The Never Ending Tour Extended: Wiggle Wiggle

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 primarily 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. A list of all the songs covered in the series is given at the end.

——–

Wiggle Wiggle had 105 performances from Bob Dylan between 1990 and 1992, but then has not been touched since. And you might think, remembering the lyrics, that is a good idea…

Wiggle 'til you're high, wiggle 'til you're higher
Wiggle 'til you vomit fire
Wiggle 'til it whispers, wiggle 'til it hums
Wiggle 'til it answers, wiggle 'til it comes

Indeed these are not words that are normally quoted in articles about Dylan and yet playing the album track again, we have a danceable rock song in which the bass plays a running counter melody during the verses.

As for the lyrics we don’t get much from the song – any more than we do with the instrumental break in terms of innovation: it is in fact a bit of 1960s fun. And yet in the couple of years after the release of Under the Red Sky, Bob played it regularly on stage.

Here’s the original

Now as I have mentioned before, the tracks that were chased down and then selected by Mike Johnson were very much of his choosing, restricted only by what recordings had been made on the concerts and were now on line. He picked out Wiggle just twice during the series…

1990: Vomiting Fire

This is what Mike said at the time

“Oh Lordy – well, here it is, rough as hell, with pretty much a completely new set of lyrics! The whole performance sounds pretty improvised to me, including the lyrics. Those incomparable lyrics and he doesn’t sing them! Sounds like he’s making it up as he goes along, and in some cases, just making Dylan-like noises that are not actually words…? (see what you can make of it).”

I’d respectfully disagree – the band know exactly what is going on, so I’m fairly sure Bob isn’t making it up as he goes along musically – and yes although the guitar solo is improvised, it is improvised around the chord sequence and everyone knows where this is going.

The length of the performance is also a clue as to what is going on – two and a half minutes is the classic length of the 78rpm and 45rpm rock song. I think Bob is having a bit of fun taking us back to the roots of rock n roll.

1992-1 Heading for the promised land

This is the only other performance of the song Mike selected, and of course you can read his full commentary through the link above, but I’d highlight this point he makes.

“Here it is, with the lyrics restored. There’s some pretty fancy guitar work here by John Jackson. This jazzy extension seems to be what interests the musicians. The audience seem to get it, and have a good time. ‘Wiggle you can raise the dead!’ Oh Lordy.”

Again, I really like this, although could do without the gentleman who likes to shout “Yeah” a lot. It takes Bob really into the rock n roll era, and perhaps reminds us that most rock n roll songs have lyrics that are utter nonsense.

For let us not forget that rock n roll moved along with songs that included lyrics such as

I chew my nails and then I twiddle my thumbs
I'm real nervous, but it sure is fun
Come on, baby, you drive me crazy
Goodness gracious, great balls of fire

And again we might remember how much Bob appreciated the work of Jerry Lee Lewis et al. I was fortunate enough to be at the Bob Dylan gig on the day Jerry Lee died, and totally against his normal procedure Bob came back for an encore, announced that “we lost Jerry Lee today” and sang a Jerry Lee Lewis song in tribute.

I also recall Mike once commenting on how Bob “sure hammers those ivories Jerry Lee Lewis style.” And it really makes me think, just because the lyrics make fun of pop lyrics, and in a sense of all of us, that doesn’t make it a worthless song. As 105 performances tell us, Bob didn’t think it worthless; I think he was enjoying himself.

Other songs reviewed in this series.

Leave a Reply