Bob Dylan Basement Tapes

The official release of The Basement Tapes – which were first heard on a 1968 bootleg called The Great White Wonder – plays with history somewhat, as Robbie Robertson overemphasizes the Band's status in the sessions, making them out to be equally active to Dylan, adding in demos not cut at the sessions and overdubbing their recordings to flesh them out. As many bootlegs (most notably the complete five-disc series) reveal, this isn't entirely true and the Band were nowhere near as active as Dylan, but that ultimately is a bit like nitpicking, since the music here (including the Band's) is astonishingly good.

In 2003, Columbia/Legacy reissued 15 selected titles from Bob Dylan's catalog as hybrid SACDs. Each title was packaged as a digipak, containing the full original artwork. On each of the titles, and on each of the layers, the remastered sound was spectacular, a considerable upgrade from the initial CD pressings. Five of these titles – Another Side of Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde, Bringing It All Back Home, Slow Train Coming, Blood on the Tracks, Love and Theft – also had 5.1 Surround Sound mixes.

The Basement Tapes makes me feel warm and comfortable, like putting on a warm flannel blanket on a chilly night. The songs are relaxed and low-key, with an unpretentious style that invites the listener into this timeless collection of real Americana tunes. Many of the songs feel like they could have been written in the 1800's, they have such a timeless quality. As far as the actual music, most of the songs are generally what you could call folk-rock, in that eclectic style The Band did so well. The singing is relaxed and pleasant, with none of the vicious snarl that Dylan had used when he moved from acoustic folk to electric. I think a lot of the charm of this album is because the musicians believed they were only recording rough demos that were never meant for public release. Hence, there was no pressure to be perfect. But what perfection they achieved in their relaxed, low-fi setting. If you like The Band, you will like this album. If you like Dylan, you will like this album. Even if you don't like The Band or Dylan, you may still like this album, which stands as a unique musical accomplishment.

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II, also known as More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits, is the second compilation album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on November 17, 1971 by Columbia Records. With Dylan not expected to release any new material for an extended period of time, CBS Records president Clive Davis proposed issuing a double LP compilation of older material. Dylan agreed, compiling it himself and suggesting that the package include a full side of unreleased tracks from his archives. After submitting a set of excerpts from The Basement Tapes that Davis found unsatisfactory, Dylan returned to the studio in September 1971 to recut several Basement songs, with Happy Traum providing backup. The final package included one previously uncollected single, "Watching the River Flow", an outtake from the same sessions, "When I Paint My Masterpiece"; one song from Dylan's April 12, 1963 Town Hall concert, "Tomorrow Is a Long Time", and three songs from the September sessions, "I Shall Be Released", "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", and "Down in the Flood". The remaining tracks were drawn from existing releases.

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II , also known as More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits, was the second compilation album released by Bob Dylan. With Dylan not expected to release any new material for an extended period of time, CBS Records president Clive Davis proposed issuing a double LP compilation of older material. Dylan agreed, compiling it himself and suggesting that the package include a full side of unreleased tracks from his archives. After submitting a set of excerpts from the The Basement Tapes that Davis found unsatisfactory, Dylan returned to the studio in September 1971 to recut several Basement songs, with Happy Traum providing backup.