Having listened to it for awhile now, let me say a couple more things:




On the whole, the sound quality *is* noticeably improved. However, the level of improvement varies considerably from track to track. Some of dramatic (then again, many of the most improved tracks already already circulated on GBS3), some mild. Still other are judgement calls. Those tracks seem to feature "fuller" instrumental backing, but with harsher vocals or the like.




I also am a bit disappointed by occassionlly clumsiness in the compiling of the material. There are some harsh tape splices between tracks, and occassionally the beginning of another song will briefly play before being cut off. That kind of thing could be easily eliminated, and I'm very curious as to how they slipped by QC, when everything else was so methodically attended to.




On the other hand, great care was taken in the actually sequencing, making for about as "definative" a document as you could imagine of this amazing treasure trove of songs. As a listening experience, I tend to prefer the approach taken by Silent Sea on BEST OF THE BASEMENT TAPES/ REST OF THE BASEMENT TAPES, as I said before, but this has a certain historical honesty that I can appreciate.




It is obvious that "WHITE BEAR" (a spoof on Scorpio's Wild Wolf imprint?) went to tremendous lengths to present this material in the best manner possible given availible technology and tape sources, and barring a MAJOR TAPE FIND, A TREE WITH ROOTS (and the subsequent Scorpio re-boot) is doubtlessly going to be the standard bearer of The Basement Tapes for the foreseeable future. Since Dylan and Columbia seems so indifferent to the fate of these songs, Doberman has done us all a terrific service. But don't expect miracles-- songs that were cut off before, they're still cut off now. Vocals that were distant originally are still distant. Songs that were distorted before are still distorted, and so on. But the overall warmth and richness of these recordings is even more evident than ever, and I very much recommend this collection to any Dylan fan.

Thank you for two extremely informative postings but can you clarify - and maybe I'm being dimwitted here - is this new set a definite upgrade on the two Silent Sea sets? You seem to hesitate in recommending A Tree With Roots wholeheartedly in comparison with the Best Of/Rest of discs. For someone hovering on purchasing the Scorpio version of 'Tree' (if only for the anticipated GBS-type packaging) what advice? Does this new set have a definite advantage in terms of sound quality (I ask because you say: "As a listening experience, I tend to prefer the approach taken by Silent Sea"?


Rgds


Chalawler

my comment about the Silent Sea approach was in regards to the sequencing: putting only one take of a song on any single disc, bundling the best performances and the best sounding all together and so on... The Silent Sea sets feel more like actual albums to me, while the GENUINE BASEMENT TAPES/ TREE WITH ROOTS sets feel more like historical documents. And as much as I can appreciate the later, I usually prefer to listen to the cherry-picked results of BEST OF THE BASEMENT TAPES (even if I don't agree with all their choices).




As for the sound, A TREE WITH ROOTS does offer an improvement over the Silent Sea sets, but not as much as it does for the GBT series. BEST OF/ REST OF took advantage of some of the improved tape sources that have circulated since GBT, but to the same extent. In any case, the sound upgrade is by no mean night and day, and if that's the only thing that you're looking for, you probably will be disappointed.

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Thank you for two extremely informative postings but can you clarify - and maybe I'm being dimwitted here - is this new set a definite upgrade on the two Silent Sea sets? You seem to hesitate in recommending A Tree With Roots wholeheartedly in comparison with the Best Of/Rest of discs. For someone hovering on purchasing the Scorpio version of 'Tree' (if only for the anticipated GBS-type packaging) what advice? Does this new set have a definite advantage in terms of sound quality (I ask because you say: "As a listening experience, I tend to prefer the approach taken by Silent Sea"?


Rgds


Chalawler

Thanks for that....much to ponder....I know what you mean about the 'listening experience' ie, I hate those Beatles bootlegs that have the same song eight times in a row with infinitesimal differences between them. Of course, the other point, I guess, is that Tree With Roots isn't too hard to find....the Silent Seas, on the other hand.....

Well, Silent Sea are one of the new crop of "Desktop Publishers" in the bootleg world, so *all* their releases are CD-Rs. However, the originals are NICE packages, with some vivid Wyeth paintings appropriated as the artwork, whereas there are also clones circulating with slightly lesser production values. I got mine in New York, too, with BEST OF THE BASEMENT TAPES being an "original" and my REST OF THE BASEMENT TAPES being the knock-off.




I'm moving to NYC next month. I can't wait to be in the midst of so dang many bootlegs! I won't name specific shops or dealers on this board, but, boy, they sure ain't hard to find in Manhatten!

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Replying to:

Thanks for that....much to ponder....I know what you mean about the 'listening experience' ie, I hate those Beatles bootlegs that have the same song eight times in a row with infinitesimal differences between them. Of course, the other point, I guess, is that Tree With Roots isn't too hard to find....the Silent Seas, on the other hand.....

Is this worth buying? I have the original set. I understand that some tracks are left off - which ones and why? Personally, I find that there is so much stuff that the running order is almost insignificant. (And may have been pretty random overall, although "chunks" from a particular session may have some meaning in sequence.) I dip in and out, often programming a sequence of tracks anyway.

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Finally got my copy of A TREE WITH ROOTS. I'll post with more detailed impressions after I've had a chance to digest it, but here are a couple initial thoughts:




*Full title on CD case: A TREE WITH ROOTS-- THE GENUINE BASEMENT TAPES REMASTERS




The discs are "Doberman Genuine discs"-- glass pressed silver discs from Doberman! First I've seen it, as I recall! Also clears up who the hell WILD BEAR are!




The interior booklets (two!) are sparcer than I'd expected, with very nice all the same. One of the is simply a full track listing, complete with tape source information. The other booklet goes into detail about all the tape sources employed on the set and their full original contents. Gives a good sense of the amount of work that went into this. Also features some nice (though not particularly rare for the most part) topical photographs and a reprint of Jann Weiner's original Rolling Stone article about "Bob Dylan's Basment Tape". Did he coin the term?




I've only listened to the first few tracks so far, but already the sound upgrade is noticable, if not overwhelming. Although, I appreciate the intellectual honest in presenting the running order in this manner (it's clear they've done their best to sequence the set chronologically), for repeated listenings, I'm pretty fond of the approach used on THE BEST OF THE BASEMENT TAPES.




Back later with more on the sound upgrade!




teej


"I'm Bobby Fisher!"