sleepy jack

"The Basement Tapes (1975)"


More work with the Band, most of this album was actually recorded in between Blonde on Blonde and John Wesley Harding. Now I remember reading about the recording of this in the Bob Dylan Chronicles, it was recorded in the basement of Big Pink in New York. Some of it feels incomplete, maybe it even is. Dylan would go to the house regularly and they would just sort of jam and what would come out of it was recorded. It's been awhile since I read the book so I'm not sure if that's exactly how it went but it was along those lines. I know it was a chill atmosphere that Dylan needed after his motorcycle accident.

The music here is rough and rootsy. This album isn't anything we haven't heard before but that doesn't make it bad. In fact Dylan does some of the best music he's done here It's stripped down, simple, great and just quintessentially Bob Dylan.

Favorite Lyric: "We pointed out the way to go / And scratched your name in sand / Though you just thought it was nothing more / Than a place for you to stand / Now, I want you to know that while we watched / You discover there was no one true / Most everybody really thought it was a childish thing to do / Tears of rage, tears of grief, must I always be the thief / Come to me now, you know / We're so low and life is brief."
Favorite Songs: Odds and Ends, Orange Juice Blues, Bessie Smith, Goin' to Acapulco, Tears of Rage, You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, Too Much of Nothing, Nothing Was Delivered, This Wheel's on Fire, Long Distance Operator, Open the Door Homer

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