#basementtapes

RiP!: Um Remix Manifesto

The sleeve: represents the music within, and it looks like they had good fun. Wonder if they're going for a 'Nightwatch' vibe.

Had I heard this before: no.

So this is something Dylan's record company released in 1975, containing mostly tracks recorded by Dylan and The Band in 1967, plus a handful of recordings by The Band without Dylan from the years in-between '67 and the year of release. A lot of old-fashioned blues and rock-'n'-roll here.

After a few in-one-ear-out-the-other songs, "Million Dollar Bash" is inadvertently funny to anyone who's familiar with the Rick & Morty character Mr Poopy-Butthole, as his signature "ooh wee" is a major element here. "Yazoo Street Scandal" sounds like early Beatles, including the vocals. Then we get a couple of bluesy rock ballads, "Lo and Behold!" is bar-room rock, followed by a string of folky rock tracks. Most of the first record feels like a bunch of b-sides, songs recorded for fun but not exactly top material.

The second record gets off to a better start: "Too Much of Nothing" is a proper song in The Band's blues rock style, and "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread" has a more interesting sound and structure than most of what came before. After that, we go back to the deliberately basic/traditional sound of the first disc, and by that time I start getting mighty weary of Dylan's voice (which I've never been able to handle for very long, if I'm honest). By the time the whiny blues ballad "Nothing Was Delivered" rolls around, I've thoroughly had enough. Of the voice, the hackneyed music, the poor recording quality. This should have stayed a bunch of b-sides and never have to touch my ears.

Textbook case of 'Not for me', next please.

[D]