The Basement Tapes
Occupation
- Bob Dylan - vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards
- Rick Danko - bass, mandolin, violin, voice
- Levon Helm - drums, mandolin, bass, vocals
- Garth Hudson - organ, piano, accordion, saxophone
- Richard Manuel - piano, harmonica, drums, vocals
- Robbie Robertson - lead guitar, drums, vocals
The Basement Tapes is the title of a 1975 studio album released by Bob Dylan and The Band.
Genesis
Bob Dylan crashed on 29 July 1966 near his home on his motorcycle, a 500 cc Triumph Tiger 100 (built in 1964), and retired after a mistake to back injuries. After his recovery, the members of his backing group The Band ( Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson and Rick Danko ) moved to the near Woodstock. They rented in February 1967 in West Saugerties a house that they "Big Pink" named because of its exterior paint. In the basement ( " Basement" ) of the house, met the five musicians and various guests from June to October in 1967 to make music spontaneously and informally with each other at jam sessions.
Garth Hudson installed at the beginning of a sound recording equipment, consisting of a borrowed two-track tape recorder, stereo mixers and 4 microphones. Per day originated as 7-15 tracks, initially classic rock and folk material, later also about 30 new Dylan compositions. Not all sessions were recorded on tape. The recording quality was poor even for that time, because none of the parties had knowledge of a sound engineer or music producer and the acoustics of the living space was not suitable for music recording. In total, 105 title developed without first serious publication was considered. After the end of the sessions in October 1967 a demo was extracted with 14 shots over the music publishing Dwarf Music ( part Dylan and his manager Albert Grossman ) filed for copyright and other musicians offered as demos.
Publication by other artists
First, the folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary grabbed the Dylan composition Too Much of Nothing, and released the song in November 1967, but only rank 35 on the pop charts was able to prove. The British pop band Manfred Mann Mighty Quinn chose and took the title on November 2, 1967 final, after they disagreed with various takes. Following the publication on 12 January 1968, this version became the number -one hit in many countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany. He has sold over 2 million times and thus the most successful titles of the Basement Tapes. The song also appeared on the Manfred Mann Mighty Garvey LP! Who came, 28 June 1968 on the market. On April 2, 1968, Dylan experienced Byrds You Is not Goin ' brought ' Nowhere out, penetrated hereby but only up to rank 74 before. The British, jazz-oriented band Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity took up in June 1968 This Wheel 's on Fire brought the song to number five on the British charts.
Bootleg - LP and LP official
Meanwhile, it was revealed by these hits the art and the audience that unreleased tape recordings from the basement ( "Basement Tapes" ) existed. Because on June 22, 1968 brought the editor of the music magazine Rolling Stone, Jann S. Wenner, under the heading " Dylan 's Basement Tape Should be Released" a cover story about the kept out of public shooting out. The original recordings of the Basement Tapes, Jann S. Wenner of classified as a demo recording, circulated in July 1969 as the first bootleg in rock history under the name Great White Wonder ( double LP), which is alleged to have converted 350,000 copies. However, the illegal pressure contained 23 tracks with interviews and songs that had nothing to do with the Basement Tapes. It was only on June 26 appeared in 1975 the official Columbia double LP The Basement Tapes, but that was with 24 tracks quite patchy (eg without Mighty Quinn ). Bob Dylan sings at 16 of the 24 songs, while the remaining eight songs sing members of The Band. The album was ranked 7th place in the U.S. LP charts, but did not develop this strong demand, which was expected due to the large interest.
Other Compilations
The breadth of compilations with the "Basement " material is overwhelming. The band released in July 1968 also material of the sessions on the album Music From Big Pink, a total of 11 tracks. Among them was the Dylan composition I Shall be Released, with 41 versions of the most frequently gecoverte title of the Basement Tapes. Published on 25 October 1990 on the labels Wild Wolf and Scorpio ( re-release 1999) The Genuine Basement Tapes, a 5 CDs extensive, almost complete collection of recordings from 1967, again as a bootleg ( " unofficial release" ). It was original recordings, without subsequent professional remixes and overdubs. Then, two versions of The Mighty Quinn are included. Both versions can also be found in the official Dylan catalog, the first on the album Self Portrait (8 June 1970), the second version appeared on the album Biograph (7 November 1985). On 31 March 2009 a reworked version appeared remastering.