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♪ Odds and ends
odds and ends

♪ Lost time
is not found again ♪

Roy Silver, now he was
a character who showed up.

Kind of a...

[CHUCKLES] He's kind of like...
How can you put it?

He was kind of like a hustler
type on the street, you know,
somebody...

You know, trying to make a deal
about this

and make a deal about that.
He was a fast talker.

Well, I saw him perform
all the time.

I hung out with him.

I was the guy.
I was his manager.

I mean...
So I was there wearing,

at that time,
as was my practice,

I was the only one

in the entire Village
that wore a suit.

Everyone else was in jeans,
etcetera, etcetera.

But I had my little outfit
and so forth...

that I wore.
So, I saw him all the time.

I mean, we met on a daily basis,

trying to figure out
what to do next.

And I was trying to...
There was no question.

I was trying to make him a star,

and I knew that he could
and would be a star.

In the '60s, it was...
It was great.

There was so much talent around
at that point,

and in an undiscovered area,

folk music.

My God, who knew
from folk music?

I mean, the only person
that was alive that any of us
knew was Pete Seeger.

No one understood
what was happening at that time.

I mean, no one woke up and said,
"Oh, my God, it's folk music!"

We were just out there.

I mean, Pete Seeger was God,

and we were just people working
and trying to make a buck

and hoping that this would all
turn into something fabulous.

And it did. You could smell it,
that there was something
going on

at that period of time
that would do away
with the old stuff.

No one ever thought,

no one that I remember
at that time period

ever thought that this
was one day going to
who'd be Bob Dylan.

I remember that he was strange
and that I was not going to...

This was not anyone
that I was going to have

an easy time communicating with.

This would be... I'd have to
pull everything out of him

because he didn't know
where he was

or what he was doing,
and so forth and so on.

I mean, he was new
to the Village.

Gerde's Folk City
was the highest
his dreams had ever gone to.

So, you know,
it was hard to figure out

where we were all
going to go with this.

With Bob, I took a piece of
paper out of whatever,
or I asked someone,

and wrote down that,
"I, Bob Dylan, do hereby

"agree to be managed
by Roy Silver for 20%."

I forget what the period of time
was and so forth.

And Bobby signed it.
It was really no big deal.

He was strange.

You were dealing with a guy
who had a strange voice,

who had a strange rhythm,

who was playing a guitar
in a strange, humdrum fashion.

I mean, that was
really the response.

No one leaped up from their seat
at the end of the show

and said,
"My God, the Messiah has come."

No one. I mean, it was hard.

He went up. He did a show.
He came off.
He didn't do a show.

No one ever accused Bob
of being a great performer.

I mean, at any time.

Bob came running up to see me
to play a new song for me.

So I said okay, and I sat there,

and Bob whipped out
his rusty guitar

and he played this song for me
and I said,

"This is the greatest song
I've ever heard."

And he was thrilled
that I said to him

that this was a great song,
and I said,

"We have to
record it immediately

"because I know a place
where this should go."

"I'm going to call Artie Mogull
and everything,

"but first, we've got to go in
and record it."

And my memory tells me
that we went...

I went downstairs
at Third Avenue, at the place
that we were at.

It was a Chinese laundry,
and I borrowed $50,

'cause no one
had any money then.

I borrowed $50

so that I could go
to 1619 Broadway,

or wherever it was,
to make a record.

That's how we spoke
in those days.

We were going to make
an acetate.

Bob would sing
and play simultaneously,

and we would run and record it.

And I did that,

and then I sent him home
because he was boring to be with

and I didn't want to hang out
anymore with him.

And then I went over to...

the publishing company, Witmark.

It was one of those songs
that you knew,

if you were
in the music business,

you knew that a gold mine
had just been discovered.

We just arbitrarily decided
that we would do it

with Peter, Paul and Mary.

Came out three weeks later,

a little song called
Blowin' in the Wind,

went on to absolutely establish
who Bob was

and what his place was
in the world, and deservedly so.

I mean it was, to this day...
I mean, I can listen to it.

I just heard it the other day
on someone and it just...

Blowin' in the Wind.
I mean, it brings tears
to your eyes.

How he could think of all of
that, how he made that all work.

This nice little Jewish kid,
with nice little Jewish parents,

who had changed his name,
which was a big enough shanda,

that means "disgrace,"

at that time period, you know.

And then it was onward
and upward.

♪ How many roads
must a man walk down

♪ Before you call him a man?

♪ How many seas
must the white dove sail

♪ Before she sleeps
in the sand?

♪ Yes, and how many times
must the cannonballs fly

♪ Before they're
forever banned?

♪ The answer, my friend
is blowin' in the wind

♪ The answer is blowin'
in the wind

♪ Yes, and how many years
must a mountain exist

♪ Before it is washed
to the sea?

♪ And how many years
can some people exist

♪ Before they're allowed
to be free?

♪ Yes, and how many times
can a man turn his head

♪ And pretend that
he just doesn't see?

♪ The answer, my friend
is blowin' in the wind

♪ The answer is blowin'
in the wind

[COUGHS]

♪ Yes, and how many times
must a man look up

♪ Before he can see the sky?

♪ And how many ears
must one man have

♪ Before he can hear
people cry?

♪ Yes, and how many deaths
will it take till he knows

♪ That too many people
have died?

♪ The answer, my friend
is blowin' in the wind

♪ The answer is blowin'
in the wind ♪

[CHUCKLING] Albert Grossman.

The thing that I love
the most about Albert.

Albert had this trick.

He could sit there in a room

longer than anyone in the world
and not say a word.

It was such an amazing...
So that people
would find themselves

all of a sudden
getting up and saying,
"I did it, I killed him."

I mean, they would
confess to anything

so as not to have to sit
in a room with Albert

and let that silence swell out.

He had an office.

[WHISTLES]

[LAUGHS]

Not many people had offices
at that point.

We were all living
in the Village.

So, Albert and I
went into business together.

I could see that Albert Grossman

really wanted to take over...

Dylan. I could see that.

I mean, and he...
Albert had the money to do it.

Albert is, at best,
a strange guy,

and I have no money.

And I see that Bobby,

who is easily,
in my opinion, manipulated

because he didn't give a shit
in any way.

He was just busy
"writing them songs."

I see that I'm going to
lose out on this.

That it's not going to work
the way that I want it to work.

So I better move quickly,
and I come up with the scheme

of selling my share
of Dylan's contract.

We had split it 50-50,

and my share should be sold,

and I should get $10,000.

I have to tell you that $10,000

in 1961 was a fortune.

That was a lot of money
at that point.

But he was always
very sweet to me,

you know, after the dissolution
and so forth and so on.

And I felt that,
my own personal feeling...

I always thought that
Albert took away so much
of the fun of him.

But that's my opinion.

I thought he was a warmer,
more mellow guy

than Albert had turned him into.

The song Blowin' in the Wind,
my favorite song.

And I was there.

"How many roads
must a man walk down
before they call him a man?

"Yes, and how many seas
must a white dove sail

"before she sleeps in the sand?

"Yes, and how many times
must the cannonballs fly

"before they're forever banned?

"The answer, my friend,
is blowing in the wind.

"The answer is blowing
in the wind."

Okay.

It's so funny
to read this lyric now.

That's 100 years old.

We've all heard it for,
you know, so long.

Now it's become...
It's moved beyond what it was

in a strange kind of a way.

Although, I told you,
I heard it the other day.

I forget where,
and I started to cry.

DYLAN: I got out of the current
George Washington Bridge,

took the subway down the road.

Went to the Cafe Wha?,
I looked out at the crowd.

"Does anybody know
where a couple of people
could stay tonight?"

I was ready for New York.

IZZY YOUNG:
So, this guy comes in.

He didn't look
too prepossessing,
didn't look the wild sort.

He looked like an ordinary kid.

He said,
"Listen, I got some songs
I want you to hear."

So I was, "Oh, God.
Can you come tomorrow?
Get out of here."

He said,
"No, I want to
sing you a song."

So I let him sing the song.

And then I started
pointing people.

I said, "Listen,
see that guy in the back room?

"His name is Bob Dylan.
You should listen to him.

"The guy's writing good songs,
he's terrific."

Al Jolson was the first
successful folk manager

who knew how to make money
out of the singles.

ARTIE MOGUL:
Albert tells me one day
they're going to send a guy

over to see me
named Bob Dylan.

He's got a guitar
with some kind of a contraption
around his neck,

so that the harmonica
is up to his mouth.

Now, believe me
when I tell you, nobody had
ever seen this before.

And he starts singing for me.

♪ How many roads
must a man walk down

♪ Before you call him a man?

♪ How many seas
must the white dove sail...

The music business per se
was dominated
by music publishers.

In those days,
the song was important.

♪ ...must the cannonballs
fly...

When I heard
"How many ears
must one man have

"before he can hear people cry?"
I flipped.

I can't even remember
what the songs were
that he played me that day.

But I said, "Okay, that's it.
I want you.

"I'll give you
a writer's contract."

And we got a contract ready
and he signed it.

DYLAN:
I didn't tell anybody for a bit
because, you know,

I almost wasn't sure
it was happening myself.

So I don't think
I really told anybody

until I actually
went through with the sessions.

♪ ...is blowin' in the wind

♪ The answer is blowin'
in the wind ♪

Now, Bob, when he started
to bring me songs,

the lyrics were written
on this long
yellow legal-size paper.

Every one of the songs
came to me that way.

The Times They Are A-Changin',
all the classics.

And we would take him
into this little tiny studio

that was across from my office
and he would make a tape,

singing the song,
playing the guitar.

I would then take the tape
and give it to our head copyist,

who was a guy
named Simeon Saber.

Simeon Saber was about
65 years old,

and he'd been sitting there with
his green eyeshade for 45 years,

copying the songs
of Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml,

and now I'm bringing him songs
about rats eating babies.

He comes to me one day
and he says,

"We've got to get
a young copyist in.
I just can't do this."

Strangely enough,
even the old people there,

everybody got on
the Dylan bandwagon.

Everybody started
to record Bob Dylan songs.

Helped, of course, by the fact
that Peter, Paul and Mary

didBlowin' in the Wind
and thenDon't Think Twice.

And I think it was the fact

that all these other artists
did Bob,

is what made him
start to become so big.

♪ 'Cause the times
they are a-changing

♪ Come mothers
and fathers... ♪

He was the first artist
who could record an album

of 10 or 12 songs and be
the writer and publisher
of all the songs.

Previous to that, if Nat Cole
recorded an album of 12 songs,

12 different writers
and 12 different publishers

wrote those songs.

In Bob's case,
he really was writing all
these great original songs

and on all the publishing
and all the writing.

It was the beginning of the end

of what used to be known as
Tin Pan Alley.

♪ Well, I ain't got
my childhood

♪ Or friends I once did know

♪ But I still...

DYLAN: I wrote a lot of songs
in a quick amount of time.

I could do that then.

Because the process
was new to me.

♪ Hey, hey, so I guess
I'm doin' fine ♪

Yes, I don't think
a lot of people realize.

Even I question,
where did this come from?

How does he come up with these?

How did this kid
from Hibbing, Minnesota...

How was this in him?

I'll tell you something else
interesting about those demos

that we used to make with Bob.

Someplace there exists
the tapes on those.

MAN: I have the tapes.

MOGULL: You actually
found the tapes
from those demos he made?

MAN: We have all the original
tapes from the demos
in the original boxes.

MOGULL: Well, that could be
a great album.

ANNOUNCER: Today's young people
have more leisure time

than any previous generation,

and more ways
to fill those hours
between work and play.

For practically everyone
twixt 12 and 20,

one activity to beat the band
is music.

Whether blasting from
a transistor radio at the beach

or the record player
in your bedroom,

music is in the air
that teenagers breathe.

But like any healthy
teenage activity,

music could be corrupted
by unscrupulous profiteers

out to push the latest
dubious gimmick
in the name of progress.

You kids have to be careful
of these snake oil salesmen

trying to sell you stereo sound.

It's just a scam
to raise the price of records.

But my boyfriend says that
stereo makes it sound

like a group is playing
right in your bedroom.

Yeah, and how would your dad
feel if one of these rock groups

did come and play
in your bedroom?

Well, I guess he wouldn't
really go for that.

ANNOUNCER: Darn right
he wouldn't, and neither
would your neighbors.

Stereo sound purports to split
the signal between two speakers,

putting half the music
in one side
and half in the other.

They claim that when the music
is reassembled in your brain,

it fools you into thinking

you're hearing a band
spread out around the room.

Why would I want
to fool my brain?

ANNOUNCER: Exactly, Scottie.

By introducing
deceptive patterns
into the adolescent mind,

stereo sound plays havoc
with the still-developing
tissue

of the teenage brain.
Stereo is designed
to lie to you.

The fallacy
of the stereo sales pitch

is that it's based
on the false syllogism

that two speakers
equal your two ears.

But what it ignores
is that you only have one brain,

and you don't listen to music
with your ears,

you listen with your brain.

ANNOUNCER: What is the antidote
to stereo?

Well, it's been right
in your home all along.

Good old American mono.

In the recording studio,

each instrument
has its own microphone.

Trained technicians
on the other side
of the protective window

balance the volume levels
to achieve an ideal blend.

With mono recording,
you hear that same perfect blend

wherever you're standing.

However, with stereo recording,

you may hear a blaring trumpet
in the left speaker,

an out-of-tune electric guitar
in the right speaker,

and a honking Lowrey organ
somewhere on the ceiling.

ANNOUNCER: And here's
something you may not know.

Today's most with-it groups
mix all their records in mono.

That's the true recording.

Stereo mixes are often done

after the musicians you love
have left the room.

This whole stereo stampede
is nothing but a flimflam

to trick teenagers
into paying more for records.

$3.50?

That's more than
my whole allowance.

Once customers
swallow high stereo prices,

many stores may stop
selling mono records altogether.

They can't do that, can they?

ANNOUNCER: Teenagers are
the future of America.

These young twisters, swingers
and go-go kids

will someday be our senators,

astronauts and homemakers,

but to live in the future,

everyone will need
a fully functioning brain.

Everyone will need to be able
to think clearly,
straightforwardly in mono.

I'm sticking with mono.

I'm sticking with mono.

ANNOUNCER: Let's all
stick with mono.

♪ Columbia
That's the magic word

♪ For the greatest records
you've ever heard

♪ You even get past the hi-lo
on Columbia! ♪

♪ When you're lost in the rain
down in Juarez

♪ When it's Easter, too

♪ And your gravity drops

♪ And negativity
don't pull you through ♪

♪ Don't put on any airs

♪ When you're walking
on Rue Morgue Avenue

♪ They got some
hungry women there

♪ And they really make
a mess outta you

♪ Well if you see Saint Annie
please tell her thanks a lot

♪ I cannot move
My fingers are all in a knot

♪ I do not have the strength

♪ To get up
and take another shot

♪ And the doctor
who's my best friend

♪ Won't even tell me
what it is I've got

♪ I started out on burgundy
and soon hit the harder stuff

♪ Everybody said
they'd stand behind me

♪ When the game got rough

♪ But it was all a laugh

♪ Because there was no one
there to call my bluff

♪ I'm going back
to New York City

♪ I believe I've had enough ♪

NARRATOR: Between 1965
and 1966, Bob Dylan
recorded three albums

that many believe
changed the course
of modern music.

Bringing It All Back Home,

Highway 61 Revisited
andBlonde on Blonde.

The Cutting Edge,
The Bootleg Series Volume 12

takes you inside the studio

during the recording of
these three legendary albums.

♪ Well, the rainman's coming
and he's waving his wand

♪ And the judge says
"Mona can't have no bond"

♪ Mona, she starts to cry

♪ Rainman leaves
in a wolf's disguise... ♪

NARRATOR: With a staggering
wealth of unreleased songs,

outtakes, rehearsals
and alternate versions,

The Cutting Edge
provides a unique look

into one man's
astonishing creative process.

MAN: My Girl, take one.

NARRATOR: January 1965,
Dylan arrives

at CBS Recording Studios
in Manhattan
looking for a new sound.

♪ She's got everything
she needs

♪ She's an artist
She don't look back

♪ She's got everything
she needs

♪ She's an artist
She don't look back

♪ She can take the dark
out of the night time

♪ And paint
the day time black ♪

NARRATOR: OnThe Cutting Edge,
we follow that journey

as the elements ofBringing It
All Back Home fall into place.

♪ Ain't it hard to stumble and
land in some funny lagoon? ♪

♪ Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man
play a song for me... ♪

DYLAN: Hey, I can't...

Hey, the drumming
is driving me mad.
I'm going out of my brain.

NARRATOR: Six months later,
Bob Dylan is back
in the studio.

♪ People call, say
"Beware doll

♪ "You're bound to fall"

♪ You thought they were
all kiddin' you ♪

DYLAN: At this point,
his switch to electric music

has already alienated
some fans,

at the same time
created a whole new audience.

The resulting album,
Highway 61 Revisited

is Dylan's first
fully realized rock album.

♪ Well, I ride
on a mailtrain, baby

♪ Can't buy no thrill

♪ I've been up all night, baby

♪ Leanin' on the windowsill

♪ Well, if I die
on top of the hill

♪ And if I don't make it

♪ You know my baby will ♪

NARRATOR: On his next album,
the sonic landscape
shifts once again.

It takes several tries
and multiple cities

to finally realize
Dylan's distinctive vision

for rock's first double album

Blonde on Blonde.

But onThe Cutting Edge,

even the wrong directions
can yield glorious results.

♪ Ain't it just like the night

♪ To play tricks when
you're tryin' to be so quiet? ♪

The Cutting Edge
presents an alternate history

for some of
the most distinctive songs
ever recorded.

♪ Oh, Mama
this might be the end

♪ I'm down here in Mobile
with the Memphis blues again ♪

NARRATOR: You are there
for the evolution
of one classic after another,

and all of it is tied together
with Dylan's unerring sense

of lyrical and musical mastery.

♪ Now your dancing child
with his Chinese suit

♪ He spoke to me
I took his flute

♪ No, I wasn't
very cute to him, was I?

♪ But I did it to him
because he lied

♪ Because he took you
for a ride...

♪ Because time was
on his side

♪ And because I...

♪ Want you

♪ I want you

♪ I want you so bad

♪ Honey, I want you ♪

Hello, I'm Bob Egan of PopSpots,

the website where I track down
where old record album covers
were made.

Today we're going to
look at Bob Dylan's
Bringing It All back Home.

Now, today I'm on Minetta Street
in Greenwich Village,

the center of
the folk movement,

and I'm standing next to what
used to be called The Commons.

And in 1962, Dylan wrote
Blowin' in the Windright here.

Now, back in that era,
he was a scruffy looking kid

who just blew in from
the Midwest, and he would be
photographed that way.

But three years later,
he's a changed guy.

Rock 'n' roll has come.

The Beatles have come,
The Rolling Stones have come.

New fashions have come.

When he put out this album,
he's dressed like
a country squire.

He's in the middle
of a nice, beautiful house

next to a beautiful woman,
he's got a Persian cat.

Basically, what he's trying
to do here is say,
"I'm past the folk movement.

"I'm moving on."
As a matter of fact,
half the record is acoustic,

that's the old world,
and half is electric.

Right here,
this is Sally Grossman.

Bob's manager
was Albert Grossman
and that was his wife.

This photograph is taken
on the Grossman's estate

up in Bearsville, New York,
which is just
west of Woodstock.

How many pictures
did you take like this?

Ten.

And how did you decide
on this particular shot?

-The only one in which the cat
was looking at the lens.
-[CHUCKLES]

How'd you get that
yellow circle of light?

As I explained to Bob that

what would happen
if we do this effect,

-we will have things
blurry and moving...
-Yeah.

...but you won't be moving
because you're the center.

You know what's going on.

But around you, there's
the turning of the world.

Also the turning of the record.

Any reason why you put
Dylan's own album in the back?

Just kind of like his history,
is that it?

My back pages.

KRAMER: Bob put a lot
of things in that had
some meaning for him.

Bob Dylan with Daniel Kramer,

they spent about three hours
going through the house,

just picking up
all sorts of old stuff,

including the record album
and, you know, movies.

And then, you know,
like old world paintings.

He's got these pink cufflinks.

They were a present to him
by Joan Baez.

And he's got, you know, a lot of
the objects of his past,

including one of his
old albums in the middle.

Hi, I'm Bob Egan of PopSpots,
and on my website,

I searched down where famous
record album covers were done.

Today I'm sitting
on the front steps

of where Bob Dylan lived
for two years,
starting in 1961.

Today we're going to
go look at the location of
Highway 61 Revisited.

Bob lived here
and he took this photograph

right down these steps,
down the street,

right over to the corner
of Jones Street.

They probably walked
right by this spot,

where they took the shot
for Freewheelin'
several years before.

So now follow me
and we're gonna go see

the rest of where
the other part of the shoot was

for Highway 61.

The street corner
at Sixth Avenue
and West Fourth Street.

And where they went,
this place called O' Henry's.

And it was a famous,
old fashioned,

you know, kind of
barbershop-quartet-era
type restaurant

that was located right here.

After lunch, Bob and Daniel
went up to Gramercy Park.

So, I'm always on the lookout
for different locations,

you know, where album covers
were done and I saw a book
that said

that Janis Joplin used to sit on
the front steps of the building

where it was taken,
and look out at Gramercy Park.

When I found that Janis Joplin

had been
at Albert Grossman's apartment,

I zoomed in on the door
and I said,
"This is the same door."

I couldn't believe it because

the whole time that I was
thinking about this album,

I thought that it was done
indoors inside of a stage,

because it looks like
it's kind of like a theater arch

on the right hand side.

So I was... My mind was blown
when it turns out

that it's outdoors
after all this time.

This is a place
where Dylan stayed for,

you know, long periods of time.

When they got here, Dylan said,

"I want to go in
and have you take a picture

"using my new Triumph T-shirt."

So he went and got the Triumph
T-shirt and he sat down.

Usually, you have a plan,
especially for a cover.

Yeah.

And this wasn't the plan.

This was kind of all naked here.

So I asked Neuwirth
if he'd stand here.

So I grabbed my camera and I
said, "Bob, hold this camera."

Now, once he did that, it seems
like something's going on.

Not that we're taking a picture,
but there's a making
of a picture.

There's a photographer,
he's got his camera.

This wasn't the plan.

This wasn't even expected that
we would do a picture like this.

Kramer then took
two different pictures

and one of the pictures...

You know, the last picture
of the day that they shot

was the one that became
the album cover.

♪ And have it on Highway 61 ♪

This is Bob Egan from PopSpots.

It's a website
where I track down

where famous record album covers
were done.

Today we're gonna look at where
Blonde On Blonde

from 1966, Bob Dylan's album,
was photographed.

Standing next to
Jerry Schatzberg,
who took that photograph.

This is your studio.
It was right up here.

Dylan picked you
and one of your assistants up.

And where did you go
to take the picture?

What I remember was the
Meatpacking District downtown.

-Okay, that's about 14th Street.
-Possibly.

Way over on the west side.

Let's go check it out.

We're going to
the Meatpacking District

because I know that
I photographed Dylan there
for Blonde on Blonde.

Or I think
I photographed him there.

We're just trying
to discover where

because they've gentrified
the areas so much.

We're hoping to
uncover the mystery.

Tell me exactly why the pictures
are blurred on the cover.

It was pretty cold out,
you know.

I know all the critics,
everybody trying to figure,

"Oh, they were trying
to do a drug shot
or something."

It's not true. It was February.
He was wearing just that jacket.

I was wearing something similar.
The two of us were really cold.

And to his credit, he's the one
that chose that photograph.

Someplace in here
might be the building,

but it's totally disguised now.

So far, this is
the closest thing that
I've seen in all these years.

They covered
over the brick here.

It could be this building, too,
without this top.

I think this building
looks very possible.

It's been a good experience
for me

because I really thought that
the building would be torn down.

Now I think that it might be
up here somewhere.

-Still might be up...
-I think the job is
up to you now.

-I'll see you. Thanks, guys.
-Okay.

♪ I'm pledging my time to you

♪ Hopin' you'll
come through, too... ♪

♪ Ain't it just like the night

♪ To play tricks when
you're tryin' to be quiet?

♪ We sit here stranded

♪ Though we're all doin'
our best to deny it

♪ And Louise holds
a handful of rain

♪ Temptin' you to defy it

♪ Lights flicker
from the opposite loft

♪ In this room
the heat pipes, they cough

♪ The country music station
plays soft

♪ But there's nothing
Really nothing to turn off

♪ Just Louise and her lover
so entwined

♪ And these visions of Johanna

♪ That conquer my mind

♪ The fiddler now speaks

♪ To the princess who's
pretending to care for him

♪ He says, "Name me someone
that's not a parasite

♪ "And I'll say a prayer
for him"

♪ And like Louise always says

♪ "Ya can't look at much
can ya, man?"

♪ As she prepares for him

♪ Madonna, she still
has not showed

♪ And we see the empty cage
now corrode

♪ Where her cape of the stage
once had flowed

♪ The peddler
he steps to the road

♪ Everything's gone
which was owed

♪ He examines
the nightingale's cold

♪ Still written on
a fish truck that loads

♪ My conscience explodes

♪ The harmonicas play the
skeleton keys and the rain

♪ And these visions of Johanna

♪ Are all that remain ♪

-[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
-[RHYTHMIC CLAPPING]

MAN: The big show special!

DYLAN: Well, if it isn't
the Hunchback
of Notre Dame himself.

How's it going to sound tonight?

-[CHUCKLES]
-MAN: Great.

Better than it has in days.

INTERVIEWER: Well, what was
life like on the road then?

-You know, on that tour?
-ALDERSON: Hectic.

Hard, sleepless, driving.

Crazy. [CHUCKLES]

[CROWD SHOUTING]

You talking to me?

Come up here and say that.

DYLAN: It was the worst thing
anyone could go through, man.

Can't even hear the guitar
to put it in tune.

There's something wrong
with the sound system.

It has got to be fixed.

ALDERSON: It never occurred
to me to question it.

I was just doing it.

They asked me to do it
and I did it. [CHUCKLES]

-You can follow him.
-On the other side.

-Show him what side.
-On the other side.

You want me to show you
where I'm plugged in?

I'll show you where
I'm plugged in, over here.

I was always about the music.

I was never about the mechanics
of being a sound man.

So if the music was good,
I was happy.

♪ He looks so truthful

♪ Is this how he feels

♪ As he tries to peel the moon
and expose it? ♪

I can't...[STRUMMING]

It's not the same, you know?

I can't hear it coming back.

I don't know what it is, man.

One, two.

One, two.

I didn't change anything.

I bet something's wrong
with the wires.

ALDERSON: I lived
in a fifth floor walk-up
on Bleecker Street,

right across the street from
where the Village Gate was.

And I just hung out
in the Village.

And I met Bob
for the first time

when he was just playing
folk music and hanging out.

My friend introduced me
to the new owners
of the Gaslight.

They had me
put in the sound system,

and then somebody said,

"Well, Dylan's going to premiere
a bunch of songs after hours

"and you should
come and tape it."

The atmosphere was so wonderful
in the Gaslight.

And it had a special quality

that studio recordings
could never have.

♪ Oh, where have you been
my blue-eyed son?

♪ Where have you been
my darling young one? ♪

It was just overwhelming.

I mean, I had seen all kinds
of people perform,

and nobody gave me chills
like that.

Nothing even came close to it.

Tito, listen,
we seem to have a problem.

ALDERSON: I'd done
a lot of live sound work
for Grossman.

When it came time
for Dylan to go on tour,

Grossman asked me
to build the sound system

and I said yes.

I need an electrician.
My power's all gone.

It's Richard's power, man.
Come on.

ALDERSON: I fit perfectly
into that situation

because I was really
a kind of hi-fi purist

as far as sound is concerned.

DYLAN: Richard's power.
Give him his power back.

Let's have the power.

I had no rehearsals with Dylan
because I was busy

getting the gear together
and setting it up.

I built the sound system.

I had to make up the tables
and I had to connect everything

and I had to put it
into the road cases

and get it on the plane.

It was shipped to Honolulu.

The first time I used
the whole sound system

was on the stage in Honolulu.

And I was still soldering wires
on the stage in Stockholm.

I remember that very well.

Just give me time
to get across to the other side.

I mean, I barely had time
to get everything set up

at every venue we were at.

I knew that he had been
performing electric,

but I had no idea
that the second half

was going to be
what it turned out to be.

♪ Once upon a time
you dressed so fine

♪ You threw the bums a dime
in your prime

♪ Didn't you? ♪

Richard.

ALDERSON: Everybody knew
that they came
to see the Bob Dylan

that they were expecting.

Rock 'n' roll was something
that no one expected.

There was a lot of booing.

I mean, it was practically
everywhere we went.

The audiences were hostile.

And the band responded
to the hostility
of the audience

by playing more aggressively.

♪ You walk into the room

♪ With your pencil in your hand

♪ You see somebody naked

♪ And you say
"Who is that man?" ♪

The audience reaction,
that was mystifying...

to everybody.
It was mystifying to me.

I can remember, like,

"Why doesn't everybody think
this stuff is as great as I do?"
[CHUCKLES]

The tapings began
when we were in Europe

because Bob wanted
to make a movie.

♪ I'd stand by her roil

♪ In the lonely water

♪ I've stood there many times
before this, you see

ALDERSON: He wanted to make
kind of a nouvelle vague movie

of the whole process.

Nobody ever thought
that those tapes

would ever be issued
in the way they're being issued.

MAN: All the stuff
that came from Paris

is still being cleared
through customs.

There's nothing here?

-I can't believe it.
-ALDERSON: It's a 7:30 show.

-Nothing is there now?
-That's right.

Just the stuff
that was left here.

Two speakers and the organ,
and that's all set up.

The stage is all set up,
but there's nothing else there.

The gear was just the gear
that I was used to using.

It was good microphones.

They were all
individually mic'ed.

There was one microphone
for everybody,

maybe two microphones for Bob.

DYLAN: Thank you.

ALDERSON: There wasn't
any theory.

There wasn't any map to follow
about how you mic
an electric band.

It was just the way
the music sounded on stage.

There was all one mix,
so I had to compromise.

I mean, most of the concern
was about the music and
about the performances,

and the recordings
were just whatever
went out into the hall.

We'd all listen
to the tapes afterwards.

I made some changes
and it definitely got better.

He was singing wonderfully
and performing wonderfully,

and the songs
were very exciting,
and I was wrapped up in that.

I don't know.

You put good microphones up
in front of good music

and it sounds good.

♪ Yes, but the joke was on me

♪ There was nobody even there
to call my bluff

♪ I'm going back
to New York City

♪ I do believe
I've had enough ♪

ALDERSON: I mean,
obviously, the musicians
played their asses off.

It wasn't even like
the studio recordings

or like the performance
at Newport

because Mickey Jones
was a much louder drummer

and much more
aggressive drummer

than anybody else that
had played with him before.

And it drove the music harder.

It made Robbie play
some of the greatest stuff

he ever played in his life.

[CROWD CHEERING]

The Paris show was problematic
for any number of reasons.

[STRUMMING]

[TUNING]

You see, my electric guitar
never goes out of tune.

[CROWD LAUGHS]

ALDERSON: Bob took forever
tuning his guitar, I think,
just to irritate everybody.

He took like 20 minutes
to tune his guitar.

The audience was hostile
from the get-go.

-[CHUCKLES]
-[CROWD SHOUTING]

Oh, I love you.
[LAUGHS DRYLY]

You're all so wonderful.

ALDERSON: They had an attitude
about America already,

that we were a bunch
of fascist warmongers.

They opened the second half
with the biggest American flag

that Bob could find in Paris.

And the audience
didn't get the joke at all.

♪ Tell me, momma

♪ Tell me, momma

♪ Tell me, momma, what is it?

♪ What's wrong with you
this time? ♪

ALDERSON: It was
kind of dismissed.

The recordings
weren't very important.

It broke my heart.

And Columbia just mishandled it

because they wanted to use
their tapes.

And they'd sent
expensive crews over.

And the fact that Bob
wanted to use my recording

was not compatible
with their desires.

I think Grossman told me
to take the tapes to Columbia

and turn them over,
and that was it.

I never saw them again.

I wanted the tapes
to sound good.

I don't know why because...

[LAUGHS]

I didn't know till now that they
would ever become anything.

And I'm glad that it's getting
appreciated after all this time.

♪ Just Louise

♪ And her lover so entwined

♪ And these visions of Johanna

♪ That conquer my mind ♪

NARRATOR: The year is 1967.

It's winter in West Saugerties,

a small town
about a two-hour drive
north of Manhattan.

Here, Bob Dylan
is laid up recovering
from a motorcycle accident,

a canceled tour
and the newfound pressures
of fame.

"Escaping the rat race,"
Dylan said.

His touring group lived nearby.

They're called The Hawks,

but we'd soon come to know them
as "The Band."

♪ With another tale to tell

♪ And you know
that we shall meet again...

NARRATOR: Together with
Bob Dylan in the basement

of a little country house
called Big Pink,

they start recording originals,
country, folk
and rockabilly classics,

song sketches and ideas.

Over the course of a year,
they have reels of new songs,

but none of it
would see the light of day.

No, these were demos

made to hand over
to Dylan's publishing company.

Music for other artists
to record.

The cover versions
come almost overnight.

And what happens next
surprises everyone.

♪ If your memory
serves you well

♪ I was goin' to...

NARRATOR: The songs,
they spark a public demand.

They want the originals.

Demo tapes recorded
in a country basement

have found a following.

And by 1969

the first bootleg of the modern
rock 'n' roll age appears

calledGreat White Wonder.

The album compiles
the basement recordings

and some lesser known
Dylan tracks into one album.

More bootlegs
follow more demand,

and soon an underground
industry is born.

Eventually, in 1975,

Dylan and The Band bend to
the demand for the real deal

and they release
The Basement Tapes.

The record is
an instant success,
but you know how it goes.

The fans,[CHUCKLES]
they want more,
to hear it all, to know it all.

♪ ...next of kin

♪ This wheel shall explode...

NARRATOR: It's been 47 years

since Bob Dylan and The Band
made that two-hour drive

north of New York City
to Big Pink.

And the fans[CHUCKLES]
were still curious
aboutThe Basement Tapes.

Are there more hidden reels
to be discovered?

What do the original recordings
really sound like?

Forty-seven years
we've wondered, and now
we get to find out.

♪ This wheel's on fire

♪ It's rolling down the road

♪ Best notify my next of kin

♪ This wheel shall explode ♪

GREIL MARCUS: In early '68,
this guy calls me up

and we do the equivalent
of a dope deal,

except there's
no money involved.

He surreptitiously hands me
this cassette and said,

"Don't tell anybody
where you got this."

And I take it home
and listen to it

and call up all my friends
and they come over

and we all listen to it,
completely awestruck.

[HARMONICA PLAYING]

CLINTON HEYLIN: To me,
it's always been the Holy Grail

to actually fondle
the original reel.

To actually... To say,
"Yeah, this is it.

"This is the real thing."

The goal was to get as much
out of the tapes as possible

and to allow you
to be on the stairs

that led down to the basement

so you could hear,
"What are those guys playing?"

You're in the room.
You're right there.

You feel people breathing.

Everything that's been
mythologized or turned
into legend

on behalf of what happened
in that Woodstock basement

in the summer of '67 is true.

The history of the reels
themselves. It's like
a detective story.

Robbie told me
he remembered Bob saying,

"We ought to destroy this stuff.
We ought to just erase it."

What if we recorded songs
that could never be released?

What would they sound like?

That's what you're hearing.

I think The Basement Tapes
stars.

I think there's no question
with that world tour of '65-'66.

HEYLIN: They were unbelievably
grueling shows

because, of course,
everywhere Bob went,

he was badly received
by sections of the audience.

At some shows, a large section
of the audience turned on him.

[CROWD SHOUTING]

Usually during
the electric set.

DYLAN: This is a folk song.

This is a folk song.
I wanna sing a folk song now.

[CROWD CHEERING]

People did feel that
something had been
taken away from them.

Or something beautiful
had been destroyed by Bob Dylan

leaving the music of the people
behind and going for the charts.

It's taken as this outrage,
as this sellout,
as this betrayal.

Dylan talked about it
afterwards,

he talked about it
with a sense of great defiance.

Don't you think
your first records

were much better than the ones
that you do now?

Who said that?

MARCUS: The sense of,
you know, "Fuck you.

"This is the music
I'm making, this is the music
I want to sing,

"this is the music
I want to play.

"If you don't like it,
stay away."

Didn't you boo me last night?

-I didn't, I didn't.
Please, just a minute.
-We didn't boo you, Bob.

DYLAN: Well, I want the names
of all of people that booed me.

DYLAN: First half,
when they're all so quiet.

I'll just break it, right?
I'll play four or five songs.

They just don't make a sound.
All of a sudden, "Boo."

[LAUGHTER]

Boo.

MARCUS: Robbie Robertson,
Richard Manuel, Rick Danko,
Garth Hudson

Levon Helm,
they become Bob Dylan's band.

These guys are now
a band of brothers.

This brings
these people together.

By the time they reach
the United Kingdom

in the spring of April 1966,

they're meeting audiences
that made

the angry audiences
they faced before
look like nothing.

This is a war.

People come in organized groups
in order to stage walkouts.

In other words, they're paying
money not to see the show.

We paid to see
a flipping folk singer, not a...

Not a big loser.

MAN: Judas!

[CROWD SHOUTING]

I don't believe you.

You're a liar.

MARCUS: The effects
were apocalyptic.

In Torrance it's July '65,
with people booing him.

You can't do that for a year

without it getting to you
at some point.

Effectively, you can carry on
for so long like that.

But when you get to the end,
there's a crash.

And the crash
can be metaphoric,

or, as proved to be the case
in Dylan's life, literal.

GRIFFIN: After that
long, grueling tour,
he was going to take a break.

June 1st, 1966.

He was going to kick back up at
the Yale Bowl on August 2, 1966,

another whole leg of shows,

and Dylan went back
to Woodstock to relax.

They're supposed to be
going back on the road

to promote his new album,

which had only come out
a couple of weeks
before the accident,

Blonde on Blonde.

Except Bob didn't want
to go back on the road.

He decides, "I'm not going back
to this crazy life,

"at least for a while.
I'm gone."

This is 1966.

He doesn't go back on the road
again till 1974.

That's a long time.

Dylan took a year-a-half

betweenBlonde on Blonde
andJohn Wesley Harding.

People referred to this
as the period of silence.

As if is that this was
some kind of a strange violation

of the rules of time and space.

In record business terms,
it was.

GRIFFIN: The guy's 25 years
old. He's had this
motorcycle accident.

He has to come up
with some sort of a battle plan.

And this is one reason
I find him so infatuating.

I think in a way, he does it.

He knows he wants to regress
but he doesn't know
exactly how.

When he finally gets better,

I think it was that point
that Dylan had the moment of,

"What am I doing with my life?

"Could we not stop for a moment
and reassess where we are

"and where I, Bob Dylan,
want to go?"

MARCUS: Dylan is saying,
"No, I'm not giving you
a new album.

"No, I'm not going back on tour.

"No, no.

"I've got a note from my doctor
says I don't have to do this.

"I can stay home."
And that's what he did.

HEYLIN: This is January '67.

So they have been recording
and Bob had ideas for a film.

Originally, the idea of
getting the guys

to come up to Woodstock
was actually to work on that.

GRIFFIN: And they're initially
filmed backing

Tiny Tim singing in the snow
one morning.

And then they continue on
with other things.

MARCUS: And they work
on the movie or they don't
work on the movie.

And they're bored.
What are they going to do?

That's the way
these songs came together.

HEYLIN: Initially,
it was just that, getting back
into playing music.

Not making music,
but playing music.

GRIFFIN: Initial sessions are
held in the Red Room,
Bob Dylan's own house.

And in typical
Bob Dylan fashion,

I can report to you now
that the Red Room wasn't red.

It had previously been red,
but it had been painted
by the Dylans.

The point of the Red Room
sessions is

it's where Bob Dylan
starts to get his mojo back.

♪ Ooh, baby, ooh... ♪

They got all this equipment
together to record this stuff,

and I can just see
all The Hawks going...

Garth, you know,
you could figure out
how that works, right?

DYLAN: Once you set it up,
you can see how it's recording.

[GUITAR PLAYING]

♪ Well, we're living
on the edge of the ocean

♪ With the mocking rumble
ready to drown... ♪

STEVE BERKOWITZ:
Fortunately, in this case,
Garth Hudson

is a very meticulous
person who seemed to be
the responsible party

to put the tape recorder
on top of his organ

and a couple of mixers
with microphones

leading in an experiment
how to record.

Red Room tapes. My understanding
is that the microphone was put

on top of a Wurlitzer
electric panel which was
being played,

it was like a little broadcast
mic stand without rubber feet.

The mic is picking up
that vibration,

and some of that stuff's
pretty distorted,

but there's still good music
that you can hear through it.

GRIFFIN:
They leave Dylan's house
and they go where?

Well, they're going to go
to where the guys...

There's no female presence,
there's no family.

There's no one to really bother,
so they go to Big Pink.

Rick Danko said,
"You have to understand."

He said,
"This was a club house."

It was wonderful.

GRIFFIN: Big Pink's
on the side of a hill.

It's calledThe Basement Tapes

because you leave the kitchen
and walk down to it.

♪ Oh, you sound so sweet ♪

And they started recording,

where the lion's share were done
in the basement of Big Pink.

♪ Well, those old
whole back-strappers

♪ A re a dime a dozen

♪ And I can get a cup
for a nickel

♪ Look what an earful I get
and it's awful, too

♪ Every time I try
to go get a little tickle

♪ Flies from dawn to dawn

♪ Look at that old floor-bird
He just...

♪ Flies from dawn to dawn

♪ What a floor-bird
He...

♪ Flies from dawn to dawn... ♪

And at some point,
somebody flicks the trigger.

You know, and suddenly
the floodgates open.

It's speculation
when that happens.

The evidence would appear to be
Tiny Montgomery,

which is one of
the acetate songs.

It's the first one
to be recorded.

♪ Well, you can tell everybody
down in ol' Frisco

♪ Tell 'em Tiny Montgomery
says hello

♪ Now every boy and girl's
gonna get their bang

♪ 'Cause Tiny Montgomery's
gonna shake that thing

♪ Tell everybody
down in ol' Frisco

♪ That Tiny Montgomery's
comin' down to say hello ♪

And, suddenly, all the imagery

and all the ideas that are gonna
make The Basement Tapes

this extraordinary body of work
come together in one song,

and it's there.

And it kind of opens up
the history of
American popular music

in this extraordinary way
for these guys
during these sessions.

DYLAN: You come in
on the second line
all the time, it's very easy...

Robbie said at one point,
"Bob was very subtle
about this."

♪ Well, the high sheriff...

MARCUS: But he was
taking us to school.

He had prepped for this.

These very sessions
when he would just drop in.

♪ Johnny Todd, he took a notion

♪ For to cross the ocean wide ♪

He'd come over with something
he wanted them to learn.

Folk, blues, country music,

child ballads,
contemporary folk music.

Bob Dylan was teaching them.

So here are these people.

They learned
to trust each other.

They can pick up
each other's cues.

Nothing needs to be explained.

They can work out
arrangements together.

They are all speaking
the same language,

and it's their language.

And in a way, that's what
The Basement Tapesare.

It's five people,

later six,
speaking their own language.

♪ Tears of rage

♪ Tears of grief

♪ Why am I always the one
who must be the thief?

♪ Come to me now
You know we're so alone

♪ And life is brief... ♪

Once the dam burst,
I mean, it really burst.

I mean, he just...
He seems to have been

turning out masterpieces
on an almost daily basis.
[CHUCKLES]

GRIFFIN: An acetate
is a recording.

You give it to Jane or Joe
so they can hear the song
and learn it.

BERKOWITZ: There were
some acetates made
that got distributed

for the purpose of
publishing demos.

I think they decided
to do the acetate

once they'd recorded
a whole slew

of original songs
that sounded great,
that they were proud of.

They weren't
just fooling around.

They weren't just experiments.

These songs are demanding

from the musicians who made
them, "Finish me."

And that's what happens
with Tears of Rage,

I Shall be Released,
Too Much of Nothing,

and so many other songs.

♪ Too much of nothing

♪ Can make a man ill at ease

♪ One man's temper rises

♪ Where another man's temper
might freeze

♪ Too much of nothing
can make a man feel ill at ease

♪ One man's temper might rise

♪ While the other man's temper
might freeze... ♪

The hits that came out
of The Basement Tapes

were people like The Byrds

and Manfred Mann
and Fairport Convention.

Quinn the Eskimo.

How the guys in Manfred Mann

picked that and pulled it out,
it's great.

♪ Come all without
Come all within

♪ You'll not see nothing
like the mighty Quinn

♪ Come all without
Come all within

♪ You'll not see nothing
like the mighty Quinn ♪

You Ain't Going Nowhere
is just one of the funniest
things you'll ever hear.

Here is a song
that everybody knows.
The Byrds obviously put it out.

It's a single that's been
covered a million times,

and it has that
very, very memorable chorus.

"Whoo-ee, ride me high.

"Today is the day
my bride's gonna come."

And suddenly you hear
this version where he's
almost sending himself up.

"You ain't
no bunch of basement...

"You ain't no head of lettuce,
just a bunch of basement noise."

♪ Look here, you bunch of
basement noise...

I mean, just, what is going on?

♪ You ain't no head of lettuce

♪ Feed that buzzard
Lay 'em on the rug...♪

Yeah, they're definitely having
a good time on that one.

The original publishing demos
start to circulate in 1968.

They get bootlegged on vinyl
in 1969.

Two well-meaning long haired
guys in Los Angeles, California,

decided that they would create a
Bob Dylan album of this material

that they had heard, they had
assembled, as Dylan fanatics

that no one else had heard, none
of the general public had heard.

And they created
a very haphazard two-LP set

called The Great White Wonder.

It was the first pop music
bootleg of any real substance.

It was literally just
a white cover that they had
a rubber stamp made

that said "Great White Wonder."

And they went... Next.

It's not a great recording.

Some of
the basement tape songs,
they're running fast.

They didn't cut the record
particularly well.

But how could they?

They were enthusiastic amateurs
that loved Bob Dylan.

Who would have dreamed
that in Sweden,

a guy took their stuff,
added a couple things

and put out another one?

Who would've known
a guy in New York would have,
you know...

And this whole thing was like

throwing a pebble
in the placid lake
and the waves go like this...

People start bootlegging
the bootleg.

HEYLIN: Almost immediately,
and possibly even
simultaneously,

other people who'd
got hold of the full acetate

started issuing
just the acetate.

And the proliferation
was so extreme

that there's no way
of cataloging
who was doing what.

GRIFFIN: It didn't just start
a minor Bob Dylan fan club.

It started a whole
bootleg industry.

MARCUS: There was a cover story
inRolling Stone by Jan Wenner

saying Bob Dylan's
Basement Tape,

and that's what
it was referred to,
asThe Tape,

The Basement Tape, not "tapes,"
should be released.

And he made an argument
about how this music
not only was terrific,

it was a different way
of looking at the world,

and it had to be released.

And why in the world wasn't it?

Didn't make any sense.

It was a secret
hidden in plain sight.

All these songs
were on the radio
so why not put it out?

Good question.

By 1975,
the band needed a boost,

and I think putting
this stuff out was a way
to make that happen.

Plus, the music was obviously
stuff that the world
ought to hear.

Even if Bob Dylan said
he didn't understand

why it made the top 10,
he thought everybody
already had them.

HEYLIN: And Bob agreed
to let them put it out.

GRIFFIN: I remember
John Rockwell

inNew York Times said
it was the greatest record

of the Western popular
music sphere, period.

That's a paraphrasing.
But he did, he wrote that.

When the two LP-set
came out in 1975,

it should have, in theory,
one might think
quench the thirst

of the public
for The Basement Tapes...
A-ha!

People are going,
"What the hell is this?"

Probably the two most famous
songs on The Basement Tapes
are missing.

I mean I Should Be Released
and Mighty Quinnare not on.

GRIFFIN: If anything,
it was like putting kerosene
on that flame

andThe Basement Tapes myth
got another rocket boost.

HEYLIN: Very quickly...

people realized that,
"This isn't it.

"We need more."

"There must be more.
Can't there be more?"

"Sure, there's more.
We hope there's more."

And the fans got out there

and doing their detective work
soon found out

these guys recorded for months.

Anybody else, the two-LP set
would have come out,

"Oh, great, that's what
they did. This is great.
Now we've got it."

But the Dylan fans,
they began to dig, dig, dig,

and they found out there was
a lot more stuff done there,

and it took 40-something years,
but here we are.

♪ Ain't no more cane
on the Brazos... ♪

Stuff came out
in dribs and drabs

on LPs that included
tons of other stuff.

On tapes that people passed
from hand to hand.

Then in 1986, several reel to
reels turned up recordings

of Dylan and the band
doing reams and reams
of country and folk

and all this amazing material
that nobody knew about.

And they came out on two famous
double albums, bootleg.

Those tapes originally came
from an ex-roadie of the band.

And then, six years later,
another ex-roadie of the band

helped himself to another bunch
of tapes that were lying around

in Garth's locker
and released those.

Suddenly, the scale
of the amount of material
that had been recorded

becomes more than one
could necessarily comprehend.

♪ Down the street
the dogs are barkin'

♪ And the day is growing dark

♪ 'Cause I'm one
too many mornings

♪ And a thousand miles

♪ Behind

♪ From the crossroads
of my doorstep

♪ My eyes, they begin to fade

BERKOWITZ: One Too Many Mornings
with Richard and Bob singing.

The Richard part
has been inaudible.

You cannot hear it
because the left channel
was recorded so low,

and we're able to raise
and level the channels

and then get rid of a lot
of the swirl of the hiss on top

so that their voices
could be equal.

Now, for the first time
on this set,

you can hear Richard and Dylan
sing that song at the same time.

♪ Behind... ♪

We finally are getting
the real basement tapes

because they're
off the real reels.

And even in the instances
where they can't get access

to the real reels, nothing is
more than first generation.

♪ ...someone must explain

♪ That as long
as it takes to do this...

BERKOWITZ: There is one tape
called GHO 1,

the Garth Hudson 01 reel,
which is the tape
that he mixed.

That was the model
that we went after.
To how do you finish them?

We follow what Garth did.

♪ Take heed of this
and get plenty rest ♪

It was great
to work with Garth.

It was great having him be there
and touch it again and bless it

and give his approval
for it to come out.

It's great that we've got
30 songs that haven't
been in circulation,

and some of which are
as great as anything
we've previously heard.

♪ I don't hurt anymore

♪ All my teardrops have dried

The Basement Tapes
are a masterclass in Americana.

They help codify it.

They helped define it.

This is why
the Americana Acts of today

all revereThe Basement Tapes.

It's why I feel
The Basement Tapes

and so many others feel
The Basement Tapes
are important.

If you allow me
to say the inverted commas,
"important."

Certain records
and moments in time
are culturally important.

And the basement in Woodstock
is one of those times.

MARCUS: These people...
Think about it.

They're looking at the past.

♪ If your memory
serves you well...

And they're learning
from the past, and they're
listening to the past.

♪ ...again and wait

♪ So I'm going
to unpack all my things... ♪

But the idea that if
the past isn't alive in you,

then the future will be empty.

That's what the music says.

That's what was so different.

The notion that these guys are
23, 24, 25 is just nuts.

BERKOWITZ: The "Holy Grail"
as some people say.

Maybe it's the ultimate bootleg.

Maybe it because when you talk
about bootlegs,

what has been more desired
than this?

♪ This wheel's on fire

♪ Rolling down the road

♪ Best notify my next of kin

♪ This wheel shall explode ♪

DARIUS RUCKER: Something that
Dylan's had over his career,

he tries these things,
everybody goes, "I don't know."

And he does it and we get it.

We go, "Absolutely."

JASON ISBELL: I don't see him
attempting to reinvent himself.

People say that, you know.

But I don't see that.

I see him writing songs
and going, "What kind of songs
do I have?"

ROSANNE CASH: Bob Dylan
came from New York
to recordJohn Wesley Harding

and Nashville Skyline,
and it was a revolution.

♪ All of these awful things
that I have heard

♪ I don't want to believe them

♪ All I want is your word

♪ So, darling
you better come through

♪ Tell me that it isn't true

ROSANNE: It was a revolution
in music, in attitude

and understanding
how incredibly powerful

the cross pollination
of country and folk
and rock was,

and natural for the time.

Here was a guy who was,
in his way, a revolutionary.

Bob had an enormous impact on
what was going on in Nashville.

He was following his instincts
to seek out these musicians

because it was inspiring to him.

♪ I pity the poor immigrant

♪ Who tramples
through the mud ♪

A soon as I heard Dylan,

I realized that he needed
country background.

He needed the kind of musicians
we didn't have in New York.

The kind of people who work
with people like Johnny Cash.

Dad carried a record player
on the road with him on tour

and before his shows,
he would play Bob every night.

Bob was a fan of dad's, too,
to that famous line

of you heard him
coming out of the radio.

It was like a voice
from middle Earth.

Johnny Cash was the epitome
of country music.

He was the living
ultimate end.

He and I, we were writing
each other letters
before we'd ever met.

First time I met him
was at the Newport
Folk Festival.

He was an early supporter
of mine, told me so.

But I have been a fan of his
long before that.

JOHNNY CASH: Then one night,
Bob Johnston brought
Bob Dylan to Nashville.

I had Dylan there,
and then I had Cash coming in.

So when Dylan got through,
Cash walked through the door.

He said, "What are doing here?"
He said, "I came down
to record."

He said,
"Well, I just finished."

While he went to dinner,
I built a bar.

Blue lights,
I had whiskey bottle there,

clock and shit like that,
their guitars all tuned, ready.

Want me to get in closer on it?

When they came in,
they looked at each other,

and then they looked over at me
and they started smiling

and they took their guitars and
they went outside and tuned them

and started playing
for an hour-and-a-half.

And what do you want to hear?

♪ 'Cause you're right
from your side

♪ But I'm right from mine

♪ We're just
one too many mornings

♪ And a thousand miles behind

♪ That's right ♪

Record company
wouldn't release it
because they talked in it.

And they told me in Nashville,
"If you get a pair of scissors

"and cut the talking out
of Dylan and him

"then we can use the music
and all."

And I said,
"Oh, God, I'm so happy."

And he said, "Why?"

I said, "Not to have to be
around you fucking people."

And I walked out the door
and they still
didn't release it.

And that's the one
they're talking about.

ISBELL: In Nashville,
their approach is different.

The negotiations that you make

with producers and engineers
and studio musicians

have a different tone and they
move at a different speed.

These guys
weren't messing around.

They were so deep musically.

♪ All along the watchtower

♪ Princes kept the view

♪ While all the women
came and went

♪ Barefoot servants, too... ♪

RUCKER: The John Wesley
Harding record.

When I worked retail, and I
really discovered that record

back in the late '80s,
early '90s, that record,
I just went...

I mean, when does it stop?

When does he stop being great?

All that country stuff
that he did,

you listen to the singer,
it's not even the same singer.

You got that...

♪ Someone's got it in for me

♪ They're planting stories
in the press ♪

[VOCALIZES]

He'd sing in this warm,
beautiful way

that you've never heard
Dylan sing before.

♪ Lay, lady, lay

♪ Lay across
my big brass bed...

RUCKER: When you listen to
Lay Lady Lay
you really go,

"Wow, this is one of the best
singers in the world."
His voice is perfect.

It's beautiful.
It makes you feel every note.

♪ Whatever colors you have
in your mind

♪ I'll show them to you
and you'll see them shine

♪ Love is a burning thing

♪ It makes for a fiery ring ♪

It's beautiful that it arose
out of mutual respect
and friendship.

That it was again
an authentic organic response

to what they felt
for each other.

JOHNNY: All right.

[GUITAR PLAYING]

I grew up in the north country,
you know.

[HUMMING]

DYLAN: I don't know
if I could do that, John.

The night that Bob
was on The Johnny Cash Show,

and he and my dad
sat next to each other,

I was 13 years old.

I went to school the next day.

Suddenly, the coolest
13-year-old in the world.

It's like an explosion
happened in the country.

♪ If you're travelin'

♪ In the north country fair

♪ Where the winds hit heavy

♪ On the borderline

♪ Remember me

♪ To one who lives there

♪ She once was

♪ A true love of mine

♪ True love of mine

♪ A true love of mine... ♪

JOHNNY: Bob Dylan's appearance
brought a great deal of
attention to Nashville

and then a lot of my peers

did not give him credit for it,
and people to follow
who recorded

songs in Nashville
because Bob Dylan did.

[CROWD CHEERING]

♪ I went to see the gypsy

♪ Staying in a big hotel

♪ "How are you?"
He asked me

♪ And I asked the same of him ♪

It must have been
right around 1970.

I was living in New York City.

Bob used to come
when we'd play The Bitter End.

I know that
he'd seen me play there.

I didn't think he noticed me.

I was introduced to him
one night. We said maybe
six words to each other.

And that was all the personal
contact I had with him until

he called me one day
and asked me if I would
help him try out a studio.

Trying out the studio turned out
to be recording Self Portrait.

The studio that I went to was
one of the Columbia Studios,

so I'm sure he'd been in there
many times before.

I'm sure of that now,
I wasn't then.

-Bob?
-DYLAN: Yeah.

BROMBERG: Let's just
take this one. You ready?

[GUITAR PLAYING]

♪ Down in some lone valley

♪ In a sad, lonesome place... ♪

JOHNSTON: He told me
he wanted to come in.

Said, "What do you think
about me doing it?"

The other people saw it.
I said "Great idea."

It was a good idea
for him to do anything.

And especially
something like that.

You never knew
what he was going to do

or how he was going to do it.

Bob is always Bob.

So when we're working
on a session, Bob is
specifically always Bob.

I was there, I think,
for three, four days in a row.

And it was different than
the other sessions I had done.

I thought the album would be
called Folk Songs of America
or something.

It was bizarre.

He wanted to
do folk songs, great.

I love playing that stuff.

DYLAN: It's one of
our old favorites.

Copper Kettlewe recorded,
just the two of us.

♪ Get you a copper kettle

♪ Get you a copper coil...

He put his own twist to it,
you know, and it's good.

♪ You'll just lay there
by the juniper

♪ While the moon is bright... ♪

He'd play a little bit
and that wouldn't be it,

then he'd go
into something else.

That was always Dylan,
ever-changing thing, man.

He's going, "If this didn't
work, that would work.

"If this didn't work,
that would work."

DYLAN: Remember this?
Remember Bob Gibson.

I think maybe he just
wanted to do a record

where he was the interpreter,
as opposed to the composer,

because he wasn't doing
any songs that he wrote.

♪ Yes, tell old Bill

♪ When he comes home

♪ To leave them
downtown girls alone

♪ This morning

♪ This evening, so soon

♪ So soon

♪ So soon ♪

It seems to me that
he called it Self Portrait

because this was the music
that he came out of.

♪ All the tired horses
in the sun

♪ How am I supposed
to get any ridin' done?

♪ Mmm ♪

A lot of the critics
didn't want to hear
Bob do anything different.

A lot of the critics
wanted Bob to remain
what their idea of him was.

If he come with another album,

"Oh, yeah.
Let's criticize this one
and see what this is like."

He knows all that shit.
He's been out there
long enough for that.

They wanted what happened.
They wanted Rolling Stone.

They didn't want Self Portrait.

They didn't want
a change of pace.

They didn't want
a different sound.

People don't
really speak to you.

They speak to
their image of you.

They speak to your name
in caps.

[DYLAN VOCALIZING]

Some people don't get anything.

Some people don't get the Bible,
there's a devil or whatever.

It didn't matter
what anybody saw.

Some of the people who really
were very critical of it,

have realized that there's some
marvelous things,

they just weren't the things
that they wanted to get

out of a Bob Dylan album.

Self Portrait,you know,
stood by itself.

It was very different.

As far as I could tell,
New Morningwas a reaction

to the criticism
of Self Portrait.

It was more like another album,
and it was very comfortable,

and that's why it was hurried,
if you will.

But it wasn't really hurried.

Didn't rush anything. When he
got through, that's when...

When he said,

"That's it, Bob,"

that's when it came out.

At the time,
there was a brief...

Flirtation with
writing the songs
for a Broadway show.

I once accompanied him
to Archibald MacLeish's house

where they had
a discussion about that.

And it was some sort of
collaboration between
the two of them.

And then he decided
not to do that.
But he had written the songs.

That's what comprised
New Morning.

♪ Time passes slowly
up here in the daylight

♪ We stare straight ahead
and try so hard to stay right

♪ Like a cloud drifting over
that covers the day

♪ Time passes slowly
and fades away ♪

I was hearing the songs
for the very first time.

And sometimes
those first times through

are what was on this album.

I never heard Bob
do rehearsal with the band.

He knew what he wanted.

He didn't necessarily tell us,
but he knew.

I told everybody,
"Never quit playing."

If you quit playing, get some
boot briefcase, and your hat

and go out the door
and wave goodbye at us.

It's like taking off
in a rocket ship
to ever go in with Bob Dylan.

I was not at the sessions that
George Harrison did with Bob.

He was very careful about
working out every note
that he played.

Bob is very spontaneous,
and he he wants you to...

He wants to hear
what your first thought is.

So the sessions that they did
must have been very different.

It was nice to hear him
improvising, and I thought
I could hear at a point,

I thought I could hear him
thinking, "What's he doing now?"
[LAUGHS]

♪ Looking for a guru

♪ Working on a guru

♪ Working on a guru

♪ Before the sun goes down ♪

Play it again.

We had cut New Morning,
and I said to Bob,

"I have a really good
horn arrangement for this.

"Can I do that?"

And he said yeah.

And I brought in
the horn session
forNew Morning.

And he kept just the French horn
playing a downward scale.

All the rest of it,

he said, "No, I'm just
going to erase it."

♪ So happy just to be alive

♪ Underneath the sky of blue

♪ On this new morning

♪ New morning

♪ On this new morning ♪

I'm so delighted that
horns were still there

so I could mix it, properly.

Same thing happened
with the strings in
Sign on the Window.

On the original session,
I played an organ solo.

And my intention was to
take the organ out altogether.

He kept that.

And threw all those strings out.

♪ Looks like a-nothing
but rain

♪ Sure gonna be wet tonight
on Main Street

♪ Hope that it don't sleet ♪

I love the vocals.

The way he sings
the word "sleet" is amazing.

He puts "sleet" in his voice.

Those two tracks specifically
I've coveted for 40 years.

And then to find that
I could remix them

because he didn't erase them,

it was great to come back to it
and sit at my desk

and listen to the isolated vocal

and go, "Boy, this is great."

New MorningI thought was
a great time of his singing.

I don't think that Bob has
gotten credit for
what a great singer he is.

He is a great singer.

There's a difference between

having a great voice
and being a great singer.

The man can put across a song
like no one else can.

It just comes through.

♪ Sylvie came here Wednesday

♪ She came this morning
by the light of the dawn

♪ She comes up here now
nearly all of the time

♪ To see if she can carry on

♪ Now won't you bring me
a little water, Sylvie?

♪ Bring me
a little water now? ♪

I was very lucky to have been
asked to play on those records,

and I wouldn't trade it
for anything.

That's the way it was.

It was a complete
and utter joyous trip.

Bob is the equivalent
of William Shakespeare.

What Shakespeare did
in his time,

Bob does it in his time.

You think of all this
huge period of time

in which he's continued
to deliver,

it's pretty amazing.

Down the curve
and around the bend, he came.

And it'll never end now
'cause he's been
on this roller coaster ride

ever since he left Minnesota.

He's been brutalized, sunrised,

baptized in the waters
of the Village.

Still, it goes on from Soho
to Moscow to Oslo.

They speak of this trip,
this battleship who sailed

in the harbor of Tin Pan Alley

and sank it with his
Subterranean Homesick Blues.

There is none but one Bob Dylan.

♪ Someday everything is
gonna be different

♪ When I paint
that masterpiece ♪

When Bob was signed in '61,

he really changed the whole
image of Columbia Records.

Columbia was a MOR company.

It was sing-along with Mitch,
with Johnny Mathis.

It was the tried and true.

And suddenly Bob came along
with a revolutionary outlook

for a new generation.

What's wonderful about
having Bob back now is

he tried making it
away from the company,

and he found out
that Columbia was his home.

And I think the album is going
to prove how different Bob is

when he's completely comfortable
with his surroundings.

Than he was, last year.

I get phone calls every day.

Reviewers wants to hear it

and certain retail accounts
where the clerks,

are aware that it's going on,
have called.

It's just become everywhere.

There's a great deal of
anticipation and a great deal
of excitement

about this new
Blood on the Tracksalbum.

I was in the dentist chair
some morning...

Some afternoon in May.

I got a frantic call from

Owen Stegalstein's secretary

saying, "John,
Bob Dylan is in the building.

"Owen wants to know if you
could come right over."

I said, "I can't come
right over. I'll be over
as soon as I can."

I guess they called me
because some 13 years ago,

I was the guy who
sort of stuck my neck out

and signed Bobby
originally to Columbia.

And they thought it might be
a nice idea if I were around

at some certain point
in this thing, so...

I got back to the office
about 45 minutes later.

And Bobby and Owen
were just finishing

what looked like an extremely
successful and friendly talk.

And they were going into
Goddard Lieberson's office.

And Dylan has always had
a sort of very special respect
for Lieberson.

And they came in and Bobby
was very effusive with Goddard.

And Goddard looked up at Bobby
and said,

"Well, Bobby,
same temple, new rabbi".

When Bob came into the studio
this time, he was prepared.

Not only was he prepared,

he was marvelously certain
of what exactly he wanted to do.

When I used to record Bob
in '61 and '62,

it was a very different story.

Bob would come up,

he was writing
about 11 to 15 songs a week
in those days.

And every time he had something,
he wanted to put it on tape.

And it was simple
in those days.

That was before the time

when people had to pay
for studio time, editing.

All the rest of the things
that happen now days,

and this didn't
cost Bob anything.

Every time he had
something new,

I'd put 'em in.

He was sort of sloppy
about the way he worked.

We had to build a special guard
around the microphone

because he popped so many P's.

Poor George Kanawa,

who was the engineer
at that time, was going crazy.

So Bob had to work further away
from a microphone.

But Bob, of course, was just
absolutely unique, sensational,

marvelous artist in those days.

And he turned out to be

even more of a unique,
sensational and marvelous artist
this time.

Bob's always coming up
with a really unusual surprise.

On this one, he asked me
to get in touch with Pete Hamill

because we had talked
about liner notes,

and he said
he wanted Pete Hamill
to write the liner notes.

And we made
some maneuvers to contact Pete.

It was a little difficult
at first.

Bob and Pete
hit it off immediately.

Pete took notes and wrote
incredible liner notes
for the album.

So, we've got a really unusual
merchandising support there.

It kind of explains
a little bit about the music,

a little bit about the society
in which we live.

And Bob's music
is kind of a portrait on life.

He covers so many areas
of music.

For example,
his hard blues numbers like
Meet Me in the Morning.

Part of the album is acoustic.

Part of it has
Eric Weissberg's band.

On a few cuts,
Buddy Cage from the New Riders

plays steel guitar.

And as a matter of fact,
we should touch on

some things
that John had talked about,

with other musicians
or artists doing Bob's music.

The New Riders
have recorded You Angel You.

They used Bob's rough lyric,

as opposed to his finished lyric
on the Planet Wavealbum.

But they did a Dylan tune.

Dave Mason recorded
All Along the Watchtower.

And Richie Havens,
Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.

So people are still
recording his music.

Nothing has changed.
He's evolving, it's all growing.

And this album,
there'll be tons of songs that
people are going to record.

Many artists will record
the songs in
Blood on the Tracks.

There's a tune
calledIdiot Wind,

which you have to listen to.

You must listen to it
several times to get
the significance of it.

There's a tune,Lily Rosemary
and the Jack of Hearts,

which touches on
some of the...
You know, life is a gamble,

type of life that we all lead.

And the conflict
between women, men,

and just life in general.

But it kind of
paints a picture,

a story as it were

that's very different
than some of the things
he's done before,

and yet it's very familiar.

So...

The album has a continuity,
a cohesiveness

that's exciting.

And there's an enthusiasm
that just builds

the difference of having
a little bit of acoustic music

and a bit of music with a band,
steel guitar, organ, etcetera.

Kind of creates a contrast
that in itself is exciting.

I don't think Bob consciously
plans this sort of thing.

But it came off beautifully,
really came off beautifully.

Let me tell you
about this album.

This album,

unlike any album that's cut
with groups these days,

was finished in five days
and mixed in two days.

Now this is, you know,
absolutely unprecedented

the way Columbia works nowadays.

A Simon and Garfunkel album

or a Bruce Springsteen album.

This is six or seven months
in a studio

of, you know, experimentation,

of discarding this,
adding that, overdubbing.

None of that with Bob.

And this album has a flow

that you won't find in any other
album recorded in 1974.

The album cover
is a cover that

lends itself to everything,
the merchandiser's dream.

His name is big,
the title is big. He has
liner notes on the package.

We're going to be ready
with point of purchase support

before the album ships.

We'll have time-buys
ready to run

the day the album
hits the stores.

We'll have all our print ads.

We've really done a job
up-front on this album

because Bob has allowed us the
time in a very professional...

"Professional enthusiasm,"
I think, might be a good phrase.

He just loves being back,

and he just knows
that we can do the job for him,

and it's going to be
really exciting.

And you'll get to
hear the album.

And when you hear the album,

you know everything
that John and I have said

relates to an exciting future
with Bob Dylan.

This album, of course,
will get immediate airplay.

That's not unusual for Bob.

I think where
the difference comes here

is this album will stay
on the air for quite a while.

And it's certainly accessible
to Top 40 radio.

Part of this

enthusiasm for the new release
is generated in the company.

We've played the tapes
for in-house personnel,
of course,

and Larry Sloman wrote
the interview in Rolling Stone,

which you've probably
all read by now.

And part of what Larry talked
about was that this is the Dylan

that people have been
hungering for.

So there have been some little
rumbles of apprehension about,

"How are we going to sell
a new Dylan album?"

We've seen the problems electors
had the way they handle it.

I think we're unique.
We handle Bob differently.

We know Bob
and we understand Bob.

We know what to do
with his music.

We know how to handle
the reaction to the airplay,

and the reaction
in the market place.

So we're going to go
out there well-prepared,

better prepared
than we've ever been probably,

and really do a number
with this album.

And it's going to be accepted.

People are waiting
for this album.

NARRATOR : Over 2,000 concerts.

Six hundred songs.

Forty-four albums.

Five decades.

One artist.

♪ Johnny's in the basement
mixing up the medicine

♪ I'm on the pavement

♪ Thinkin' about
the government... ♪

♪ Like a rolling stone ♪

♪ Knock-knock-knockin'
on heaven's door ♪

♪ All along the watchtower ♪

♪ Tangled up in blue ♪

♪ Someday, baby
you ain't gonna worry for me ♪

♪ Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man
play a song for me ♪

♪ The answer, my friend
is blowin' in the wind

♪ The answer is blowin'
in the wind ♪

NARRATOR: Dylan.

His greatest songs.
October, '07.

♪ Everything went
from bad to worse

♪ Money never changed a thing

♪ Death kept followin'
Trackin' us down

♪ At least I heard
your bluebird sing ♪

♪ Now somebody's got to
show their hand

♪ Time is an enemy

♪ I know you're long gone

♪ I guess it must be up to me

♪ If I'd thought about it

♪ I never would've done it

♪ I guess I would've
let it slide

♪ If I'd lived my life by what
others were thinkin'

♪ The heart inside me
would've died

♪ I was a bit too stubborn

♪ To ever be governed
by enforced insanity

♪ Someone had to reach
for the risin' star

♪ I guess it was up to me

♪ Now, the Union Central
is pullin' out

♪ The orchids are in bloom

♪ I've only got
one good shirt left

♪ It smells of stale perfume

♪ In 14 months
I've only smiled once

♪ And I didn't
do it consciously

♪ Somebody's got to
find your trail

♪ I guess it must be
up to me

♪ It was like a revelation

♪ When you betrayed me
with your touch

♪ I'd just about
convinced myself

♪ Nothin' had changed
that much

♪ The old rounder
in the iron mask

♪ He slipped me the master key

♪ Somebody had to
unlock your heart

♪ He said it was up to me

♪ Well, I watched you
slowly disappearing

♪ Down into the officers' club

♪ I would've followed you
in the door

♪ But I didn't have
a ticket stub

♪ So I waited all night
'til the break of day

♪ Hopin' one of us
could get free

♪ When the dawn came over
the river bridge

♪ I knew it was up to me