The Basement Tapes - Other Released Basement Tape Songs

Other Released Basement Tape Songs

Columbia has issued four additional 1967 recordings by Dylan from Big Pink since The Basement Tapes in 1975: take 2 of "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)" on Biograph in 1985, "I Shall Be Released" and "Santa-Fe" on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 in 1991 and "I'm Not There (1956)" on the I'm Not There soundtrack in 2007. In the early 1970s, Dylan released new recordings of four compositions from the Basement Tape era: a performance of "Quinn the Eskimo" from the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31, 1969, appeared on Self Portrait, and October 1971 recordings with Happy Traum of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", "I Shall Be Released" and "Down in the Flood" appeared on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II.

In 2005, the Band compilation A Musical History was released, which includes the 1967 Woodstock Band recordings "Words and Numbers", "You Don't Come Through", "Caledonia Mission", "Ferdinand the Imposter" and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken". In 1968, the Band re-recorded "This Wheel's on Fire", "Tears of Rage", "I Shall Be Released" and "Caledonia Mission" in studios in New York and Los Angeles for Music From Big Pink. Versions of other Band Basement Tape compositions, recorded in various locations between 1967 and possibly 1975, appear on Across the Great Divide and A Musical History, and as bonus tracks on the 2000 reissues of Music From Big Pink and Cahoots. Live versions by the Band of various Basement Tapes songs have also been issued: "I Shall Be Released" on Before the Flood; "Caledonia Mission" and "This Wheel's On Fire" on Rock of Ages, with "I Shall Be Released", "Down in the Flood" and "Don't Ya Tell Henry" appearing on the album's 2001 reissue; "I Shall Be Released" on The Last Waltz and "This Wheel's On Fire" on the 2002 box set release of the album; "I Shall Be Released" and "Don't Ya Tell Henry" on Live at Watkins Glen; and "Ain't No Cane on the Brazos" recorded live at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, on Across the Great Divide.

On March 31, 2009, Legacy Records issued a remastered version of the original 1975 Basement Tapes double album, which critics praised for its improved sound quality. According to reviewer Scott Hreha, there was "something about the remastering that makes it feel more like an official album—the earlier CD version’s weak fidelity unfairly emphasized the 'basement' nature of the recordings, where it now possesses a clarity that belies its humble and informal origins."

In the early 1990s, a virtually complete collection of all of Dylan's 1967 recordings in Woodstock was released on a bootleg five-CD set, The Genuine Basement Tapes. The collection, which contains over 100 songs and alternate takes, was later remastered and issued as the four-CD bootleg A Tree With Roots. Greil Marcus showed the set to Garth Hudson, who declared, "They've got it all." Nonetheless, a handful of basement songs not available on A Tree With Roots or other bootlegs have been documented, including the Band's "Even If It's a Pig Part I" (which has circulated in fragmentary form) and "Even If It's a Pig Part II", and Dylan's "Wild Wolf" and "Can I Get a Racehorse" (copyrighted as "You Own a Racehorse").