It's 1967, the Summer of Love, and Bob Dylan is holed up in Woodstock with a gro
up of musicians once known as The Hawks, laying down a set of recordings that wi
ll soon turn the music world on its head. These recordings the Basement Tapes wo
uld not be released commercially by Dylan at first, but would emerge in the form
of cover versions by acts such as the Byrds, Manfred Mann, and Peter Paul & Mar
y. Together, they would inspire a homespun, back-to-basics approach in the work
of the Beatles, the Stones, the Grateful Dead, and many others, while also kick-
starting the entire Americana genre. In this fully revised and updated edition p
ublished to coincide with a major new documentary about the Basement Tapes and t
he release of the T Bone Burnett-produced Lost on the River album author and mus
ician Sid Griffin is given unique access to a cache of more than 40 never-before
-heard Basement Tapes recordings, allowing him to shine even greater light on th
is pivotal yet often misunderstood moment in popular music history.
