The Never Ending Tour Extended: Hollis Brown 1974 – 2004

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 the turn of the Ballad of Hollis Brown, which was performed 211 times between 1962 and 2012. This first recording is actually not from the Tour series (since it comes from before the Tour began), but it is in my files so here we go: five minutes of a singular message about the way our societies work, all based on one chord.

1974

So let us now leap forward and see what Bob had done with the song 15 years later on the Tour itself… and what we we find is that the very familiar chord backing is there, except after about half a minute we have a backing that is nothing like we have ever heard before. Indeed I am sure that if you just heard that backing without the vocals you might be hard-pressed to know what song this was.

Of course that can’t be it forever, and just before the two minute mark everything takes off – although it turns out only to be an intermission.

I must say I love this adaptation, even knowing every nuance of the lyrics as of course we all do, from the songs of this early period – and when the music does finally explode after the three minute mark it is like a glorious release of all that tension.

And yet Dylan still manages to take us down again.

It is not complicated stuff, but it is so easy to get this wrong just by taking a song up and down, but Dylan holds on to the tricks – for example not having the descending bass line come in until after the fourth minute. It’s a magical arrangement.

1989: A fire in the sun

Moving on to 1996 the arrangement changes again as we would expect – although interestingly, although Dylan loves to change the key he performs other songs in, we seem always to be standing in the same key – presumably because of the open tuning of the guitar specifically for this piece.

The speed has gone down now but as ever, despite the fact there are no chord changes and that each verse has only two lines (with of course the first one repeated), it still holds my interest, I still want to hear more. This time we get Bob (it has to be Bob no one else plays that way) adding a guitar part to the instrumental sections.

Also, there is almost a bounce to the song, which I don’t think has ever been there before… and we are getting on for a seven-minute performance. I really must say I am awe of how Bob and the band holds this together – and for once I feel that guitar accompaniment really works.

1996: Berlin and Beyond

And now jumping forward another eight years Bob has changed his voice considerably, seeking to reflect the lyrics more in the way he delivers the song in a new rhythm so that there is a counterpart between the rhythm of the lyrics and the rhythm of the guitars… plus the haunting sound effects that emerge from time to time.

Listening to this performance explains fully how Bob could keep this song which is so simple both musically and lyrically, in the repertoire, for so long.

2004: The best singing audience

In fact this was the model on which performances of the song were based from here on, as we enter the period in which Bob’s voice begins to creak somewhat. Over the years however there are still some more amendments and evolutions and I do think it is worth listening to the last outing that we have from the NET series – this being very close to the final airing that the song got.

2011: Quick man, I gotta run

The power of this utterly simple song, with its clear message concerning the way our societies work, is undiminished all these years later. I am, I have to confess, as much moved now as was way back when I first heard the piece.

The Never Ending Tour Extended

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