Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes - where we're currently at (Part 6)

Having a tough time getting through all six CDs. The 2 disc version is awe inspiring. What am I not getting?

 

Those are good points. I just wonder who put the "6" sticker on that reel, and the second label reading: "Bob Cellar - 2nd Day."

 

The racehorse was killed by a lone gunman firing from the church with no upstairs while Richard Manuel's girlfriend watched TV on the grassy knoll

 

Nice visual. I can see it now: Bootleg Series 29 - The Lost Basement Tape Reels.

 

The one I can't get out of my head lately is One Man's Loss!

 

Wide stereo or would you prefer the crunching centered?

 

Nothing was sourced from the Fraboni reels. The parts not taken from the original reels:
Reel #4 (from I'm a Fool for You to I'm In the Mood for Love - from a cassette dub of original reel)
All American Boy/Sign on the Cross (from the 1971 copyright compilation reel)
Goin' to Acapulco/Gonna Get You Now (reel-to-reel dub)
All You Have To Do Is Dream (DAT dub from reel)
Reel #16 (from a '91 Sony dub of original reel, if I read Heylin's Uncut article right - and the original itself, of course, was a compilation from earlier reels)

So that means all of disc 5 (except for 5 tracks) is from copies, along with the first half of disc 2.

 

I'm A Fool For You could have been a hit on par with Just Like A Woman, IMO.

Some enterprising soul is bound to edit it together into one piece of music, and post it someplace easily accessed.

I hope.

 

Could he have considered touring again?

 

That looks pretty accurate. Garth had an empty box where the original Reel #16 was supposed to be, IIRC.

 

I think so, too. It's a really nice song, coulda been a hit for him.
Considering that he was still writing stuff like that, it makes me wonder if those wonderfully absurd songs he wrote and put on that 14-song acetate was a sort of F-U to Grossman and friends.

 

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it

 

Crash on the Levee is one where the earlier take is better IMO - Nothing Was Delivered and Quinn ( where the tempo is a little faster) also. Apple Suckling Tree I like both takes equally.

 

I see that sideways label as reading

BLUES---
900 Miles - Mary Don't You Weep (though it looks like the "Y" and "W" are messed up to me)
<arrow>
7 1/2 - Wheel's On Fire -- Band Track (not sure about "Track")
<ditto marks>
<? possibly 7 1/2 again?> -- String Bass (?) --- Band ....
​

So I think those are Band Only takes at the end, including 2 takes of This Wheel's On Fire

I really don't see "Wild Wolf" here at all

 

Waiting for Basement Scraps "Complete" - Deluxe Edition with hardback book

 

I asked at a local brick-and-mortar and they said the UK edition is available now but much more expensive

 

Nice work!
Kind of sad we're reduced to trying to read illegible photos, though....

I agree there's a good chance 'Wild Wolf' was on reel 15. On the other hand, the blank spots/question marks on the reel could be the various Dylan originals that the compiler couldn't name (all the new ones, basically).

 

Wow, nice enlargement!

101 Mary Lou, I Love You Too
102 Dress It Up, Better Have It All
103 Minstrel Boy
104 Silent Weekend
105 What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up
106 900 Miles From My Home
+ 111 Wild Wolf

I see:
- "3 3/4" (tape speed) and "BLUES" -- must be What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up (sequenced right after Silent Weekend on the box)
- 900 Miles - Mary Don't You Weep
- the arrows must reference the other arrows on the front of the box (Mary Lou, Dress It Up?)
- "7 1/2" then might be Wheel's On Fire, then ?
- "3 3/4" then illegible to me

 

Also: What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up and Wild Wolf both have a lot of tape hiss on them in their remastered versions, making it quite possible that they were recorded at the slower tape speed of 3 3/4 ips.

EDIT: In the Uncut article, Heylin states that Wild Wolf was at the end of Reel #16.

 

There's a peculiar charm to hearing great, talented musicians just fooling around - even if they mess stuff up, there are flashes of off-the-cuff brilliance that are unlike what one gets in a studio performance. When musicians play for themselves and each other instead of for posterity there can be a very different feel.

As a jazz lover (far more so than a rock/pop fan) I really value the spontaneity, looseness and camaraderie on display here - not to mention Dylan's ability to do with words what most musicians only do with music - make up new versions on the fly, in the moment.

As a Dylan fan, I also appreciate seeing Dylan just having fun, being nonsensical and not "making a statement" in lots of these songs - it's a side we don't see a lot of on the albums (maybe the radio show comes closest, in a way - or his between-song chatter in early live recordings)

 

Bonus Disc - 30 minutes of 70's TV while RM's girlfriend makes coffee

 

I think you're right on the 3 3/4 (seems obvious now) but whatever that is after it really doesn't look like it could be "Wild Wolf" to me (could be an alternate title?)

Does Wild Wolf use the string bass?

 

I'm more than willing to believe it's there, I just don't see it in the writing as such

 

One of my favorites mini-sessions on the Basement Tapes is the three-song acoustic sequence featuring Bob on 12-string guitar: Young But Daily Growing, Bonnie Ship the Diamond, and The Hills of Mexico. Rough around the edges, sure, but they sound so much better on the remastered set. I never thought I would get to hear them in such high quality. And sometimes I feel like editing out the "Garth you're just wasting tape" comment at the end, which kind of lets the air out of that performance.

Regarding Hills of Mexico, a/k/a Buffalo Skinners, Dylan told this story in his book, Chronicles (p. 249):

- Dylan and the Hawks on tour, in Hawaii, en route to Australia, which dates the story to 1966; Dylan encounters his old friend from Minnesota, Bonnie Beecher, who's working as an extra on a John Wayne film, In Harm's Way, being filmed on one of the islands, according to Bob.

Dylan and Ms. Beecher meet up with John Wayne.

JW: "I hear you're a folksinger...sing something."

(Dylan sings him "Buffalo Skinners")

JW: "I like that. Left that drovers' bones to bleach, huh?"

BD: "Yup."

True story? Probably not -- In Harm's Way was released back in 1965. I keep this in mind whenever Dylan tells us a yarn.

​

 

I'm not a musician but it actually does sound like a stringed bass being played [very different sound to Rick's contribution on most of the other material, and he's able to do lots of little quick runs in the breaks between verses (sound kind of like "glissandos" - I think that's what you'd call them)]...