List of Basement Tapes songs
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''The Basement Tapes'' is a collection of over 100 songs recorded by
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
and his then-backing group, the Band, in the summer of 1967 in West Saugerties, New York, just outside
Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
. Recording sessions began in a den known as "The Red Room" in Dylan's home, before moving to an improvised recording studio in the basement of a house known as
Big Pink Big Pink is a house in West Saugerties, New York, which was the location where Bob Dylan and The Band recorded ''The Basement Tapes'', and The Band wrote their album ''Music from Big Pink''. The house The house is located at 56 Parnassus L ...
, where
Rick Danko Richard Clare Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter, and singer, best known as a founding member of the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. During ...
,
Richard Manuel Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, best known as a pianist and one of three lead singers in The Band, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and ...
and
Garth Hudson Eric "Garth" Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a ...
lived. Roughly half the songs recorded on ''The Basement Tapes'' were covers of
traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...
and blues
ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
s,
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
songs, and
country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
, and half were original compositions by Dylan. Fourteen basement tape songs appeared in 1968 on a demo privately circulated by Dylan's publishing company, Dwarf Music. Public awareness of the basement recordings increased with the release of the first bootleg, ''
Great White Wonder ''Great White Wonder'', or ''GWW'', is the first notable rock bootleg album, released in July 1969, and containing unofficially released recordings by Bob Dylan. It is also the first release of the famous bootleg record label Trademark of Quality ...
'', in 1969. In 1975 CBS officially released '' The Basement Tapes'', but only sixteen of the twenty-four songs were recorded by Dylan and the Band in Woodstock in 1967. The other eight tracks were recordings by the Band from different times. Subsequently, more and more basement recordings have been unearthed and illicitly released, culminating in the release of a five-CD bootleg set in 1990, ''The Genuine Basement Tapes'', containing 108 tracks. Two songs, " I Shall Be Released" and " Santa-Fe" were officially released on ''
The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 ''The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3'' is a box set by Bob Dylan issued on Columbia Records. It is the first installment in Dylan's Bootleg Series, comprising material spanning the first three decades of his career, from 1961 to 1989. It has been c ...
'' in 1991. "I'm Not There" was released on the soundtrack album accompanying the biographical film about Dylan, directed by
Todd Haynes Todd Haynes (; born January 2, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender ...
, named after the song. "Minstrel Boy" was released in 2013 on '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971)''. The songs of the Basement Tapes have been catalogued by
Greil Marcus Greil Marcus (born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics. Biography Marcus wa ...
in his book '' Invisible Republic'', and by Sid Griffin in his critical study ''Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, the Band, and the Basement Tapes''. On November 4, 2014, Columbia/Legacy issued '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete'', an official 6-CD box set containing 138 tracks which comprise all of Dylan's basement recordings, including 30 never-bootlegged tracks. Below is an alphabetical list of songs from these recording sessions. This list does not include songs that feature only the members of the Band.


Songs


Footnotes


Sources

* Barker, Derek. ''Bob Dylan: The Songs He Didn't Write: Bob Dylan Under the Influence'' (New Malden: Chrome Dreams 2008). * Griffin, Sid. ''Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, the Band, and the Basement Tapes'' (London: Jawbone, 2007). * Heylin, Clinton. ''The Recording Sessions 960–1994' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995). * Marcus, Greil, with Michael Simmons. ''The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969–1971)'' CD booklet (2013). * Marcus, Greil. '' Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes'' (New York: Henry Holt, 1997) later re-published as: * Marcus, Greil. ''The Old, Weird America'' (New York: St Martin's Press, 2001) * Sounes, Howard, ''Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan'', Grove Press, 2001.


See also

* ''The Basement Tapes'' (1975 album) * '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete'' * List of ''Basement Tapes'' songs (1975)


External links


Bob Dylan 1967 session pages
at
Olof Björner Olof Björner (born November 26, 1942 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish researcher who has specialized in documenting the live performances and recording sessions of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In addition to operating bjorner.com, a web ...
's website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Basement Tapes songs Basement Tapes Lists of songs The Band songs 1970s-related lists