The Basement Tapes
by Bob Dylan & The Band

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.
(Edited)

From Mercury TOP 100 COMMENTER 10/01/2013 04:19 | #87302 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

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!!!)

This album has almost become obsolete with the release of the bootleg series version. Still, it's a good album in it's own right, but as it says on the tin, it's Bob Dylan and the band, not just Bob. About a third of the album features just the Band, the rest with Dylan. Million dollar bash, is nonsensical, but wonderful, and, clothes line saga, and, please Mrs. Henry are enjoyable. It is a fun album with The Band's, long distance operator, also fine. One of the best songs from the sessions was, sign on the cross, which we can now hear thanks to the bootleg series. Good stuff.

From swhaze TOP 100 COMMENTER 11/07/2014 15:51 | #126405 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This album is perfect. It's fun, it's raw, it's 6 virtuosos coming together as young men and how blessed they were to be friends with each other and enjoy the spring of talent that was just beginning to flow from each of them.

Basically a collection of songs from the 'missing' era. Some better than others, but much more along the lines of what The Band produced on The Big Pink. If you like them, you'll like this.
I don't particularly.