No Nobel Prize for Music: Heaven’s Door, Never Say Goodbye, and a thought that didn’t work…

By Tony Attwood

In the last episode of this series No Nobel Prize for Music 1973: the music returns: but with considerable uncertainty, I explored what now seems to be the widely accepted view that Bob Dylan wrote part of “Wagon Wheel” and then members of Old Crow Medicine Show finished the song off, and the rights to the song were shared. Certainly, the recordings that we have, seem to back up that view.

But what then do we make of Sweet Amirillo? My view is much the same – it was a part Dylan song finished off by Old Crow.

There is no evidence that is utterly definitive on this, so I will leave you with the thoughts I have offered before, and note once more the most obvious thought that Bob was struggling to put together a song that was a) musically original and b) he could finish off.

But Bob still had a commitment to write the music for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid in 1973 as the difficulties of finishing off those two songs, ultimately part-written with Old Crow reveal.

Indeed, the next song lines Dylan came up with, which we normally associate directly with the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, if taken out of that context, could refer to Dylan’s problems with composition, the badge being his reputation for writing brilliant songs in the past, but now finding it rather hard going.

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can’t use it anymore
It’s gettin’ dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door

In fact, what I believe happened here is that Bob gave up the struggle and accepted the difficulty he was having with both the lyrical and musical elements of songwriting, and so wrote a very simple song.

Four quite separate things still strike me when I hear this song. One of the elegance and beauty of the simple melody, the second is that Bob repeats the same line four times (which is very un-Dylan), the third is that the verse and chorus have exactly the same music, and the final point is how short it is.

This is the man who wrote Desolation Row, Johnanna etc etc and he delivers s

G                D                Am
  Mama take this badge off of me
G         D               C
  I can't use it anymore
G              D                      Am
  It's getting dark, too dark to see
G            D                     C
  I feel I'm knockin on heaven's door

Verse two gives us

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore
That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door

And the chorus, as of course you know, is “Knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door.

It is virtually impossible to think of a simpler song – and yet it works, and we all remember it because of its simplicity. Bob, in fact, had found a way out of his dilemma not by writing another song packed with lyrics and interesting chord changes with a melody over the top, but a song that in its opening line delivers pure emotion, and the song then stays at that level throughout…

But I think we must also give credit to Bob’s genius here – he could have battled on and added extra lines to the chorus, but in effect, the repetition of the title line four times adds to the poignancy and depth of the emotions. It is not a trick a songwriter can pull very often, but as a one-off, it works. And we must give Bob the fullest credit for the phrase “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” itself.

In fact, there was more than enough music here for both Eric Clapton and Guns n Roses to take the song on with their own versions, and extend it to over four minutes with variations in the melody through the addition of the harmonies.

Of course, Bob wasn’t the only artist ever to suffer this sort of blockage in his creativity, and such an approach doesn’t guarantee that the next work of art is going to build further on this innovative approach. But it can get things going again.

Now my view is that having reached this point, Bob decided to up the level of novelty in his songwriting by exploring new possibilities in the music. As we know, most of the time the emphasis is on the lyrics, out of which comes the music. But I think Bob was having some problems finding interesting new lyrics at this point, and having solved the problem by using unusual chord sequences and then putting in modulations, which are incredibly rare in popular music, I think he then felt this was his the way forward.

And this gives us the background to “Never Say Goodbye” where Dylan continued his musical exploration, challenging himself to find out just how far he could take the music, while still retaining the essence of the styles he had written in thus far: folk, pop and rock.

The song “Never Say Goodbye” starts out very simply in musical terms, being clearly in the key of D, but then after one verse chaos emerges as Bob attempts to modulate the song from the key of D into the key of G, which leads him to struggle to sing “cry” at the pitch required, having moved into the key of D

D        G            A
Twilight on the frozen lake
      G             D
North wind about to break
   G                A
On footprints in the snow
G            D     G  A  G
Silence down below.


       G  C             D
You're beautiful beyond words
       C           G
You're beautiful to me
C               D
You can make me cry
C         G      C  D  C
Never say goodbye.

Modulation – the moving of one key into another – is a fundamental part of classical music (if you have learned to play the piano the chances are you will have come across JS Bach’s “48 Preludes and Fugures” which was written to celebrate the arrival of a keyboard instrument that could indeed play in every key and still sound in tune). But modulation was never part of folk music as it is very hard to achieve without the accompaniment of musical instruments designed to be played in those different keys.

So Bob’s exploration of the issue in this song, does sound rather like a muddle, and this is a great shame, because having come up with the idea, Bob seemingly never returned to it. And yet the lyrics really do have something in them which, perhaps with more rehearsal and a less ambitious modulation (which can put a great strain on the voice) he might have explored this notion further.

Certainly, the problem is that the most obvious modulation is to take the melody up a fifth – so if you are playing in the key of D, you might modulate up to A major. But if you care to sing a song in what you feel is the normal pitch for you, and then sing it again, starting five notes further up the scale, you’ll most likely run into difficulties. Most of us can sing notes up to one and a half octaves apart, but at that point it becomes difficult and we tend to give up, or end up spluttering.

So “Never Say Goodbye” was an experiment around these issues, and is not examined here as a great Dylan song that he could have developed, but rather as evidence of just how much Dylan was experimenting and how far he was willing to experiment, while never being afraid of accepting that some ideas don’t work. That this experiment didn’t work is less important than the fact that he tried it out, seeing where else his music might go as he continued to explore new musical dimensions that would lead away from the brick wall he had previously faced.

Thus as we look back at the lyrics of “Never Say Goodbye” we can see Bob exploring there, as well as in the music, where else he could take his songs…. Just consider the images: dreams of iron and steel, a bouquet of roses from heaven to earth, waiting on the beach in front of the tumultuous waves, asking her not just to marry him and take his name but change her appearance…..

My dreams are made of iron and steel
With a big bouquet
Of roses hanging down
From the heavens to the ground

The crashing waves roll over me
As I stand upon the sand
Wait for you to come
And grab hold of my hand

Oh, baby, baby, baby blue
You’ll change your last name, too
You’ve turned your hair to brown
Love to see it hangin’ down

Dylan’s exploration here was clearly not successful musically, but that’s not the point, for I don’t know any other song writer that actually tried this approach. Yes, Bob would borrow ideas from the Medicine Show, but he then wanted to have his own musical innovations as well. This one didn’t quite work, but it helped pave the way for other adventures yet to come.

Previously in this series….

1: We might have noted the musical innovations more

2: From Hattie Carroll to the incoming ship

3: From Times to Percy’s song

4: Combining musical traditions in unique ways

5: Using music to take us to a world of hope

6: Chimes of Freedom and Tambourine Man

7: Bending the form to its very limits

8: From Denise to Mama

9: Balled in Plain

10:Black Crow to All I really want to do

11: I’ll keep it with mine