Basement Tapes (Rm) [Original recording remastered]

This recording (or rather compilation) is a classic, of course, and i won't add to the endless discussion of whether it lives up to the mystique that's grown up around it, or whether the complaints of purists (about some material recorded later being inserted here) are justified. I never heard the earlier CD (or vinyl) release so i can't compare the quality of the remastering job, though i can say the sound is more than acceptable on every track, considering the equipment it was originally recorded on. All the lyrics are clearly audible, so it doesn't matter that they aren't included here in print. But i can confirm that no "extras" have been added, although there's plenty of material from these sessions that's only appeared on bootlegs. This is more than a little strange, given that the total timing on the 2 CDs is only 78 minutes, so it would easily fit on one CD. If you're going to release it on 2 CDs again, why not fill up all that wasted space, as was done with other remastered releases of early work by The Band? The documentation consists mainly of notes by Greil Marcus -- no complaints there, but nothing new either. I pre-ordered this because the remastered version was priced cheaper than the original and i knew there were some great songs and performances on it that aren't available legally anywhere else. And i'm very glad i did. Anyone interested in either Dylan or the Band ought to hear this -- several times at least. It really is a classic.