Dylan cover a day: No 144 – The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar

By Tony Attwood

This is one of my favourite songs, and I’ve always felt there is a lot one could do with it not least because of those opening lines…

Prayed in the ghetto with my face in the cement
Heard the last moan of a boxer, seen the massacre of the innocent
Felt around for the light switch, felt around for her face
Been treated like a farm animal on a wild goose chase

The most obvious thing would be to slow the piece down, and really put an emphasis on those extraordinary words.   Then if you wanted to go further you could change the line breaks just to add to the chaos, so you get

Prayed in the ghetto with my face 
in the cement heard the last moan of a boxer seen the massacre 
of the innocent felt around for the light switch, 
felt around for her face Been treated like a farm animal 
on a wild goose chase

OK maybe that’s just me slipping back into a surrealism mode, but there is some fun to be had somewhere.  And yet so few have experimented with the song, even though simply emphasising the words will give the performance a huge amount of umph.

And yet many that have have just reiterated what Bob did.   Take Stef Kamil Carlens & The Gates of Eden

That sounds at the start like it is going to be good fun with taking it faster, but really the lyrics, line after line, become a gabble, and the contrast with the Rock of Gibraltar line doesn’t really take us much further.   The musical interludes show promise, but just don’t seem to get beyond that.

Elkie Brooks however going the other way restores my faith that there is something else to be gained from the song.   Everything comes from her wonderful voice: she’s not forcing anything but we just have to go with her, and the al-al-al-alter line works really well.

This how the old 12 bars need to sound these days.   The backing chorus helps as well.

It is of course just a strophic song (verse / chorus / verse etc etc) but just listen to that last verse (“Cities on fire, phones out of order”) for an extra bonus.   Superb.

Steve Wynn takes 30 seconds to get the band to realise they are there to perform, but they have some fun – it’s worth persevering with.

Moses Wiggins gives the song a good bash but the problem is that there is no variation – it is once more verse after verse with the occasional bit of lead guitar fun in between, but it is not one of those songs that makes us want to focus on Dylan’s lyrics by itself – the band need to work harder to make that happen.

I think it is worth returning to Bob himself at this moment to contrast what he did with the song – which was slow it right down.  That gives him a real chance to explore the lyrics, which is essential if we are to keep our interest up.

And that’s about it, which means Elkie Brookes has to get the vote for keeping me interested in the song through the whole six minutes of her performances.  In fact her version is a perfect example of how to hold interest across one of the longer Dylan songs.  And the interesting thing is that she makes it all seem so obvious that this is the way to perform the song; I’m amazed anyone has tried to do anything else.

The Dylan Cover a Day series

1. The song with numbers in the title.
2. Ain’t Talkin
3. All I really want to do
4.  Angelina
5.  Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
6. As I went out one morning
7.  Ballad for a Friend
8. Ballad in Plain D
9. Ballad of a thin man
10.  Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
11. The ballad of Hollis Brown
12. Beyond here lies nothing
13. Blind Willie McTell
14.  Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
15. An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
16. Blowin in the wind as never before
17. Bob Dylan’s Dream
18. BoB Dylan’s 115th Dream revisited
19. Boots of Spanish leather
20. Born in Time
21. Buckets of Rain
22. Can you please crawl out your window
23. Can’t wait
24. Changing of the Guard
25. Chimes of Freedom
26. Country Pie
27.  Crash on the Levee
28. Dark Eyes
29. Dear Landlord
30. Desolation Row as never ever before (twice)
31. Dignity.
32. Dirge
33. Don’t fall apart on me tonight.
34. Don’t think twice
35.  Down along the cove
36. Drifter’s Escape
37. Duquesne Whistle
38. Farewell Angelina
39. Foot of Pride and Forever Young
40. Fourth Time Around
41. From a Buick 6
42. Gates of Eden
43. Gotta Serve Somebody
44. Hard Rain’s a-gonna Fall.
45. Heart of Mine
46. High Water
47. Highway 61
48. Hurricane
49. I am a lonesome hobo
50. I believe in you
51. I contain multitudes
52. I don’t believe you.
53. I love you too much
54. I pity the poor immigrant. 
55. I shall be released
56. I threw it all away
57. I want you
58. I was young when I left home
59. I’ll remember you
60. Idiot Wind and  More idiot wind
61. If not for you, and a rant against prosody
62. If you Gotta Go, please go and do something different
63. If you see her say hello
64. Dylan cover a day: I’ll be your baby tonight
65. I’m not there.
66. In the Summertime, Is your love and an amazing Isis
67. It ain’t me babe
68. It takes a lot to laugh
69. It’s all over now Baby Blue
70. It’s all right ma
71. Just Like a Woman
72. Knocking on Heaven’s Door
73. Lay down your weary tune
74. Lay Lady Lay
75. Lenny Bruce
76. That brand new leopard skin pill box hat
77. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
78. License to kill
79. Like a Rolling Stone
80. Love is just a four letter word
81. Love Sick
82. Maggies Farm!
83. Make you feel my love; a performance that made me cry.
84. Mama you’ve been on my mind
85. Man in a long black coat.
86. Masters of War
87. Meet me in the morning
88. Million Miles. Listen, and marvel.
89. Mississippi. Listen, and marvel (again)
90. Most likely you go your way
91. Most of the time and a rhythmic thing
92. Motorpsycho Nitemare
93. Mozambique
94. Mr Tambourine Man
95. My back pages, with a real treat at the end
96. New Morning
97. New Pony. Listen where and when appropriate
98. Nobody Cept You
99. North Country Blues
100. No time to think
101. Obviously Five Believers
102. Oh Sister
103. On the road again
104. One more cup of coffee
105. (Sooner or later) one of us must know
106. One too many mornings
107. Only a hobo
108. Only a pawn in their game
109. Outlaw Blues – prepare to be amazed
110. Oxford Town
111. Peggy Day and Pledging my time
112. Please Mrs Henry
113. Political world
114. Positively 4th Street
115. Precious Angel
116. Property of Jesus
117. Queen Jane Approximately
118. Quinn the Eskimo as it should be performed.
119. Quit your lowdown ways
120. Rainy Day Women as never before
121. Restless Farewell. Exquisite arrangements, unbelievable power
122. Ring them bells in many different ways
123. Romance in Durango, covered and re-written
124. Sad Eyed Lady of Lowlands, like you won’t believe
125. Sara
126. Senor
127. A series of Dreams; no one gets it (except Dylan)
128. Seven Days
129. She Belongs to Me
130. Shelter from the Storm
131. Sign on the window
132. Silvio
133. Simple twist of fate
134. Slow Train
135. Someday Baby
136. Spanish Harlem Incident
137. Standing in the Doorway
138. Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
139. Subterranean Homesick Blues
140. Sweetheart Like You
141. Tangled up in Blue
142. Tears of Rage
143.  Temporary Like Achilles. Left in the cold, but there’s still something…