Wow, Dylan sounds, like, enthusiastic and cheerful. (Like the kind of person who would loan you his swimming pool.) Astonishing! Excuse me while I go scour the BT lyrics to find oblique references to Barnabas Collins.
June 17, 1967. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_No._6 The more famous Rochester riots were in 1964, but some accounts have additional rioting in Rochester during the "Long, Hot Summer" of 1967. December 3, 1967. What song was that? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_transplantation I think Dylan is pulling our leg. I hear no references to these events in these songs.
I think the point he is trying to make is that the songs are NOT a reaction to the events of the Summer of Love and the events of the day. However, the connection between "Too Much of Nothing" and race riots seems like a pretty logical one to me. "Too much of nothing, it just makes a fella mean."
Ahhhhhh. I could see that happening, inspiration-wise. But one would never be able to reverse-engineer and go "yeah, that sounds like a race riot song." Unlike, say, Hendrix's "Long Hot Summer Night," which might lead one to get there in spite of its own vagueness. (I'm not even sure that's what he's referring to there.)
Got my replacement set today and it looks very nice - worlds of difference . . . the record came double-packed this time with an LP mailer inside a box . . . no splits on the sleeves either, sigh.
Yeah, have to say it never, ever occurred to me before I heard the interview clip. If anything, I would have pointed in the vague direction of his unhappiness with his business affairs as the inspiration. I'd never venture to say that the song is "about" race riots (or "about" anything, really), but I can see the possibility of that being the inspiration.
For those of you who can't get enough of Bob circa 64-68, you might enjoy "Lo and Behold" by Coulson, Dean, McGuiness, Flint. I actually like their "Lo and Behold' better, and their Sign on the Cross and "Eternal Circle" are wonderful. Kind of like the Basement tapes should Bob have chosen to annunciate and Garth had more than one or two mics.
+1 I've read Heylin's articles and liner notes, and some of Griffin's new book, and I am going with these two as the surviving early "Red Room" reels: (I didn't attempt to list the tracks on the first reel in their original recording sequence.)
REELS "3"? and "4"? COPY OF REEL(s) from cassette 49:39 - box brand: unknown/missing - box labeled: unknown/missing - reel labeled: unknown/missing - tracks/time: 19 tracks @ 49:39 I'm a Fool for You (Take 1) I'm a Fool for You (Take 2) Next Time on the Highway Tupelo Kickin' My Dog Around See You Later Allen Ginsberg (Take 1) See You Later Allen Ginsberg (Take 2) Tiny Montgomery Big Dog The Spanish Song (Take 1) The Spanish Song (Take 2) I'm Your Teenage Prayer Four Strong Winds The French Girl (Take 1) The French Girl (Take 2) Joshua Gone Barbados I'm in the Mood + All American Boy (remastered from 1971 Copyright Reel) + Sign On The Cross (remastered from 1971 Copyright Reel) NOTES - 17 tracks (from I'm A Fool For You to I'm In The Mood) designated "Reel #4" per Clinton Heylin, who described it as "40 minutes" long, and claims it was the first reel to be recorded at Big Pink. - All but two of these tracks were remastered from a 1st-generation cassette copy of the original reel/reels, made by an associate of The Band in the 1980s; exact contents unknown; as newly remastered on the box set, these tracks match the running order of the same songs as they appeared on bootleg cassettes and CDs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's another great cover, released the same day as Music From Big Pink. I think it's pretty neat that Ian & Sylvia do a Basement tune, after Bob did a few of theirs in the Basement. And they do a beautiful rendition too.
From this point forward, some of the reels have stickers with numbers and other information on them -- Garth's "numbering system" at work? I don't know, but I'm going with them whenever possible.
I had always subscribed to the theory that the motorcycle accident prompted a radical break in Dylan's career, and that the Basement Tapes represented a radical break ftom Blonde on Blonde, but I was listening to the new 2-CD set tonight, and it struck me that tracks like "Yea Heavy and a Bottle of Bread" share a lot of the same surrealist wordplay as the Blonde on Blonde songs , and that "Rainy Day Women #12 & #35" could fit right in as a "basement song" next to "Yea Heavy," "Million Dollar Bash," and that strand of comic basement songs. Perhaps this is painfully obvious to everyone else, but it just struck me.
"BASEMENT 1." Ten tracks copied from Reel 8. and Reel 9., used as publishing demos, 1967; original stereo tracks presumably mixed down to mono. - box brand: Shamrock - box labeled: "Basement 1." Million Dollar Bash (Take 2) Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread (Take 2) Please Mrs. Henry Crash On The Levee (Take 2) Lo and Behold (Take 2) Tiny Montgomery This Wheel's On Fire You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Take 2) I Shall Be Released (Take 2) Too Much of Nothing (Take 2)
Wow, I am sure impressed with your work, HominyRhodes! Do you now have a complete (or near-complete) chronological list of all the songs in the 6CD set?
When you are ready to unveil it, I'd love to see it. I also hope you can post it in plain text format, please.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ COPY OF REEL "12." - 2 tracks @ 7:07 "Goin' To Acapulco" "Gonna Get You Now" According to Clinton Heylin, who apparently designated this as "Reel #12," these two tracks were remastered from a "reel-to-reel dub" of the original tape, found in Dylan's own archives; it's debatable when they were actually recorded. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (NOTE: I'm sequencing the brief version of Nothing Was Delivered (Take 3) on Reel 13 since it appeared in this spot on the bootleg tapes copied from the original reels.)
Yessir, will happily do so. Glad I'm not the only one still interested in this collection -- for me, it just keeps getting better.
Best archival release ever! I've been immersed in the Basement Tapes for the last 2 days and I can't get enough. So much great stuff to absorb. I also ordered the McGuinness Flint cd to top it all off! So far, I've counted only 30 tracks I don't really care for (mostly inferior, alternate takes and some turds [I'm looking at you King of France]). But I made a cdr of those that I'm keeping in my car to make sure I didn't miss anything. Now I just have to go reread all the previous threads to catch up...
Nice work Hominy. However, I'd say that 'Reel 6' definitely comes before 'Reel 5'. Why? Because of the use of the echo unit. 'Reel 6' is dry, whereas (at least the last part of) 'Reel 5' has the echo unit, as does 'Reel 7'. So my guess is that 'Reel 6' may indeed be 'Reel 2' from earlier on in the sessions (before the echo unit was used).