By Tony Attwood
There is an index to our current series of articles on the home page of this site.
We generally (although not invariably) follow specific themes through a series of articles, which are recorded on the home page (above) as we go. And if you have an idea for a series, or would like to write one or more articles for us, we’d love to hear from you. Please email Tony@schools..co.uk
The “No Nobel Prize for Music” series has one simple aim – to illustrate that continuously through his songwriting career, Bob Dylan produced musical compositions of such quality that simply to look at and analyse the lyrics is not enough to give a full appreciation of what he has been doing. But the lyrics Bob produces are what most people focus on for one obvious reason – they are easier to reproduce and quote.
And yet it is not hard to see the inventiveness of Bob’s music. Not through developments of the form – although Bob has done that – but simply by listening to the melody line while appreciating the novel way in which the chord progressions work.
A perfect example of this comes with the stunning composition “Abandoned Love”. Never performed in public by Bob it is a song we’ve covered over and over again on this site from various starting positions. It turns up in the series on the songs Bob wrote and then ignored, in our second series on covers of Dylan’s songs (The covers we missed), in the series on the meaning of the lyrics AND the music, and on and on…. it keeps coming up.
It was, in fact, the mid-popint of an extraordinary trilogy of compositions written in 1975: Oh Sister, Abandoned Love and then Isis. And maybe it was those two exquisite songs written before and after “Abandoned Love” that caused it to be set aside first by Bob himself, and then by those who choose to spend their time listening to and studying Bob’s work.
Quite honestly, I can’t find another reason why this song would be so persistently ignored, unless it is following an invented rule that says, “if Bob doesn’t play it, we don’t want to know.”
But I include it in the “No Nobel Prize for Music” because this is a perfect example of Bob putting as much into his music as he does into the lyrics – and then leaving the song just there, without another performance, or as far as I can see, another mention.
Expecting Rain has a wonderful article covering the one single performance of this song, which I certainly recommend you read, relating to how the author went to see Ramblin’ Jack Elliott at The Bitter End in New York City – an event at which Bob was in the audience, but was persuaded to perform a song, which turned out to be this one.
As the excellent report on this event (which I do recommend you read) concludes, “It was an incredible feeling to be in that small club listening to Bob Dylan perform a new song. We all felt we were watching history in the making.”
But what is not mentioned is what happened to the song, although we get the implication. Because what happened was nothing, except that every time I go back and try to pick out Bob’s works of musical genius, this one pops up on the list.
What makes it so wonderful is the combination of the lyrics and the music, and as I have complained so often before, so many commentators on Bob’s work tend to ignore the music. Yet without the delicate balance of lyrics, melody and chords this song would not be a fraction of what it became via this one recording.
First, the song has a chorus line – which is not that common for Bob, although it does happen sometimes, and when it does, it tends to vary verse by verse (as for example with “Desolation Row” and “Visions of Johanna”.
The song is utterly strophic, which is to say, it is made up of musically identical, with these verses played one after the other. And yet, although this is just verse-verse-verse in the form of the classic folk song, there is something about the melody and chord sequence that marks it out as being utterly different from anything else.
And even more extraordinary, this is not achieved by the injection of a chord or two that are not normally found in the key of G in which it is played. The unique quality of the music comes from line three of each verse, where the chords run B minor – C major.
Now, I stress there is nothing odd about this, for these are two chords that appear in the accompaniment of a piece in G major. But what Bob has done is set us up to expect something else.
In classical-romantic music from which pop, contemporary folk and rock borrow so much of their structure, there are certain chord combinations (known as cadences) which are regularly used and which gives us, the listener, a sense of knowing where we are in the song. Staying in the key of G major, the most common such combinations would be
- D major to G major
- C major to G major
- A minor to D major
- C major to D major
- D major to E minor
The last of these (D to E minor) is known as the interrupted cadence and is far less commonly used than the others, but these endings of musical phrases (which is all cadances are) are the backbone of music. And even if you are not familiar with any of this, or the music of the great classical musicians such as Bach, Mozart or Beenthoven you will most likely recognise that this is how the lines on songs end.
So in this song line two ends with C major to D major. But line three moves from B minor to C major. Those two chords are both perfectly normal in the key of G major, but to have a line that moves from B minor to C major and nothing else is extremely unusual. It sort of leaves us hanging from a cliff, waiting for a resolution. And most people hear this even though they know nothing about chord sequences and what is commonplace and what is not. It just feels different.
But then Dylan resolves everything by the G D G chord sequence.
Now what makes this so interesting is that each verse is the same, so that although on hearing the first few verses we might feel slightly uncomfortable by line three, by the end of the song we are completely ok with this very unexpected third line.
If I had to take a guess as to why Bob dropped the song after this one outing, it would be that he was perhaps unsure about the third line because hearing that B minor to C major chord change tends to give most people a sense that this was unexpected, even if they know nothing about how music is constructed. My guess is that Bob was unsure about that line musically, although also maybe after the Evertys took the song up, he felt he couldn’t go further.
But I think it is a wonderful challenge which keeps the song alive. As ever, all one can do is give thanks to Bob for recording the song, even if he didn’t want to make anything more of it. And thank those few other artists who have taken the song on, for doing so.
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
- After Idiot Wind: “You’re gonna make me lonesome”
- I guess its just “Up to me”