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

...as would the alleged live one-offs of Lily Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts and/or Black Diamond Bay (RTR, Salt Lake City, 5-25-76)!!!

Yeesh, responding to my own posts...definitely time to go to BED...

 

The recordings seem like they'd be quite obvious to organize in a chronological manner - how they appear on the tapes. Say, for instance, you're playing one of the reels and "Bells of Rhymeny" starts, if "Spanish is the Loving Tongue" is the next song on the reel, then it seems safe to assume that came next during recording. It would be odd to switch reels and record at random points along the tape.

The only real (reel?) challenge would be numbering the 20 different reels of tape. We really have no idea at what point Garth started numbering his pile of reels, so maybe the early tapes will be mostly guess work on the part of Garth Hudson in 1967 and the compilers now. Here's hoping the book makes it clear.

 

Yes, if anything I think this is where they may have erred here - because most of the track groupings appear relatively the same as they have on the boots - and as they would have probably been derived from their actual order on the tapes. So if anything, they may have some of the reels themselves out of order. Though you would think a little due diligence and some careful listening in this area would have corrected for this.

But like everybody else, I'll just sit tight and wait hopefully for a more clear explanation.

 

Listening to the MFSL SACD because of this thread bringing November's release to my attention.

Much obliged gents.

 

Yes, but doesn't it seem like maybe if there was a huge error in the ordering or chronology in Garth's "numbering system" that someone along the way would have noticed the same recording similarities or the order they're presented on boots, or whatever, that we're noticing/looking at and figure out where, when and if there's a problem?

That said, I also would't be surprised if people on the board are actually paying closer attention.

 

I understand what you're saying, and I wasn't trying to say that they are actually out of order. My knowledge of these tapes is really limited, so you'll have to ask GetRhythm more about what he believes is not put together correctly. I was just trying to make a general point that large groupings of songs are most likely in order, and that the reels themselves are probably what's out of sequence - if anything is actually out of sequence. I have no idea.

 

Forever Young for sure. Isn't that a complete standard by now, above and beyond the original artist?

 

Excellent work - it would be good to have all these lists in one place of course!

 

Hear hear!

 

Wiggle Wiggle... Arnie

 

Yes and No

 

It's a bit strange that 'Wild Wolf' - an alleged early version of 'I Shall Be Released' - comes after the two takes of the latter in the running order.

 

I've never heard about any rumored connection. Do you know where you read that?

I believe the lyrics circulated (and Heylin quotes a few tantalizing lines in Revolution in the Air) but I can't recall where. Anyone have them?

 

The segregation of so many tracks to disc 6, all deemed to be of poor audio quality by the compilers of the new box, is definitely causing a lot of confusion.

For instance, on the GBT boot, Next Time On The Highway has a clipped-off beginning, but the end of it goes directly into Tupelo (Big Flood), and it sure sounds like the two songs were originally on the same reel, recorded at the same time. But on the box, Next Time... is relegated to disc 6, while Tupelo is back on disc 2 with other"good" tracks. Slicing songs out of sequence like that really jumbles up the works.

I'm wondering if Garth might have kept lists of the songs/tapes in a notebook, or somewhere other than on the tape boxes themselves.

 

Here are some:

They say every wolf can be replaced
They say every distance a wolf travels is not near
So I remember every face
Of every wolf who put me here

I see my wolf come walkin'
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
The Wild Wolf shall be released ...

Joking, just joking. I couldn't pass up the opportunity for humor... Arnie

 

I got it from the Rolling Stone Article:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...ent-tapes-bootlegs-released-november-20140826

 

try harder

 

Ah, thanks! I think we are interpreting the author's intent differently. Now that I re-read that I can see how it could cause confusion, but I believe the semicolon is separating them as unrelated items.

"The previously unknown tracks include an epic, apocalyptic rocker, "Wild Wolf"; an early draft of "I Shall Be Released" with slightly different lyrics; a cover of Hank Williams' 1949 classic "My Bucket's Got a Hole In It"; and country-fied versions of "Blowin' in the Wind," "It Ain't Me Babe" and "One Too Many Mornings," featuring Band keyboardist Richard Manuel handling lead vocals on the first verse. "

 

What about the wolf standing next to me in this lonely crowd?

 

It's really too bad that Paul Williams isn't around for this release.

 

Speaking of the a Rolling Stone article. Sid on the unheard material: "The stuff that people haven't heard justifies, in every way, shape and form, all the hype, hubris and myth that surrounds these tapes," says folk musician and writer Sid Griffin, who wrote the liner notes for this new collection (which is also being released as a two-disc version and three-LP set). "Some of this stuff is mind-boggling."

Because the next two months of waiting aren't going to be excruciating enough.

 

Yes of course - sorry!

 

Here is a list of 21 Basement-era songs, in the sequence presented in Dylan's 1973 book, Writings and Drawings (I dusted off my tattered original hardcover copy) and these are the titles he was using for them at that time. Since the official '75 album was still two years away at that point, and I didn't partake of any sinful bootlegs during that period of my youthful innocence, some of these songs were complete enigmas to me. By my count, Bob had released only four of these titles himself prior to 1973, although many had been covered by a variety of other artists. Could this sequence represent the order in which the songs were originally written? Could the first four have been from the 1965-66 period? (Dylan was performing an electric version of Long Distance Operator in late 1965, IIRC.)

QUINN THE ESKIMO
MINSTREL BOY
DOWN IN THE FLOOD
LONG-DISTANCE OPERATOR
NOTHING WAS DELIVERED
I SHALL BE RELEASED
MILLION DOLLAR BASH
OPEN THE DOOR HOMER
PLEASE MRS. HENRY
TEARS OF RAGE
TINY MONTGOMERY
THIS WHEEL'S ON FIRE
TOO MUCH OF NOTHING
YEA! HEAVY AND A BOTTLE OF BREAD
YOU AIN'T GOIN' NOWHERE
LO AND BEHOLD!
COLTHES LINE
GET YOUR ROCKS OFF!
ODDS AND ENDS
DON'T YA TELL HENRY
SIGN ON THE CROSS

 

Looking at the picture of the tape box that was posted earlier, I noticed it was labelled "Bob & The Band." Was this written contemporaneously with the recording? If so, wouldn't that be the first known reference to the group under their eventual name?

The fact that certain tracks are just labelled "part of song" reminds me that we shouldn't get our hopes up too high that too many of the current circulating fragments will be restored to full length. But I'm hoping a couple exceptions creep in.

 

Were all of the fragments and cut-off tracks on the original reels, or were they truncated when the tapes were subsequently copied? "The answer, my friend," is comin' in November.