Bob Dylan - The Basement Tapes [2LP]

Bob Dylan and The Band's The Basement Tapes returns as a double LP reissue, the fabled 1967 sessions that bootleggers chased for years before their official release in 1975.

After his 1966 motorcycle accident, Dylan retreated to Woodstock, and four members of the Hawks, soon to become The Band, followed him there. Working first at his house and then in the basement of a house nicknamed Big Pink, they recorded more than a hundred songs, mixing new originals, covers and traditional tunes for the sheer pleasure of playing together far from the spotlight.

Two-thirds of these 24 tracks feature Dylan with The Band, and they sound like nothing else in his catalogue: loose, funny, haunted and steeped in old American music. "Million Dollar Bash" and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" roll along with ramshackle joy, while "Tears of Rage" and "This Wheel's on Fire" carry a weary, almost biblical gravity. The remaining eight songs showcase The Band on their own, recorded between 1967 and 1975.

These songs quietly steered rock toward roots and storytelling, anticipating what would later be called Americana.

Set to arrive on two LPs, it remains one of the most mythologised records of Dylan's long career, and still one of the most fun.