Album of the day (#5558): The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan & The Band

BestEverAlbums — Sun, 8 Mar 2026 16:00:24 GMT

Author: BestEverAlbums

Posted: 03/08/2026 20:00

Today's album of the day

The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan & The Band (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1975.
Country:
Bob Dylan & The Band discography rank: 1 (out of 4 listed on BEA)
1975 rank: 17
1970s rank: 227
Overall rank: 1,094
Average rating: 79/100 (from 373 votes).

Tracks:
1. Odds And Ends
2. Orange Juice Blues (Blues For Breakfast)
3. Million Dollar Bash
4. Yazoo Street Scandal
5. Goin' To Acapulco
6. Katie's Been Gone
7. Lo And Behold!
8. Bessie Smith
9. Clothes Line Saga
10. Apple Suckling Tree
11. Please, Mrs. Henry
12. Tears Of Rage
13. Too Much Of Nothing
14. Yea! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread
15. Ain't No More Cane
16. Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)
17. Ruben Remus
18. Tiny Montgomery
19. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
20. Don't Ya Tell Henry
21. Nothing Was Delivered
22. Open The Door, Homer
23. Long Distance Operator
24. This Wheel's On Fire

indicates a top-rated track.

Top voted comments:

"Younger people say, "The bootleg series is the proper version." Older people say, "Oh it was all on bootleg, anyway, everybody had already heard it."

Not if you were 14 when this came out on LP, and didn't know what a bootleg was. This was like finding some sort of occult text from another world. I used to pour over every second of this version, trying to figure out exactly what it all meant, making up my own meanings, playing along on my acoustic. This is the version that brought Dylan to the teens of the 70s, along with Blood on the Tracks and Desire.

It's like the Memphis Jug Band came back to life in the late 60s. What an album."
- OldToad (Rating: 90/100)
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"30 September 2013-
It is hard to describe the merits and qualities of this album. For me at least. Because it is sorta strange. The bulk of it was originally recorded with The Band in Woodstock in '67. Dylan and The Band recorded A LOT more than this. And they didn't release it for awhile. Finally in '75 they released it on the heels of the overwhelming enthusiasm that greeted "Blood on the Tracks". BUT the recordings from that time were added to a bit and cleaned up. And even more weird was The Band randomly added about 8 songs they had recorded seperate from "The Basement".

Now the Band material that is added is pretty killer at times and in and of itself is always solid. It seems unnecessary is all. The Dylan and the Band material is BRILLIANT! It's hard to say what makes it sound so great. It just sounds utterly unrushed, unconcerned, non-chalant and relaxed. It feels like the weight has been taken off these guys' shoulders and they are just making cool music that they want to make. The stories and lyrics on here feel sorta non-sequitor at times. They don't feel particularly deep, or at least it doesn't feel like Dylan is going out of his way to make deep, important music or trying to top BoB.

The music is rough, tough, natural. It mixes all these great folk and country and rock elements together so well. There is just a lot of uniqueness and personality in here and The Band were obviously top notch.

Overall, while the whole release is about a 90 or 89, if I exclude the Band's added songs and just consider Dylan's material here with such classics as "This Wheel's On Fire", "Clothes Line Saga", "Million Dollar Bash", "Goin' to Acapulco", "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "Tears of Rage" and "Lo and Behold" etc, you're lookin' at an all time unimitable (although often attempted) classic!

Grade: 95/100

(Oh and won't that be the great Bootleg Series ever if they literally released and remastered ALL 100+ songs that are out there of the real Basement tapes? Whoa!!!)"
- Mercury (Rating: 95/100)
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About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

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Album of the day (#5558): The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan & The Band