By Tony Attwood
In my rambling piece “All the songs that Bob’s never sung (or at least not very often)” I reached the conclusion that sometimes why he has not performed a song live is obvious – the song just isn’t right for a live show. In particular the long, slow, repetitive songs which are hard to re-write and re-arrange (such as “Sad Eyed Lady”) would probably leave an audience restless.
I might add to this that “Freight Train Blues” and songs of that ilk would be fine for an intimate folk club – a brief bit of lightheartedness, a break perhaps from more intensive songs, but beyond that they really are not too relevant to today. Unless the show is about “the old days”. The same applies to the talking blues such as “I shall be free (Number 10)”.
Bob Marley of course could get away with performing “Talking Blues” because that song of his wasn’t a talking blues at all. It’s here if you want to hear it.
But no, over time these songs fade in their original form and need to be brought up to date somehow. So leaving that mode of performance aside and moving in a different direction, I am still left with the thought that just because Bob has simply ignored a song, it doesn’t mean no one else can. Take “Temporary Like Achilles” – no use of the song from Bob – but as Wiki says, “The song has received acclaim from critics for its lyrics and musicianship.” Maybe Bob just didn’t like it.
Still there is always the Old Crow Medicine Show, whose version I have considered before, and for whom the song could have been written in the first place. They take it as a bit of fun, and really do enjoy themselves and I think it really works.
Indeed it is an interesting song in that its reception by critics ranges from “entirely successful, uniquely and unmistakably Dylanish, a gentle and moving love song” to “One of the worst tracks on the set.” But then, what do critics know?
But like most of the very best songs, it can stand a reworking as Deborah Coleman showed…
The Don Olson Gang also had a good idea (it seems to me) with a reinvention of the song back into a 1930s slow jazz version. I’ve put this on the site before, and two things remain the same. I don’t know anything worth repeating about the band, and I still love this recording.
A long time ago Jochen pointed out, this is the only Blonde song not even to be rehearsed for a possible run-through, and hardly anyone has ever bothered to record it. Yet “on an album by any other artist, this song would be the prom queen.”
I guess by now Bob has simply forgotten about what seems to be an unloved composition, but it does have life in it as these recordings show, and there is no reason why it might not be used by other bands. It is fun, it is lively, and it is open to all sorts of re-interpretation. And best of all for such bands, Bob has simply left it alone.
PS The number of adverts appearing at the foot of each article has been reduced, and there is as ever a place at the end if you feel you’d like to make a comment. Or indeed if you want to make it a bigger comment, you could write an article. If so just email me: Tony@schools.co.uk