Dylan’s Basement Tape Should Be Released
Tiny Montgomery: The lyric strategy here is rather diffuse, about telling everybody in “old Frisco” that “Tiny Montgomery says ‘Hello’.” “Everybody” is a collection of rather moderate freaks and non-descripts, and one can’t help thinking that Dylan is taking cognizance of some of the more publicized aspects of San Francisco. The organ in this song does several hard-to-hear electronic bits and the vocal is backed a continual high-pitched chorus.
100 Greatest Artists of All Time: Bob Dylan
This Wheel’s On Fire: A little Del Shannon piano in the beginning tips off the most dramatic and moving vocal by Dylan in this collection. The drums become clear for the first time on this song. It is a great number, possibly the very best by this group.
“This wheel’s on fire/Rolling down the road;/ Just notify my next of kin/This wheel shall explode.”
The song is a very passionate love story (“You know we shall meet again/If your memory serves you well”) about a woman who must inevitably return bound by a fate, to the man she has neglected but who has done everything he possibly can for her.
The style here is close to J. W. Harding, the aching and yearning is soul wrenchingly intense.
Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere: “Get your mind off wintertime.” This song like many of the others and much of John Wesley Harding could be characterized as part of Dylan’s continuing advice to calm down, smile on your brother, let’s get together . . .
I Shall Be Released: Curiously enough the music in this song and the high pleading sound of Dylan’s voice reminds one of the Bee Gees. It is one of the few songs on the tape with an instrumental break. “They say every man needs protection/They say every man must fall/ Yet I swear I see my reflection/Someplace so high above this wall.”
Tears of Rage: This is a very sad and a very confusing song. I’m sure you will understand it when it is recorded and released by some artist. “Why must I always be the one.”
Quinn the Eskimo is familiar to most in the version by Manfred Mann. Dylan does the song slower, does use flutes, but doesn’t make the great differentiation between the verse and the chorus. “Mighty Quinn” is the most obvious of these songs to give a full-blown rock and roll treatment.
Open the Door Richard: “Take care of all of your memories/For you can not relive them;/And re-remember when you’re out there/You must always first forgive them.” This is a light, swinging song.
Nothing Is There: If this doesn’t prove Dylan’s sense of humor, little will. This sounds like 1956 vintage rock and roll; the piano triplets (Dylan himself playing, I’m sure) are a direct cop from Fats Domino‘s “Blueberry Hill.” Dylan is one of the few rock and roll artists who uses both a piano and an organ.
The last song gives interesting insight into the nature of this unreleased Dylan material. Even though he used one of the finest rock and roll bands ever assembled on the Highway 61 album, here he works with his own band, for the first time. Dylan brings that instinctual feel for rock and roll to his voice for the first time. If this were ever to be released, it would be a classic.