The Ballad of The Basement Tapes｜Vinyl Monday
Strap yourself to a tree with roots, you ain’t goin’ nowhere.
Welcome (or welcome back) to Vinyl Monday! This is my series where I give the who/what/when/where/why and how I feel about classic albums in my collection. My revised thoughts on Bob Dylan and The Band’s legendary Basement Tapes (released several times in different formats officially released 1975.) Subscribe for more Vinyl Monday!
Keep in touch:
Instagram: @abigaildevoe https://www.instagram.com/abigaildevoe/
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I cohost the Dolls Podcast!: https://open.spotify.com/show/4JsH0rsXUNjgvFLIbwYgnK?si=798d0d6d67864c4e
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unveiling-the-legends-dolls-of-the-60s-70s/id1749327932
Timestamps:
intro – 0:00
art/packaging/personnel – 0:45
dylan – 4:21
the band – 7:04
the songs – 9:27
great white wonder – 14:00
the release – 16:30
my thoughts – 23:15
thanks for watching! – 41:32
Music:
Intro Music: Yeah Yeah Yeah (Long) by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Outtro Music: Ticket To Nowhere Man by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/…) Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Vinyl Monday logo by Callum: https://www.youtube.com/@clynaack
#vinyl #vinylcommunity #bobdylan #theband
@abigaildevoe
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
what’s your favorite basement tapes song? comment below!
@thomasfahey7746
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I became a fan of Dylan when I was 11 years old when I heard Like a Rolling Stone and when I was 13 I lestened to The Weight on late night FM radio. I have or had every album by The Band. Love the bawdy Mrs. Henry and Manfred Mann's Quinn the Eskimo. I like your take on one of the most influential albums in American music
@ConnerFields-p7w
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
You should cover Tago Mago. I know you have it, so why not cover it?!
@shakesquire84
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Abi, are you a bit neurospicy would you say?
@joelsislak8031
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
This album is just trash. It amazes me that people who love music can’t look subjectively at their favorite groups and artists. I look back at so much stuff now, and scratch my head at why I liked certain albums. After Stage Freight The Band were done, too many drugs and not enough substance. Dylan has about 5 solid albums. The reset is mumble mush mouth’s unintelligible ramblings. You can’t even understand what he’s singing live nowadays. His voice is beyond shot. He’s an artist no one is gonna say NO to. Seen him a few times (once on that Dylan/Dead Tour), and regret each time. Why didn’t I learn the first time?
@tymime
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I have to admit your videos are motivating me to listen to albums I had been meaning to get around to anyway
@muhammadrifqi7308
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I shall be released is, in my opinion, Dylan's best song from the Big Pink sessions. And in classic Dylan fashion, it's not included when The Basement Tapes first got released.
@axeljameson9097
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
The overdubs must have been recorded in 75 because the band didnt acquire shangri la until 74-75!
@soulcatradio
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I bought my copy of the Basement Tapes in the mid-90s in Boston and was pleasantly surprised to find a ripped out page from the September 11th, 1975 edition of Rolling Stone in the gatefold. It's Paul Nelson's original RS review. I love how complete some collectors were back in the day. Great show as usual, Abigail. You always do a good job putting it all in perspective.
@moople72
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I prefer Another Self Portrait (the bootleg series) to the Basement Tapes – could be due to much lower expectations for anything related to Self Portrait. I slogged thru the boxed set of the Basement Tapes (from the local library). It is 95% tedium to me – 7 or 8 classics Abby points out, the rest is not worth repeated listens. I got a kick out of those Clancy Brothers tracks (his old buds – i learned to speak hearing their records) he covers . I would compare the Basement Tapes to Prince's Black Album – the recordings were once hard to find/rare which added to the hype of "I've heard something you have not". [I remember reading or hearing raves about once rare boots like"Soldier of Love" being the Beatles finest moment or "What's the New Mary Jane" blowing away anything on The White Album]. As much as The Band was massively influential (Clapton, The Beatles, etc, taking note) and the 1966 tour certainly does live up to the legend, i don't really care for the Band other than those half-dozen obvious classics and the great Last Waltz film. Garth's noodling tends to drive me up a wall. The music tends to plod. The vocals are sickly. On occasion they manage to mine platinum with that formula – but, to me, it's just not sustainable over an album, in my unpopular opinion!
@theoakmontsage1172
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Basement Tapes/John Wesley Harding my favorite Dylan era. They sound like soundtracks to the coolest Western movie ever.
@AMolePerson
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Have you heard Jim James and Calexico’s version of Goin to Acapulco? Pretty cool
@letoiimuaddib-rm1ur
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
This is my favorite Dylan album of all time. Also, just my favorite album of pure Music, both the original and bootleg series versions.
@andrewdavison3293
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Love the Felt reference !?!
@annaphallactic
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Abby is out here holding out for YouTube reverting the Posts tab back to the Community tab. Hearing your pronunciation of Posts shift from a sonic eye roll to a gentle sardonic nudge over these past several months, I want that for you so bad. 😂
@Claes_Isacson
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Odds and Ends
@ronhiggins3296
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
thanx…Can't pick a favorite, though "I'm Not There" is so intriguing… found the complete 5 disc set, and from that (approx. 180 trax) I chose 50 originals…amazing…"Quinn" appeared on Self Potrait not New Morning
@Nuclearmagenta
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Considering all the research you did for this, it’s curious you make no mention of Greil Marcus’s book that’s mostly about The Basement Tapes, Invisible Republic. (It was later retitled The Old Weird America).
@timjonesvideos
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Another great album analysis. The best 70's stuff is nothing to shy away from IMHO, especially the first 5-6 years, I know you have covered some 70's stuff like Rumors.
@ScoutSolis
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Outstanding observations by you. Your analysis makes this album jump to life again. I await your next Vinyl Monday!
@MundaSquire
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Thunderclap Newman do a great cover of "Open the Door, Homer."
@carlhannah1884
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Jim James and Calexico do such a great job with their cover of Acapulco
@painless465
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I love a lot of the “ slighter” songs like “ Lo and Behold” “ Yea Heavy and a Bottle of Bread” “ Clothes Line Saga”. My favorites are “ Tears of Rage”( my hot take is I like it better than The Band’s Big Pink version) and Open the Door,Homer, which has a beautiful melody.
@ABCDEY12
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Hi thanx for the video, Jim James of My Morning Jacket covered "Goin' to Acapulco" for the "I'm Not There" soundtrack and "The Mighty Quinn" is definitively not on "New Morning", but a version from the Isle of Wight gig is on "Self-Portrait". Keep the good work!
@ronaldiii9416
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I didn't hear The Flying Burrito Bros in "songs covered by other artists", or maybe I missed it. For this wheel is on fire.
@mikenoble5049
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Million Dollar Bash is a hoot
@joejenkins3595
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I was so into that album when released. My friends who were listening to Zeppelin, Sabbath, Bad Company thought I was crazy.
@JSH-z8j
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Their cover of "Big Yellow Taxi" may be an abomination, and to be fair I've never heard their Dylan cover, but Counting Crows did nothing to earn the heavy sigh. I've realized at this point, it's just cool to hate them. They wrote some great songs.
@JSH-z8j
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I know Planet Waves is considered by many to be "underwhelming", but I disagree.
@skiziskin
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
The Rolling Thunder Revue was like ten years later.
@stephenmaxner1275
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
No commentary on Robertson’s choices in 1975? I am one of those people who would have enjoyed The Band only songs if they were separate but I get annoyed at their inclusion and interjections within Dylan’s leads.
@SuZuka07
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Taking a Banana Boat Ride Almost Makes You Wish For A Lark's Tongues In Aspic Episode.
@fedrigogamingchannels71
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Do you have prince records?
@johangaudissabois8668
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
What a great job you did ABIGAIL. I always treasured THE BASEMENT TAPES because there are so many great songs on it popularised by other artists. And I fully agree : too bad I SHALL BE RELEASED is not on it and THE MIGHTY QUINN as performed by MANFRED MANN was a favorite of mine way back. Greil Marcus stated that THE BASEMENT TAPES would have been one of the greatest albums of the year if it were released in 67 and that in 75 it once again stood out! I copy that ! What a great entertaining and informative contribution you made Abigail !
@ScoutSolis
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Everything about what you do for old vinyl is fabulous. It's well-informed and fresh, which is especially crucial since most of the albums you feature are over 40 years old. You are the gateway drug for young millennials and Gen Z folx who have no idea what these records mean. I'm very well-versed in these old records, and yet you still bring to light new details that always eluded me. so thanks for that. Greil Marcus, by the way, is the critic who famously wrote in the Rolling Stone about Dylan's double LP "Self-Titled": "What is this shit?"
@aronpolasek4506
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
The 1975 Basement Tapes release never really did much for me. I tried multiple times to connect with that release, but I just found myself wanting to listen to other stuff from Dylan or The Band instead. As mentioned in the video, a lot of the songs operate in a similar tempo, so maybe that sameness was part of the problem for me.
As strange as it sounds, it wasn’t until I listened to the Complete version of the Bootleg Series entry covering the Basement Tapes that it all clicked for me. It seems somewhat counterintuitive that more material from that period would be the thing that unlocked everything for me, but I guess hearing a more complete overview of the range of songs (originals and covers) they were playing around with is what did the trick.
@StrahaoftheRace
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Abigail has good Jeans…..
@michaelshiflett4835
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
Abby! That is so well done I’m speechless!!
@georgesempepos9677
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
While far from the best song in this amazing wild flood, I've always loved the way Clothesline Saga mercilessly skewers Bobbie Gentry's novelty hit in a way that's simultaneously nasty and lovingly true. Sophomoric stoned satire at its wackiest. And a bit reminiscent of how 4th Time Around treats Norwegian Wood. Bob, the eternal 1950s high school cutup/juvenile-beatnik wiseass.
@WhiteCamry
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
If that ain't Ringo behind the shades then who is it?
@jackscratch785
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
DANG it! You are the Best! More people need to know about you.❤
@BeckyLStoutWriter
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
I don't mind a redux if it features my favorite band ever, The Band! 😊 I do hope you cover The Last Waltz someday. Album and movie. Maybe you can find out why Emmylou Harris wasn't at the actual show. I can't seem to figure it out. Anyway, good video! 👍
@jackscratch785
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
You are so nice. ❤
@chrismcgovern1647
September 4, 2025 at 3:19 am
30:00 Or it's an early draft of the Pat Garrett script
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