The Basement Tapes 2LP

The Basement Tapes started as nobody involved trying to make a record: Dylan and four future members of the Band cut these songs in 1967, first at his house in Woodstock and then in the basement of Big Pink, the sessions beginning informally rather than as a conventional album project. Bootleggers passed the tapes around for years before Columbia finally issued a selection in 1975, blending Dylan-and-Band tracks with Band-only cuts. It topped the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop poll anyway, proof that the most influential roots-rock record around was also the most accidental.