The basement tapes raw: the bootleg series /vol.11

Description

Méticulously restored for the first time from the original multi-track master tapes, The 6 CD + book box set represents the definitive chronicle of Bob Dylan's legendary sessions with The Band from 1967. Dylan's rise and his prodigious work ethic during this decade came to a sudden halt in July 1966 when he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in upstate New York. Bob Dylan then disappeared from the media radar for several months... While recovering from his injuries and staying away from the stage for the first time in several years, Dylan settled, with Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, and later, Levon Helm, in the basement of a small house, nicknamed "Big Pink" by the group, in West Saugerties, New York. This collective, which would become known as Bob Dylan and The Band, recorded over a hundred songs in the following months, including covers of traditional songs, ironic and humorous ditties, impromptu performances, and, above all, dozens of songs composed by Bob Dylan, with some future classics like "I Shall Be Released," "The Mighty Quinn," "This Wheel's On Fire," and "You Ain't Going Nowhere." The recordings themselves were not released until 1975, when Columbia Records published a meager selection of 16 of them on the album "The Basement Tapes" (this record also contained 8 new songs by The Band, without Dylan). "The Basement Tapes Complete," which is released on Monday, November 4, 2014, assembles, for the very first time, all the usable recordings from these tapes, including recently discovered gems recorded in the "Red Dome" located in Dylan's house in upstate New York. Garth Hudson worked closely with Canadian archivist and producer Jan Haust to restore the time-worn tapes to achieve a pure sound, thus preserving, for the first time, most of this work in digital format. The decision was made to present "The Basement Tapes Complete" as intact as possible. On the other hand, and unlike the official 1975 release, these tracks are presented as much as possible in the order in which they were recorded during the summer of 1967 while restoring their original sound. The tracks of "The Basement Tapes" follow each other in an almost chronological order, based on Garth Hudson's numbering system. This box set also includes a book about this famous period, illustrated with many unpublished photos...