Rare Cool Stuff Unveils Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio

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First-Ever Sale to the Public of 8 Behind-the-Scenes Images by Photographer John Scheele from the Historic 1975 Bob Dylan & The Band Album Photo Session

Folio Features 12”x18” Duotone Lithographs Printed with Archival Inks on Museum Quality Paper, Each Individually Signed and Numbered by the Photographer

LOS ANGELES – Multimedia pop culture archival company Rare Cool Stuff Unltd. (http://www.rarecoolstuff.com), in association with EARL Company (http://earlcompany.com/), has unveiled “The Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio,” a brand-new collection of eight stunning black & white images taken by Photographer John Scheele during Bob Dylan & The Band’s “The Basement Tapes” album cover photo shoot in 1975.

Scheele’s photographs are the only documentation of preparations at the Hollywood YMCA for the famous album cover session. His photographs have never been seen or made available to the public for purchase as full-frame images before now.

The new “The Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio” is a limited-edition, signed and numbered set of ultra-rare, super-cool fine art prints from the shoot.

All eight prints are ready for framing and available for purchase for a limited time only, from Dec. 4, 2014 to Jan. 25, 2015.

Buyers who purchase a folio before Dec. 25 will also receive a bonus 12”x18” one-sheet of the entire photo session, featuring all 36 images shot in sequence.

All folio orders will be delivered by the end of February 2015. Click here to order.

‘Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio’ Documents Historic Cover Shoot

Photographer Reid Miles brought together a motley cast to represent characters from the “Basement Tapes” songs, and designed the historic cover photo shot in the Y’s basement for the two-album set released later that year.

As was his professional practice, Miles destroyed all his outtakes, and only the two photos used for the album cover survive. No photographs were ever taken in Big Pink or the Red Room back in 1967, so photographing the preparations was a singular opportunity to recreate the feel of those remarkable “Basement Tapes” sessions.

Scheele (pictured at right, inspecting folio proofs hot off the press at Dorado Music Packaging in North Hollywood) had been photographing The Band since 1969. He covered the Woodstock Music & Art Fair that summer, the Train Tour in 1970, and The Band’s amazing shows at the Academy of Music the same year, where Bob Dylan returned to bring down the house on New Year’s Eve.

Scheele covered George Harrison’s historic Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, and Dylan’s epic tour with The Band in 1974. In the studio, Scheele also photographed recording sessions for The Band’s “Stage Fright” album in 1970, and photos he took at The Band’s Shangri-La studio during mid-1970s sessions have never been seen by the public.

At the “Basement Tapes” photo session, Scheele was packing his 35mm camera, and took his place in the final album cover shot itself, standing with his brother, Bill Scheele, who had worked with The Band for almost a decade as the group’s equipment manager.

“I was a photographer and still in college in those days,” said Scheele, who later in his professional career worked on feature films as visual effects supervisor for directors such as Warren Beatty and Oliver Stone.

“I’ve always been involved in photography,” Scheele said. “I had a documentary role on that day only. It was Reid Miles’ shoot, but he was very cool with me taking some pictures along the way of people getting dressed, getting ready, preparing.”

Click the Start Button to See More of John Scheele’s Interview about the Basement Tapes Photo Session

As Scheele describes, wardrobe racks packed with colorful costumes were set up at the YMCA in an upstairs room normally used to play pool. The invited guests each donned a costume and got into character for the final iconic photo downstairs in the Y’s basement.

Dylan seemed almost shy at first, Scheele said, but then “shifted gears and wrangled that group of people together, positioned them, found their places in the photograph and made a fantastic picture that day. It really captured…the spirit of what ‘The Basement Tapes’ was like – that carnival atmosphere.”

Original ‘Basement Tapes’ Sessions Recorded by The Band’s Garth Hudson

Dylan and The Band had recorded the original “Basement Tapes” tracks during sessions in 1967, with The Band’s Garth Hudson running the tape machine, recording literally everything as it happened, and stacking up tape boxes for the archives.

They worked downstairs in The Band’s house, nicknamed “Big Pink,” in Woodstock, N.Y. Bootlegs of the unreleased tapes subsequently circulated among Dylan fans for years, until he OK’d Columbia’s official 1975 release of “Basement Tapes” highlights.

“Garth’s care and deep knowledge of music comes through on many levels,” Scheele said in a separate interview with RCS.

“Garth would transcribe Bob’s songs along the way, but he also functioned as a field recorder, gathering an immense collection of unedited songs, inspiration and good-spirited fun along the way,” Scheele said. “Never had Bob Dylan or The Band seemed more relaxed, as they explored song after song – and then began creating brand-new masterpieces that seemed woven from the same material. Those of us working on shows shared the music and loved it – and these rough ‘Basement Tapes’ became a shared treasure among fans as well.”

Rare Cool Stuff’s ‘Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio’ – Tech Specs

Scheele always held still photography – and the experiences and music he shared with Bob Dylan and The Band during those remarkable years – close to his heart throughout his subsequent career as a visual effects supervisor for films.

In 2014, almost 40 years after the “Basement Tapes” photo session, Scheele says he had a blast preparing the folio images so fans of Bob Dylan and The Band could finally see them as a set.

Smaller versions of Scheele’s photos are included in “LO & Behold!,” the 130-page hardcover book accompanying Bob Dylan & The Band’s “The Basement Tapes – Complete” boxed set, released by Sony/Legacy in November 2014. The box is Vol. 11 in Dylan’s celebrated “Bootleg Series” of material from the artist’s recorded archives.

Newly scanned from Scheele’s original 35mm negatives, the eight “Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio” images are hand-dialed, special-run duotone fine-art prints on 12”x18” heavy-coated paper stock.

Gary Gonzales, John Scheele, Georgia Scheele and her pup Foxy, and Geoff Gans show off the first proof print from ‘The Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio’ at Dorado.

Scheele personally approved, hand-signed and numbered each print in each folio, which also includes his vivid behind-the-scenes description. Each folio is packaged by hand in a handsome embossed enclosure.

Rare Cool Stuff Unltd. Co-founder Geoff Gans, a five-time Grammy nominee who designed the “LO & Behold!” book, designed the new “Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio” with Art Director Georgia Scheele of EARL Company.

Like “LO & Behold!,” “The Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio” was made in the USA using environmentally sustainable pulp, paper and wood products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Rare Cool Stuff co-founder Gary Gonzales directed paper sourcing and printing of the book for Dylan’s boxed set, and is doing the same for Scheele’s folio prints at Dorado.

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Article: Rare Cool Stuff Unveils Basement Tapes Photo Session Folio

Author: Stephen K. Peeples

Category: Latest News

Article Source: RareCoolStuff.com