When I went to John's my local newsagent on Saturday to pick up my breakfast roll and paper I noticed that the lastest instalment of the DeAgostini Dylan Vinyl series was The Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan and the Band.
As it was a pretty reasonable price I felt that this was an opportunity to replace my burn and asked him to put it aside for me until Sunday when I duly arrived with sufficient funds to purchase it. Given the huge rise in utility prices it may well be my last purchase for a while.
Most of you will be familiar with the background. From 1975 and hot on the heels of Blood on the Tracks it marked the official release of what had long been the world's most bootlegged bootleg. The tracks had originally been cut in the basement of a rented house near Woodstock known as the Big Pink during the gap between Blonde on Blonde (and Dylan's subsequent motorbike crash) in 1966 and John Wesley Harding in 1968
Dylan was joined by Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko,Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson who had previously backed him as the Hawks but who were now The Band. Despite key tracks such as This Wheels on Fire and I Shall Be Released being missing from the "official bootleg"it reached number 7 on the US Billboard chart and number 8 in the UK Album chart and was widely acclaimed by the music press.
I don't like using my USB turntable for new records so the tracks below are taken from my burn so apologies for that.
Bob Dylan & the Band -Goin' to Acapulco
Your newsagent sells records? Truly, you live in a better world.
ReplyDeleteIt is one of those magazine/record series
DeleteA couple of years ago he did have a couple of boxes of mainly dance records he was selling for a customer!
ReplyDeleteAs an already established Dylan fan, this album really succeeded in being my gateway into The Band's music when I originally picked it up in 1976. Their songs on the LP were actually recorded long after the stuff with Dylan was done and dusted, years later in some cases.
ReplyDelete