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

Right - it would be really off-putting to anyone not already invested to have a 30-sec preview that was mostly throat-clearing and count-in and false start (much less "you're just wasting tape, Garth")

 

I'm iffy on the remaster of "Odds and Ends"--at least as previewed--but I like the sound on the new cut, "Dress It Up, Better Have It All":
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/bob-dylan-the-band-dress-it-up

 

I've listened to this a few times now. This song officially rocks. Warts and all. Beautiful.

 

Yes - I don't want to sound like a broken record, but none of the "proper" basement cuts sound all that good to me (at least as previewed) whereas the other stuff sounds great. Maybe a different mastering strategy for some reason - who knows?

 

Just to save time of having to sift through 4 parts of this thread and millions of pages, below are links to all of the so-far released tracks and snippets from the upcoming set. Let me know if I'm missing anything:

Odds And Ends (Alternate Version): http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/bob-dylan-basement-tapes-odds-and-ends-premiere-20140826

Dress It Up, Better Have It All: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/bob-dylan-the-band-dress-it-up

Don’t Ya Tell Henry: https://music.yahoo.com/blogs/music...rack-from--basement-tapes--set-141409647.html

30-second samples of all songs: http://ponomusic.force.com/ccrz__CCPage?pageKey=product&oId=of:b0b3c8c2af2241b3a523136c20b6ac81&type=Album&artistId=undefined

 

Lo and Behold (take1)
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/bob-dylan-lo-and-behold-basement-tapes-alternate-cut

 

"Ain't No More Cane" (Take 2): http://phantomengineer.tumblr.com/post/95857324876/everybody-knew-about-the-bands-version-and-dylan

 

Now here is a good example of a great cut not in the 2 CD set.

 

Yep, it is -- I mentioned it over on the sister-thread:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...2-cd-or-boxed-set.387295/page-4#post-11241522

 

Yeah, when you mentioned it as a itunes app track, I thought maybe it was not in the complete set. But it is in the complete set, right?

 

Oh yes, it is in the big box. I just wanted to identify it as the track that popped up in the iTunes app (which I don't have, BTW)

 

Wow, um, Don't Ya Tell Henry seems like a peculiar choice for promoting a 6 CD box set. I mean, I love it, but I can't imagine it converting anyone.

 

The Complete Basement Tapes are not available anymore on the Pono-Music-Sote. Any reasons for that?

 

My guess is that Pono had the 30 second previews up by mistake.

"Gosh, boss, great news for Pono! Dylan's Basement Tapes page on the website has gotten a ton of hits! People are really checking out the 30 second samples!'

"What?? Who told you to make them live? Our agreement with Columbia says the clips aren't supposed to be live until 11/1! Take 'me down and hope Columbia hasn't noticed!"

 

I found them on pono:
https://ponomusic.force.com/ccrz__C...45606d59c68509e&type=Album&artistId=undefined

 

Whew!

 

Updated links to complete songs and samples:

Odds And Ends (Alternate Version): http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/bob-dylan-basement-tapes-odds-and-ends-premiere-20140826

Dress It Up, Better Have It All: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/bob-dylan-the-band-dress-it-up

Don’t Ya Tell Henry: https://music.yahoo.com/blogs/music...rack-from--basement-tapes--set-141409647.html

Lo and Behold (Take 1): http://noisey.vice.com/blog/bob-dylan-lo-and-behold-basement-tapes-alternate-cut

Ain't No More Cane (Take 2): http://phantomengineer.tumblr.com/post/95857324876/everybody-knew-about-the-bands-version-and-dylan

30-second samples of all songs: https://ponomusic.force.com/ccrz__C...45606d59c68509e&type=Album&artistId=undefined

 

Point taken, but I gotta believe that the wholesale price for the 6-CD set is no more than $100, which translates to barely $1 million gross on sales of 10,000 copies. Which may sound like real money, but it amounts to a rounding error on Sony's bottom line.

 

The release of the legendary Basement Tapes is as much a symbolic gesture as a money-making proposition for Sony, IMO. An individual album can be a loss-leader, but if it inspires people to pick up other titles in the Dylan catalog, or even purchase new Sony stereo equipment to listen to it, then it's a winner in their book.

Sony also enjoys having a blue-chip stable of artists like Dylan, Springsteen, Elvis, etc., in their vaults in case some new technology arises and they're able to release it all again in a brand new format.

 

From my own experiences in the publishing world, I would disagree with this point of view. Media companies have different tiers of business that have different levels of expectation. I was under contract to a very large publishing company at the same time as one of the primaries in the Fisher-Buttafuoco scandal (when it was hot news). The expectations (and promotional budget) for my book were a tiny fraction of what the other book got, but both were expected to turn a profit and contribute positively to the company's bottom line. Our book sold enough to transition from hard cover to paperback, but not enough for it to be revised (that would have meant new plates 20 years ago, more overhead). If it sold more they would have green lighted a revision, if it sold less, they would have never done the paperback. I assume somewhere someone has a chart for this kind of thing. So if the Basement box makes a million dollars, someone at SONY is doing their job.

 

Sony has a lower wholesale cost than the other big 2 as well, so its an even lower profit margin than you are discussing. It's probably closer to $70 or $80 on the 6 cd but the real money is in what other Sony products you decide to buy in conjunction or shortly after

 

Well, certainly that's been Sony's (and before that, Columbia's) philosophy for many years, going back to the mid-60s when Clive Davis granted some then-unprecedented contract concessions to keep Dylan on the label.

That said, I think that Sony & other labels will be very picky about how they spend for "blue-chip" artists going forward, given how Springsteen's $110 million deal in 2005 probably cost the CEO of Sony BMG Music his job. (Note to Baseball/Phillies fans: Feel free to compare this to the Ryan Howard contract, though it hasn't cost the Phils' GM his job — yet.)

 

No question about that, Ray. And kudos for the Buttafuoco reference, a name that taps into my inner middle-schooler & makes me smile every time!

 

Yeah, I was in middle school too then. Yeah, that's the ticket.

 

Actually, they called it "junior high" back when I went. But when I use that term, people look at me like I'm using a flip phone or something.
Oh, wait a minute...I do that, too.