatest Hits".)
I don’t care for I Shall Be Released that much. - Joe
I honestly love more or less every track on this record. I don’t really care that it’s not a proper album. The mixture of vocals and song styles is great. It’s one of my favourite summers day albums.
Ruben Remus probably is the weakest track… but it does at least feature Richard Manuel’s incredible voice.
Honeslty prefer the version of Wheels on Fire from this. It’s a bit slower, darker, and Dylan gives it a grit and intimacy that isn’t present on the version from Big Pink. Tears of Rain could go either way for me depending on my mood, but I’ll give it to The Band.
totally agree Dylan's vocal's on "This Wheels on Fire " are spellbinding.
My theory, with the motorcycle occident Bob had an epiphany about the life he had been leading, it's in "Eat The Document" for all to see, so he decided to stop, leave, and hibernate with his wife and children and relax by hanging out with his buddies in a basement throwing words out there to see what sticks, stuff they know will never get out for public to hear.
World's Toughest Milkman!
Poor Joe...
Enjoyable record.
They were not just jamming. They were writing songs to make money off. But what happened was that a new genre of music was created...Americana!
rock and roll!
Yes! It’s not an album (to me, anyway) -it’s a collection of demos + the good times around the making of the music, doing covers, etc.
I think far superior to the 1975 “the Basement Tapes” is the bootleg series ‘basement tapes’ - 5 or so discs, some EXCELLENT stuff not included on the ‘75 version (“I’m not there” “I Shall Be Released”)
It's unlistenable as a production, but it's a bootleg and some of the writing is interesting and some of the writing is great. It's all wonderfully new and creative and a welcome respite from the last album.
Garth's keyboards are cool when you can hear them.
My favorites are I'm Not There (1956) and the covers Banks of the Royal Canal, People Get Ready, and many which you mention.
Call me crazy, but I’ll take the BT version of Tears of Rage over The Band’s. Open the Door Homer and Too much of Nothing are two of my favorite Dylan songs. And Goin to Acapulco is amazing. It’s a 5 star record for me, I actually prefer it to BoB. The next album now… oh boy, can’t wait😊
I like Gene Clark’s version better than this one by mile but The Band’s is probably still the best. - Joe
@@TastesLikeMusic I strongly prefer Gene’s version on White Light to the Band’s as well. But Dylan’s on this album with Manuel singing harmony to Dylan’s lead is still my favorite
I remember discovering the basement tapes.
🔥👏👏
I've never been too into this one. I respect and admire the nature of hearing well-established artists going WAY back to their roots and thereby
influencing country-rock and Americana for decades to come, but the songs themselves don't appeal that much to me, nor does the shitty
sound quality. I guess you had to be there, huh?
You touched on this…but the 1975 release is not really the Basement Tapes! The BAND stuff is almost all from later and as you said LEVON HELM was not there yet in the 1967 main Basement Tapes. The real “BASEMENT TAPES “ is what came out later although you pointed that out the DYLAN material from the 75 release are from the BASEMENT….a couple of his songs may have been sweetened instrumentally. YAZOO STREET I think is a BIG PINK outake, along with a few others. To me DYLAN really did not stick with this sound..he went to Nashville to do John Wesley Harding , most of that record is minimalist , no keyboards really. I do love the 1975 record but it’s kind of mislabeled…as the Basement Tapes…
Never heard of it.
🎉 congrats Joe for almost saying what he really feels about this album. It’s basically a bunch of demos. I don’t like any of these songs on here as much as I like a couple songs on the bands last album islands. Just saying. I am joepinionated.
A detour de force. Yazoo Street Scandal Exile got Main St sound. I *should* like The Band more. Goin' to Acapulco an example where I'm left waiting...
I could do without The Band studio recordings.
And maybe one LP would have been enough.
Favs...
Silent Weekend
All You Have to do is Dream (Take 2)
This Wheel's on Fire
Quinn the Eskimo (Take 2)
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Take 2)
I'm Not There
I Shall be Released (Take 2)
Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)
Tears Of Rage
I will have to disagree with Joe like the band but bob a class above sorry Joe I one of those who think bobs versions of his song a better than cover maybe a couple of then better not many
I’m sorry you feel that way. Frankly I don’t think it’s even close. Bob simply doesn’t do them justice. This is probably why I dislike Bob for so long… too many people turning him into a deity. - Joe
@TastesLikeMusic we will have to disagree on bob love his music and his voice I couldn't change your mind you couldn't change mine so we will just disagree like the channel though
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for you, Joe) I don’t think you can be a true Dylan fan and not LOVE The Basement Tapes. Yes, some or most of The Band tracks are from other sources (Yazoo Street Scandal is a bonus track on a cd I have for Big Pink), yes it sounds like crap, and yes lots of other people covered some of these songs. But The Basement Tapes are the holy grail of weird, underground (literally) American roots music. Think about it-at the same time The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper, Bob and The Band were making the other masterpiece of 1967. Like Pepper, it was a record of far reaching influence. The fact that (some) of the tracks weren’t even officially released until 1975 doesn’t matter. The hip people knew what was going on. Dylan was and is the Picasso of popular music. So I guess you’re just not hip. Sorry.
There were other albums being made in 67 that were just a litttttle better than The Basement Tapes. - Joe
@darthseamus8833 You can proclaim your love for an artist and their impact without being salty. 1967 was a year filled with groundbreaking albums, each prompting their own influential trajectory.
@@michelewiese48 Perhaps I went too far…I love The Who Sell Out and the first albums by Hendrix and The Doors as well. Being passionate about music can make us go a little crazy. But I don’t agree with Pitchfork’s absurd placement of The Velvet Underground And Nico as the number one album of the 60’s. Please tell me you aren’t one of those people.
@@darthseamus8833I’m not one of those people, although if the entire album reached the heights of “Venus In Furs”, I might’ve been. The Doors is an important album for me. Thank you for taking my reply to you in stride. Music is a reflection of passion, after all. I resonate, love and appreciate Bob’s 60s work. He just speaks to me in the mid to late 70s with even more volume. I prefer the musical shift that was bubbling up in that time period for genres that are the closest to my heart: disco, electronic, punk and everything that followed. (And I need to give props to The Stooges and Roxy Music)
@@michelewiese48 I definitely think the 70’s in general was probably the best decade for popular music. All the bands left from the 60’s, plus Bowie, Elton, Neil Young, Bruce, Steely Dan, punk, new wave, disco…I guess I was just trying to piss off Joe with my original comment.
Just the fact that we are attempting to critique this genius is very audacious.
There’s shouldn’t be any question or debating b about the greatness of Bob Dylan.
Some people just need time I guess.
Bad comment. Don’t be a simp.
@@TastesLikeMusic true comment. A lot of people still need time to catch up to Dylan. Don’t take offense. Just be glad you’re getting the chance now!
@@TastesLikeMusic a simp?!? Lol
No one is above critique
@@TastesLikeMusic Very true. Great way to get to know each album!
Basically, the warrior by scandal. And the ultimate sin by ozzy os bourne. Are better albums than this.
They are also better than any bob dylan album.
they are both, generic and at the same time listenable. Therefore a little better than dylan's output.
By the way , a shoutout to the warrior by scandal. It's underrated by everybody.
Solid troll