- Dylan improvising for fun is not so far from Dylan writing a serious song
- While thinking of Bob; a frightening thought about Bill Haley
By Tony Attwood
As I dwell further and further on the order in which Bob Dylan wrote the songs he has given the world, the more I am taken by the thought that while he can quite often write a series of songs on different topics over a period of few weeks or months, he can also, on occasion, come across a regular subject that he feels like writing about, and then having written one song in that subject area, will immediately have an idea for another, and another… until after a few such songs, he feels like that’s enough (or maybe he has simply run out of ideas – although that seems unlikely for Bob) and jumps into a different world for his next inspiration….
Or maybe he doesn’t jump, at least not at first, or sometimes that next inspiration does not come at once, so he can pause until he feels ready…
Now of course that explanation can read like no explanation at all, as in essence it sounds a bit like, “Sometimes he does this, sometimes he does that, sometimes he does nothing…” and reading it again, that indeed seems to be what I am suggesting. And I think that is about right.
But there is a point here, and that is that over the years Bob has found himself able to write about different topics – but also on occasion has found himself unable to, or perhaps, unwilling to, write any songs at all.
Now of course we can never be quite sure which songs Bob wrote when, but we can take it that after the non-stop burst that gave us the 63 songs recorded on the Basement Tapes (some original Bob songs, some taken from elsewhere), and then the dozen John Wesley Harding songs across 1967, Bob stopped both recording and as far as we can tell, writing.
In fact it seems to me that there was just one song written in 1968 – Lay Lady Lay – and that was it. Now of course we don’t have details of exactly when each song was composed,, how long it took etc. And in relation to the Basement Tapes it is quite clear that while some songs were improvised on the spot, some of the songs were not written by Dylan at all. But I would say that one way or another the Tapes do indeed contain a number of pieces that were written by Bob Dylan.
However we can be fairly sure that apart from “Lay Lady Lay” there were no new songs from the era, that he was ready to record or let other people hear.
Now I would also want to stress here the enormous change that this involves in a creative person. For a while he was living his creativity, re-creating other people’s songs, half-remembering songs, creating new arrangements, and also writing some new material of his own that he then rejected… and all without having to worry about whether those songs were actually “album material” or not, his creative brain was whizzing . All the songs, complete, incomplete and half-remembered, went down on the Basement Tapes, for if Bob wanted to play them, he did. If he wanted to sing them, he did. If he wanted to make them up as he went along, he did. And if he wanted to play songs that the band didn’t know, he did, and eventually they picked up how each one went. No one was going to argue with Bob.
Of course I’ve no idea if Bob was paying the other musicians to make those recordings that became the Basement Tapes, or whether they were working for free, just experimenting and having fun, while perhaps also awaiting the chance to appear on the next tour. If you know the answer to that, do add a comment – and tell me the source! It’s probably all very obvious, and I have just missed it.
But either way, Bob then walked away from all those basement songs, and recorded the John Wesley Hardin album of just 12 songs. And those songs by themselves do fall into an interesting set of patterns.
Of course we can all divide up Dylan’s songs into different categories, and in doing just that for this album I am not saying I have understood how Dylan was considering each song, but rather I’m saying, “here is one way of dividing that album up by the lyrical content of the songs…”
And in taking this approach I find myself drifting into the world of the surreal and eternal: in short a Kafkaesque world with bits added. But I won’t take that further at this point, for if you want to know more about Dylan and Kafka then there is a superb essay from Jochen on that very subject here.
So going back to the songs of JWH, here are the Kafkaesque songs in the order in which they were written (as far as I can tell) with a couple of words of my own after each title.
Kafkaesque
- The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest (A surreal story)
- Drifter’s Escape (There is no cause and effect)
- I dreamed I Saw St Augustine (Those who live on forever)
- All along the watch tower (There is no way out of here)
- I pity the poor Immigrant (Thoughts and words without background that flow from the title)
- The Wicked Messenger (Kafka)
- Dear Landlord (A stream of thoughts following the invention of the title)
So what else do we have on this album, released some 18 months after Blonde on Blonde? In fact there are five other songs…
Historical songs
- John Wesley Harding (A “silly little song”; an invented historical saga)
- As I Went out one Morning (Homage to WH Auden)
The independence song – or perhaps a response to the “Why all this Kafka?” question.
- I am a lonesome hobo (Do your own thing, don’t tell others what to do; just go)
Love songs (possibly because the record company insisted!)
Kick your shoes off, do not fear Bring that bottle over here I'll be your baby tonight