Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes - where we're currently at (Part 4)

Funny how the 'You Ain't Going Nowhere' drawing (the last one) has a cat in it - I don't think the 'feed the cat' version had leaked at the time of the drawing, had it?.

 

The cat needs spotted and you're the one to do it.

 

Here's an article with photos and "fun-facts" about the 2 CD set: http://www.examiner.com/article/bob...sement-tapes-raw-preview-fun-facts-and-photos
Also in the article is this: "Haust ends his essay with a story about Dylan calling Garth Hudson at the end of the 1960s, looking for a recording of a “Basement Tapes” song titled “Can I Get a Race Horse?” which apparently had been erased to make room for other recordings, now lost forever." I'm sorry for your loss, DeeThomaz.

 

ARRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 

But nice to get closure....

 

But how (and why) was it registered for copyright in '88 with no recording? They had sheet music for it?

 

Maybe Garth could still hum a few bars of it for you?

 

FWIW, Heylin had a feature on this published in the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/30/bob-dylan-basement-tapes-myth-reality-clinton-heylin

He does dump on the two-disc version, blaming Sony for that edition and suggesting that a 24-track single CD concentrating on new originals would've been preferable.

 

Can you arrange that?

 

The new mastering sounds a lot cleaner to me...

 

And I just dug out the one from BD.com and at least on the version I have the stereo sounds closer to the bootlegs rather than the new box...

 

Reviews from Ultimate Classic Rock: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/bob-dylan-basement-tapes-complete/

and L.A. Times: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-ca-basement-tapes-20141102-column.html#page=1

Nothing too new or notable.

 

Yes, I made many reel to reel tapes in the 70's, and did this all the time. Sure many of you did the same thing with VHS tapes. Often you would record over a bit of something you didn't want to. Of course my old band is not Bob's, and not being studied for release.

 

The Guardian actually has published several features on this. Besides Heylin's take, their main pop music critic wrote a glowing review:
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/30/bob-dylan-the-band-basement-tapes-complete-review

He seems to know this material pretty well, especially for someone who isn't known to be a "Dylanologist" like Heylin et al. "Edge of the Ocean" alone is a surprise - it's rough, but it's a complete, 'new' song.

 

Has anyone mentioned yet the similarity between this song and 'St Augustine'? I thought 'King Of France' was similar in meter and cadence, but EOTO is just as similar. Seems like variations on this tune were stuck in Dylan's head around this time.

 

Keep hope alive. My George Harrison Apple Years sent by ImportCDs on a Monday received that Thursday.

 

Every time I sign on to this thread it's grown four of five pages. I noticed while watching the unboxing video that the price at Amazon USA is down to $119.88 (for those ordering there).

I hope I can get this by Christmas. I love Dylan, but can only afford so much. I've got $250 in pre-orders shipping in November. Anyway, it's nice to read and check the links you all have been posting. Very exciting to follow. And have learned some things I didn't know.

Does everyone have their pumpkins carved? That's what I've been doing between checking the new posts.

Happy Halloween everybody!

 

Huh. Not mine. The .com I have is definitely very narrowed and the TWR is like 2 track. I agree that the box one sounds "cleaner." What the hell I like 'em all, truth be told ( all the versions of Teenage Prayer). None of them sounds compromised like the '75 stuff.

 

I've just brought the 2-CD version home from the local store (couldn't afford the full thing), who've been putting things out earlier than ever (likely as a ways of fighting back against online stores).
Excepting cover versions, my only previous knowledge of this work came from the 1975 album (no bootlegs). Sound quality varies, but this is much better ! Digging it, as bewildering as it gets.

 

Old business, perhaps, but I enjoyed Sasha Frere-Jones’ New Yorker piece on the complete set (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/03/fall-4; already noted in this thread).
Here’s a thoughtful writer who likes Dylan just fine, but who hasn’t internalized Bob’s entire body of work, like maybe some of us? At first I grew impatient with the detailed account of his adolescent disdain but then gradual appreciation of Dylan, yet that’s important for clarifying his point of view. He came of age during Bob’s born again period, admittedly a tough sell for a Brooklyn teenager in 1979, whereas, at that age, I got on the bus at Blonde on Blonde and never got off. It’s telling that Frere-Jones likes the Heptones’ cover of I Shall Be Released better than Bob’s BT original. I’ve heard the Heptones’ cover—it’s nice—but preferring a cover of a Bob Dylan song (as opposed to merely enjoying it) is out of the question for me. Dylan’s vocal—his phrasing and rhythmic response to the words—completes the song and renders it dependent on Bob’s performance. As much as the core group of BT originals went out on an acetate courting Peter, Paul and Mary or Manfred Mann, these songs are now canonical, part of my brain matter, and, in terms of their ultimate expression, inviolable to other interpretation. It was revelatory to read Frere-Jones viewing I Shall Be Released as an isolated pop entity, judged as in better hands when recorded by the Heptones in a “springy” version. First I thought, really? Then, okay, why not?

 

Give us a full review -- I think you'll like it.

 

[moment of silence for the racehorse]

 

It would be great if they would just say 'we don't feel that this material is of merchantable quality but we understand that some people feel the need to hear it ... so, here, have it free on streaming'. Problem is, half the industry will collapse if that sort of thinking takes hold ...

 

Yes, you have to throw the minstrel boy a coin.