Rockissue

Alternate Histories: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes

Chronology:

1969, July: Bob Dylan bootleg album Great White Wonder released.

1975, June: Bob Dylan and the Band studio album The Basement Tapes released.

2014, November: Bob Dylan archival albums The Basement Tapes Complete and The Basement Tapes Raw released.

2015, April: Bob Dylan album The Original Basement Tape released.

The Basement Tapes Complete documents extensively, if not in full, the legendary 1967 sessions taking place in the vicinity of Woodstock, upstate New York, with Bob Dylan backed by the Band: more exactly, the Hawks, since in 1967 they had not yet switched to the later moniker. The box set obviously does not include as much material as The Cutting Edge, the 18-C.D. exhaustive record of the 1965-1966 studio sessions that produced Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde; for, the informal Basement Tapes sessions simply did not produce as many reels of tape, and some of them have been lost to time. But it is perhaps the most significant of all the Dylan Bootleg Series releases because the Basement Tapes recordings had, before 2014, been officially represented only by the 1975 double L. P. simply titled The Basement Tapes plus a few other tracks on scattered releases. That album includes material not from the Basement Tapes sessions, not least eight tracks that only feature the Band; and moreover some of the tracks from 1967 had overdubs added at later dates.

The 1975 double album will never hold quite as central or canonical a place in Dylan's work as those three 1965-1966 albums—or Blood on the Tracks, the subject of its own box set, More Blood, More Tracks. After all, there is no set track order to the Basement Tapes songs. Beyond roughly 18 songs that definitely rank higher than the rest in both critical consensus and popular awareness, the listener is presented with an abundance of material in varying states of completion. And this material is not comprised, for the most part, of alternate takes, as is The Cutting Edge or More Blood, More Tracks. Instead, it consists mostly of additional Dylan originals and inspired, at times surprising, cover selections. To a greater extent, then, than the other two box sets, The Basement Tapes Complete compels listeners to make alternate versions: playlists, wishlists, or simply quick excisions of inferior takes, fragments, and tossed-off performances. These hypothetical track listings beget alternate histories: What if a Basement Tapes album had come out in 1967? Or at least how could archival releases like the Complete set, and its two-C. D. abridgment, The Basement Tapes Raw, have better organized their contents?

More Blood, More Tracks is of comparable length to The Basement Tapes Complete but again, as with Cutting Edge, features more alternate versions of a smaller selection of songs. Fans eagerly anticipated its arrival because they wanted, finally, after so many years, an official release of the original versions of the five Blood tracks suddenly replaced in December 1974 by newly-recorded versions—despite the album supposedly being complete and ready for the pressing plants, leading not only to white-label promos with the five replaced tracks still intact, but even occasional mispressings of the proper commercial release with two of the five replaced tracks still present on side B. The five songs in question were radically transformed in their new Rock-band arrangements, recorded in Minneapolis, resulting in the official album known and loved since its release in January 1975. A rearrangement of Blood on the Tracks is simple enough: supplant half of the album, then figure out if the original version would have worked as well. Only after that would most listeners begin to concoct further alternate histories with the numerous alternate versions of the Blood songs.

In deciding how to listen the Basement Tapes tracks, many will sample the complete box in parts, grow to like certain songs, make note of those songs, and return to them, in any given order or simply the order in which they are presented in the box. When first familiarizing myself with the 139 tracks in the Complete set, I would let the whole thing play at low volume, like a clock radio kept on all day to relieve boredom in a lonely old man's home. Soon enough, though, I grew inclined to craft distinct orderings of the songs, determined by chronology and authorship, or subjective measures, however vague or incomplete, of the songs' respective significance. Some possibilities are presented here. To start, a short selection of tracks corresponding to the 1975 release, since not only did the double L. P. include non-1967 material but it also has a unique mix (most of all, adding lots of reverb), so that even tracks on the 2014 set that are largely the same recordings as those included on the 1975 set are still closer to their 1967 origins. In other words, plenty of listeners would like to consign the 1975 release to the dustbin of their personal listening history. This in turn leads to consideration of how we became aware of the Basement Tapes songs, both in their original form and as re-recorded by Dylan and covered by other artists. Finally, we would want to take into account the tracks highlighted on the two-disc Raw set.

A run-down of the 1975 Basement Tapes double album follows. The later recordings, solely featuring the Band, had already been virtually excluded by Dylan aficionados from consideration as Basement Tapes; the 2014 release sort of codified that approach. Lack of documentation of the 1967 sessions, in addition to contrary claims regarding both the 1975 overdub sessions and the Band-only sessions, deprive us of any exact information regarding which of the 1967 Dylan-featured tracks feature overdubs. In short, the four noted here certainly featured overdubs, but there may have been more. (Let's also note at this point that the Basement Tapes sessions extended into 1968, but for convenience's sake we will say, "1967," only.)

A:
‘Odds and Ends’
1975 overdubs: piano
‘Orange Juice Blues (Blues for Breakfast)’
The Band only, but recorded in 1967; 1975 overdubs
‘Million Dollar Bash’
‘Yazoo Street Scandal’
The Band only
‘Goin' to Acapulco’
‘Katie's Been Gone’
The Band only; recording date disputed, possibly recorded in 1967; 1975 overdubs
B:
‘Lo and Behold!’
‘Bessie Smith’
The Band only; recording date disputed, anywhere from 1968 to 1975
‘Clothes Line Saga’
‘Apple Suckling Tree’
‘Please, Mrs. Henry’
‘Tears of Rage’
C:
‘Too Much of Nothing’
1975 overdubs: drums
‘Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread’
‘Ain't No More Cane’
The Band only; recording date disputed
‘Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)’
‘Ruben Remus’
The Band only; recording date disputed; other versions recorded during the Basement Tapes sessions
‘Tiny Montgomery’
D:
‘You Ain't Goin' Nowhere’
1975 overdubs: guitar
‘Don't Ya Tell Henry’
The Band only; recording date disputed; a Dylan-performed version is included in the Complete box
‘Nothing Was Delivered’
‘Open the Door, Homer’
‘Long Distance Operator’
The Band only; recording date disputed; apparently Basement Tapes recordings may exist but this song is not found in the Complete box
‘This Wheel's on Fire’
1975 overdubs: guitar

Before going further, let us note here versions of the Basement Tapes songs that were made available to the public fairly early, but not as performed by Dylan. The problem here being that several obscure artists were recording versions of the songs; a complete list would be too long and of only passing interest to most listeners. Some of the popular or highly-regarded versions:

‘Too Much of Nothing’ and ‘I Shall Be Released’
recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, the former released as a single and both included on the album Late Again, 1968
‘Tears of Rage’, ‘Quinn the Eskimo’, and ‘This Wheel's on Fire’
recorded by Ian and Sylvia, the first included on Full Circle, 1968, the other two on Nashville, 1969
‘The Mighty Quinn’
recorded by Manfred Mann, included on the album of the same name, 1968
‘This Wheel's on Fire’
recorded by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity, released as a single, 1968
‘You Ain't Goin' Nowhere’ and ‘Nothing Was Delivered’
recorded by the Byrds, both released on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, in 1968; the Byrds then did ‘This Wheel's on Fire’ on Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde, 1969
‘This Wheel's on Fire’, ‘I Shall Be Released’, and ‘Tears of Rage’
recorded by the Band, all released on Music from Big Pink, 1968
‘I Shall Be Released’
recorded by Boz Burrell, released as a single, 1968
‘Million Dollar Bash’
recorded by Fairport Convention, released on Unhalfbricking, 1969

Comparing this list of eight songs (several of them recorded multiple times, for a total of 14 tracks) to the tracks found on the 1975 double album listed above.... Three of the original Bob Dylan versions of the songs were featured sans overdubs on the latter: ‘Million Dollar Bash’, ‘Tears of Rage’, and ‘Nothing Was Delivered’. Three more, ‘Too Much of Nothing’, ‘You Ain't Goin' Nowhere’, and ‘This Wheel's on Fire’, were included with overdubs. By 1969, listeners had thus heard more than a half-album's worth of material, albeit not as performed by Dylan and the Hawks. Also, two of these songs, ‘I Shall Be Released’ and ‘Quinn the Eskimo’ (a.k.a. ‘The Mighty Quinn’), would not be found on the 1975 double album.

Of course, unofficially some of Dylan's versions became available in 1969 with the release of the famous bootleg, Great White Wonder, which offered Dylan-performed 1967 Basement Tapes versions of several songs, including two not yet released commercially: ‘One Kind Favor’ (a. k. a. ‘See That My Grave Is Kept Clean’), and ‘Open the Door, Homer’. However, we do not want to expend much energy on bootlegs, however significant Great White Wonder was at the time. For many listeners in the early Seventies, it was the only way to hear the Basement Tapes. It did not consist entirely of 1967 recordings, however, including for example an earlier recording of ‘Po' Lazarus’, a tune that Dylan and company also recorded in '67. More bootlegs, released over the decades, would greatly expand what was readily available to regular consumers, culminating in the five-disc and four-disc sets known as The Genuine Basement Tapes and A Tree with Roots: The Genuine Basement Tapes Remastered, respectively. At this point, comparison of these bootlegs with the official releases only complicates what is here an attempt to clarify the Basement Tapes music.

The other, arguably superior, point of entry to the Basement Tapes material is the original fourteen-song demo drawn from the 1967 sessions that Dylan's publishing company made available that year to those in the music trade, leading to the versions recorded by other artists noted above. The fourteen tracks: ‘Million Dollar Bash’, ‘Yea Heavy and a Bottle o' Bread’, ‘Please Mrs. Henry’, ‘Down in the Flood’, ‘Low and Behold’, ‘Tiny Montgomery’, ‘If Your Memory Serves You Well (This Wheel's on Fire)’, ‘You Ain't Goin' Nowhere’, ‘Any Day Now (I Shall Be Released)’, ‘Tears of Rage’, ‘Too Much of Nothing’, ‘The Mighty Quinn’, ‘Open the Door Homer’, and ‘Nothing Was Delivered’. All of these songs (but not always the same takes) except ‘I Shall Be Released’ and ‘The Mighty Quinn’ are found on the 1975 double album. However, on the demo the recordings were in mono. The Complete box is mixed in stereo. In 2015, the Dylan-Legacy operation, instead of reissuing the demo themselves, licensed an L. P.-only release, The Original Basement Tape, on an obscure label, the recordings restored by Band organist Garth Hudson, who had in '67 taken on the responsibility of maintaining the tape machines and, as the decades passed, saving the tapes themselves. (The way that the titles are inscribed above comes from that 2015 release.) Some listeners prefer these mono versions. However, as made abundantly clear in Clinton Heylin's liner notes of Complete box, the recordings were not originally monophonic. They became so when Hudson originally transferred them, because of the particular reel being used perhaps, or Hudson preferred it—on that matter, the liner notes seem unclear to me. Of these songs not yet compared to the 1975 double album, the other six were all featured on that album, without overdubs: ‘Lo and Behold!’, ‘Open the Door, Homer’, ‘Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread’, ‘Please, Mrs. Henry’, and ‘Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)’—but, again, they had been remixed. Most curious of all, Band guitarist Robbie Robertson and producer Rob Fraboni, responsible for putting together the 1975 album, followed Hudson's lead and mostly mixed the album in mono.

Despite the exclusion of ‘I Shall Be Released’ and ‘Quinn the Eskimo’, the 1975 double album at first blush would seem to deserve high praise. For those aware at the time of what songs had been included on the 1967 demo, it was undoubtedly greeted as quite a treasure, as it also offered '67 recordings, unadorned, of three songs that had not been officially released yet: ‘Goin' to Acapulco’, ‘Clothes Line Saga’, and ‘Apple Suckling Tree’, plus one more with overdubs: ‘Odds and Ends’. Whatever its flaws, the double album continued to be held in high regard, at least until the Nineties, when the greater availability of the aforementioned bootlegs and the growing “retro” Rock culture enhanced consumer demand for long-sought “lost albums.” Accordingly, the critiques that the '75 release initially suffered came from the decision to overdub new parts and to include the Band-only tracks.

In 1975, then, the listener had Dylan-performed 1967 recordings of 12 songs, and 1967-recordings-with-1975-overdubs of another four songs. More exactly, 12 of the 14 songs on the original demo, plus four more made available on the '75 set. In the meantime, a few other songs had been documented. New recordings of ‘I Shall Be Released’, ‘Down in the Flood’, and ‘You Ain't Goin' Nowhere’ were made in 1971 for inclusion on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II. ‘A Fool Such as I’, was re-recorded in 1969 and, in 1973, included on the curio compilation, Dylan, released against the artist's wishes. Live versions of ‘The Mighty Quinn’ and ‘Minstrel Boy’, recorded at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival of Music, were included on the hodgepodge double album, Self-Portrait released that year. After 1975, original 1967 recordings continued to surface. Appropriately enough, this process began with the 1985 box set, Biograph, the first Dylan box set of the C. D. era; it finally made available a 1967 recording of ‘Quinn the Eskimo’. The 1991 box set The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3 included 1967 recordings of ‘I Shall Be Released’ and ‘Santa-Fe’. ‘Minstrel Boy’ came out on Another Self-Portrait: The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 [2013] and ‘I'm Not There’ in 2007 found its way to the soundtrack album for the film of the same name. By 2013, then, we had 18 Basement Tape songs, roughly in their original form, plus the four with overdubs.

A few other revelations from Heylin's notes: The Dylan original, ‘Get Your Rocks Off’, was included by Hudson on the original demo reel, but Dylan's publishing company, Dwarf Music, for some unknown reason (apparently) removed it. In 1969, producer Elliot Mazur, partially in response to the hoopla over Great White Wonder, assembled another version of the demo reel, leading to four additional songs being copyrighted: ‘Clothes Line Saga’, ‘Apple Suckling Tree’, ‘Odds and Ends’, and ‘I'm Not There’. In 1971, a different selection of songs, eleven in total, was put together (according to Heylin, by persons unknown); it included ‘Don't Ya Tell Henry’, ‘Bourbon Street’, ‘My Woman She's a-Leavin'’, ‘Santa-Fe’, ‘Mary Lou, I Love You Too’, ‘Dress It Up, Better Have It All’, ‘Silent Weekend’, ‘What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up’, ‘Wild Wolf’, ‘All American Boy’, and ‘Sign on the Cross’. Somewhat confusingly, ‘All American Boy’ is not a Dylan original.

Going back to the Complete box set, here is a handy list of Basement Tapes songs, in the order they are arranged in the Complete box, that can be said to be more significant because they were either made available in some form before 2014. Or they were included on the two-C. D. Basement Tapes Raw. Or they were included on the demo reels made in the late Sixties-early Seventies.

‘Folsom Prison Blues’: Disc 1, Track 12
this Johnny Cash cover is included on Raw
‘Po' Lazarus’: Disc 1, Track 20
this traditional tune is not included on Raw but as noted above, a different recording was included on Great White Wonder
‘Johnny Todd’: Disc 2, Track 1
this traditional tune is included on Raw
‘Tiny Montgomery’: Disc 2, Track 6
one of the original fourteen tracks, and included on both the 1975 double album and Raw
‘A Fool Such as I’: Disc 2, Track 16
an alternate recording of this cover of a Country classic is included on Dylan [1973]
‘Baby, Won't You Be My Baby’: Disc 2, Track 23
included on Raw
‘One for the Road’: Disc 3, Track 5
included on Raw
‘I'm Alright’: Disc 3, Track 6
included on Raw
‘Million Dollar Bash’: Disc 3, Track 7
take 1, included on Raw
‘Million Dollar Bash’: Disc 3, Track 8
take 2, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on the 1975 double album
‘Yea! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread’: Disc 3, Track 10
take 2, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on the 1975 double album and Raw
‘I'm Not There’: Disc 3, Track 11
included on the second demo reel and the I'm Not There soundtrack album
‘Please Mrs. Henry’: Disc 3, Track 12
one of the original fourteen tracks and included on both the 1975 double album and Raw
‘Crash on the Levee’: Disc 3, Track 14
take 2, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on both the 1975 double album and Raw
‘Lo and Behold!’: Disc 3, Track 15
take 1, included on Raw
‘Lo and Behold!’: Disc 3, Track 16
take 2, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on the 1975 double album
‘You Ain't Goin' Nowhere’: Disc 3, Track 17
take 1, included on Raw
‘You Ain't Goin' Nowhere’: Disc 3, Track 18
take 2, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on the 1975 double album
‘I Shall Be Released’: Disc 3, Track 20
take 2, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 and Raw
‘This Wheel's on Fire’: Disc 3, Track 21
one of the original fourteen tracks and included on the 1975 double album
‘Too Much of Nothing’: Disc 3, Track 22
take 1, included on the 1975 double album
‘Too Much of Nothing’: Disc 3, Track 23
take 2, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on Raw
‘Tears of Rage’: Disc 4, Track 1
take 1, one of the original fourteen tracks
‘Tears of Rage’: Disc 4, Track 3
take 3, included on both the 1975 double album and Raw
‘Quinn the Eskimo’: Disc 4, Track 5
take 2, included on Biograph and Raw
‘Open the Door Homer’: Disc 4, Track 6
take 1, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on both the 1975 double album and Raw
‘Nothing Was Delivered’: Disc 4, Track 9
take 1, one of the original fourteen tracks and included on both the 1975 double album and Raw
‘All American Boy’: Disc 4, Track 12
included on the third demo reel
‘Sign on the Cross’: Disc 4, Track 13
included on the third demo reel and Raw
‘Odds and Ends’: Disc 4, Track 14
take 1, included on Raw
‘Odds and Ends’: Disc 4, Track 15
take 2, included on the second demo reel and the 1975 double album
‘Get Your Rocks Off’: Disc 4, Track 16
initially included on the original demo reel but then removed; included Raw
‘Clothes Line Saga (Answer to Ode)’: Disc 4, Track 17
included on the second demo reel, the 1975 double album, and Raw
‘Apple Suckling Tree’: Disc 4, Track 19
take 2, included on the second demo reel, the 1975 double album, and Raw
‘Don't Ya Tell Henry’: Disc 4, Track 20
included on the third demo reel and Raw; a version by the Band is included on the 1975 double album
‘Bourbon Street’: Disc 4, Track 21
included on the third demo reel
‘Blowin' in the Wind’: Disc 5, Track 1
included on Raw
‘One Too Many Mornings’: Disc 5, Track 2
included on Raw
‘Ain't No More Cane’: Disc 5, Track 6
take 2, included on Raw
‘My Woman She's a-Leavin'’: Disc 5, Track 7
included on the third demo reel
‘Santa-Fe’: Disc 5, Track 8
included on the third demo reel, The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3, and Raw
‘Mary Lou, I Love You Too’: Disc 5, Track 9
included on the third demo reel
‘Dress It Up, Better Have It All’: Disc 5, Track 10
included on the third demo reel and Raw
‘Minstrel Boy’: Disc 5, Track 11
included on Another Self-Portrait: The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 and Raw
‘Silent Weekend’: Disc 5, Track 12
included on the third demo reel and Raw
‘What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up’: Disc 5, Track 13
included on the demo reel
‘900 Miles from Home’: Disc 5, Track 14
included on Raw
‘One Find Favor’: Disc 5, Track 16
this traditional song is not included on Raw but as noted above was included on Great White Wonder
‘Wild Wolf’: Disc 5, Track 19
included on the third demo reel
‘Goin' to Acapulco’: Disc 5, Track 20
included on both the 1975 double album and Raw
‘All You Have to Do Is Dream’: Disc 5, Track 25
included on Raw

Some fans may feel that better choices from the great amount of material in the Complete set could have been made for the Raw set (a point we will return to below). On top of that, for our purposes here, Raw introduces unneeded complexity into an already-complex situation. Here's an alternative.... The fourteen-song demo will continue to hold some pride of place for many. Begin with a handy list of where to find those tracks in the Complete set (again keeping in mind that the mixes are different from what you hear on the quasi-official Original Basement Tape). This particular list is necessary because, as seen in the above list, the takes of certain songs included on the demo are not always the same as those used for the 1975 double album or Raw. (Did we not mention that the Complete set includes multiple takes of several songs? As if we needed more complexity....)

Million Dollar Bash: Disc 3, Track 8
second of two takes included, originally released on the 1975 double album; first take included on Raw
Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread: Disc 3, Track 10
second of two takes included, originally released on the 1975 double album and included on Raw
Please, Mrs. Henry: Disc 3, Track 12
only take included, originally released on the 1975 double album and included on Raw
Crash on the Levee: Disc 3, Track 14
second of two takes included, originally released on the 1975 double album and included on Raw
Lo and Behold!: Disc 3, Track 16
second of two takes included, originally released on the 1975 double album; first take included on Raw
Tiny Montgomery: Disc 2, Track 6
only take included, originally released on the 1975 double album and included on Raw
This Wheel's on Fire: Disc 3, Track 21
only take included, originally released on the 1975 double album; this song not included on Raw
You Ain't Going Nowhere: Disc 3, Track 18
second of two takes included, originally released on the 1975 double album; first take included on Raw
I Shall Be Released: Disc 3, Track 20
second of two takes included, originally released in The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 and included on Raw
Too Much of Nothing: Disc 3, Track 23
second of two takes included; first take included on the 1975 double album; second take included on Raw
Tears of Rage: Disc 4, Track 1
first of three takes included; the third take included on the 1975 double album and Raw
Quinn the Eskimo: Disc 4, Track 4
first of two takes included; the second take included on Biograph and Raw
Open the Door, Homer: Disc 4, Track 6
first of three takes included, originally released on the 1975 double album and included on Raw
Nothing Was Delivered: Disc 4, Track 9
first of three takes included, originally released on the 1975 double album and included on Raw

These particular performances amount to more than 42 minutes, perfect for an L. P. that could have been released in 1967. That prospect is indeed a large part of the appeal of the original demo. We know it was prepared at the time, ready to go; it would have been Dylan's first of two albums released that year, as John Wesley Harding came out right at the end of December. And that two-album year would have followed the double album Blonde on Blonde in 1966 and two albums apiece in both 1965 and 1964.

If this had happened—a nice counterfactual, however impossible such a bold move: releasing an album of rough demos, would have been—then presumably there would not have been a Basement Tapes album in 1975, at least not in the form it took. What about a second album of the original recordings, released at some point in Dylan's relatively-inactive period, 1968-1973 (probably 1972)? Obviously the four songs on the '75 set not among the original 14: ‘Odds and Ends’, ‘Goin' to Acapulco’, ‘Clothes Line Saga’, and ‘Apple Suckling Tree’, would be the base of such an album. Despite their early appearances, an argument to exclude ‘One Kind Favor’ and ‘A Fool Such as I’, since they are not Dylan originals (the latter first recorded by Hank Snow, the former a traditional tune that Dylan already covered on his first album), seems valid to me, as the original demo of course was all Dylan originals. So next on the list would be ‘Santa-Fe’, ‘Minstrel Boy’, and ‘I'm Not There’. Then ‘Don't Ya Tell Henry’, but not ‘Po' Lazarus’, another traditional tune, which in the Complete box is only a one-minute performance.

Looking for more among the tracks listed above (that is, either included on Raw or one of the early demo reels), we find the following Dylan-authored tunes: ‘Baby, Won't You Be My Baby’, ‘One for the Road’, ‘I'm Alright’, ‘Sign on the Cross’, ‘Get Your Rocks Off’, ‘Bourbon Street’, ‘My Woman She's a-Leavin'’, ‘Mary Lou, I Love You Too’, ‘Dress It Up, Better Have It All’, ‘Silent Weekend’, ‘What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up’, ‘Wild Wolf’, and ‘All You Have to Dream Is Dream’ (specifically, take 2). With this many originals to work with, the prospect of a double album appeals to me for one major reason: whether as a single or double L.P., this second album would not be as good as the first, so perhaps make it more of a sprawling, messy-but-charming grab bag. My own preference is to get rid of ‘What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up’ and ‘Wild Wolf’ and add two originals not mentioned yet: ‘Don't You Try Me Now’ and ‘I'm a Fool for You’ (take 2). We would thus have 21 songs clocking in at over 70 minutes.

For those who disagree with the exclusion of covers, a nice six-song E. P. could offer my own picks of the best adaptations among the many found in the Complete box: ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, ‘A Fool Such as I’, ‘All American Boy’, ‘Ain't No More Cane’ (take 2), ‘One Kind Favor’, and one not listed above: ‘Bonnie Ship the Diamond’ (Disc 3, Track 2). Another bonus E. P. could take care of the pesky alternate takes: those not among the original 14 that were used for either the 1975 set or Raw: the first takes of ‘Million Dollar Bash’, ‘Lo and Behold!’, and ‘You Ain't Going Nowhere’ found on Raw; the third take of ‘Tears of Rage’ used for both the 1975 album and Raw; the second take of ‘Quinn the Eskimo’ used for Biograph and Raw; and the first take of ‘Too Much of Nothing’ used on the 1975 album. However inconvenient for buyers of the Raw set to find that they bought a version of the Basement Tapes that peculiarly does not include the same versions of several songs that had been used on the 1975 album, in making our alternate history here, this short selection of alternate takes consists of six songs, proper E. P. length. Or these two E.P.s could be combined, and interfiled, to make another single album.

As for a good track order for this proposed second double Basement Tapes album to accompany the 14-song demo reel, for which the tracking was done for us.... Twenty-one songs, some of which end or begin abruptly, effectively arranged into a cohesive whole? That could take another few decades. For now, a shortened version of the listing above, our chosen tracks to accompany the original 14, arranged as they are in the Complete box:

‘I'm a Fool for You’: Disc 1, Track 22
‘Baby, Won't You Be My Baby’: Disc 2, Track 23
‘Don't You Try Me Now: Disc 2, Track 26
‘One for the Road’: Disc 3, Track 5
‘I'm Alright’: Disc 3, Track 6
‘I'm Not There’: Disc 3, Track 11
‘Sign on the Cross’: Disc 4, Track 13
‘Odds and Ends’: Disc 4, Track 15
‘Get Your Rocks Off’: Disc 4, Track 16
‘Clothes Line Saga (Answer to Ode)’: Disc 4, Track 17
‘Apple Suckling Tree’: Disc 4, Track 19
‘Don't Ya Tell Henry’: Disc 4, Track 20
‘Bourbon Street’: Disc 4, Track 21
‘My Woman She's a-Leavin'’: DIsc 5, Track 7
‘Santa-Fe’: Disc 5, Track 8
‘Mary Lou, I Love You Too’: Disc 5, Track 9
‘Dress It Up, Better Have It All’: Disc 5, Track 10
‘Minstrel Boy’: Disc 5, Track 11
‘Silent Weekend’: Disc 5, Track 12
‘Goin' to Acapulco’: Disc 5, Track 20
‘All You Have to Do Is Dream’: Disc 5, Track 25

The covers:
‘Folsom Prison Blues’: Disc 1, Track 12
‘A Fool Such as I’: Disc 2, Track 16
‘Bonnie Ship the Diamond’: Disc 3, Track 2
‘All American Boy’: Disc 4, Track 12
‘Ain't No More Cane’: Disc 5, Track 6
‘One Kind Favor’: Disc 5, Track 16

The alternate takes:
‘Million Dollar Bash’: Disc 3, Track 7
‘Lo and Behold!’: Disc 3, Track 15
‘You Ain't Goin' Nowhere’: Disc 3, Track 17
‘Too Much of Nothing’: Disc 3, Track 22
‘Tears of Rage’: Disc 4, Track 3
‘Quinn the Eskimo’: Disc 4, Track 5

An addendum: the Basement Tapes Complete box set did not include the song-by-song liner notes for the first-fifth discs written by Ben Rollins; these instead were made available at the official Dylan website. However, as presented there now, some sort of coding glitch does not allow them to load in their entirety. A friend of mine was able to extract the complete document. The official website does not even credit the author. I only got Rollins' name from the always-thorough Searching for a Gem site. The Raw two-disc set only includes the notes that apply to the songs included on it.

–Justin J. Kaw, November 2021