The Official Bob Dylan Thread

[LouieB]

Bootleg 1-3 is certainly worth having.  Not so much Under the Red Sky.

 

LouieB

[MattZ]

If I have Biograph, all 60's/most 70's studio albums, Witmark and ASP, is Bootleg 1-3 still worth getting?

I am having a hard time thinking of any of the Bootleg albums that aren't critical, but 1-3 is definitely top 3. Along with Royal Albert Hall, and IMO Bootleg 8 (Tell Tale Signs) if you like late period Dylan.

[LouieB]

Yup "Royal Albert" is a must have.

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

Website up about the new Basement Tapes sessions:

 

Lost On The River

 

 

A Message from T Bone Burnett

 

Last autumn, I received a message from Bob Dylan’s publisher telling me that a box of lyrics had been found, all hand-written by Bob in 1967, during the time of the original Basement Tapes recordings. The question to me was, “Would you like to do something with these?” Shocked, I asked if Bob was into this, and having been told he was, I asked no more questions, but rather set out to come up with something that would do justice to Bob and be true to the spirit in which the lyrics were originally written. Bob had been collaborating with an extraordinarily talented group of musicians at the time, any of whom could have led their own bands. So, the first step was to find a group of song writers/band leaders who would be able to work together to write, sing, and perform melodies for these soulful and playful lyrics.

 

The artists we invited – Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Taylor Goldsmith, Jim James and Marcus Mumford – were equal to the task. Not only do they have the talent and the same open and collaborative spirit needed for this to be good, they are all music archaeologists. They all know how to dig without breaking the thing they are digging. We sent sixteen lyrics to each artist ahead of time, and they all showed up at Capitol Studios in the basement of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood in March of this year. Some had written a melody or two, others had written a dozen, but a couple of days before the sessions started, an additional eight lyrics from that same period showed up. Those lyrics, which no one had time to think about, led to some of the freest recordings.

 

The first day, we recorded one song – the killer “Down On The Bottom,” led by Jim James and supported mightily by the others. At the end of that day, we started looking at the number of songs we had in front of us – there were going to be multiple versions of many of the songs – and we didn’t want to turn this into any sort of competition, so we decided to record everything.

 

What transpired during those two weeks was amazing for all of us. There was a deep well of generosity and support in the studio at all times, which reflected the tremendous trust and generosity shown by Bob in sharing these lyrics with us in the first place. More than 40 recordings were created, the first 20 of which will be released this fall on Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes. Sam Jones captured all of it on film, and we’re creating a documentary that will give audiences an inside look at the making of this album and explore the historical context of Bob’s original Basement Tapes recordings and their enduring influence. We are all looking forward to sharing this project with you.

 

All good wishes,

 

T Bone

[LouieB]

I dunno.....is this unpublished lyrics thing a bit out of control or what?

 

LouieB

[NoJ]

Why didn't Bob sing his own songs?

[calvino]

I'll wait for it to hit the library system.

 

 

Last night I listened to a Rolling Thunder boot (New Orleans 5/3/76) --- T Bone sang a fantastically, awful version of Werewolves of London. Traveling around on that tour must have been a trip.

[LouieB]

A trip and a half. 

 

Dylan curated a Hank Williams project a few years ago with seriously mixed results.  Even the third volume of Mermaid Avenue has some dead spots. 

 

I totally understand trying to bring back the dead, such as Williams and Guthrie and I am such a nut case that I will probably buy this too, but really why not wait a few years when they can bring back Dylan and the Band?  Why not bring out the parts of the actual Basement Tapes that have not been officially released?  Rhetorical questions all.

 

LouieB

[i'm only sleeping]

This seems way much interesting that the above 'cover' (Mumford, really?) thing:

 

"on November 4th, Dylan will finally release the legendary sessions in their entirety: 138 tracks on six CDs, including 30 tracks that even fanatical Dylan fans never knew existed."

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-complete-basement-tapes-bootlegs-released-november-20140826

[Analogman]

That's good to hear. I figured it would happen someday. 

 

Amazon already has a page for it: The Complete Basement Tapes: The Bootleg Series Volume 11 (149 dollars)

[LouieB]

Finally.  This has been predicted for years and it is finally happening.  No more bullshit releases and bootlegs. 

 

LouieB

[MattZ]

Shit yeah.  too bad the whole thing isn't available on vinyl.

[LouieB]

Not sure what the point would be on vinyl. These recordings are low-fi anyway.  When they were on vinyl they were bootlegs and sounded like shit anyway.  A nice set of high quality CDs is going to be a joy.

 

LouieB

[NoJ]

I have a good portion of that new box set. Some of it is close to unlistenable, just really poor recordings (or low-fi as Louie said). It would be a tremendous challenge to "clean" it up. That said, I'm glad its coming out. It took me years and some serious begging to get it all together.

[LouieB]

The 5 CD bootleg from a few years ago was as close as we had and some of it genuinely sucks.  Perhaps a tape that is closer to the source will be better, but I am going to guess that huge swaths of this new set will also be of low quality and mostly of interest to obsessives like us.  I will be more than happy to add one more official bootleg to my shelves, but no one should expect some giant revelation.  I am guessing the missing songs are more fucking around, more folk material, more half-baked/unfinished songs, etc.  None the less at this stage Dylan is smart to release the rest of his archive while he is still around.  Why not cash in while he still can. 

 

LouieB

[NoJ]

Read "Million Dollar Bash" for a comprehensive overview of the recordings of the Basement Tapes.

[Analogman]

A few quotes I find interesting: (I believe I did not know about the overdubs until a few years ago.) (What I have posted below comes from Wikipedia - and are from various Dylan books.)

 

 

 

The authenticity of the 1975 album was questioned by a reviewer of the remastered version of the Band's Music From Big Pink, issued in 2000. Dave Hopkins noted that "Katie's Been Gone", which appears as a bonus track on the Big Pink reissue, is the same recording that appeared on The Basement Tapes, but now "in stereo and with improved sound quality beyond what the remastering process alone would provide". Hopkins declared, "The cat's out of the bag: 'Katie' and the other Band-only tracks on The Basement Tapes must have been intentionally muddied in the studio in 1975 so that they would fit better alongside the Dylan material recorded in the basement with a home reel-to-reel." Heylin also takes exception to Robertson's passing off the Band's songs as originating from the basement sessions. By including eight Band recordings to Dylan's sixteen, he says, "Robertson sought to imply that the alliance between Dylan and the Band was far more equal than it was: 'Hey, we were writing all these songs, doing our own thing, oh and Bob would sometimes come around and we'd swap a few tunes.'" Heylin asserts that "though revealing in their own right, the Band tracks only pollute the official set and reduce its stature."

 

 

 

In January 1975, Dylan unexpectedly gave permission for the release of a selection of the basement recordings, perhaps because he and Grossman had resolved their legal dispute over the Dwarf Music copyrights on his songs. Clinton Heylin argues that Dylan was able to consent following the critical and commercial success of his album Blood on the Tracks, released that same month: "After Blood on the Tracks, The Basement Tapes no longer had the status of a final reminder of Dylan's lost genius". In 1975, as well, the Band purchased Shangri-La ranch in Malibu, California, which they transformed into their recording studio.

 

Engineer Rob Fraboni was brought to Shangri-La to clean up the recordings still in the possession of Hudson, the original engineer. Fraboni had worked on Dylan's Planet Waves album, with backing by the Band, and the live Dylan–Band album Before the Flood, both released in 1974. Fraboni has described Robertson as the dominant voice in selecting the final tracks for The Basement Tapes and reported that Dylan was not in the studio very often. The stereo recordings made by Hudson were remixed to mono, while Robertson and other members of the Band overdubbed new keyboard, guitar, and drum parts onto some of the 1967 Woodstock recordings. According to Fraboni, four new songs by the Band were also recorded in preparation for the album's official release, one of which, a cover of Chuck Berry's "Going Back to Memphis", did not end up being included. There is disagreement about the recording date of the other three songs: "Bessie Smith", "Ain't No More Cane" and "Don't Ya Tell Henry". While Fraboni has recalled that the Band taped them in 1975, the liner notes for the reissued versions of the Band's own albums state that these songs were recorded between 1967 and 1970. Ultimately, eight of the twenty-four songs on The Basement Tapes did not feature Dylan, several of them studio outtakes postdating the sessions at Big Pink. In justifying their inclusion, Robertson explained that he, Hudson and Dylan did not have access to all the basement recordings: "We had access to some of the songs. Some of these things came under the heading of 'homemade' which meant a Basement Tape to us." Robertson has suggested that the Basement Tapes are, for him, "a process, a homemade feel" and so could include recordings from a wide variety of sources.

[jw harding]

Once again, Robbie Robertson, giant douchebag. 

[Analogman]

When I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame many years ago they had the reel to reel tape recorder that Garth used to make the tapes.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Good Lord...Robbie Robertson.

 

I remember when the 1966 live set officially came out several years ago, and some people tried to float that it was Robbie who was saying 'get fucking loud'.

I was shocked at the time he didn't run with that and try to leech some more fame off of Bob.

[Analogman]

I still think it was him. LOL

[Col. Hapablap]

The 5 CD bootleg from a few years ago was as close as we had and some of it genuinely sucks.  Perhaps a tape that is closer to the source will be better, but I am going to guess that huge swaths of this new set will also be of low quality and mostly of interest to obsessives like us.  I will be more than happy to add one more official bootleg to my shelves, but no one should expect some giant revelation.  I am guessing the missing songs are more fucking around, more folk material, more half-baked/unfinished songs, etc.  None the less at this stage Dylan is smart to release the rest of his archive while he is still around.  Why not cash in while he still can. 

 

LouieB

 

Sure, why not? I ordered the deluxe set, just as soon as a saw the picture of it on my Facebook feed. I didn't even look at the tracklisting!. I just ordered it straight away! With fans like us, why not make money from it, as long as the product is well put together, as the previous bootlegs surely have.been. Many of the non-live Bootleg Series discs have had at least a surprise or two.as well.

[nalafej]

Just announced a tour with many 3 night residencies. I may hit up a Chicago show since my friends made me leave mid set during Americananrama...

[LouieB]

I will buy it too. If it sounds even a bit better and includes material not before available and is annotated, etc, it will be more than worth it. This is some of the most famous material ever and some of the original motivation for people to bootleg records way back in the 60s.  Once again, what took so fucking long??

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

I wonder if Garth will get any money from this?