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

And although he claimed a copyright on "All American Boy" before (which is certainly arguable), the materials we've seen for this set suggest Dylan's folks are giving Bobby Bare the full credit on the box.

 

I believe GetRhythm listed them earlier in this thread or one of it's previous incarnations. It's just all the songs you'd expect: the 14 from the Dwarf Music Demo + 6 from the 1975 Basement Tapes LP + another four, probably Sign On The Cross, I'm Not There, All You Have To Do Is Dream, Get Your Rocks Off.

 

Some tracks were later copyrighted in '88 as well. They include:

"My Woman She's A-Leaving"
"Dress it Up, Better Have It All"
"Mary Lou I Love You Too"
"What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up"
"Wild Wolf"

 

Wild Wolf and Santa Fe were copyrighted in 1973, according the Heylin's article. And technically, Minstrel Boy was copyrighted as a result of the Basement sessions. I'm not sure how he's determined a core of 24. But I do agree that they missed an opportunity to create a definitive 2-disc Basement Tapes set.

 

Though Heylin seems to be excluding those with the date range....even though he's heard them and raved about Wild Wolf...?

 

I expect that at some point someone said that if the 2CD set were too definitive it would hurt sales of the 6-disc set, but I'm cynical.

 

I think you are 100 percent right. And I bet some of our resident experts could compile a 2CD set that would satisfy all but the most rabid Dylan fans.

 

If that's correct, then it does indeed sound like the makings of a killer double album. Yet another permutation of these sessions to try and compile.

 

Here's the current draft (not sure why "Tiny Montgomery" skipped my mind). Looks like as of the publication of the current edition of the copyright book, the song "All You Have To Do is Dream" was still unregistered. I can see how Heylin wouldn't include "Minstrel Boy" but I'm now a lot less clear on how he gets to that 24 number:

1. All American Boy
2. Apple Suckling Tree
3. Bourbon Street
4. Clothes Line Saga
5. Crash on the Levee
6. Don’t Ya Tell Henry
7. Get Your Rocks Off
8. Goin’ To Acapulco
9. I Shall Be Released
10. I’m Not There
11. Lo And Behold
12. Million Dollar Bash
13. Minstrel Boy
14. Nothing Was Delivered
15. Odds And Ends
16. Open The Door, Homer
17. Please, Mrs. Henry
18. Quinn The Eskimo
19. Santa Fe
20. Silent Weekend
21. Sign On The Cross
22. This Wheel’s On Fire
23. Tears of Rage
24. Tiny Montgomery
25. Too Much Of Nothing
26. Yay! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread
27. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere

 

Sort of like he's looking at it as an alternate universe version of the '75 LP?

 

24 might have been arbitrarily chosen, and he really means "anywhere between 22-26" or whathave you.

 

Minstrel Boy was formally copyrighted by Big Sky Music in 1970, after the Isle of Wight live version was released on Self Portrait.

As far as a "definitive" 2-disc set goes, I think we'd have to listen to all of the previously uncirculated songs for awhile before compiling such a collection, especially if it had to be narrowed down to two dozen Dylan originals. A couple of the newly released ones might qualify as keepers, unless gibberish lyrics would disqualify them (like Dress It Up, Better Have It All, for instance).

 

Just notified by ImportCDs that my Complete edition was just shipped.

 

Okay, here's 24 songs for Mr. Heylin (no All American Boy or Bourbon Street or Santa Fe)

11 SONGS (only single takes exist)
PLEASE MRS. HENRY
THIS WHEEL'S ON FIRE
TINY MONTGOMERY
GOIN' TO ACAPULCO
CLOTHES LINE SAGA
I'M NOT THERE
SIGN ON THE CROSS
MINSTREL BOY
GET YOUR ROCKS OFF
DON'T YA TELL HENRY
WILD WOLF

13 SONGS (multiple takes available)
I SHALL BE RELEASED
QUINN THE ESKIMO
LO & BEHOLD
YEA! HEAVY & A BOTTLE OF BREAD
MILLION DOLLAR BASH
ODDS AND ENDS
NOTHING WAS DELIVERED
TOO MUCH OF NOTHING
YOU AIN'T GOIN' NOWHERE
DOWN IN THE FLOOD (CRASH ON THE LEVEE)
TEARS OF RAGE
APPLE SUCKLING TREE
OPEN THE DOOR, HOMER

 

In the new Uncut article by Clinton Heylin, he describes one early Basement track, Catfish, that he was allowed to hear, but which was left off the new box set because of dreadful audio quality, meaning that the rest of us probably won't ever get to hear it. This "improvised" song may have been based on an old Delta standard, Catfish Blues (which Muddy Waters recorded as Rollin' Stone), but Heylin says it sounds more like Matchbox, the Carl Perkins number. I don't know if Bob and the Band heard Jimi Hendrix during the early months of the Basement sessions, but Hendrix played his own version of Catfish Blues during a radio appearance that same year.

 

But... But... Teenage Prayer!

Incidentally, Bob Dylan.com offered a version of Teenage Prayer some years back that sounds a lot like the narrowed mix on the new box. As we know from Heylin's article, they couldn't locate the original reel for the song to use, so it's possible they used the same cassette now as they did when they put it on the website.

 

I hit a few local places for Uncut today, they only had the last edition.

I hope these horrible, rancid unlistenable tracks of pure distortion leak out, dammit.
Did Heylin make any "Sony/Rosen sadly decided not to include..." type of remarks?
Or did he concede the quality was shot?

I can't foresee any other commerical opportunity for them. I guess I'm crazy to think
a 139-song box set called "complete" could absorb a few more "distorted" songs tagged
onto the end of Disc 6. Let's hear that basement noise!

 

I think it's only a matter of time...

These tapes seem to have a strange tendency to find the light.

 

Do you expect it to arrive by Tues?

 

Downloading the 2cD set from iTunes just now which will tide me over till my box arrives.

 

Days, hours away.....
It's an event of Biblical proportions!
Although there'll now have to be two events of Biblical proportions one after the other as they've put the vinyl release back. This is probably a good thing as I can just focus on the complete collection for a while. I may not have known which one to play first if I had them both in my grubby hands. This may've given me a headache and led to some kind of paralysis whereby I would've just stared at both products and played neither.

 

DeeThomaz and HominyRhodes, wow, you guys are fast. Thank-you!

Santa Fe seems to be an open question.

But, to make this CD, we'd need to buy the whole 6CD set, would we? Or will the files be available as FLACs downloads?

And then perhaps we'd need a great sequencing.

 

This can be found on the excellent MCA (now deleted) Hendrix "Blues" Comp. Muddy's Catfish (also known as "Two Trains" was also covered by The Stones & is on a couple ROIO releases - one being the great "Performances" 4 CD Set !

 

That sounded a bit Basement-ish...... well, until Jimi's excessive blaring guitar blowout mid-song. Followed by a drum solo.

 

could be posted before, but maybe not in this quality, so here it goes (again)...
Peter Pontiac made the best cover ever for the Basement Tapes: