Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes - where we're at currently (Part 2)...

the decent completed original songs from BT
Tears of Rage
Wheels Fire
Acapulco
Apple Tree
Odds and Ends
Eskimo
Released

 

"Odds and Ends" is actually quite indecent, lyrically speaking.

 

I'm pretty sure they didn't adopt that name until after signing with Capitol, which suggests the writing on the box was done a few years after the fact. It's also interesting that it's a box for a tape of Charlie Rich Sun-era tracks. Did they recycle the box, or did Garth have a Charlie Rich tape on hand and record over it?

 

Is this another lyric aimed at Albert Grossman?

"Greed was one thing I just couldn't stand,
If I were you I'd put back what I took,
A guilty man has got a guilty look."

 

what were the tracks for the four-disc version?

 

Slightly off topic but what is Garth's status? Good health? Needs money so he sold the tapes? Anyone have any back story on the back bone of The Band?

 

He's definitely had some financial problems in the past decade. Last year there was a dispute with a landlord over unpaid rent on a storage space. Here's the most recent article I could find... I don't know if this has been resolved yet.

 

"Goin' to Acapulco" is beyond decent, IMHO. It's one of my favorite Dylan songs/performances ever.

I also like that "Apple Suckling Tree" is on your list--that's another classic performance.

 

Hopefully he gets a piece of the action on the new Basement releases, and gets back on his feet financially.

 

Not to be a wet blanket, but I think it's far more likely the former. With the limited number of tape reels on hand, Garth was constantly re-winding and recording over previously recorded stuff, so the lion's share of surviving "fragments" are most likely instances where the tape wasn't completely rewound to where they started.

OTOH, if you're copying a tape for a bootleg, it's very likely you're just going to "let it ride" so to make sure you get the entire contents of the tape copied over. So my strong suspicion is the versions on the boots are fairly representative of actual tape contents. Though if something like "900 Miles" is being included on the CD/LP sets, maybe they've found a more complete alternate version somewhere.

 

Wild Wolf was copyrighted on 19th September 1973, and the following lyrics are transcribed on a lyric sheet. The words are described as "spoken":

Now the ruins are barely rolling / And the animals cant agree
On all the bushes in the nations / But nobody feels sorry for me
If I lost everything of all the cities / Yeah, but I can't help his smog
The day, I feel it / She sure is standing / But the holy book is written
Oh, what page / They are all there / And as for a natural warning
But nobody done yet understand / Just like Pharoah and his armies
They made of solid bread, yeah / That old bad wolf's gonna howl his way to morning's
Hold to some big cavern / I would sit and wait, calling my children out there
But I just don't mean to hesitate / And if I was a missionary leader
I would attempt to laugh and rage / Yet the wild wolf he's still bubblin' under
And not a babe

 

Well that's pretty "apocalyptic". Now we have to hear it. Arnie

 

Thank you very much!

 

Wow, thanks for this.

"Spoken" words, huh...kinda like Sign On the Cross, I wonder, or another "take heed" song like Too Much of Nothing?

As printed here, it also reminds me of something out of Tarantula.

 

Well, I'll say this, I don't think the song is great, but Bob's vocal on it is pretty impassioned.

 

Perhaps that was where they found the name? Others would have written "Bob Dylan & band", but someone else happened to call them "The Band" and when they were considering which name they should use for their album debut, someone remembered what was written on a tape box. Just a theory.

 

Looking at the tape box photo from the Rolling Stone article, it appears that some of the tracks in the new box will not be in the true sequence in which they were recorded. The poor audio of On A Rainy Afternoon and I Can't Come In With A Broken Heart seems to have relegated them to disc 6 with other tracks of marginal quality, but Johnny Todd seems to have been shifted for musically aesthetic reasons, to make it the lead-off track on disc 2.

"A lot of piano," and the two "parts of songs" may be some of those fragments we've been hearing on the boots all these years.

(transcription of label)
BASEMENT TAPE BOX (f/k/a "Charley Rich" reel)
Bob & the Band

1. Spanish is the Loving Tongue
2. (A lot of piano)
3. On a Rainy Afternoon [moved to disc 6]
4. I Can't Come in with a Broken Heart [moved to disc 6]
5. Part of song
6. " "
7. Under Control
- "space"
8. Rosin the Bow
9. I'm Guilty of Loving You (part)
10. Johnny Todd [moved to disc 2]
11. Water
12. That ole Triangle (Royal Canal)
13. Lazarus

tracks from BASEMENT TAPES COMPLETE BOX SET
CD 1
SPANISH IS THE LOVING TONGUE (3:57)
[piano/Rainy Afternoon/Broken Heart/fragments moved and/or excised]
UNDER CONTROL (2:51)
OL' ROISON THE BOW (4:49)
I'M GUILTY OF LOVING YOU (1:06)
[Johnny Todd moved]
COOL WATER (3:00)
THE AULD TRIANGLE / THE ROYAL CANAL (5:41)
PO' LAZARUS ( :57)
I'M A FOOL FOR YOU (3:57) [possibly not on "Charley Rich" reel?]
CD 2
JOHNNY TODD (2:02)

 

Aaaargggh it's gonna be a LOOOOOONNNNNNG 2 months!

 

This wait is already killing me.

 

I think if they were recording demos they would have let the tape run and NOT record over anything. The fragments could be when the tape ran out during a take.

 

Yes, in that respect I agree. However, most if not all of the "fragments" occur at an earlier point in the sessions when they were most definitely not recording demos. A few abbreviated alternate takes of the demo songs occur because Dylan for whatever reason decides to stop the take at that point.

 

And I hope they didn't record over any more Charlie Rich tapes when they got more serious.

 

What is the best pre sale price so far.
Amazon has it for $149, for Six cd's???????????
the beave

 

Here's a thread on it.
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...complete-basement-tapes.377804/#post-10984308

 

thanks hominy!
very pricey for a six cd set.
the beave