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No Nobel Prize for Music – index to articles at the end of this piece…
By Tony Attwood
Because most of the time, most of us don’t actually consider Dylan’s compositions in the order in which they were written, it is possible to miss the ebb and flow of Bob’s creativity. Hence in this series on Dylan’s musical approach, I do actually consider Dylan’s song in the order of composition.
“Idiot Wind” by any measure was an absolute masterpiece of composition, not only utterly gripping and entertaining to listen to, but also eight verses and a “B” section sung four times (and often mistakenly referred to as a chorus – which is isn’t since the lyrics change; to be a true chorus the B section would have to have the same music each time).
It is a massive work, and one which, if there were a Nobel Prize for music, would surely be in contention to receive it, not just because of it as a song, but also because it takes the whole concept of the contemporary song into a new dimension.
In the traditions of pop and popular music, the songs are invariably about one of three subjects: love, lost love and dance. This song is clearly about “lost love” and yet it takes on a direction in which, instead of the man wailing in sadness over the fact that his lover has gone, he is telling her, “You’re an idiot, babe, It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.”
Now for 99.99% of songwriters, having composed “Idiot Wind”, that would have been enough not just for the year, but quite possibly for the decade. But not for Bob.
This was the eighth song he wrote in 1974 and he still had four more in him before the end of the year. And indeed none of these were songs which Bob recorded once and then forgot, for these are songs that we still know today…
- You’re gonna make me lonesome when you go
- Up to Me
- Buckets of Rain
- Meet me in the Morning
I do find that listening to Dylan’s compositions in the order they were written an interesting and indeed insightful thing to do, as he helps me get a little bit more into the world of understanding what he was thinking as he composed.
And in this regard, “You’re gonna make me lonesome” is a very gentle responose to “Idiot Wind” – it is in fact, lyrically and musically the reverse of the previous song. Indeed, as the Wiki commentary of the song notes, “the lyrics being called Dylan’s most masterfully written love poem.”
Whether the lines
"Situations have ended sad Relationships have all been bad Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud
are autobiographical or not, the issue surely goes far beyond that when we remember that this song was written not long after “Idiot Wind”. And yet if we just listen to the music, we can indeed hear that profound difference not just of lyrics, but of music and thus of emotion and meaning of the two songs written in succession.
“Idiot Wind” is very unusual in Bob’s musical canon (it might be unique in this regard, but I don’t want to go through the entire list of 500+ songs to prove it or not) in that it starts on that minor chord that has nothing to do with the key he is performing in. In “Lonesome” we have the opposite effect. The opening chords in this song are...
Am Bsus4 Bvii E Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
In essence, most people who can play some Dylan songs on piano or guitar will hear this as a three-chord song. But not just a three-chord song but a three-chord song using the three regular, normal chords that one uses when playing pop, rock or folk music. In short, E major, A major, and B7. If you can play those three chords on the guitar, you can strum along to a billion songs.
But there is a twist, and yes I could fee there was a twist when I first hear the song, but it wasn’t until I saw Eyolf Østrem‘s analysis that I realised just how far Dylan had gone. For having started “Idiot Wind” on a most unexpected chord, here Dylan again springs a surprise for he does not start on plain E major; he uses E major 7 (which is the chord of E with a D# added). And the B chord is not just B but B11 which is B plus at least some of A, C#, and E added – although usually not all of them.
Of course, we don’t immediately focus on the chords, although many thanks to Mr Østrem for doing just that, but these nuances, if I can call them that. For they really do add to the song.
And there is a superb twist in all this. The lyrics tell of us a wonderful love, but normally, love affairs in popular songs are things that happen quickly – the couple see each other, and either one of them or indeed both of them fall in love instantly. But not here for Bob gives us a love affair that has “Never been so easy or so slow.
E Emaj7
I've seen love go by my door
A
It's never been this close before
E Emaj7 B11
Never been so easy or so slow.
E Emaj7
Been shooting in the dark too long
A
When somethin's not right it's wrong
E B11 E . . .
You're gonna make me lonesome when you go.
Wiki also tells us that “Multiple versions were attempted, including a slow ballad arrangement, but ultimately Dylan opted – as he did with most of the tracks from these sessions – for a near-solo acoustic arrangement.” And indeed it is that arrangement which allows us to see this song as the antithesis of “Idiot Wind” – the message and the music is very different in each case but the arrangements are not from different worlds. We are able to hear the songs as part of a sequence because of the similarities in the arrangements.
Now of course, what Bob could have done is think that “Idiot Wind” and “You’re going to make me lonesome” are profound opposites lyrically, and so they need to be opposites not just in the music (which they are – this is gentle lilting tune with no minor chords) butalso in the arrangement, but he stopped short of making the musical arrangements utterly different. That the music itself is different is enough of a change to emphasise the difference in the lyrics.
The movement from “Idiot Wind” to “Lonesome” is thus primarily achieved through the lyrics (obviously) and the melody and chords, not through a changed accompaniment. With “Idiot”, the music, like the lyrics is jagged and sharp. Here they are calm, sad but acknowledging. Keeping the music so simple in “Lonesome” thus acknowledges that no matter how good the world is now, times pass. For such a message, you don’t need the extremes of melodic range nor suddenly jerky chord changes. And Bob understands that. It is a perfect answer to “Idiot Wind”. It is indeed, a perfect song not because of the lyrics but because the music is such a contrast from “Idiot Wind”.
And yet for Bob it seems, it was just another song. He played it just a dozen times in all, across April and May 1976, and that was it. Although I have to admit “Idiot Wind” only got 55 outings all told. It really was as if these were issues in which, through writing the songs, everything had been said.
That certainly seems to have been Bob’s reaction. But musically, we have been left with two utterly contrasting works of utter genius, written one after the other, each expressing through lyrics and music, two completely different sides of relationships. If there had been a Nobel Prize for Music I guess they would have given it to Bob for the whole album.
Previously in this series….
- We might have noted the musical innovations more
- From Hattie Carroll to the incoming ship
- From Times to Percy’s song
- Combining musical traditions in unique ways
- Using music to take us to a world of hope
- Chimes of Freedom and Tambourine Man
- Bending the form to its very limits
- From Denise to Mama
- Balled in Plain D
- Black Crow to “All I really want to do”
- I’ll keep it with mine
- Dylan does gothic and the world ends
- The Gates of Eden
- After the Revolution – another revolution
- Returning to the roots (but with new chords)
- From “It’s all right” to “Angelina”. What appened?
- How strophic became something new: Love is just a four letter word
- Bob reaches the subterranean
- The conundrum of the song that gets worse
- Add one chord, keep it simple, sing of love
- It’s over. Start anew. It’s the end
- Desolation Row: perhaps the most amazing piece of popular music ever written
- Can you please crawl out your window
- Positively Fourth Street
- Where the lyrics find new lands, keep the music simple
- Tom Thumb’s journey. It wasn’t that bad, was it?
- From Queen Jane to the Thin Man
- The song that revolutionised what popular music could do
- Taking the music to a completely new territory
- Sooner or Later the committee will realise its error
- The best ever version of “Where are you tonight sweet Marie?”
- Just like a woman
- Most likely you go your way
- Everybody must get stoned
- Obviously 5 Believers
- I Want You. Creativity dries up
- Creativity dries up – the descent towards the basement.
- One musical line sung 12 times to 130 words
- Bob invents a totally new musical form
- There is a change we can see and a change we can’t see
- A sign on the window tells us that change is here
- One more weekend and New Morning: pastures new
- Three Angels, an experiment that leads nowhere
- An honorary degree, nevertheless. But why was Bob not pleased?
- When Bob said I will show you I am more than three chords
- Moving out of the darkness
- The music returns, but with uncertainty
- Heaven’s Door, Never Say Goodbye, and a thought that didn’t work…
- Going going gone
- Bob goes for love songs
- On a night like this and Tough Mama
- I hate myself for loving you
- Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
- Imagine you had just written a masterpiece. What then?
- After “Lily” and “Tangled” what on earth could Bob compose next?
- If you see her, to Call letter blues
- From the SimpleTwist to Idiot Wind