Bob Dylan, explored
‹ Blood on the Tracks
Cover of The Basement Tapes

Listen to the album

Why it matters

Columbia finally released these 1967 recordings made with the Band near Woodstock in 1975, adding some Band-only tracks to the Dylan songs that had circulated for years on bootlegs.

In 1967, while Dylan recovered from his accident near Woodstock, he and the Hawks gathered almost daily to play, first at his home and then in the basement of a pink house in West Saugerties that the group shared. Garth Hudson recorded the sessions on a simple tape machine. They ran through old folk songs, country tunes and dozens of new Dylan songs, some funny and nonsensical, others haunting. Demo tapes went out to other artists, and hits followed for Manfred Mann, the Byrds and others, while bootlegs spread the music from 1969 on. When Columbia finally issued this double album in 1975, Robbie Robertson compiled it, adding tracks by the Band alone and some later overdubs. Critics welcomed it warmly, and its sound, rough, homemade and rooted in old American music, has influenced generations of musicians. The complete sessions appeared in the Bootleg Series in 2014.

Track list · 24 songs

  1. 1Odds and Ends
  2. 2Orange Juice Blues (Blues for Breakfast)
  3. 3Million Dollar Bash
  4. 4Yazoo Street Scandal
  5. 5Goin’ to Acapulco
  6. 6Katie’s Been Gone
  7. 7Lo and Behold!
  8. 8Bessie Smith
  9. 9Clothes Line Saga
  10. 10Apple Suckling Tree
  11. 11Please, Mrs. Henry
  12. 12Tears of Rage
  13. 13Too Much of Nothing
  14. 14Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread
  15. 15Ain’t No More Cane
  16. 16Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)
  17. 17Ruben Remus
  18. 18Tiny Montgomery
  19. 19You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
  20. 20Don’t Ya Tell Henry
  21. 21Nothing Was Delivered
  22. 22Open the Door, Homer
  23. 23Long Distance Operator
  24. 24This Wheel’s on Fire

Where its songs lead

Million Dollar Bash · Covered byMillion Dollar BashFairport Convention · 1969Fairport Convention recorded it on Unhalfbricking in 1969, six years before Dylan's version was released.Apple Suckling Tree · Borrowed the tune ofFroggie Went a Courtin’1992Its nursery-rhyme melody and question-and-answer lines are modelled on the old children's song Froggie Went a-Courtin'.Tears of Rage · Covered byTears of RageThe Band · 1968The Band opened their first album with this song from the basement sessions.Too Much of Nothing · Covered byToo Much of NothingPeter, Paul and Mary · 1967Peter, Paul and Mary had it out as a single in 1967, long before the basement recording was released.You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere · Covered byYou Ain’t Goin’ NowhereThe Byrds · 1968The Byrds released it in 1968 from the circulating basement demos, seven years before Dylan's version came out.Nothing Was Delivered · Covered byNothing Was DeliveredThe Byrds · 1968The Byrds recorded it for Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968, from the basement demos.

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