The Never Ending Tour Extended: God Knows

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.

Today it is “God Knows”.

—————

1993-1: Tangled up in guitars

This might come as a surprise: it seems to start out as a solo performance by Bob with some clever guitar work – but in fact there are at least two guitars – until around two minutes when everyone takes the song on, for a powerful instrumental improvisation, in which clearly there is no agreement as to who is in the lead.

When we get back to the “middle 8” things calm a little, and then (thankfully, from my perspective) we are back down quite a bit, but it builds up again with everyone fighting each other. I am not sure what they are fighting about, but I really do love the first couple of minutes, and the rest of the band are there in the background before the percussion gives the cue for everyone to make as much noise as they can.

God knows it’s terrifying
God sees it all unfold
There’s a million reasons for you to be crying
You been so bold and so cold

Incidentally, the song is notable for being one of the very few occasions in which Bob uses an augmented chord. Written G+ in musical notation it is made up of G, B and D#.

From the same year we have this version with the harmonica introduction – it is a good example of how Bob was working at this time, constantly exploring arrangements as the tour continued. The band is held back for a little longer and seems less intense on taking over the whole show. Maybe Bob had words with them. But certainly, there is a level of restraint here that we don’t have in the earlier part of the tour. Indeed even the instrumental break seems to have more organisation and control – and there is a much greater awareness that musically what marks this song out is that unique chord sequence.

By 4 minutes 30 we are starting to lose it a bit but the slow down around five minutes leads to a more reflective coda.

So moving on now to 1995 where will Bob have taken the song? We’ve certainly got a stronger acoustic guitar, and then as ever the percussion comes in to set the song off as a rock number. Even the bassist has found a riff of his own to play. The instrumental break is now however much more organised, with a nicely arranged mid-point. They certainly have been working on the arrangement – although without losing the thought of improvisation. Whether the harmonica solo above the whole band works or not I am not sure, but it is quite a jamboree. There’s also a very effective breakdown at the end.

The Prague Revelation – down in the flood

In many ways this is a fairly simple song, and it is remarkable that Bob can get so many variations out of it without actually losing that trade mark chord sequence. By 2004 the percussionist has simplified his entry and the song has perhaps become a little bit too well-known to the band. But the long recitation of the lyrics on the same note makes it feel like there is a certain lack of ideas. There is however a very interesting harmonica part near the end, but you really have to listen out for it.

Stone you and then come back again

So we approach the end of the song on the Tour, in 2006. It has had a long life (188 performances – a lot for a track from the often derided “Under the Red Sky”. The introduction on the electric guitar with Dylan singing above is now much longer – the band is held back, and we are holding ourselves in wait for the percussion to enter.

But now even that entry is more restrained with a very strange seemingly almost out of tune repeated lead guitar single-note oddity, before the middle 8.

We are not quite back to where the song started, but the heights of sound and the blast of sound that we heard in earlier years have now gone. Indeed this is one of the oddest instrumental breaks I have ever heard from a Dylan band on tour.

But that break aside, I welcome this return to less of a blast, for the full on rock treatment has never seemed to me to fit to the lyrics. This solid beat, beat, beat, beat without a bass drum knocking out every beat of the bar and quite often with the lead guitar just playing a single note on every beat, is very unusual.

It is almost as if Bob is saying he has had enough of these God-given rules that must at all times be obeyed without question, or without reference to the surrounding circumstances. I’d very much go along with that!

God knows there’s a heaven
God knows it’s out of sight
God knows we can get all the way from here to there
Even if we’ve got to walk a million miles by candlelight

So maybe that is it. He’s now walking those million miles by candlelight. We can only wish him good luck.

Strange Brews

The Never Ending Tour Extended

Leave a Reply