The Basement Tapes is a collaboration of two of the 60's most overwhelming talents. Recorded on home equipment in The Band's rented home in New York, this is a lo-fi peek into an intimate celebration of camaraderie and astounding musical exchange.
Free from industry pressures or audience demands, Dylan and The Band simply made music for their own sake, and the results are incredible. Robertson's narrative songwriting and Dylan's flair for the poetic along with the rest of The Band's unequaled instrumental prowess makes The Basement Tapes impossible to define or categorize. It sounds completely out of time, American in the purest sense; almost folk-rock, but with a pervading feeling of age and hard-fought wisdom, as if these songs had been written a century ago.
The minimalist absurdity of "Clothes Line Saga" with carnival piano, the bitter and fierce "This Wheel's On Fire" (which alone is worth the price of admission) and the gorgeous harmonizing in "Tears of Rage" are equal to Dylan and The Band's best work; "Ain't No More Cane" is a work-song anthem that is the essence of The Band, a song equal to "The Weight" in its power. "Million Dollar Bash" and "Lo and Behold!" are deceptively simple - the tossed-off quality of the performance disguises the layers of musical commitment.
Thick, muddy bass lines intertwine with supple organ, funky drums back mandolins - this is music quite unlike anything heard before or since. Steeped in the past, this album both reflects and reaches beyond it. Bursting with pained experience, gleeful weirdness and tender passion, The Basement Tapes is truly a unique, required listen.
- Jared O'Connor
Unequaled instru-
mental prowess