Bob Dylan
A Tree With Roots

Anyone who has approached Dylan's music, even superficially, will surely have heard of the "Basement Tapes"; the legendary "basement" tapes recorded between the spring and summer of 1967 in the countryside near Woodstock by Dylan and that group of talented boys who would become known as "The Band." They are Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko, and Levon Helm. Multi-instrumentalists, with years of experience as a backing band, they accompanied Dylan during the historic 65-66 tour.

It's 1967. Dylan, retreating in the Woodstock area, is soon joined by the whole company, who rent that farmhouse that will go down in history as "Big Pink." It is precisely in the basement of the big pink house that the group, led by Dylan, gathers to play and create those hundreds of recordings that will go down in history.

Down in the Big Pink basement, Garth Hudson set up a two-track tape recorder with four microphones connected in stereo and in pairs, so the sound moved from one microphone to another. It was a rudimentary setup, put together on the spot, but it played its part. Dylan and the others began playing together almost every day, isolated from everything and everyone, in total freedom, far from any external contamination. They recorded with the windows open to let the spring air in, with a dog named Hamlet wandering around the studio or sleeping on the floor. The months passed and the tape rolled, with no market obligations or constraints. It just rolled.

The "Basement Tapes" are rudimentary, rough if you will, but they have all the charm and purity of those spring days. A group of friends who almost accidentally meet to make music, to kill time, to have a laugh. These are the "Basement Tapes."

Some songs began to circulate among fans, thanks to the first "Bootleg" in history: "The Great White Wonder," which collected old Dylan rarities and some basement songs. The first "Bootleg" in history was just the first in a long series. Over the years, unauthorized disks seemed to appear out of nowhere, popping up like mushrooms, and those "amateur" recordings soon became a legend.

Only in 1975 did Dylan try to regain control of the situation by releasing the official "Basement Tapes," which contained only a tiny part of the recordings. The tracks, chosen and retouched by Robertson, were a disappointment for many; the selection of songs, as if it weren't enough, was questionable. The "Basement Tapes" deserved much, much more. Once again, unofficial releases did a great job.

The basement material, over all these years, has been released countless times on numerous Bootlegs. Among all, "A Tree With Roots," released in 2001, is my favorite. It's a four-disc box set containing a whopping 128 tracks. The quality is astonishing and far exceeds all previous releases. The original recordings have finally been cleaned up and are presented in a more organized and logical way compared to the previous "The Genuine Basement Tapes" of 1990, which, with its 5 discs, may be more complete, but not so faithful regarding sound quality.

The music that can be heard on these 4 discs seems to elude any classification. They are moments out of time, unclassifiable moments. Outside, the rock world was projecting into the future, experiencing a season of unique creative ferment. Inside that basement, however, Dylan was reinterpreting American musical tradition in a completely new way.

The tracks move with their own pace. At times incredibly ironic, at times wonderfully prophetic, they float along the muddy rivers the band manages to create. Hudson's organ appears and disappears constantly and makes its way through those dense and unique sounds. All the members of the band play wonderfully and follow the wonderfully uncertain course of Dylan's guitar on which the songs are built. As if that weren't enough, the way Dylan sings during this period is absolutely unique in the entire history of music. Often, in fact, it seems like he is narrating, with a tone and sound incredibly innovative. Besides Dylan's new songs (destined to become classics), there are many traditional tracks that are revived in a completely personal way and coexist perfectly alongside Dylan's masterpieces.

I have decided not to focus on any particular track because otherwise, I would have to mention them all. Among these 128 tracks, there's truly everything. It's a world to explore; the result of one of the most unique and revolutionary periods in the entire history of music.