Bob Dylan Bootleg App Covers The Basement Tapes

iPad / iOS App – The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 update includes Lo And Behold teaser

By Stephen Pate – Updating the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series App on your iPad or iPhone now includes “Lo And Behold” from the 138 track The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11.  (to be released on November 4, 2014)

This is awesome news.  One of the best parts, along with the music, of last year’s Another Self Portrait (1969-1971): The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 was the free iPad app which included extensive details about the release and songs.

If Sony does it right, the collateral information in this version of the Bob Dylan Bootleg App could be considerably more important than the Another Self-Portrait section of the app.

The Basement Tapes cover one of Dylan’s most creative periods. So far, it’s enticing to know the app is going to cover The Basement Tapes: how thorough a job Sony does is unknown.

The app is free. Sony revealed that the free app helped them to double the sales of Bootleg Series Vol. 11 last year.

Bob Dylan Bootleg App Series 11 – Gallery

The screen shots are repeated throughout this story in case the gallery doesn’t work in your browser.

Last month, I asked Sony to confirm the Bootleg App would cover The Basement Tapes. Now we know it will.

Frankly, this is one of the main reasons I own an iPad. The information and enjoyment from last year’s app was huge.

Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series App

The iTunes app store has this brief announcement –  What’s New in Version 1.4.1

Bootlegs v.11 update arriving Nov. 4. By downloading today, enjoy a sneak peek release of the track ‘Lo and Behold’.

Compatibility: Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

To get the app or update, click here Bob Dylan Bootleg Series app .

Once installed, the Bootleg app looks for the songs in the 2-CD or 6-CD version of The Basement Tapes on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.  The song “Lo and Behold” is included with the app update as a teaser.

See What’s In The Three Versions of The Basement Tapes for a breakout of the song listings.

The songs and the multi-media content are linked. The app only plays material related to songs you have purchased. It was not necessary to buy the mp3 songs from iTunes as long as they are stored on the iOS device and have the correct meta tags.  You can rip the songs from the CD for instance.  At least that was how the Bootleg Series No, 10 App worked.

The Basement Tapes

Just after his motorcycle accident and world tour in 1966, Dylan hid in Woodstock New York with his family. The road that would kill Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin was wearing Dylan down.

Dylan also hired his road band as a session band, the same musicians who would emerge from these sessions as The Band.  Dylan used this respite from touring to explore songs old and new and to create an entirely new genre of music, at least for him, fusing old songs, pop songs, folk, rock and country to what we now call roots music.

The sessions were recorded on a basic tape recorder and copies distributed to pitch the songs like “Quinn The Eskimo”, “Tears of Rage” and “I Shall Be Released” to other musicians for them to cover.  Dylan considered these tapes merely practice and ignored the material, but not the style, when he recorded “John Wesley Harding” in Nashville in the fall of 1967.

For The Band, these recordings were their genesis, from which came their first album Music From Big Pink.

The tapes were bootlegged as the Great  White Wonder and later officially as The Basement Tapes.  The official release in 1975 was heavily edited by Robbie Robertson and is not considered the real thing by collectors. There are other un-official versions circulating but none of them as complete as this new official bootleg of The Basement Tapes.

Bootleg Series 11 gives us a complete edited look at what Dylan and The Band created their music. Some of it is priceless and some of it is whimsy and snippets of songs.  Most people will be happy with the 38 song version but real Dylan fans will want to hear everything. If Sony documents all the material, the Bootleg App will be invaluable multi-media content.

Three versions of The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11

Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Bootleg Series Vol. 11 comes in three different versions.

The complete 138 song 6-cd release is The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11(Deluxe Edition) at $128 for the audio CD box set and “120 page deluxe-bound book containing rare and unseen photographs and memorabilia.”

3 vinyl LP 38 song box set The Basement Tapes Raw: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 (Vinyl) at $99, and a “12×12″ booklet with extensive liner notes and rare photographs.”

2-CD 38 song summary edition The Basement Tapes Raw: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11 at $19 and a “56-page booklet with extensive liner notes and rare photographs.”

The 1975 Basement Tapes only included 10 of the 38 songs on the 2-CD collection. That’s obviously an improvement.

How many of the additional 100 songs on the complete 6-CD collection get coverage in the free Bootleg App is hard to know at this point. Last year’s app  covered 36 of the 53 tracks in the Deluxe set of Bootleg Vol. 10.

For the details of What’s In The Three Versions of The Basement Tapes click on the link.

App details

Lo and Behold

(from Bob Dylan Bootleg Series app) Bob Dylan Bootlegs provides an extraordinary, immersive journey into the rare releases.  This official interactive experience allows listeners to fully explore the histories and hidden meanings behind this collection of previously unreleased songs, Diehard fans and new listeners alike will watch each track unfold to breathtaking visual mosaics and detailed summaries, connecting each song to its place in Dylan’s personal timeline.

Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Major historical events reveal fascinating new meanings; in-depth biographies of each legendary musician invite the listener into the recording session itself. Video interviews, interactive lyrics and rare, behind-the-scenes photo galleries rise and fall as each track transports fans to the height of Dylan’s half-century career. Bob Dylan Bootlegs transforms this exciting, heartfelt collection of sounds into a dynamic cascade of sights, expanding upon Dylan’s music in this must-own digital companion piece.

Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Bob Dylan Bootlegs features

•Visual timelines for every track
•Biographies of Dylan’s frequent collaborators and session musicians
•Descriptions of major historical events that impacted the recording
•Photo galleries of rare, unreleased and behind-the-scenes images
•New, exclusive video interviews with artists and producers
•Explorations of Dylan’s personal and musical influences during the period
•Interactive lyrics and detailed track information

Track Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series

Lyrics Lo and Behold

Lo and Behold

Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series App for iOS

Comic strip

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete – Bob Dylan & The Band

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