"Santa-Fe" (sometimes spelled "Santa Fe" or "Santa Fé") is a song that was recorded by Bob Dylan and the Band in the summer or fall of 1967 in the area of New York State. It was recorded during the sessions that would in 1975 be released on The Basement Tapes but was not included on that album. These sessions took place in three phases throughout the year, at a trio of houses, and "Santa-Fe" was likely put on tape in the second of these, at a home of some of the Band members, known as Big Pink. The composition, which has been characterized as a "nonsense" song, was copyrighted in 1973 with lyrics that differ noticeably from those on the recording itself.

In the decades following this collaboration, the over 100 tracks recorded at these sessions were at different stages obtained by collectors and released on bootlegs. The first batch of these leaked to the public beginning in the late 1960s; the second in 1986; the third, which included "Santa-Fe", in the early 1990s; and a fourth batch of Basement Tape tracks became public in 2014. The song was released officially on the Columbia album The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. It has been subject to mixed opinions by critics and biographers, with some praising it for its expressiveness, and others regarding it unmemorable, while criticizing its inclusion on The Bootleg Series at the expense of more worthy candidates.

In 1965 and 1966, Dylan was touring with the Hawks—Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm, although Helm quit the group in late November or early December 1965. In July 1966, Dylan suffered a motorcycle accident and spent several months recuperating at his house in Byrdcliffe, near Woodstock, New York. By spring 1967, all of the members of the Hawks, except Helm, had joined Dylan in the Woodstock area, with Danko, Manuel and Hudson living in nearby West Saugerties in a house nicknamed Big Pink. Dylan and the four Hawks began recording informal music sessions, first at Dylan's house in what was known as "the Red Room", followed by the basement of Big Pink. Earlier on they recorded mostly covers and traditional music, but later moved onto original material written largely by Dylan. In total, over 100 songs and alternate takes were put on tape. Helm returned to the group in October 1967 and performed on some final Woodstock-area collaborations between Dylan and the Hawks, these ones at a different house that some group members had moved to. In the fall of that year, the Hawks, who soon renamed themselves the Band, continued writing and rehearsing songs for their debut album, Music From Big Pink.

...
Wikipedia