Bootleg Series vol 10: Another Self Portrait changed everything about the series. There is a lot of Dylan material circulating amongst collectors. We all have our favorites that we hope will be the subject of a bootleg series release...supper club, BOTT, Born Again Era, etc. No one, but no one ever imagined that one of the best releases of the whole series would be based around Self Portrait (myself included...and I consider SP one of my favorite Dylan albums...really). Who knows what lurks in the archives? Perhaps Volume 12 will be based around Under the Red Sky...and we will all be blown away by the quality of the tracks.
If there is a BOTT-themed set, I suspect, like ASP, it'll actually cover a range of years ('72- '78 or so, maybe). Wonder if Sony's legal department would still prevent the inclusion of original "Hurricane" (the multi-tracks were apparently wiped, but a good quality copy circulates that could serve as an adequate source)?
"Who knows what lurks in the archives?" = million dollar question. Thanks to the efforts of Krogsaard/Heylin, et al, we knew about most (not all) of the tracks on ASP/BS10, but it wasn't clear whether or not those tapes even still existed until they actually put them out. I certainly don't remember anyone clamoring for Self Portrait outtakes until they announced that set. But now they have us all exactly where they want us -- waiting and hoping for more treasure troves like that.
I've given this some thought, and I would hope that Blood On The Tracks would be a standalone set, a complete record of those songs and those sessions only. They were genuinely monumental, and I think that album deserves its own box set. (Same goes for Blonde on Blonde.)
The stature of BoTT certainly merits a stand-alone set. But based on what we currently know, are there enough substantially different alternates in the vault to sustain that approach? I have no idea. But, boy, Rolling Stone's Dylan source sure seems confident they've got the goods....
Wouldn't it be wild if Dylan did some Nebraska-type homemade solo albums, and those tapes are in a closet somewhere? Maybe recorded in 1968, 1972, or 1977? (I know)
The source is probably Jeff Rosen. Id love to be that guy for a few weeks and just listen to the Dylan archives. Just non-stop 12 hours a day 7 days a week with some overtime.
Gospel Years GE Smith era NET And you can count me among those who'd love a regular live album release from current times.
Hard not to conclude that. Not entirely clear to me why he would always have to be quoted anonymously, though.
I wouldn't be terribly surprised if something like this exists for BOTT, actually. We know that most if not all the songs were written down in a notebook well before the BOTT sessions started, along with other songs which seem to be lost, and that he'd been playing the whole suite of songs for friends for months. I don't have any special information, but it seems like it's possible someone made home recordings of them. Also, he recorded Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong at his home studio, but I don't recall much else (aside from This Old Man and maybe Pretty Boy Floyd?) to emerge from that place. I would LOVE IT if they discovered unknown material from 1968 and 1972 especially. A whole album's worth would be incredible!
Well, I was all set to get pedantic and remind you that there's already been a live set from 1975, there were no live concerts in 1977, 1983 or 1985, and that 1979+1981 would conceivably be addressed in a Gospel Years live set, and that the NET started in 1988...but then I realized I left out 1987, so...you got me!
All that echo? Hmm. I've never thought of BOTT as being particularly echoey. It has a nice sense of atmosphere and space but I figured that it was reverb and maybe something they added at mixdown. This quote implies that they added the effect to tape on the day. Does anyone here think of Blood on the Tracks as having an echoey production?
It has some reverb, but that's OK, I wouldn't like it to be as dry as Freewheelin'. EDIT: Here's the RSD single (as RayS has ruefully noted, this was supposed to be on "Bootleg Series 11.") Little reverb, not too much.
The Basement Tapes is the only installment of the bootleg series I've wished for. I don't think I need any more after that. But then again, I never expected to enjoy Another Self-Portrait, so I'm sure there are more surprises for the future.
