Bob Dylan's previously unreleased The Basement Tapes will drop Nov. 4, and a cut of the singer covering John Lee Hooker's "Tupelo Blues" has surfaced in advance of the specialty package.
Dylan and The Band use the riff from the Muddy Waters tune "Mannish Boy" and rework Hooker's song about a flood that hit Tupelo, Miss., in 1936, Stereogum notes. Dylan's take on "Tupelo" is an obvious tribute to the blues great, with the "Like a Rolling Stone" singer mimicking Hooker's signature singing style. Take a listen below at Stereogum.
Other streams from the reissue include "900 Miles from My Home" at SPIN, "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread" at Brooklyn Vegan, and "Ain't No More Cane (Take 2)" at Death & Taxes.
The Basement Tapes will feature six discs with 138 tracks, 30 of which were recently discovered, Consequence of Sound reports. The entire tracklist can be found on Dylan's website.
As legend has it, Dylan wrote all the material following a motorcycle accident in 1966 and enlisted The Band to come record it with him. As The Hawks, Levon Helm and The Band backed Dylan on tours before to his accident and accompanied him on his return to the road in 1974, a few years after releasing their seminal debut Music from Big Pink.
"I don't know if there's really anything much to do except try to get the best-quality version of 'The Basement Tapes' and put 'em up," former Band guitarist Robbie Robertson told Billboard last year. "I don't really know that I can be that helpful in doing it, but whatever that is, I like the idea of sharing that with the world, finally, after all these years. There was such a freedom in what we were doing. We thought, 'Nobody's ever going to hear these.' It was great music, so it would be nice to let people hear it."
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