Bob Dylan’s landmark 1974 album "Blood on the Tracks" is one of his most mysterious. After recording most of the songs in a four day period with stark accompaniment he was ready to release it but suddenly he changed his mind and re-recorded much of it with different musicians. Those original recordings are now released for the first time on “More Blood, More Tracks: The Bootleg Series Volume 14.”

These recordings are in their purest state, many with only Dylan and his bass player Tony Brown. It was standard practice at the time to speed up a recording by 2-3% to give it more bounce these songs have not had that kind of processing. The external clicking noises are the result of his buttons knocking against his instrument, Dylan didn’t wear headphones in the studio and his producers were apparently too intimidated to mention it to him.

The lyrics are different on many of the songs reflecting his off the cuff songwriting style as he experiments with different tenses and often changes the “I” and “you” to “he” and “they.” Whole verses materialize that had been later edited out.

Now that these original recordings are out it’s easy to see how mallable his songs were in their early stages and it makes this masterpiece of an album even more impressive for it’s timelessness and eloquence.

• 
•