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Preserving newly written Bob Dylan songs for copyright is the reason why the Band's Garth Hudson rolled tape at Big Pink, but The Basement Tapes were something much more than songwriting demos. Greil Marcus dubbed it a celebration of the "old, weird America" in his 1997 book Invisible Republic, connecting these songs to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, adding an extra layer of myth to tapes that were shrouded in mystery from the moment bootlegs started to circulate. The Basement Tapes Complete strengthens portions of that legend while simultaneously puncturing it. Certainly, the six-disc box -- its first five discs assembled according to Hudson's numbering system, with the sixth disc collecting sessions discovered later -- feels substantially different from the LP released in 1975, where the overall picture was distorted by Robbie Robertson adding sometimes significant overdubs and including Band recordings that weren't cut during those seven months in 1967. This is not a minor thing. These sly revisions gave the 1975 album a slight veneer that's been stripped away by this unfussy, startlingly clear remastering, but the big difference is that the chronological sequence on The Basement Tapes Complete gives the set a narrative. The first two discs are the band warming up, playing a bunch of old songs that are often of more recent vintage than the old, weird America reputation suggests -- there's a clutch of Johnny Cash songs, a couple from Ian Tyson, a song apiece from Hank Williams, John Lee Hooker, Curtis Mayfield, and Dallas Frazier, a cross section that underscores how this was the birth of what would be called Americana -- and then on the second two discs, Dylan starts tying these disparate strands together on his originals. Many of these songs, usually the wildest and woolliest, showed up in 1975, so the news here arises from the sometimes quite different alternate takes and the major tunes that have been bootlegged widely over the years: the ghostly "I'm Not There," the winding modern spiritual "Sign on the Cross," the rambling, vulgar blues "Get Your Rocks Off," and the even wilder "Bourbon Street." These songs are necessary additions to the canon, but what gives The Basement Tapes their real resonance is the stuff that happens in the margin. It's the half-remembered covers, it's sterling throwaways like "Silent Weekend," it's Dylan turning his early songs upside down, it's hearing Bob and the Band stumble around as they're trying to find a groove. This is the wondrous thing about The Basement Tapes: this is music made with no expectation that anybody outside of a small circle would ever hear it. Of course, the opposite happened. The Basement Tapes leaked out and became an enduring part of the legacy of both Dylan and the Band but also American music as a whole, as it stands at the crossroads of so many different strands of American culture.
Condition:NEW. Brand New Factory Sealed
TRACK LISTINGS
Disc 1
1 Edge of the Ocean - Bob Dylan
2 My Bucket's Got a Hole in it - Bob Dylan
3 Roll on Train - Bob Dylan
4 Mr. Blue - Bob Dylan
5 Belshazzar - Bob Dylan
6 I Forgot to Remember to Forget - Bob Dylan
7 You Win Again - Bob Dylan
8 Still in Town - Bob Dylan
9 Waltzing with Sin - Bob Dylan
10 Big River - Bob Dylan
11 Big River - Bob Dylan
12 Folsom Prison Blues - Bob Dylan
13 Bells of Rhymney - Bob Dylan
14 Spanish is the Loving Tongue - Bob Dylan
15 Under Control - Bob Dylan
16 Ol' Roison the Beau - Bob Dylan
17 I'm Guilty of Loving You - Bob Dylan
18 Cool Water - Bob Dylan
19 The Auld Triangle - Bob Dylan
20 Po' Lazarus - Bob Dylan
21 I'm a Fool for You - Bob Dylan
22 I'm a Fool for You - Bob Dylan
Disc 2
1 Johnny Todd - Bob Dylan
2 Tupelo - Bob Dylan
3 Kickin' My Dog Around - Bob Dylan
4 See You Later Allen Ginsberg - Bob Dylan
5 See You Later Allen Ginsberg - Bob Dylan
6 Tiny Montgomery - Bob Dylan
7 Big Dog - Bob Dylan
8 I'm Your Teenage Prayer - Bob Dylan
9 Four Strong Winds - Bob Dylan
10 The French Girl - Bob Dylan
11 The French Girl - Bob Dylan
12 Joshua Gone Barbados - Bob Dylan
13 I'm in the Mood - Bob Dylan
14 Baby Ain't That Fine - Bob Dylan
15 Rock, Salt and Nails - Bob Dylan
16 A Fool Such As I - Bob Dylan
17 Song for Canada - Bob Dylan
18 People Get Ready - Bob Dylan
19 I Don't Hurt Anymore - Bob Dylan
20 Be Careful of Stones That You Throw - Bob Dylan
21 One Man's Loss - Bob Dylan
22 Lock Your Door - Bob Dylan
23 Baby, Won't You be My Baby - Bob Dylan
24 Try Me Little Girl - Bob Dylan
25 I Can't Make it Alone - Bob Dylan
26 Don't You Try Me Now - Bob Dylan
Disc 3
1 Young but Daily Growing - Bob Dylan
2 Bonnie Ship the Diamond - Bob Dylan
3 The Hills of Mexico - Bob Dylan
4 Down on Me - Bob Dylan
5 One for the Road - Bob Dylan
6 I'm Alright - Bob Dylan
7 Million Dollar Bash - Bob Dylan
8 Million Dollar Bash - Bob Dylan
9 Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread - Bob Dylan
10 Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread - Bob Dylan
11 I'm Not There - Bob Dylan
12 Please Mrs. Henry - Bob Dylan
13 Crash on the Levee - Bob Dylan
14 Crash on the Levee - Bob Dylan
15 Lo and Behold! - Bob Dylan
16 Lo and Behold! - Bob Dylan
17 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Bob Dylan
18 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Bob Dylan
19 I Shall be Released - Bob Dylan
20 I Shall be Released - Bob Dylan
21 This Wheel's on Fire - Bob Dylan
22 Too Much of Nothing - Bob Dylan
23 Too Much of Nothing - Bob Dylan
Disc 4
1 Tears of Rage - Bob Dylan
2 Tears of Rage - Bob Dylan
3 Tears of Rage - Bob Dylan
4 Quinn the Eskimo - Bob Dylan
5 Quinn the Eskimo - Bob Dylan
6 Open the Door Homer - Bob Dylan
7 Open the Door Homer - Bob Dylan
8 Open the Door Homer - Bob Dylan
9 Nothing Was Delivered - Bob Dylan
10 Nothing Was Delivered - Bob Dylan
11 Nothing Was Delivered - Bob Dylan
12 All American Boy - Bob Dylan
13 Sign on the Cross - Bob Dylan
14 Odds and Ends - Bob Dylan
15 Odds and Ends - Bob Dylan
16 Get Your Rocks Off - Bob Dylan
17 Clothes Line Saga - Bob Dylan
18 Apple Suckling Tree - Bob Dylan
19 Apple Suckling Tree - Bob Dylan
20 Don't Ya Tell Henry - Bob Dylan
21 Bourbon Street - Bob Dylan
Disc 5
1 Blowin' in the Wind - Bob Dylan
2 One Too Many Mornings - Bob Dylan
3 A Satisfied Mind - Bob Dylan
4 It Ain't Me, Babe - Bob Dylan
5 Ain't No More Cane - Bob Dylan
6 Ain't No More Cane - Bob Dylan
7 My Woman She's A-Leavin' - Bob Dylan
8 Santa-Fe - Bob Dylan
9 Mary Lou, I Love You Too - Bob Dylan
10 Dress it up, Better Have it All - Bob Dylan
11 Minstrel Boy - Bob Dylan
12 Silent Weekend - Bob Dylan
13 What's it Gonna be When it Comes Up - Bob Dylan
14 900 Miles from My Home - Bob Dylan
15 Wildwood Flower - Bob Dylan
16 One Kind Favor - Bob Dylan
17 She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain - Bob Dylan
18 It's the Flight of the Bumblebee - Bob Dylan
19 Wild Wolf - Bob Dylan
20 Goin' to Acapulco - Bob Dylan
21 Gonna Get You Now - Bob Dylan
22 If I Were a Carpenter - Bob Dylan
23 Confidential - Bob Dylan
24 All You Have to Do is Dream - Bob Dylan
25 All You Have to Do is Dream - Bob Dylan
Disc 6
1 2 Dollars and 99 Cents - Bob Dylan
2 Jelly Bean - Bob Dylan
3 Any Time - Bob Dylan
4 Down by the Station - Bob Dylan
5 Hallelujah, I've Just Been Moved - Bob Dylan
6 That's the Breaks - Bob Dylan
7 Pretty Mary - Bob Dylan
8 Will the Circle Be Unbroken - Bob Dylan
9 King of France - Bob Dylan
10 She's on My Mind Again - Bob Dylan
11 Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad - Bob Dylan
12 On a Rainy Afternoon - Bob Dylan
13 I Can't Come in with a Broken Heart - Bob Dylan
14 Next Time on the Highway - Bob Dylan
15 Northern Claim - Bob Dylan
16 Love is Only Mine - Bob Dylan
17 Silhouettes - Bob Dylan
18 Bring it on Home - Bob Dylan
19 Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies - Bob Dylan
20 The Spanish Song - Bob Dylan
21 The Spanish Song - Bob Dylan
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