• We get a restored documentation/recording of Dylan’s legendary 1967 sessions with The Band.
• 6-disc set with 138 tracks
• Compiled from  restored original tapes
• 120 page deluxe-bound book containing rare and unseen photographs and memorabilia
• Extensive liner notes

Wow! Right?

We have the original album and a lot of us has collected bootlegs over many years, and the big question is: Are there something in this new release that we haven’t heard before?

Check out: Garth Hudson talking about the sessions at Big Pink

From Wikipedia:
“During his world tour of 1965–66, Dylan was backed by a five-member rock group, the Hawks, who would subsequently become famous as the Band. After Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident in July 1966, the Hawks’ members gravitated to the vicinity of Dylan’s home in the Woodstock area to collaborate with him on music and film projects. While Dylan was concealed from the public’s gaze during an extended period of convalescence in 1967, they recorded more than 100 tracks together, comprising original compositions, contemporary covers and traditional material. Dylan’s new style of writing moved away from the urban sensibility and extended narratives that had characterized his most recent albums,Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde, toward songs that were more intimate and which drew on many styles of traditional American music. While some of the basement songs are humorous, others dwell on nothingness, betrayal and a quest for salvation. In general, they possess a rootsy quality anticipating the Americana genre. For some critics, the songs onThe Basement Tapes, which circulated widely in unofficial form, mounted a major stylistic challenge to rock music in the late sixties.”

In my view, the two most comprehensive un-official releases have been:

Bob Dylan: A Tree with roots

From Bobsboots:
“A complete overhaul of the basement tapes. 128 tracks in total, completely remastered with a major leap forward in sound quality compared to the original 5CD set. Put together in a much more organized and logical sequence. High quality packaging, 2 booklets, extensive original source notes and reprints of important press coverage. Original pressing limited to 500 copies.”

 

&

The Genuine Basement Tapes vol. 1-5

5 cds, 103 songs. No overdubs, no remastering.

From Bobsboots.com:
“For all of it’s brilliance, and for some truly superb and impassioned renditions … still, Basement Tapes, as a whole (even the official ones), have never quite been my cup of meat. Of course, they document a most historic six month period in the lives of Dylan and the Band. They are essential to any serious collector. 
Volume one of this exhaustive series finds Dylan on 12-string guitar for some songs, and piano on others. There were so many reel-to-reel recordings made in Big Pink’s basement that some got stashed away and ‘lost’. This disc contains some incredible versions that would have surly found their way to official release, had they been found. They didn’t surface for nearly two decades.”

 

The new release has 10 more tracks than the “complete”, A Tree With Roots. However there are many differences in the sequence and there are many tracks not on the official release or these two bootleg-compilations. As far as I can see, these are tracks that are exclusive to The Bootleg series vol.11:

The list is edited, check the comment section for more information.

Edge of the ocean
My bucket’s got a hole in it
Roll on train
Mr. Blue
The Auld Triangle
Kicking my dog around
See you later Allen Ginsberg (alt. take)
Big Dog
Song for Canada
Blowin’ In The Wind
One too many mornings
A Satisfied Mind
It ain’t me babe
Ain’t no more cane (alt. take)
My Woman she’s a leavin’
Mary Lou, I love you too
Dress it up, better have it all
Minstrel Boy
What’s it gonna be, when it comes up
One kind of favor
Wild Wolf
If I were a carpenter
Dollars & 99 cents
Jelly Bean
Any Time
Down by the station
Hallelujah, I’ve just been moved
That’s the breaks
Pretty Mary
Will the circle be unbroken
She’s on my mind again
Northern Claim
Love is only mine

 

A lot(!) of exciting stuff for us Dylan followers! I may have slipped or missed something, feel free to correct me in the comments.

 

– Hallgeir