The Basement Tapes' can be heard as a manifesto for the '90s' underlying Americana agenda or as the greatest album never intended for commercial release. Homegrown 1967 recordings taped in the band's fabled big pink hermitage in Saugerties, New York, many of the 24 songs resonated across American and English rock and folk long before their belated 1975 release through studio interpretations by the Byrds, Fairport Convention, Manfred Mann, Peter, Paul and Mary, and numerous other acolytes, as well as through myriad unauthorised bootlegs. Good as the covers were, Dylan and the Band rolled their own with an extraordinary coherence that sounds only more authentic in these rough-hewn, intimate, always musical performances, which dovetail with Dylan's stark 'John Wesley Harding' and the Band's stunning debut, 'Music From Big Pink'.
Track Listing:
1. Odds and Ends - Bob Dylan (1.47)
2. Orange Juice Blues - Bob Dylan (3.39)
3. Million Dollar Bash - Bob Dylan (2.31)
4. Yazoo Street Scandal - Bob Dylan (3.29)
5. Goin' to Acapulco - Bob Dylan (5.27)
6. Katie's Been Gone - Bob Dylan (2.46)
7. Lo and Behold! - Bob Dylan (2.46)
8. Bessie Smith - Bob Dylan (4.18)
9. Clothes Line Saga - Bob Dylan (2.58)
10. Apple Suckling Tree - Bob Dylan (2.48)
11. Please, Mrs. Henry - Bob Dylan (2.33)
12. Tears of Rage - Bob Dylan (4.15)
1. Too Much of Nothing - Bob Dylan (3.04)
2. Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread - Bob Dylan (2.15)
3. Ain't No More Cane - Bob Dylan (3.58)
4. Crash On the Levee - Bob Dylan (2.04)
5. Ruben Remus - Bob Dylan (3.15)
6. Tiny Montgomery - Bob Dylan (2.46)
7. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Bob Dylan (2.42)
8. Don't Ya Tell Henry - Bob Dylan (3.12)
9. Nothing Was Delivered - Bob Dylan (4.23)
10. Open the Door, Homer - Bob Dylan (2.49)
11. Long Distance Operator - Bob Dylan (3.39)
12. This Wheel's On Fire - Bob Dylan (3.52)
Year of Production: 1975
