I have been listening to Bob Dylan:The Basement Tapes Complete...everyday..all day for a few weeks... For those of you that dont know the story ..here goes..I will try to give you a clue to what these recordings are all about. Bob Dylan became famous as a solo artist. He wrote songs in the folk tradition..Blowin in the Wind being the most famous song in that style. Bob also had a rock and roll heart...he liked electric blues...country music and his acoustic guitar and harmonica no longer could express and deliver the style of music he wanted to play...he found a band...The Band...these guys were really good...Bob and the Band played all over the world...they got booed everywhere...Bobs fans had a hard time accepting the fact that Bob had grown in a new direction..I actually still talk to Dylan fans that dont like the fact that Dylan went electric This tour took place in 1966..somewhere along the line in 1967 Bob Dylan had a motorcycle accident. He could not tour...he kept The Band on a retainer..Bob moved to Woodstock to recover...The Band followed him there..The Band was set to record their first album and took this break to work on songs...they were a working band playing every night and this was a chance to get ready for the recording process..They rented a pink house in the country and set up a make shift recording studio in the basement ...they set up a tape recorder,hung up a few mics and began to play every day in the basement...they played old folk songs...blues...country songs and original ideas..Bob lived close by and as he recovered began to stop by Big Pink and jam with the boys..Bob needed to make some dough..his management told him he could make some cash by writing some songs for other people to record...Bob began to stop by the house every afternoon...he was still paying The Band...Dylan and the Band began recording Bobs ideas... Garth Hudson,a member of The Band,recorded and kept track of what songs and ideas were on each tape..these tapes were never meant to see the light of day..they were simply a record of ideas...the result is the invention of Americana Music as we know it today..Dylan and The Band had to play at a more diminished volume than they had played on tour to keep the mics from distorting...Dylan and the band were not playing like their contemporaries of the day..no screaming Hendrix like solos..they were doing something completely different..a mix of r&b..rock and roll...country and blues..these tapes show the songs being developed and man,..the songs are amazing.. I shall Be Released, You Aint Goin Nowhere,Nothing was delivered,The Mighty Quinn, are just four of the gems on this record..the quality of the songs is staggering. These are rehearsal tapes..not studio recordings..it does not matter...they are amazing. There is not a single instrument in tune..it does not matter..some times Dylan is singing nonsense lyrics..he is figuring out what the song is..it does not matter...in most cases,there is another version of the song with lyrics in place and it is fun to see where the song journey ended.. These recordings have leaked for years..they are responsible for the first bootleg album called The Great White Wonder..this album was a plain white record sleeve and it contained about 10 songs from the basement tapes..I hitch hiked to Portland to get it in 1969... In 1975 Columbia Records released an album called The Basement Tapes..it was not the real deal..it was good...the record clearly had overdudbs..it did not ring true...it was cool to hear some of the songs for the first time..I had forgotten and given up hope that I might get to hear the original recordings... I love playing this in the store..Yeah, a little too loud..I no longer defend Dylan from the he cant sing crowd..I think it is funny...I guess I think just about everything is funny... Anyway, if you like Americana Music,this is the Holy Grail!! And please remember, I never over state or exaggerate.. If you stop in and saythat piano is out of tune..too bad Dylan cant sing...I promise to chuckle...sometimes when an artist is inventing something,things are not too tidy. My oh my..this record {as in a record of songs} is good.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:38:42 +0000
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