The Basement Tapes

Think about the music of 1967 and you think of Sgt. Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour,  Are You Experienced?, Surrealistic Pillow, The Doors.

Almost 40 years later its funny to think that the best and most influential music of that tumultuous year was made by six stoned guys in a basement in upstate New York recording demos as a goof.

But today even the best of the psychedelic music of that era sounds dated  where The Basement Tapes sound timeless. More than that, The Basement Tapes are the Rosetta Stone of the music we now think of as 'Americana' or 'alt.country.'  The Basement Tapes could be a new, lo-fi album by Wilco or Ryan Adams. The influence of the music was profound even in it's time. Neil Young obtained the open-reel safety copy of 19 originals and played them incessantly in the studio as he was writing and recording his classics in the 1970s. And the music is so rich in meaning that Greil Marcus has written an entire book just about this collection of stoned foolishness.

And yet, even in this era of CD boutique-ing, of archival concert releases and official bootlegs, The Basement Tapes proper have never been officially released.

Sure, Columbia put out a two-LP collection under that title in 1975. But for the official album the record company took the original stereo tapes, collapsed them into mono, overdubbed new parts (including drums which are largely excluded on the original performances), and filled out much of the album not with basement tapes but with in-studio demos recorded by the Band without Dylan.

But in the mid-1980s the original tapes—recorded by Band organist Garth Hudson using quality equipment left over from the 1966 world tour (half a dozen Neumann mics, 2 Altec tube mixers)--slipped into the hands of collectors and spawned a 5-CD bootleg series as well as a great 2-CD “best of....”

The tapes in their original form are mostly covers, but covers pulled up from deep within America's cultural consciousness. Many are folk songs that Dylan had been singing since 1962 in the coffeehouses of Dinkytown in Minneapolis-- "Po' Lazarus," "The Banks of the Royal Canal," "The Hills of Mexico," "Bonnie Ship the Diamond." Others are new and old country material "Rock, Salt and Nails," "A Fool Such as I," "Quit Kickin' My Dog Around" (first recorded in 1916 and then in 1922 by Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers), and a fabulous string of Johnny Cash covers.

Then there are the phenomenal originals full of timeless, surreal, off-hand brilliance that sound like they could have been written 100 years before—"I Shall Be Released," "Million Dollar Bash," "Crash on the Levee," "Please Mrs. Henry," "Open the Door, Homer," "You Ain't Going Nowhere." And other still unreleased originals like "All You Have to To is Dream," "First Time on the Highway," "Sign on the Cross," and the eerie "I'm Not There (1956)" with its dummy lyrics that always seem on the verge of making sense before dissolving.

“He would pull these songs out of nowhere,” Band guitarist Robbie Robertson told Marcus. “We didn't know if he wrote them or if he remembered them. When he sang them you couldn't tell.”

The songs move freely from the ancient to modern, from cover to original, from goofball and hilariously profane ("What's a matter Molly dear? What's a matter with your mounds?/What's it to ya, Moby Dick? This is chicken town") to mournful and transcendent ("I Shall Be Released," "Tears of Rage"). Its is that effortless swing between one and the other, the sense of timeless, encompassing totality that is most sorely lacking in the official release which, by comparison, sounds like product. Damn fine product, but product nevertheless.

Today it might not seem odd for the hipster king of rock at the height of his earning potential to drop out and hole up in a basement to record Johnny Cash covers with his buddies, but that's only true because Dylan did it back when it seemed like an insane thing to do.

Reading Dylan's book, Chronicles Vol. 1, and listening to the original Basement Tapes, it becomes obvious that Dylan's tastes and aesthetics became the tastes and aesthetics of a generation. The sound of that transmittal from him to us is all there in the original Basement Tapes, hopefully Columbia will make the original tapes the basis of the next in its Bootleg Series of archival releases. Until then, do yourself a favor and dig up the Best of the Basement Tapes boot. You won't regret it.

Comments

[Tony Alva]

Another great post Jason...

Not the world's biggest Dylan fan, but am now inspired to check a few discs out.

"...most influential music of that tumultuous year was made by six stoned guys in a basement in upstate New York recording demos as a goof." Now, this is where I can relate big time. While nothing I ever recorded would ever be deemed influential by any stretch (or for that matter very good), my buddies and I did indeed get stoned, and recorded demos in a basement in upstate NY. Lot's of covers (Stones and trad blues), along with a few early attempts at original composition every now and again.

Very few non-musicians can understand why anyone, including Bob Dylan, would "drop out and hole up in a basement", but I reflect on those years of doing just that as the most fun I've ever had in my entire life. In 1967, this activity was relegated to those who could afford expensive recording gear, but that all changed while I was in college when a friend of mine scored a Fostex Model 80 eight track tape machine along with a little console for Christmas. We immediately cut a hole in a basement wall of my parent’s house for a window and built a nice adequately equipped little studio. I still remember the shock of hearing exactly how bad I was upon playback for the first time. While indeed demoralizing, it also propelled me to improve. Having a crap load of more talented players around didn't hurt either (they crawled out of the woodwork once word of the studio's existence got out).

After a couple of years of fooling around with the production element (who didn't think they were Steve Lilywhite at least once while sliding faders?), we were competent enough to explore the musical/song writing element a little bit more. Sure, we'd still record anybody who'd pay us $20, but when all our friends were home from college during the holidays and late summer nights/mornings... well, those sessions were reserved for the inner circle. While our finished product (and I use the term loosely), was far from press able, I can stop cringing every once in a while and hear moments of brilliance amongst the drek and it makes me smile wide. My folks still hold onto cassette copies of some of these mixes and get a kick out of embarrassing me by playing them in the company of my wife and family, but with my face red as the hissy cassette tape recalls for me flat note after flat note, I pine for the days and nights that ran together, from staying up three days straight in a room with no windows to the outside, for 2:00 am beer, cigarette, and other thing runs. Of the punch in that accidentally fucked up the whole track, of three or four long haired guys at the console twisting knobs to get that two-track mix just right. Of watching the field divide between those who had real genuine talent who would go on to record & play music for a living, and the rest of us who would end up doing it as an expensive hobby (just bought a Focusrite ISA 220 that I haven’t told my wife about yet. I’ll slip it into the rack and she’ll never know it’s new).

If there is a heaven that I get to go to, I hope it’s a dank basement with a modest amount of recording gear in it with all of my music friends past and present joining me on their judgment day with a guitar case in one hand and a six pack in the other. I’m confident that Bob and his buddies feel the same…

[chervokas]

Tony, great comment. I too have spent my fair amount of time in those basements, beginning with the days as a kid when I would write horn charts for the little middle school neighbors and my little brother--two altos, a bari, and a flute. My recording experience began with an old Fostex 4-track cassette machine and every now and then I return to writing and recording music (tho now I've finally gone digital and collected some decent sounding gear like my restored RCA 77-DX ribbon mic). Because I was usually the one who could play the greatest number of instruments I was usually the one who wound up playing some instrument other than my own (piano), principally drums or bass (there were always plenty of guitar players). Did all the crazy stoned things, like recording a guitar part in which I bowed the strings with the side of a triangle (interestingly playing a Peavy guitar left in the basement by one of my brother's friends who is now the jazz critic for the NYTimes). And in my own basement I just did it all myself. And yeah, I too have sneaked gear into the rack knowing full well my wife won't know the difference!

Like he always has Dylan showed us how.

[Gerry]

Amazing thing, coming across this article & reading the posts.....I've just finished a project recording Bob Dylan ballads on a FOSTEX 4track!!
No basement though!

[Steve]

Always nice to read about the Basement Tapes. In addition to the incredible originals and fabulous choices of cover tunes, the tapes have one of the greatest vibes to them, just in terms of the "sound" of the room. One of those magical things that can happen with great artists, not unlike the Stones' Exile on Main St. There have been rumours for years that the B-tapes shall be released as part of the bootleg series, but that's yet to happen. Supposedly Dylan himself is not a huge fan of the recordings. For maximum enjoyment & appreciation of the music I recommend a pilgrimage to Big Pink in West Saugerties NY. The house is in the middle of nowhere, down a tiny hidden road. (I found directions on google.) It's still pink by the way.

[chervokas]

Steve-

I can completely understand Dylan's not liking The Basement Tapes. It's just like Tony said in his comment:

"My folks still hold onto cassette copies of some of these mixes and get a kick out of embarrassing me by playing them in the company of my wife and family ... my face red as the hissy cassette tape recalls for me flat note after flat note...."

But like he also says, there's a magic in The Basement Tapes that is impossible to reproduce.

That's why I imagine it's hard to master it for release. Even as a listening experience it enchants most when it's left just like it is--jump cuts as the tape player turns off and on in the middle of tracks, tracks breaking down, then masterpieces emerging in all their accidental imperfection. Boil that down to a collection of commercially releasable tracks collected on a CD, separated and indexed, and--like the near meaning in "I'm Not There"--the magic evaporates.

[Steve]

Excellent point Chervokas. As the first & ultimate bootleg, perhaps the Basement Tapes are best off staying that way. It brings to mind a line from "Sugar Bagy" at the end of Love & Theft:

"Some of these bootleggers, they make pretty good stuff
Plenty of places to hide things here if you wanna hide 'em bad enough"

[pedro]

I'm looking for directions to Big Pink. I have some friends all the way from Oxford, England who are in town recording up at Bearsville and they would like to make the pilgrimmage...
best,
Pedro