in early 1968 with “The Mighty Quinn” (a.k.a. The Grossman-managed duo Ian and Sylvia recorded "Tears of Rage", "Quinn the Eskimo" and "This Wheel's on Fire". Peter, Paul and Mary, managed by Grossman, had the first hit with a Basement Tapes song when "Too Much of Nothing" reached number 35 on the Billboard chart in late 1967. Folk and pop artists alike swarmed to these new Dylan compositions. Soon, the songs took on lives of their own. Word of The Basement Tapes spread quickly with the release of a 14-song demo tape circulated by Dylan and manager Albert Grossman via their Dwarf Music company. This fertile period of musical activity came to an end in October 1967 when Dylan decamped for Nashville to record his commercial comeback, John Wesley Harding, but not before Hawks/Band drummer Levon Helm had returned to the band’s fold in Woodstock. Dylan and the Four Hawks began their casual recording explorations in the Red Room of Dylan’s Woodstock home, soon moving to the basement of Big Pink, the West Saugerties home that would give its name to The Band’s 1968 debut Music from Big Pink.ĭylan and the future Band blended traditionals and covers with some of the most inspired songs of Dylan’s still-young career – songs that were pouring forth from him like “Quinn the Eskimo,” “I Shall Be Released,” “This Wheel’s on Fire,” “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and “Tears of Rage.” Some of these Basement songs were co-written with Band members, and all were deeply entrenched in the lo-fi, homespun sound that set them apart from the increasingly elaborate productions being spearheaded by the likes of The Beatles and The Beach Boys. In early 1967, Dylan reconvened with Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson – who, as The Hawks, had backed him on his famous (infamous?) 1966 world tour including the Manchester Free Trade Hall stop with its immortalized cry of “Judas!” to the newly-electrified folk singer. The crash near his Woodstock, New York home sidelined the superstar troubadour in one sense, but in another, gave him the freedom to come to terms with his skyrocketing career and its punishing pace. When Bob Dylan suffered the most famous motorcycle crash in rock and roll history on July 29, 1966, just a couple of months after the release of Blonde on Blonde, he was at a commercial and artistic peak. All versions are due on November 4.Īfter the jump: a look further into the world of The Basement Tapes, plus the full track listing and pre-order links! This iteration will also be presented as a 3-LP vinyl set. In addition to the 6-CD, 138-song box set, a 2-CD, 38-song highlights version of The Bootleg Series Volume 11 will be released as The Basement Tapes Raw. The tracks on The Basement Tapes Complete run in mostly chronological order based on Garth Hudson's numbering system.” Also, unlike the official 1975 release, these performances are presented as close as possible to the way they were originally recorded and sounded back in the summer of 1967. The eleventh installment of Dylan’s acclaimed Bootleg Series presents, for the very first time, six discs of The Basement Tapes – as recorded in the summer of 1967 by Dylan and the group that would later become The Band, and per the label, including “every salvageable recording from the tapes, including recently discovered early gems recorded in the ‘Red Room’ of Dylan's home in upstate New York.” In addition, this set – meticulously restored by The Band’s Garth Hudson and Canadian music archivist Jan Haust – is being presented “as intact as possible. On November 4, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will grant an official release to perhaps the most coveted collection of songs in Bob Dylan’s storied catalogue. Come all without, come all within, you’ll not see nothing like The Basement Tapes, Complete.
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