volume 12 of bob’s always reliable bootleg series focuses on the incredible 14 month period surrounding the recording of three of his best albums – bringing it all back home, highway 61 revisited, and blonde on blonde. it is arguably one of the highest creative streaks for any musical artist ever, and this compilation does a great job of chronicling the whole affair. there are actually three versions of this – the 2 disc ‘best of’ version, a 6 disc option that comes with 2 books (one being a track listing with extensive liner notes, the second being a great collection of photographs), and the third is only available through his website, an 18 disc tour de force that has every single track. the casual bob fan will find great value in the 2 disc version, both in the material and the very reasonable price. i opted for the 6 disc deluxe version, due in large part to the fact that this my favorite period of his career, and i just had to have it.

the significance of this period on pop culture includes two parallel strands. the first is his evolution as a lyricist from the greenwich village folk singer to the stream of consciousness beat poet style of cascading imagery.  the second is his decision to break from the ranks of the traditionalists and incorporate the use of a band, and more importantly, introduce the element of electrical guitars to the recordings. it was during this period that he famously went electric at the newport folk festival, and began touring with the hawks, later to be known as the band. this compilation seeks to explore the mechanics behind the process, as well as to shed light on the evolution of the artistry and the creative process. it does this in two ways. the first is to provide alternative takes on songs from those three albums, plus feature outtakes that never made it on one of the finished albums. the second way is to use the sequence of multiple takes on a song to show how it developed, both musically and lyrically, in the studio. ‘visions of johanna’ gets 5 takes here, all with the band, with various changes to the key and tempo, and they never quite get it right. bob scraps it and doesn’t approach the song again until he gets to nashville months later with a bunch of local session musicians and does it in one take. disc three is entirely comprised of 20 different attempts at ‘like a rolling stone’. throughout the collection he is constantly changing lyrics, musicians, studios and producers to get it to sound like it does in his head.

i was already in awe of his output during this time, but i am so much more impressed now that i have thoroughly digested this. very informative, and a pleasure to listen to, especially the 2 disc version.