The Basement Tapes is a compilation of recordings made by Bob Dylan and The Band in 1967, during a period of retreat in Woodstock, New York, following Dylan's motorcycle accident in 1966. These informal sessions, known as 'The Basement Tapes', were recorded in the basement of a house called 'Big Pink' and at Dylan's home.
The album was officially released in 1975 by Columbia Records, although many of the recordings had previously circulated as bootlegs. It includes 24 songs, of which 16 are performed by Dylan and The Band, and 8 are performed by The Band alone. Songs like 'I Shall Be Released' and 'The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)' became famous through covers by other artists.
The compilation was criticized by some purists for omitting many important songs from the sessions and for including tracks by The Band without Dylan. Despite this, the album reached number 7 on the Billboard 200 chart and is considered a foundational document of folk rock and Americana. The complete recordings were finally released in 2014 as 'The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete'.