Dylan’s Rarities: Nadine, More and More, Money Honey, Milkcow and Maggie

By Tony Attwood

This series giving videos and recordings of songs Bob has only ever performed once or twice or maybe even three times on stage, now has its own index here.   The most recent articles are…

So we start today with Nadine, a song which Jochen has mentioned in some detail in his review of Subterranean Homesick Blues

Setlist.fm has this recording coming from The Muny, St. Louis, MO on June 17, 1988.  The video itself has the same year but sets it in New York.  Setlist says this is the only time Dylan sang the song, but maybe not… which is exactly why we changed the name of this series from the “Once only file” to “Rarities”.

The song, as of course you will know, comes from Chuck Berry – here’s a latter day recording.

The song was the first that Chuck Berry released after coming out of prison having served a sentence under the Mann Act, which relates to immorality, prostitution and debauchery.  He was sentenced to 3 years inside – not the only famous person to be caught by the act (which has long since been amended).   Charlie Chaplin and Frank Lloyd Wright were also prosecuted under it.

The track was released in 1964 having been recorded the previous November and is in fact a reworking of of Chuck Berry’s own song, Maybelline.

And at this point I want to turn to Allmusic, because it has two interesting and separate points to make about this song.   The first is about the song itself and Allmusic notes its similes, which are not unknown in pop, but still not that common.  Such as, “She moves around like a wayward summer breezeMoving through the traffic like a mounted cavalier; and I was campaign shouting like a Southern diplomat.”

Allmusic also says the song had a “profound influence” on Dylan, particularly with “Bringing it all back home”.  Bruce Springsteen, it notes, was also a fan of the lyrics.

So now moving on, we come to Milkcow’s Calf Blues, a Robert Johnson song which Bob recorded in the Freewheelin sessions.

Here is the original…

This is a different song from Milkcow Blues written and originally recorded by Kokomo Arnold in the 1930s.  Here are the lyrics…

Tell me, milkcow, what on earth is wrong with you
Hoo hoo, milkcow, what on earth is wrong with you
Now you have a little new calf, hoo hoo, and your milk is turnin’ blue
Your calf is hungry, and I believe he needs a suck
Your calf is hungry, hoo hoo, I believe he needs a suck
But your milk is turnin’ blue, hoo hoo, I believe he’s outta luck
Now I feel like milkin’ and my, cow won’t come
I feel like chu’in’ and my, milk won’t turn
I’m cryin’ pleease, pleease don’t do me wrong
If you can old milkcow, baby now, hoo hoo, drive home
My milkcow been ramblin’, hoo hoo, for miles around
My milkcow been ramblin’, hoo hoo, for miles around
Well, she been troublin’ some other bull cow, hoo hoo, in this man’s town

Now for a bit of sorting out.   I found this on the internet….

But that ain’t the Bob Dylan I know.  I mean that really is not him at all.  In fact I think this is Barbara Dane, although quite a few sites seem to suggest it is Dylan.   But take a listen…

However Bob has sung the song as we will soon see.

“Little Maggie with a Dram Glass in Her Hand” is a bluegrass song that originates in the  Appalachian song tradition and as ever, appears in many different formats, but invariably in the mixolydian mode (which is a scale that was used prior to the dominance of the major and major scales we have today.  Its notes are C D E F G A Bb C.)

The song was recorded by the Stanley Brothers in 1946, when their music was more old-time than bluegrass in style.  Here is Bob’s recording of it while in Scotland…

Bob also recorded it for “Good as I’ve been to you.”

Oh, where is little Maggie
Over yonder she stands
Rifle on her shoulder
Six-shooter in her hand

How can I ever stand it
Just to see them two blue eyes
Shining like some diamonds
Like some diamonds in the sky

Rather be in some lonely hollow
Where the sun don't ever shine
Than to see you be another man's darling
And to know that you'll never be mine

Well, it's march me away to the station
With my suitcase in my hand
Yes, march me away to the station
I'm off to some far-distant land

Sometimes I have a nickel
And sometimes I have a dime
Sometimes I have ten dollars
Just to pay for little Maggie's wine
Pretty flowers are made for blooming
Pretty stars are made to shine
Pretty girls are made for boy's love
Little Maggie was made for mine

Well, yonder stands little Maggie
With a dram glass in her hand
She's a drinking down her troubles
Over courting some other man

Hope you enjoyed one or two of those pieces.  Maybe we’ll find some more anon.

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Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

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3 Comments

  1. I showed them the path to glory, but they did not follow it,'” Prince Andrew continued after a short silence, again quoting Napoleon’s words. “‘I opened my antechambers and they crowded in.’ This is a quotation from War and Peace. Compare it with: “I opened my heart and the world came in” from False Prophet.
    Bob, unlike Napoleon, conquered the world with his heart (art) not a sword but in both cases there were people ready to take advantage and to participate in the glory of their success. This part of the song is definitely autobiographical. Bob was first proclaimed a Prophet and then a false Prophet by Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger). Bob spend all his life to deny it but the truth is that as you said in your excellent analysis a true writer (poet) does see certain trends and patterns which can escape an ordinary “bread eater” simply because he is too busy making ends meet or too busy chasing the dream to have more than others do or simply to be reach. This brings me to another meaning of False Prophet which is wealth. People dream about owning millions of dollars. They spend their lives chasing that dream thinking that it will make them happy and even immortal. In ancient Egipt people believed that in another world after death people will need all that gold and things thay enjoyed on Earth, so they were buried with all their possessions.
    Not much has changed till today.
    People still believe that to be reach equals being happy. And only wen they do achieve it some of them commit suicide which tells me that it isn’t so. I have never been reach and I would gladly live without money if it were possible in modern society. But I think that in reality we don’t need that much. That brings us to the question what does it mean to be or not to be or rather to be or to have? In the pursuit of having more and more unnecessary products we destroy our planet. And the Nature is saying loud and clear that we cannot continue this “robbery in a bright daylight”
    because it will backfire in our faces and in the end it is us (the humanity and all life on Earth) that may vanish. The Ecosystem is a system which regulates itself. Maybe there is too many people on Earth already and it is trying to bring the balance back by this pandemic we have now. I don’t know but it seems to be the warning and (as Bob Dylan has said in the last, so far, interview) it is a forerunner for things to come.

  2. The comment above was meant to be posted underneath the article by Bob Jope about False Pfophet. But by mistake I posted it here. By the way this article is also very interesting and I did enjoy the whole series very much.

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