I don’t know what it means either: an index to the current series appearing on this website.
The Never Ending Tour Extended: This series uses recordings selected by Mike Johnson in his inestimable masterpiece The Never Ending Tour, and looks at how those performances of individual songs change as time goes by. The selection of songs from the series, and the commentary below, are by Tony Attwood.
Cold Irons Bound
Cold Irons Bound from Time out of Mind was played 423 times on the tour from October 1997 to October 2011. And we do indeed come across it in “The Never Ending Tour” series, near its very first appearance in 1997.
1997: The Lonely Graveyards of the Mind
This is quite a challenging song for the performers: there are seven verses, much based on just the one chord – the first four lines having almost identical melody and no chord change.
What keeps the song moving along is the very distinctive rhythm, and the change for the three “chorus” lines after each verse
2000: Master Vocalist – Rock n roil
So we can appreciate from the start that evolving this song into something different, as so many other songs have been evolved, would be a challenge. It has far too fixed a format for that to be possible… or so one might think. But by 2000 that all-important beat had changed – as had the last three lines of each verse.
Indeed even when we get to the second verse where we might expect the rhythm to be really emphasised, as it was such a key element in the original, no, we are taken aback. It’s not there.
And I really do want to say this is one of the most unexpected and extraordinary developments of a Dylan song on the Tour that I have found. Bob has in effect taken out the very heart of the song, but as a result he has not lost the song, instead he has made it even more interesting.
Of course part of this interest comes from the mere change itself, but it is more than that. The new music of the sung verses contrasts brilliantly with the lack of background in the verses – just one chord and the percussion. Personally I much prefer this version to the original. And there is superb ending too. And if you stay with the recording there’s Bob introducing the band with a fair degree of real affection implied.
2003 part 1 Things come alive or else they fall flat
The prelude to the piece is still here, but now we are back with the dominant beat. However we also have the chord from the guitar coming in once more at an unexpected place. And then as we move along other sounds – I might call the “interruptions” come in.
Suddenly the piece is completely full – until Bob starts the verse again and we have his voice and that one strident chord on an unexpected beat … but then there are other sounds, other oddities, other… otherness. Just listen to the instrumental break around 3 minutes 30 seconds, there seems to be no central theme – every instrument is falling over each other. And maybe that is the point.
I find this version incredibly uncomfortable and disturbing. The 20 miles out of town feels real – there is nothing there; I’m lost and I can’t get back. With the instrumental break on five minutes, this feeling of disturbance and being utterly lost is complete. I really need to be absolutely full of myself and totally on form to be able to take this. And a question arises, do I go to a concert to be made to feel uncomfortable?
Actually, the answer for me is no. But then also I don’t go to watch horror movies either.
2002 part 2: More choice cuts from London and Dublin.
So now we have come full circle from a performance of the music as recorded through that retrospective softer re-interpretation, to a full-on blast. The percussionist finds a few interesting variations and the descending bass part gets a greater emphasis.
Thus this is a blast: there’s no escape – that chord hitting out over and over again through the verse allows us no way out. The lyrics have merged into the sound. The world is wrecked. Carnage is all that is left.
And if you don’t feel that way, try the instrumental break and the way Bob comes out of it. This is it, this is how it is and it will never change. Except, expect, at 4 minutes 52 seconds something new happens, an eight note theme we have not heard before as a coda. Wow, where did that come from? But then, that’s Bob for you.
Other articles in this series…
- Absolutely Sweet Marie
- Blind Willie McTell. 1997-2006
- Blowing in the Wind. 1991-2001
- Desolation Row beyond imagination: 1992-2017
- Don’t think twice it’s alright 1993-1997
- Forever Young 1987 to 2011
- Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
- High Water
- Highway 61 1989-2003
- Honest with Me – 2001-2017
- It Ain’t me Babe from 1994-1998.
- It’s all over now baby blue
- It’s all right ma – at least it was by 2001
- Like a Rolling Stone 1988 to 2002
- Love sick from the very start to 2000
- Masters of War 1978 to 2000.
- One too many mornings.
- Rainy day women, from push to stroke
- She Belongs to me: 1988 to 1995
- Simple Twist of Fate 1989-2003
- Spirit on the Water
- Summer Days
- Tambourine Man 1964-1995
- Tangled up in Blue 1988 to 1993
- The Times they are a Changing: 1987-1995
- Thunder on the Mountain 2006-2014
- The Drifters’ Escape. 1996-2005.
- The Hard Rain of 1988, 2003 and 2015
- Things have changed 2000-2007
- Visions of Johanna
- Watching the River Flow