The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11, a six-disc set from Sony Legacy compiles “every salvageable recording” from Dylan’s 1967 sessions with The Band.
In July 1966, Bob Dylan was reported to have been in a serious motorcycle accident in upstate New York. While recovering from his injuries, the singer teamed up with musicians Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and, later, Levon Helm, in the basement of a small house, named "Big Pink" in West Saugerties, New York.
This collective – the accompanying musicians were formerly members of Ronnie Hawkins’ The Hawks - would come to be known as Bob Dylan and The Band. They recorded more than a hundred songs at the Big Pink sessions, including the future Dylan classics I Shall Be Released, The Mighty Quinn, This Wheel's On Fire and You Ain't Going Nowhere.
16 of the songs from this sprawling collection of recordings were released on the original Basement Tapes album in 1975, having circulated as bootleg cassette tapes for years beforehand.
In recent years The Band's Garth Hudson and music archivist Jan Haust have been cleaning up the original recordings for the six-CD set release through Sony Legacy.
