In a discography stretching over 60 years and dozens of albums, ‘Blackjack Davey’ is one of the many highlights of Bob Dylan’s career. The track appeared on Dylan’s 1992 album, Good As I Been To You. ‘Blackjack Davey’ is a traditional folk song without a recognised writer. It’s known by a few other names, including ‘Gypsy Davy’ and ‘The Raggle Taggle Gypsy’, and there’s a storied history of recorded versions.
Dylan played guitar and harmonica, and sang – and nobody else played a note. The album revisited Dylan’s solo, acoustic era, and was his first in the more classic folk style since Dylan, which was released 19 years earlier. In fact, even his second record, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, featured additional musicians (although Dylan’s third, The Times They Are a-Changin’ was another solo set), so Good As I Been To You was a real throwback.
Iconic singing
Dylan’s voice sounds unmistakably Dylan-esque here. It couldn’t be anyone else. From the very first line – “Blackjack Davey come a-ridin’ on by” – you know it’s him.
Something about Dylan’s tone suggests you’re listening to a story, and plenty of bloggers and journalists have attempted to unravel and document the story of Mr Blackjack online. This tale is about a woman abandoning her husband and child to join Blackjack Davey on his horse.
The vocal melodies have a lovely, bluesy rise and fall: “Well, I’ll forsake my house and home / And I’ll forsake my baby / I’ll forsake my husband, too / For the love of Blackjack Davey”. You know where the tune is going, but it’s so satisfying. Dylan’s voice is perfect for this song, his nasally tone giving the melodies a touch of extra wistfulness. It’s the kind of tune that stays in your head and something you might sing if you have the voice for it (or hum quietly).
In the great blues tradition, Dylan often repeats a line or a few words, or varies them slightly: “You will never want for money / You will never want for money”; “And we’ll ride off together / We’ll both go off together”, and so on.
Great guitar parts
Dylan’s guitar playing on this song blurs the line between rhythm and lead playing, sometimes imitating the vocal melody (as on the intro), and sometimes filling space between Dylan’s lines with new, quickly picked melodies.
Dylan might not always get a lot of credit as a guitarist, but this song is a great example of his multifaceted playing. The guitar acts as a bass as well as playing higher pitched lead parts. For the studio version, Dylan recorded two guitar tracks that intertwine and rarely strum at their heaviest simultaneously – they seem to be constantly dancing around each other. Dylan was joined by a bassist and another guitarist when performing the song live.
The White Stripes’ version
The White Stripes recorded a cover version which was included as a b-side on the 2003 ‘Seven Nation Army’ single. While their version hasn’t quite infiltrated every single living person’s ears the way ‘Seven Nation Army’ has, it has racked up over a million streams on Spotify alone (probably thanks to being part of the same release as ‘Seven’).
As you might expect, the Stripes version is electrified and features the kind of distorted guitar tone that was all over their early albums like White Blood Cells. The guitar is palm muted before power chords ring out every few bars. There’s less complexity to Jack White’s strumming here, and Meg White’s drumming is a lot straighter than Dylan’s percussive guitar. The drumming does pair well with Jack’s guitar in the little instrumental bridge soon after the 1-minute mark. It’s a fine song. It’s not bad, and of course it’s played well.
But by losing some of the fidgetiness, some of the blues, and making ‘Blackjack’ more of a rock song, the Stripes seem to have lost a lot of what made the more traditional version so good. To put it simply, it’s missing… well, Bob Dylan.