Tiny Tapes

Bob Dylan & The Band - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes - Complete (2014) [6CD] {Columbia}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.11 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 944 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 78 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | 8875016122
Rock / Folk Rock / Roots Rock / Songwriter

Preserving newly written Bob Dylan songs for copyright is the reason why the Band's Garth Hudson rolled tape at Big Pink but The Basement Tapes were something much more than songwriting demos. Greil Marcus dubbed it a celebration of the "Old, Weird America" in his 1997 book Invisible Republic, connecting these songs to Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, adding an extra layer of myth to tapes that were shrouded in mystery from the moment bootlegs started to circulate. The Basement Tapes Complete strengthens portions of that legend while simultaneously puncturing it. Certainly, the six-disc box – its first five discs assembled according to Hudson's numbering system, with the sixth disc collecting sessions discovered later – feels substantially different from the LP released in 1975, where the overall picture was distorted by Robbie Robertson adding sometimes significant overdubs and including Band recordings that weren't cut during those seven months in 1967.

A double-disc distillation of the six-disc box The Basement Tapes Complete, The Basement Tapes: Raw can't quite be seen as an expansion of the 1975 double-LP The Basement Tapes but rather a necessary revision…

Bob Dylan & The Band - The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes - Raw (2014) [2CD] {Columbia}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 695 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 291 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 1.09 Gb | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | 88875019672
Rock / Folk Rock / Roots Rock / Songwriter

A double-disc distillation of the six-disc box The Basement Tapes Complete, The Basement Tapes: Raw can't quite be seen as an expansion of the 1975 double-LP The Basement Tapes but rather a necessary revision. Shepherded by the Band's Robbie Robertson, that 1975 double-vinyl inserted Band recordings where they didn't belong, suggesting the group were equal partners when it was really Dylan's show.

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…