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List Price: $19.95 | | Publisher: Jawbone Press
Salesrank: 60225
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| Our Price: $11.54 |
| Used Price: $9.58 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
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.
Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, The Band, and the Basement Tapes Reviews:
Put it on the iPOD, not in a museum case 
2009-01-29 - Navel-gazing homage to the master. Griffin provides brief historical setting for the Basement Tapes, no more is needed because everyone who will approach this book is likely to know the basic bones of the story-meteoric folk career deflected by plugged-in mayhem with various backing groups, settling on the Hawks for the amphetamine- and electro-angst-driven '66 British tour, then the motorcycle crash while drying out and decompressing in bucolic Woodstock.
Then Griffin gets serious, documenting (as best as anyone is likely to be able to ever do, unless The Dylan himself speaks, which he seems unlikely to do this far down the road) the physical settings for the recordings, the recording equipment used to capture the gutbucket Americana sound, the typical comings and goings of the musical suspects, and the sequence and locations of the recordings--locations plural, because as Griffin's detailed document makes clear, the "Basement" was actually at least three separate locations in Woodstock, with possibly some before and later additions to the tape mix.
With the stage now thoroughly set, Griffin steps through the known and named songs on the Tapes (many more have never been made public either officially or bootlegged), attempting to reconstruct the sequence of recording and the performers on each recording. These recordings were not studio pristine in technology and documentation, since at least initially they were not intended for public consumption, so Griffin's work consists of lots of assumptions, guesswork, detective work, and logical deductions not backed up by known documentation.
The navel comes into view here. Regardless of the purpose of the recordings (some were used as demos for copyrighting and distribution to other bands to cover, others appear to be rehearsal work, others to be drunken jams) and the technical quality of recordings and the music, the artistic value of the music was apparent then and now, so why do we need to establish academic-level standards of documentation? The music stands on its own. Let it stand.
Put it on the iPOD. Crank it up. Don't put it in a museum case.
Still, Griffin provides a valuable service in documenting the redirection of Dylan as a songwriter of ever-greater strength, depth and introspection, and the birth of The Band's Americana sound from the Hawks bar-band blues and R&B, both with and without Dylan during the Basement sessions. And he writes with as much good sense and good humor as you'll find among Dylanologists, so the Bash is worth a place beside the iPOD.
Best book on the Basements 
2009-01-11 - When I first got this book last summer, I have to admit I skimmed through it and generally agreed with the tones of these other reviewers, that this was just a secondary source repeating other writers on the subject. But now I have read it through again and while I will disagree with some of Griffin's conclusions, like the order of some of the tracks and who plays percussion, etc., I now find it to be an excellent source and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the Basements. Since I have never been able to track down either the original Genuine Basement Tapes 5 disc bootleg or the more recent A Tree With Roots 4-CD set, I had to compile my own set from various boots and file-sharing sources. This is to me the greatest period of music in Dylan's career, and Griffin's book does it justice. At least it doesn't sidetrack obsessively like Marcus' Invisible Republic, and unless Clinton Heylin devotes an entire book to the Basements, this is the one to use. You won't regret it.
Million Dollar Book on Dylan
2009-01-07 - 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!
well, maybe 750,000!
2008-10-25 - 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!
Down in the Basement, mixing up the medicine!
2008-08-30 - 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.
