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

We should all buy 2 each (at least). I'm already in for the 2 and 6 disc jobbers. Make great gifts.

 

Yes, but just to put another baby to bed, they should release the Copyright Extension set in the USA first, to finish off the early studio years.

 

More like 8 discs would be my guess but we don't know how many of the session reels are extant, or do we?

 

In the tradition of Dylan's quickie cuts of Jet Pilot and Midnight Train, I wonder if these snippets are all we're going to get of these songs on the new box:


PO' LAZARUS (0:57)
BIG DOG [fragment]
LOCK YOUR DOOR (0:19)
DOWN ON ME (0:40)
I'M ALRIGHT (0:59)
SILHOUETTES (0:22)

 

I like the idea of including it in VOLUME TWO of the COMPLETE ALBUMS collection. Makes it available to the fans who really want it, without taking up a BS "slot" for the folks who are waiting for more revelatory sets. But SIDE TRACKS taught me not to get my expectations too high!

I'll be honest. As cool as I think those two sets are as collectables, much (not all!) of the actual material seems, well, sorta boring to me. This is certainly a YMMV call, though.

 

No we don't. We have session logs, but those don't have timings on them. So you really could be right here.

 

I can survive if the circulating version is all of the "Silhouettes" we ever get.

 

I agree that the older material would be primarily for completest-collector-crazies (are you lookin' at me?) who need every single version of Mixed Up Confusion, etc., but it really irked me that it wasn't made available everywhere. Now that the Basements are on the way, and a Blood on the Tracks box seems imminent, I have to agree that either a complete Blonde box, or a Gospel Years set would be most welcome.

 

This is just speculation, but Bob's editing style is uh rather unique, and considering that he was ultimately unhappy with Eat the Document, maybe he wanted to shoot additional edit pieces as he was working. Perhaps that's one of the reasons he was keen on having the guys join him in Woodstock (and one of the reasons it was never really finished to satisfaction).

After all he's a solo act, and they were his backing group for just 9 months when they came home from from Europe. If the Basement Tapes sessions really began in March 1967, that is another 10 months after they returned from Europe. He knew he wasn't going to do anymore touring, so why did he keep them around? For kicks I guess... but perhaps also for additional filming?

 

"On a Rainy Afternoon" (Basement Tapes) has always beguiled me.

The melody reminded me of either a childhood song, or an old 1960's pop tune,
like The Turtles or something....I could never quite place the phantom memory
until a few years ago when I realized it sounds (to me) like the old theme to Sesame Street.

 

Bob shot some footage with members of the The Band in Woodstock, in fact thats why they were first called in. Those photos probably have some link to that film.

 

I would like to see a wider release of these copyright extension titles. Don t mind if they are CD only. I missed out last time around. I hope they release them, within time.

 

Well said. I find a lot of the "sonically challenged" BT stuff to be like that for me, but that's a particularly good example.

 

Sorry, I sometimes forget that it was a limited release, and that they weren't widely available all over Europe. (And CDs would be just fine with me, too.)

 

That's a great article, thanks. Sounds like there's some really great/interesting stuff to be heard.
By the way, does that solo, tack piano version of "She's Your Lover Now" circulate? Is that the take on BS 1-3?

 

...AND it's got the final verse, which wasn't included in the "Lyrics" books for a long time.

 

I agree - and, then, sorta don't. There are so many written and unreleased songs from the "Born Again" years which I'd love to have, so that's the one I'm most interested in, but, just like a BS box of SP era stuff seemed like a horrible idea at the time when the BOTT was still not released (and for multiple other reasons) - we were all stunned by revelations of ASP and love that release and have had to completely rethink the era. I think I'm now really, sickly curious about other eras or albums that aren't looked upon favorably even MORE than I am about hearing BoB outtakes.

The first 3 BS discs proves that Dylan's vaults are filled with mysterious, bafflingly unreleased treasures. I'm enjoying the surprises and revisionism and revelations of the BS more than the "completism" of it (which, don't get me wrong, I'm also enjoying very much), so I'd honestly rather have 1980's era BS stuff (if they ever decide to get to it - or if it actually DOES have ASP-type quality revelations) or a "Desire/Street Legal/Rundown Studios" box. I'm sure I'm alone in this thinking, but anyone who said they really wanted a "Self Portrait" BS release a few years ago would have been chased by men with butterfly nets.

 

I thought "One Too Many Mornings" and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" can be downloaded on iTunes? I just tried and they are greyed out, and pre ordering the set does nothing.

 

The solo "She's Your Lover Now" is basically my favorite circulating unreleased Dylan performance (aside from some Basement Tapes) but boy, does it need an upgrade.

 

Maybe they're "on deck" as the next available preview tracks?

 

I recall dodging a few butterfly nets, now that you mention it.

It do find it amusing that after 20+ years, it's the "obvious" choices that still seem to hold so much potential to me. Feels like they've really taken their time to get at the low hanging fruit.

I will add I think an 80's set could have real potential. But it'd have to be approached with a lot of intelligence and creativity. Par for the course, I suppose.

 

Pitchfork article on "strangest and funniest moments" from the Basement Tapes.
http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/468-b...ts-on-bob-dylan-and-the-bands-basement-tapes/

^Nothing new there - but a perfect description for "Sign On The Cross:"
"...What began as pure holiness starts sounding just a little bit creepy..."

 

That's the tricky part of all this -- to my reckoning, the Street Legal/Rundown Studios-era material leads directly into the Gospel Years, while the earlier Desire era was a continuation of Blood on the Tracks.

Another Self Portrait successfully blended a lot of Dylan music from 1967 to 1971, but I'd rather have individual box sets of each era. (I wish they would have put all the Nashville sessions from 1969 onto one set, for example.)

 

That's such a tough dividing line. I suppose if I was compiling this stuff, I'd have to base my decision on the wealth of available material, but my instinct would be to put the SL stuff into the BOTT-era set. Then again...

 

To me, in a nutshell, it's like this:
- Planet Waves /Blood On The Tracks / Desire (+Last Waltz, for kicks)
- Street Legal / Budokan (or other, better live shows) / Slow Train Coming / Saved / Shot of Love
- Infidels....and onward.

EDIT: I omitted most of the live shows c. 1974-81