Customer Reviews

Basement Tapes

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1 star:		(7)

 

 

The Basement Tapes revealed that Bob Dylan, the visionary voice of a generation, the man who changed the world with a guitar, a harmonica and a hound-dog voice, was also a funny guy. These legendary Saugerties, NY "Big Pink" sessions with the Band show Dylan, recovering from a mysterious motorcycle accident and raising young kids, kicking back and having some fun with his pals and some music. The tunes are great, and many of them are completely non-sensical which is quite a departure for the composer of "Chimes of Freedom," etc. If you've never heard songs like "Tiny Montgomery," "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread" or "This Wheel's on Fire" (which is quite possible since radio doesn't play anything but "like a rolling stone") you may be surprised. It's a sound that isn't really comprable to anything else in his catalogue, perhaps because he never intended to release them. This is the closest you could ever come to being a fly on the wall at a Dylan recording session. My only regret is that they have never released more from the sessions; over 100 songs were recorded in this period, many of them covers like "Folsom Prison Blues," others original, like the hypnotic "I'm Not There (1956)" and majestic "Sign on the Cross." They are available if you know where to look. A "Complete Basement Tapes" would be my vote for the next volumes of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series.

A few thoughts on the official Columbia Records Basement Tapes album:

The informal sessions recorded during the summer of 1967 mostly at Big Pink in West Saugerties, New York, are one of the essential bodies of work in the history of American music, as rich in their manner as the Louis Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens, Robert Johnson's 1936 - 37 recordings, or Hank Williams' MGM recordings. Their beauty is such that even this dodgily compiled and inferior sounding official release from 1975 cannot diminish their importance and their influence on an entire generation of musicians.

As a few reviewers have noted on this page and elsewhere, the album as released is a bit of sleight-of-hand. The vast majority of tracks by The Band included here were not in fact recorded at the same time, or even in the same place (the legendary "Big Pink") as the Dylan tracks here. Partly, this is attributable to Robbie Robertson's disturbing tendency to obfuscate his own role i!n the formation of The Band's signature sound, and his de-emphasis of the collaborative nature of this wonderful group. In 1975, Robertson and Rob Fraboni compiled the official Basements album, and Robertson included a group of Band tracks on the official album, presumably to allege that he was writing songs along with Dylan at Big Pink. Unfortunately, there's little evidence to support this inference. The Band's earliest self-penned songs often came from Richard Manuel, who unfortunately is not alive to attest to his role in the Band's early years. Rick Danko is also no longer with us, while Garth Hudson and Levon Helm are generally disinclined to speak about the matter, leaving Robertson to parlay his falsehoods unchecked. In the wake of the Capitol reissues, most of The Band recordings supposedly from the Basement sessions have now been restored to their rightful chronology, and with mostly correct recording information, and much-improved sound quality. "Yazoo Street Scanda!l" (recorded January 10th, 1968), "Orange Juice Blues," "Katie's Been Gone" (both likely recorded in September 1967), "Long Distance Operator" (written by Dylan, recorded in Los Angeles, February 21st, 1968), and "Bessie Smith" (recorded sometime between 1969 and 71) all postdate the actual Big Pink sessions. All of these tracks were subjected to manipulations in the studio, most likely in 1975, to make them more 'lo-fi' and to make them better fit in with the true Big Pink recordings of summer 1967. For the lowdown on this, see also Dave Hopkins' article "The Band Remasters," on The Band's website, and Barney Hoskyns' rejected (by Robertson, for reasons that become clear once the two sets of liner notes are compared) liner notes to the first four Band reissues.

It seems that Robertson was introduced to the practice of taking credit for things he did not do quite early on: Several of the tracks recorded with Ronnie Hawkins in the early 1960's bore writing credits that !listed Robertson as writer or co-writer of songs he definitely did not write. Roulette Records label boss Morris Levy seems to have left an impression on Robertson in this respect, assigning writing credits to his girlfriend and Robertson, as well as Levon Helm, presumably for the purposes of personal gain. The disturbing aspect of this is that it underscores what has been, for Robertson, a career-long tendency to obscure the facts surrounding his recorded output.

Recently, bootleg albums of the proper Big Pink material have featured much better sound quality than even the legendary 5 CD bootleg The Genuine Basement Tapes. Whether these new, official release quality mixes of these recordings were prepared by bootleggers or by Columbia/Sony in preparation for a future and much needed official release of the complete Basement Tapes (possibly as further volumes of the Bootleg Series) is open to debate. What is important at this point in time is the knowledge that the ster!eo recordings made at Big Pink, given proper treatment, can be released in excellent stereo sound quality, almost on par with recordings made in a 'proper' recording studio. When will the world at large be able to easily obtain recordings of important Dylan works such as "The All American Boy," "Sign on the Cross," "I'm Not There," the superior alternate take of "Too Much of Nothing," the hilarious and entirely different alternate of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," plus fine alternates of "Nothing Was Delivered," "Odds and Ends" and much more? What of the many, many wonderful cover songs recorded during the Big Pink Sessions: "Bonnie Ship the Diamond," "The Banks of the Royal Canal," "Four Strong Winds," "(Now and Then) There's a Fool Such as I," and many, many more? How about the wonderful-sounding undubbed stereo versions of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" "This Wheel's On Fire"? Columbia Records, when are these recordings going to available to those who don't care to wander through th!e numerous and varying bootlegs of this material?

An interesting if highly conjectural account of these recordings and their role in American Culture can be found in Greil Marcus' sometimes-brilliant, sometimes-aggravating book-length study, Invisible Republic. A more concise, fact oriented and sometimes-vitriolic account of the official album's deceptive nature can be found in Dylan scholar Clinton Heylin's book Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, pages 54 - 68.

I do recommend this album as an inexpensive and readily available introduction to the still mostly hidden glories of the Basements. Until Sony/Columbia or Dylan decides to grace this world with an official proper release of this material, The Basement Tapes double album will have to suffice. It's a great listen, really. Nothing at all like Blonde on Blonde, which preceded it, or John Wesley Harding, which followed it. The Basement music is timeless, deathless, often beautiful, sometimes humorously beaut!iful, sometimes poignant, and occasionally absolutely ravishing in its' exploration of what lies at the heart of what Greil Marcus termed the "weird, old America." Robertson's terse, economical guitar solo at the end of "Goin' to Acapulco" is a gem all by itself. Don't miss it.

I know, I know . . . it seems inevitable perhaps that one will be produced someday. But as Columbia (and Dylan himself) have made major errors in reading the public's desires (see Infidels and the upcoming Bootleg Series addition) when and if in fact this will happen is anyone's guess. So I propose that anyone who would like to see a re-mastered authoritative edition (and not another "best-of" watered down compilation of live or alternate versions of Dylan tunes that, while wonderful, have been packaged and re-packaged in some form or another over and over again - - how many live versions of "Blowin' In the Wind" do we need anyway?) of some of the finest material Dylan ever produced ("Sign On the Cross" and "I'm Not There (1956)" (the latter of which has provided the title for a MAJOR MOTION PICTURE for God's sake) as well as covers of "Four Strong Winds" and "A Fool Such As I" and alternate tracks of great, if lesser known, tunes too numerous to list here) please take the advantage of this forum and simply respond to this review as helpful. Perhaps then Columbia will get the message. And hopefully they'll have the wherewithal to hire someone like Greil Marcus or Paul Williams (and not Jeff Rosen, who should have been fired from the Bootleg Series long ago) to oversee the project and make sure this music is finally given the treatment it deserves. "Some of these bootleggers, they make pretty good stuff."

I'm an audiophile, and I must admit it sometimes gets in the way of appreciating great music. Possibly the greatest example of this is The Basement Tapes. Being a long-time Dylan fan I excitedly bought this album when it was finally released in '75. With all the mystique behind it, I had great expectations. But it just sounded so lo-fi, and the songs were not where my head was at in '75, so I never really gave it it's due. Of course, I purchased it again in the CD age, but still never really sat down and gave it my undivided attention. When I finally did, I realized what I'd been missing all those years. First, the album is not as lo-fi as I thought. Though recorded primitively, it is evident that great care was taken to get a good balance between the instruments and vocals. It's true that the fidelity is better on some cuts, but I don't buy the fact that the Band cut some of these tracks in the studio after the Basement Tapes sessions.

Anyway, what matters here are the songs and the way they are performed. Man, are these guys hot! To my ear, this is the best vocals you'll ever hear from Richard Manuel, Rick Danko and Levon Helm. The instrumental backing is superb, at once totally sympathetic yet totally inspired. Oh, and Bob's in pretty good form, too. These songs have a wit, humor and accesability that seems to get stronger on every hearing.

There is a reason that these sessions are legendary. Buy it, listen to it, and discover why so much mystique surrounded these sessions in the first place. Absolutely timeless music.

Sony, please give us the entire sessions!

Some people love this album, including most critics. Others don't see what the big deal is. They claim the playing is not serious and the sound quality is weak. Well, they're right...and they're wrong. The point to this album is how Bob Dylan and The Band manage to capture a special creative moment on tape. The songs are not polished or lavishly produced in a studio, but if they were I don't think they would have the same appeal.

The album is hypnotic, real and humorous. The songs fit well together and there are plenty of gems including "Going to Acapulco", "Nothing Was Delivered", "Orange Juice Blues" and "Wheels On Fire". Other artists don't make pure, honest music like this anymore and it's a shame.

This album is timeless regardless of what some might think about the lack of production. By the way, "Clothes Line Saga" is one of the funniest songs ever done, but catch the point of the song in the line..."I just do what I'm told, so I did it of course!....only Dylan could come up with something so grabbing after such silliness.

I share Alexander Lynn's complaint that much great Dylan music (in particular "Sign on the cross") that has long circulated as bootlegs was left out of this package, and hope that an official "genuine Bootleg tapes" will make an appearance someday.

For all historians or fans of Bob Dylan or The Band, these recordings are essential. Many fans will have more exhaustive bootleg copies anyway, but for casual listeners or people not familiar with this aspect of Dylan, the official Basement Tapes CD is an excellent introduction to the sort of relaxed, traditional Americana-influenced music he made with the Band in the basement of Big Pink, the necessary "bridge" between his albums "Blonde on Blonde" and "John Wesley Harding".

Alexander Lynn points out in his review here that the Band's contributions to this set weren't recorded at Big Pink but at the studio where they recorded their first album. Nonetheless, none of the 4 or 5 CD "genuine Basement tapes" that I have seen contain the Band's own songs presented here -- not even their version of "Don't ya tell Henry". There is little doubt that they played all these songs in that basement but perhaps some of those recordings don't survive -- therefore, as part of the historical record, I'd support Columbia's (and Robbie Robertson's?) decision to include those recordings here, though the packaging is admittedly deceptive. Subsequently, better remasterings have shown up as bonus tracks on re-releases of the Band's own records.

That brings me to Lynn's chief complaint: that "this is attributable to Robbie Robertson's disturbing tendency to obfuscate his own role in the formation of The Band's signature sound, and his de-emphasis of the collaborative nature of this wonderful group... The Band's earliest self-penned songs often came from Richard Manuel". Given that of the five tracks here that were penned by the Band, three are credited or co-credited to Manuel (in addition, he shares credits with Dylan for "Tears of rage"), it is a strange accusation. Manuel's influence is clear, in the music and in the credits, in "Music for Big Pink" and to a lesser extent on their next two albums: after that, he appears to have lost his songwriting muse. There is no crime here: many great musicians were not great songwriters (think Louis Armstrong, Bill Evans, ...)

Levon Helm, in his autobiography, does accuse Robertson of taking undue credit, but it is an accusation that comes years late and is denied credibility by the fact that the Band found it so hard to write new material after they regrouped in 1983. On the Band's early recordings Manuel has plenty of credit. Helm, Danko and in particular Garth Hudson have much less credited to them, but it could just be that they weren't such talented songwriters, brilliant musicians though they were. It is impossible to doubt Robertson's or the young Manuel's songwriting talent and there's no evidence, on this record at least, that Robertson chose tracks to misrepresent his contributions to the group.

The Complete Basement Tapes, on five CDs, is the real deal. An essential recording for Dylan fanatics to be sure.

This poorly mastered, poorly packaged double CD is another matter. The fraudulent Band tracks really do dilute this collection. Substituting Band recordings made AFTER "Music from Big Pink" for indisputable "real" basement tapes classics like "I Shall Be Released" and "Quinn the Eskimo" is truly unforgivable. I admit that the 5-CD set may STILL not be a commericially viable proposition but why not release just the so-called "Basement Tapes Acetate". This fourteen song "LP", rumoured to be recorded by Dylan to fulfill his expiring Columbia Records contract, purportedly consisted of the following tracks:

1. Million Dollar Bash
2. Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread
3. Please Mrs. Henry
4. Down in The Flood
5. Lo and Behold!
6. Tiny Montgomery
7. This Wheel's On Fire
8. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
9. I Shall Be Released
10. Tears of Rage
11. Too Much of Nothing
12. Quinn the Eskimo
13. Open the Door, Homer
14. Nothing Was Delivered

Throw in "Going to Acapulco", "Odds and Ends", "Clothesline Saga", and "Apple Suckling Tree" (all Dylan tunes) and you have a potential blockbuster. I really wish Columbia would delete this two volume bulky monstrosity with its dopey circus pictures and treat these recordings with the respect it deserves. Especially now since The Band numbers have been released properly on THEIR "remastered" series.

"Basement Tapes" is a great record. They pulled off somethingthat's really tough to do. They made something in an ageless, classic Americanastyle without being stilted or hemmed in by the conventions they loosely adopted. To me, this is Bob Dylan at his very peak, having shucked off that Greenwich Village psychoanalytical dross and plumbed the depths of the bayous and blues joints where he always wanted to be. He and the Band somehow got to some mystical place in these recordings never achieved before or since by either group together or separately.

This record is a raw, emotional roller coaster executed through a series of deceptively simple, melodic tunes. The fact that it was digitally "cleaned up" is a good thing, not a bad thing, in my opinion. It is much more listenable that the bootlegs (some of which I have), yet it doesn't lose an iota of their spirit.

If the 5-record set is every issued, I'll surely buy it, but the lack of the complete version shouldn't keep anyone away from this one. This is a fabulous record, one of the best five in my collection. If someone said, what's American music about, this is one of my answers. If Dylan has made only this record, he'd have been a rousing success as an artist.

Okay, a lot of this material has seen official release, and it's not likely to get re-packaged or augmented any time soon, so here's whatcha gotta do: download this from someplace legal (like here) so Bob will get his money (give him a string bean -- he's a hungry man!). Actually, just download these: Odds And Ends, Million Dollar Bash, Goin' To Acapulco, Lo And Behold!, Clothes Line Saga, Apple Suckling Tree, Please Mrs. Henry, Tears Of Rage, Too Much Of Nothing, Yea! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread, Crash on The Levee, Tiny Montgomery, You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, Nothing Was Delivered, Open the Door Homer and This Wheel's On Fire.

Then get Quinn the Eskimo from Biograph. The Bootleg Series 1-3 has Santa Fe and I Shall Be Released. I'm Not There is on the soundtrack album of the same name. You now have twenty tracks with a running time of about 62 minutes. Burn it. The result gets five stars. This is the album that goes between Blonde On Blonde and John Wesley Harding on your Dylan shelf and in the artistic chronology. Yeah, it's rough (it's a home recording), but it's real. In lieu of a new package, cut out a picture of Bob and slide it into the jewel case. Tell him I said it was alright.

There's something really cool about the idea of Bob Dylan and The Band in the summer of 1967, holed up near Woodstock in upstate New York, far away from the "Summer of Love" hoopla, "Sgt. Pepper," and psychedelia in general, making decidedly anti-hip genre-defying music that has remained timeless (unlike all those psychedelic "masterpieces"). "The Basement Tapes," a two-record set finally issued in 1975 in the warm post-"Blood on the Tracks" glow of Dylan's career, is a sampler of those fabled summer sessions in the basement of "Big Pink" and, although it was never originally intended for mass release, it contains a good chunk of Dylan's (and The Band's) greatest work. Dylan's "Please Mrs. Henry," "Yea! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread," and "Lo And Behold!" best exemplify the cheerful, easygoing madness of this music, but just about every track is a unique delight, particularly "K! atie's Been Gone," the best of The Band's half-dozen tracks. It's a drop-dead gorgeous Richard Manuel-Robbie Robertson composition with one of Manuel's most affecting vocals. If you don't already own this album, you should. (See if you can spot Neil Young among the throng in the cover shots, taken in the boiler room of the Los Angeles YMCA in '75.)