The Basement Tapes

The informal sessions began in summer 1967 at Dylan's home in Woodstock and moved to the basement of Big Pink in West Saugerties. Dylan and the Hawks recorded more than 100 tracks after his July 1966 motorcycle accident. The 1975 release has 24 tracks: 16 by Dylan and the Band and eight by the Band alone, recorded between 1967 and 1975, with overdubs added in 1975. It reached seven in the US and eight in the UK.

Two songs set Dylan's words to music by Band members: Rick Danko wrote the music for This Wheel's on Fire and Richard Manuel for Tears of Rage. The Band tracks include Orange Juice Blues by Manuel, Yazoo Street Scandal by Robbie Robertson, Katie's Been Gone by Manuel and Robertson, Bessie Smith by Danko and Robertson, and Ruben Remus by Manuel and Robertson. Ain't No More Cane is traditional, arranged by the Band.

Other acts reached the songs first. Peter, Paul and Mary took Too Much of Nothing to 35 in late 1967, Manfred Mann's The Mighty Quinn was number one in the UK in January 1968, and Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger and the Trinity took This Wheel's on Fire to five in April. The Byrds recorded You Ain't Goin' Nowhere and Nothing Was Delivered for Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and Fairport Convention covered Million Dollar Bash on Unhalfbricking in 1969.

The New York Times's John Rockwell called the album one of the greatest in the history of American popular music. Rolling Stone's Paul Nelson called its contents the hardest, toughest, sweetest, saddest, funniest, wisest songs he knew. It topped the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll, and Robert Christgau said it was the best album of 1975 and would have been the best of 1967 too. Bootleg Series Vol. 11, The Basement Tapes Complete, followed on 4 November 2014. It runs to six CDs and 139 tracks.