The Basement Tapes vs. Self Portrait
Coopa
Ok,
I just got the genuine basement tapes, and have been listening to
them quite a bit. The thing that struck me was that the content seems to
be of a similar nature to the Self Portrait sessions. Of course, Self
Portrait gets almost no respect, and the basement tapes are almost always
praised as among Dylan's greatest work. Of course the thing that first got
me thinking about this was the inclusion of A fool such as I, and Spanish
is the loving tongue on the Genuine basement tapes, both of which were
later released, in their Self Portrait incarnation, on Dylan. As far as I
can tell, these are the only songs recorded at both sessions.
The other similarities that strike me immediately is that both
groups of sessions took place without an obvious direction. Basicaly, it
seems like Dylan just got people together to play songs he liked, and
eventualy decided that he had an album. Both sessions also have the
question hanging over them as to weather Dylan was infact trying to get
something serious put together or not. The bulk of both sessions was
comprised of matterial which Dylan did not write. Much of the music on
both has a strong country feel to it. Both sessions eventualy resulted in
double albums (this probably isn't to significant). Both sessions have a
very loose feel to them.
there are some obvious differences, and I think the main
difference is that the Original matterial coming from the basement tapes
is far supperior to that which came from the Self Portrait sessions. But
on the whole, I think a comparison of the basement tapes songs not written
by Dylan and the entire self portrait sessions are remarkably similar.
So the question is, how can one group of recordings be held so
dear, while the other is so disliked.
Coop
nate
In article <1997032120...@abacus.bates.edu>, ccoo...@abacus.bates.edu
says...
>
> So the question is, how can one group of recordings be held so
>dear, while the other is so disliked.
>
> Coop
good question. i think it has to do with the songs that he _did_
compose on the basement tapes.
the core of the positive feelings about the tapes revolves around
a certain subset of the whole package that was eventually released.
these songs include, but are necessarily limited to:
This Wheel's On Fire
Tears Of Rage
I Shall Be Released
Too Much Of Nothing
Nothing Was Delivered
Open The Door, [Richard]/Homer
Tiny Montgomery
Mrs. Henry
Billion Dollar Bash
Lo And Behold
...although those last ones may have been too much in jest
to fit into the overall tone of the first few.
these songs were composed between Blonde On Blonde and John Wesley
Harding, and were smuggled out of the Big Pink basement on reel-to
-reel tapes. These became legendary even before the watershed
release of Great White Wonder, which was made off of poorly copied
copies of copies of copies of these original reel-to-reels. as the
years unfolded, it became astounding how many songs had been recorded
in that basement. the original tape theft was just the tip of the
iceberg. in retrospect, it was the most _important_ tip of the iceberg.
it is this core group of songs that places this creative collection
at such a favourable position compared to Self-Portrait.
- nate
Peter Stone Brown
> dear, while the other is so disliked.
>
> Coop
The Basement Tapes was not an official recording session. It is a collection of tapes
of Dylan and the Band working together up in Woodstock (and neighboring places). The
bulk of material on the Basement Tapes *is* original though there are recordings too of
Dylan and the Band covering country songs, folk songs, Ian and Sylvia, Johnny Cash and
others. The recordings were not originally intended for release. Several of the
originals were demos sent to other artists to record songs and several were recorded by
such artists as Manfred Mann, Ian & Sylvia, Julie Driscoll, Peter Paul & Mary etc. Only
when the tape fell into other hands and was eventually bootlegged was the decision made
to release some of the Basement Tapes officially--and this happened several years later.
The Basement tapes have a definite feel to the music from nonsense songs to a deep
spirituality to occasional drunken/stoned revelry--and this applies to both Dylan's
originals and the Band's originals as well as to some of the covers. The Basement Tapes
is also Dylan working with a band (in this case The Band) for the first time in a
long-term arrangement on arrangements as opposed to mostly quick studio assemblages, but
also just to create music and see what happens as opposed to making a record and there
is a difference.
Self Portrait on the other hand is comprised of studio sessions with studio musicians
brought together for specifically that session. Some, like guitarist David Bromberg
were people Dylan wanted to work with, others were studio musicians hired for the
session. The originals on Self Portrait compared with the Basement Tapes (and excepting
the live recordings from Isle of Wight) are few and far between. One is an
instrumental, one has one line sung over and over. The remaining songs credited to
Dylan are not originals at all but folksongs he "arranged and adapted." The sessions
took place in New York and Nashville and in the case of a couple of songs both. Dylan's
singing on the Basement Tapes is often intense and beautiful ("Wheels On Fire" is as
scary as anything Robert Johnson ever did and "Tears of Rage," "I Shall Be Released,"
"Open the Door Homer," and many, many others are up there with his greatest work. He
also extends this vocal power to quite a few covers, most notably "Royal Canal."
Nothing on Self Portrait touches this. Self Portrait is Dylan lite. Half-hearted
renditions of songs he probably liked sung with little or no conviction, with half-baked
arrangements or in the case of the Nashville versions of country standards ("Take Me As
I Am," "Let It Me Be Me," etc.), very by-the-book typical (at-the-time) Nashville
arrangements, that in the end are neither great nor terrible, just kind of there.
Virtually all the songs Dylan covers on Self Portrait have been done in superior
versions by the original artists who recorded them. That said, I actually like the
record, but similar to the Basement tapes, only in that there's a couple of the same
songs on both.
--PSB
--
"I was just too stubborn to ever be governed
by enforced insanity." --Bob Dylan
Peter Stone Brown
e-mail: pet...@erols.com http://songs.com/psb
John H. Zureick
In article <1997032120...@abacus.bates.edu>,
Coopa <ccoo...@abacus.bates.edu> wrote:
>Ok,
>
> I just got the genuine basement tapes, and have been listening to
>them quite a bit. The thing that struck me was that the content seems to
>be of a similar nature to the Self Portrait sessions. Of course, Self
>Portrait gets almost no respect, and the basement tapes are almost always
>praised as among Dylan's greatest work. Of course the thing that first got
>me thinking about this was the inclusion of A fool such as I, and Spanish
>is the loving tongue on the Genuine basement tapes, both of which were
>later released, in their Self Portrait incarnation, on Dylan. As far as I
Some of the songs on Self Portrait though Dylan must have been deliberately
screwing around. For instance "Copper Kettle". That's a great song
but I've never seen Dylan blow one like that! Dylan is great for his
interpretation of songs and I just cannot believe he could be so far
off. Hey, maybe I'll drink myself a couple of bottles of wine some night,
put it on and like it. You never know.