The Basement Tapes

1966年に交通事故にあったディランは活動を休止しウッドストックで半隠遁生活を送っていた。謎めいたこの時期に（1967年4～10月）、ザ・バンドといっしょにビッグピンクと呼ばれた家の地下室でプライベート録音したのがこの19枚目のアルバム。本来は音楽出版社に送るデモテープとして録音したものだったが、ブートレッグとして広く出回ってしまったこともあり、ファンの間では正式発売が待たれていた作品。当時70曲あまりを録音したと伝えられているが、このアルバムには24曲しか収録されなかった。なお、この時期の最高傑作といわれる「アイ・シャル・ビー・リリースト」は、のちに『ブートレッグ・シリーズ第1～3集』に収録された。

The official release of The Basement Tapes -- which were first heard on a 1968 bootleg called The Great White Wonder -- plays with history somewhat, as Robbie Robertson overemphasizes the Band's status in the sessions, making them out to be equally active to Dylan, adding in demos not cut at the sessions and overdubbing their recordings to flesh them out. As many bootlegs (most notably the complete five-disc series) reveal, this isn't entirely true and the Band were nowhere near as active as Dylan, but that ultimately is a bit like nitpicking, since the music here (including the Band's) is astonishingly good. The party line on The Basement Tapes is that it is Americana, as Dylan and the Band pick up the weirdness inherent in old folk, country, and blues tunes, but it transcends mere historical arcana through its lively, humorous, full-bodied performances. Dylan never sounded as loose, nor was he ever as funny as he is here, and this positively revels in its weird, wild character. For all the apparent antecedents -- and the allusions are sly and obvious in equal measure -- this is truly Dylan's show, as he majestically evokes old myths and creates new ones, resulting in a crazy quilt of blues, humor, folk, tall tales, inside jokes, and rock. The Band pretty much pick up where Dylan left off, even singing a couple of his tunes, but they play it a little straight, on both their rockers and ballads. Not a bad thing at all, since this actually winds up providing context for the wild, mercurial brilliance of Dylan's work -- and, taken together, the results (especially in this judiciously compiled form with its expert song selection, even if there's a bit too much Band) rank among the greatest American music ever made. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine|