Bootleg Bob: Dylan's latest Basement Tapes
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
For all the good Dylan has done — recreating protest folk in his image, liberating pop lyric writing, re-establishing Vincent Price's mustache as a tonsorial viability — there's one thing he pioneered for which he gets little credit: removing the stigma of the bootleg.
For all the good Dylan has done — recreating protest folk in his image, liberating pop lyric writing, re-establishing Vincent Price’s mustache as a tonsorial viability — there’s one thing he pioneered for which he gets little credit: removing the stigma of the bootleg.
Before 1975’s legendary Basement Tapes, Dylan’s archives (and any unreleased demo work, really, from the Beatles, Stones and everyone in his wake) were the stuff of secret sales, white label and makeshift album covers. Now, of course, unreleased demos are part-and-parcel of the holiday box set.
Which brings us to the epic, just-released The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete (Columbia/Legacy), featuring 138 tracks recorded in 1967 by Dylan and The Band in the basement of Big Pink in upstate New York.
Much of the joy that comes from wandering through this sprawling, six-CD set is hearing how chilled and comfortable Dylan was with himself, his spirituality and his songwriting.
In the post-Newport Folk Fest existence, in which the folksy bard was torn down for going electric, his ramshackle confederates in The Band were fellow travelers along the often-existential (“Tears of Rage”) and sometimes-silly (“See You Later, Allen Ginsberg”) road to nowhere. Fans of Dylan’s current obsession with the blues will welcome the dark, dirty rendition of “Blowin’ in the Wind,” the blustery take on “Quinn the Eskimo” (his song for Manfred Mann) and the tenderhearted duet with Richard Manuel on “One Too Many Mornings” (how young they sound!). What does all this have to do with Dylan’s three shows this weekend? Probably nothing. Enjoy the ride, anyway.
Fri-Sun., Nov. 21-23, 8 p.m., $54-$139, Academy of Music, 240 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, kimmelcenter.org.
