Bob Dylan & the Band - More Basement Tapes - Non-Album Tracks (1967)

In 1967, Bob Dylan and the Band recorded a huge amount of music that would become known as "The Basement Tapes." None of it was released at the time. But a two album compilation was released in 1975, and is included on many best albums of all time lists. A few songs were released here and there, such as "The Mighty Quinn" or "I'm Not There," but only a few.

Then, in 2014, the archival box set "The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete" came out. It's huge! It contains 138 recordings of 115 different songs, the vast majority of them previously unreleased. That totals over six and a half hours of music. All that is great, but it's actually too much of a good thing for me, unless I'm in a rare mood to take a really deep dive into this phase of Dylan's career.

A much shorter two CD version was released as well. But the problem with that is that there's a big overlap between the music on that and the 1975 version. I grew up on that 1975 album and I know all those songs really well. What I wanted was a compilation containing the best songs of everything NOT on that album (including the few that did get released here and there on other albums over the decades), with an emphasis on Dylan's original songs. Frankly, most of those six and a half hours are Dylan and the Band running through cover versions without knowing them well. It's for serious fans only.

Since I didn't see any collection like that, I made my own, which is this one. It turns out it's nearly exactly the same length as the 1975 "Basement Tapes" double album, except it's all different songs. (Almost: I included an early version of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" because the lyrics are almost entirely different. Plus, I included "Don't Ya Tell Henry," but this version of a Dylan original is sung by Dylan, whereas the 1975 version is sung by the Band.)

All but a few of the songs are Dylan originals. I believe the only cover versions are: "I Don't Hurt Anymore," "All American Boy," and "900 Miles from My Home." I ordered the songs in the order they were recorded, just as the box set did.

In my opinion, this album isn't as good as the 1975 "Basement Tapes," but it's a damn good album nonetheless. There are lots of songs here that could and should have been included on the 1975 one but weren't because Band guitarist Robbie Robertson put that album together and he didn't happen to fancy them. Then the songs languished in obscurity for decades, except for a lucky few. Although the 2014 box set helped, many have continued to be obscure because they were buried in a mountain of music that only serious Dylan fans have gone through carefully. This album should be as well known as Dylan's other 1960s albums.

By the way, this album is an hour and 23 minutes long, whereas the 1975 album is an hour and 17 minutes long.

01 Under Control (Bob Dylan & the Band)
02 I'm Your Teenage Prayer (Bob Dylan & the Band)
03 I Don't Hurt Anymore (Bob Dylan & the Band)
04 Baby, Won't You Be My Baby (Bob Dylan & the Band)
05 I Can't Make It Alone (Bob Dylan & the Band)
06 One for the Road (Bob Dylan & the Band)
07 I'm Alright (Bob Dylan & the Band)
08 I'm Not There (Bob Dylan & the Band)
09 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere [Take 1] (Bob Dylan & the Band)
10 I Shall Be Released (Bob Dylan & the Band)
11 The Mighty Quinn [Quinn the Eskimo] (Bob Dylan & the Band)
12 All-American Boy (Bob Dylan & the Band)
13 Sign on the Cross (Bob Dylan & the Band)
14 Get Your Rocks Off (Bob Dylan & the Band)
15 Don't Ya Tell Henry [Dylan Vocal] (Bob Dylan & the Band)
16 My Woman She's A-Leavin' (Bob Dylan & the Band)
17 Santa Fe (Bob Dylan & the Band)
18 Dress It Up, Better Have It All (Bob Dylan & the Band)
19 Minstrel Boy (Bob Dylan & the Band)
20 Silent Weekend (Bob Dylan & the Band)
21 What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up (Bob Dylan & the Band)
22 900 Miles from My Home (Bob Dylan & the Band)
23 Wild Wolf (Bob Dylan & the Band)
24 Gonna Get You Now (Bob Dylan & the Band)
25 All You Have to Do Is Dream (Bob Dylan & the Band)
26 Any Time (Bob Dylan & the Band)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15105790/BobD_1967b_MoreBasemntTapes_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I got lucky. It appears an alternate photo of the cover art for the 1975 "Basement Tapes" album was taken at the same photo session, and then never used. So that's what I have here, with some text added. It was a wide rectangular photo, so I had to crop some of it in order to fit it in a square space.