By Tony Attwood
Under Control is the third of five Dylan compositions on Disc One of the Complete Basement Tapes box set (noting as before that “Spanish is a loving tongue” which is credited to Dylan on the album is certainly not one of his).
The music is a very abrasive, rough 12 bar blues with the accompaniment made up of (I think) three electric guitars all competing with each other to play rhythm and/or lead. The aim clearly was to have the rawest sound imaginable, and then add words that matched with it.
But it certainly sounds to me as if Bob didn’t have any lyrics written down and didn’t quite know where the song was going other than the fact that it had the words “Under control” repeated several times at the end of each verse – and that this phrase related to a woman.
One thing to remember in looking at a transcription of mine is that I’m not familiar with many everyday slang American phrases from the 1960s so I could easily have mistaken a phrase simply by not recognising what was said – so all improvements on the set of lyrics below would be much appreciated.
It is perhaps also worth noting in passing that we have the sad fact that a significant number of websites have put up pages that purport to be about each of the Dylan compositions from this album, but then offer nothing but a blank page. I guess it is excusable for the official Dylan site to do it, but it is still frustrating. One site has every single track from the box set listed with video links that go nowhere. It just wastes people’s time.
Anyway, in one sense the roughness of the track makes it a hard listen, as does the poor recording quality, and I am not at all sure that the lyrics are particularly appealing, but then it was never meant to be anything that a rough and ready sketch, just to see if it got anywhere.
And I think this one did, because lurking in the roughness I suspect I hear elements of “From a Buick 6”. However that is not the only reason to listen, because this working through of very raw blues by Dylan also eventually gave us the fantastic “I once knew a man” which I’ve always rated as one of his great forgotten compositions.
Here’s my transcript. Try not to laugh too much at the ludicrous mishearings which undoubtedly lurk within…
Under control
Just how much was too American
Arrows to ashtray say it once more
That she’s ready to go but no she ain’t ready to go
Well she’ told me that she’s taken me underneath the floor
She’s on her hands and then you know your too hot to hold
Comb on his face long underneath her yeah the windows shake
I’ve got the money but she’s too hot to hold
Once more you got her in her soul
She’s a limestone woman
but she’s heart and soul
I said under control under control under control
Instrumental
Don’t mind me brother She said one more time
Don’t mind the mistress once again
She don’t need no gratitude to hold her hand she’s on hold
sure to hold
What else is on the site
1: 500+ reviews of Dylan songs. There is an index to these in alphabetical order on the home page, and an index to the songs in the order they were written in the Chronology Pages.
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3: Bob Dylan’s themes. We publish a wide range of articles about Bob Dylan and his compositions. There is an index here.
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5: Bob Dylan’s creativity. We’re fascinated in taking the study of Dylan’s creative approach further. The index is in Dylan’s Creativity.
6: You might also like: A classification of Bob Dylan’s songs and partial Index to Dylan’s Best Opening Lines and our articles on various writers’ lists of Dylan’s ten greatest songs.
And please do note The Bob Dylan Project, which lists every Dylan song in alphabetical order, and has links to licensed recordings and performances by Dylan and by other artists, is starting to link back to our reviews
I’ve seen ‘rhinestone woman’ suggested, but haven’t heard the song myself
This is the prototype for “Like a Buick 6”? That’s an interesting theory. Maybe time was running backwards in the basement of Big Pink.
This does sound like a throwback to 1965 and 1966, though. It’s very similar to some of the recordings with the Hawks, especially the early takes of “I Wanna Be Your Lover” and “Tell Me, Momma.” You could easily imagine this as a soundcheck from the 1966 tour.
It’s ultimately pointless, but always fun, to try to transcribe the lyrics of songs that don’t really have lyrics. Here’s my stab at it. There are only a few bits where I’m pretty sure I’ve got it right. One is “hard to hold” instead of “hot to hold.” Here in America, where we pronounce our r’s (just as Shakespeare did), we can usually distinguish between “hard” or “heart” and “hot.”
. . . understanding she’s under control
And she’s fleece on the baby when she’s graveyard fence
Just how much was, was too many sense
She hollerin’ on the table beneath the floor
Arrows to ashtray and she said once more
That she’s made of grold but she don’t, she ain’t ready to hold
Well she’s honing but she taken meeth underneath her soul
She on her hand and bed a motion on your too hard to hold
But she’s wash and ditty, she’s under control, she’s under control
From her hips on down please on to the corner
Policeman and sound way upstairs
Woe is made lordy beneath her big head window shade
She said look out sa man she’s too hard to hold
One cha-cha motion down in her soul
She’s a mighty strong woman but she’s hearts of stone
She’s a been already been made on your jelly roll
But she’s under control, under control, under control
Well tombstone baby but her rate on the dime
Don’t mind me brother she said one more time
Don’t mind my sister she said once again
Pray tan the possum sure buddy let’s pretend
That she’s don’t need nobody to hold her hand, she’s set on board
She sure let go
Yes but, but and she’s hammin’ but she’s hard to hold
Already been made but she’s blue hard to stall
She’s under control, under control, under control, under control, under control
From a Buick 6 recorded 1965, under Control recorded 1967
Prototype?
Regardless of the timeline, however, both songs can still contain similar ‘elements.’
Yes, they can contain similar elements; you can certainly compare them. You just can’t talk about the later song as if it came first. Unless you’re being deliberately paradoxical. I could say, for instance, that Dylan’s “flood” songs start with “The Levee’s Gonna Break,” which is only a sketch, an unfocused first draft, that he’d later refine in “High Water” and distill to its essence in “Crash on the Levee”–only to return to, as the center of a larger statement, in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”
Hello there Tony, Thank you for posting this analysis of a song from Bob Dylan’s Music Box: http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/703/Under-Control Come and join us inside and listen to every song composed, recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, plus all the great covers streaming on YouTube, Spotify, Deezer and SoundCloud plus so much more… including this link.