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World Hotels - Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, The Band, and the Basement Tapes
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List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $13.57
Your Save: $ 6.38 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Jawbone Press
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 780
EAN: 9781906002053
ISBN: 1906002053
Label: Jawbone Press
Manufacturer: Jawbone Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2007-10-01
Publisher: Jawbone Press
Studio: Jawbone Press
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Editorial Reviews:
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Million Dollar Bash tells the story of the basement tapes, a strange series of recordings made by Bob Dylan when he went on the lam in the summer of 1967. Remarkably, these casual sessions kick-started the entire Americana genre and produced some of the most revered and misunderstood songs in Dylan’s catalog. Author and musician Sid Griffin begins the story in 1966, when Dylan first discovered his interest in electric music. Griffin then examines the tapes in detail — he analyzes the music, discusses how and why it was made, and speculates over who joined Dylan in making it. As he tells the story, Griffin ponders the question that has intrigued Dylan fans for nearly 40 years: why were the tapes so different from the music Dylan had made up to that point? This important book examines a major turning point in music history and inquires into a group of songs that were enormously influential at the time of their creation and that have been prized by musicians and fans ever since.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Million Dollar Book on Dylan
Comment: I have read more music books than should be allowed. Million Dollar Bash provides deep insight into a deep cultural, musical, and artistic shift. Mr Griffin goes to the source with wonderful quotes from the people behind the scenes and on the front line. Not only does the book get deeply into a ground breaking album, it shows the the growth of the Hawks into the mighty Band! One of my favorite points was discovering how Dylan and the Band seemed to work as equals, on a level playing field. Probably fair to say, that may have been the first and last time that happened. The idea that they committed so heavily to the music, stepping off the fast track, and hanging out playing all that music in rural NY is remarkable and made so real in the book. I dug it so much I gave many copies to friends over these last holidays. It is hilarious in places as well. Well done Mr Griffin!
Customer Rating:
Summary: well, maybe 750,000!
Comment: After a somewhat slow start-- pre-history, etc-- the book moves on to an actual cut by cut synopsis. This is where the going gets good. The author really has studied this stuff and has a lot of new info I had not heard before.
All in all, a great read (after the necessary set-up)and fun if you are into this sort of thing. I am a huge Band fan so there was a lot in here for me.
Enjoy!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Down in the Basement, mixing up the medicine!
Comment: At last we are allowed into the Basement of Big Pink: Reading this book puts you there with Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm and Bob Dylan. We learn who played and sang what; and somehow we can trace the remarkable musical development that resulted in 'Music From Big Pink' and 'John Wesley Harding', and inspired so many of these musicians' contemporaries.
Griffin has provided the antidote to Greil Marcus's 'Invisible Republic', which I found too heavy on ancient background to folk/protest material, and too wanting for essential insight into the activity within the Basement. This book is best dipped into with 'Basement Tapes' CDs immediately to hand. At last, Sid Griffin clears the mists and lets us taste the musical cocktail that brewed so privately 40 years ago. A wonderful guidebook to a fascinating, if chaotic, episode in music history.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not much we don't already know.
Comment: Plus it's expensively packaged, running counter to the elegant simplicity of the subject. the sessions were off the cuff, born to be bootlegged. The paper, the printing: it's all overdone. Not enough substance, strictly for the uninitiated and tourists.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Better than Marcus' Book
Comment: I prefer Girffin's book over Marcus' book. Sid Griffin focuses on the songs themselves, the time in Dylan's life in which they were recorded, the recording process, and the impact the Basement Tapes had as they trickled out. Greil Marcus' book was yet another exercise in establishing how erudite and cultured he is as compared to the rest of us. While some may find that interesting, and Greil Marcus does occasionally make some interesting points, I think the guy is a pedantic jackass. I'd much rather discuss the Basement Tapes with Sid Griffin than with Greil Marcus.
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