Money Blues: unravelling the unreleased Dylan song of 1975.

By Tony Attwood

Update: we’ve found a recording that can be uploaded.  The Jacques Levy version seems to have gone from the internet but here is a tribute version.

1975 is the year Bob Dylan worked with Jacques Levy – so in coming to the first song that they wrote together it seems appropriate to say a few words about Levy.

Levy was born in New York 29 July 1935, died (of cancer) 30 September 2004 aged 69.

He studied for a doctorate in psychology from Michigan State University and later practised as a clinical psychologist, but always had an interest in the theatre and music.  In 1965 he directed Sam Shepherd’s play, Red Cross. Two years on he directed Jean-Claude van Italie’s America Hurrah.

Jacques Levy next came to fame as the director of  “Oh! Calcutta!” in 1969 (which ran until 1972), and the story goes that Roger McGuinn of the Byrds thought Levy could be a fine librettist for a project he was working on.  As a result they wrote Chestnut Mare, although the main project came to nothing.

So started the route to meeting and eventually working with Bob Dylan and seven tracks on Desire which were co-written by the two men.  It is also reported that in 1975, Levy stage-managed the Rolling Thunder Revue.

But his work with Dylan didn’t stop his theatrical work.  In 1983 he directed the musical comedy Doonesbury, and in 1988 he wrote the lyrics for the stage musical of the film Fame.  From 1993 he was English professor and director of theatre at New York’s Colgate University and during this time he also worked on Marat/Sade (1994), Bus Stop (1997) and Brecht On Brecht (2000).

In all Dylan and Levy are recorded as having written nine songs together listed (in alphabetical order) as

• Black Diamond Bay
• Catfish
• Hurricane
• Isis
• Joey
• Money Blues
• Mozambique
• Oh, sister
• Romance in Durango

The first to be written was Money Blues, which was recorded on 28 July 1975 in the second Desire session at the Columbia Recording Studios, New York.  It was the second song recorded on the day, and it was only run through once – a typical “warm up” song as the musicians get themselves together and the engineers start to get the balance and sound right.

According to Wikipedia’s “List of songs written by Bob Dylan” which has (as of May 2016) 522 songs listed, Money Blues is unreleased but with the “Lyrics printed in Lyrics: 1962–1985, under Desire.”

There is one recording I’ve found, by the band Chronicles – a Dylan tribute band.  You can see it here, but the video is somewhat odd with all the people passing in front.  In the end I just wanted to hear the music.  But maybe that is me.  What we don’t know is whether the band simply interpreted the music as a classic 12 bar, or whether they had some inside information as to how it sounds on that single unreleased take.

What I don’t get however is why two such able lyricists should get together and write this.  I can see why they might record it as a warm up, but to go on and bother to write the lyrics down… and assign them to the two songwriters, seems odd to me.

And in fact I’d say maybe this is not a Dylan/Levy composition at all, but a Dylan warm up piece.  But maybe Levy, having agreed that the two men could work together, just started to improvise some lyrics.  Maybe he sang them on that one recording – although that too seems odd.

Or was Dylan still having a swipe at Sara, especially in the first verse…

Sittin’ here thinkin’
Where does the money go
Sittin’ here thinkin’
Where does the money go
Well, I give it to my woman
She ain’t got it no more

After this it gets to sound like it is having fun at the expense of the blues format… the sort of thing you might find in a Broadway show about the blues…

Went out last night
Bought two eggs and a slice of ham
Went out last night
Bought two eggs and a slice of ham
Bill came to three dollars and ten cents
And I didn’t even get no jam

By verse three it’s all getting a bit ordinary, and very blues standard…

Man came around
Askin’ for the rent
Man came around
Askin’ for the rent
Well, I looked into the drawer
But the money’s all been spent

And quite honestly the next verse does not add too much to human understanding.

Well, well
Ain’t got no bank account
Well, well
Ain’t got no bank account
Went down to start one
But I didn’t have the right amount

Before it gets too silly for words.

Everything’s inflated
Like a tire on a car
Everything’s inflated
Like a tire on a car
Well, the man came and took my Chevy back
I’m glad I hid my old guitar

And then the sexual innuendo.  The song’s character is rather unpleasantly looking to become a pimp.

Come to me, mama
Ease my money crisis now
Come to me, mama
Ease my money crisis now
I need something to support me
And only you know how

---

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down