- The album title songs Dylan wrote and ignored: JWH, Nashville Skyline.
- The songs Bob has never performed: Temporary Like Achilles
- No time, time passes and Dirge
A consideration of “Maybe Someday”, “Under your spell,” “Farewell Angelina” and that most brilliant of Dylan compositions “Angelina”.
By Tony Attwood
“Maybe Someday” is listed as a Dylan composition, and it is one that has never been covered. Some may argue that this is because it is, in itself, a weak song, although Bob considered it strong enough to put on the Knocked Out Loaded album.
But there has been at least one cover version although I must admit I don’t like it. But I liked to keep things complete, and maybe you’ll find more in it than I can.
But a combination of only one cover and many people saying they don’t like the original probably gives us a clear indication of the problem with this song.
However there is yet another problem – the song by Dylan is based on a song by Sleepy John Estes.
As our correspondent Paul said at the time, “There’s a music editing program that’s been around for about a year called Spleeter. One can use it fairly easily to split a song into various instruments, such as vocals, drums, bass, and so on. I just used it on “Maybe Someday” to remove the backing vocals through the instrumental break, as well as the end.
“I have to agree it sounds a lot better that way. I also lowered the drums and bass, since 1980s production tends to have too much of that.”
The other song from “Knocked out loaded” that has never been performed by Bob is “Under your spell” – which is interesting since that is the song that actually contains the line “Knocked out and loaded” in the lyrics.
So we have the song that includes the name of the album and which neither Bob nor anyone else has performed and which contained the phrase “Knocked out and loaded” which he then used as the album title. And here we have a song that has few if any cover versions. So maybe Bob just liked the phrase and wanted it in the album, but thereafter he lost interest, and indeed no one else really gained any interest.
Which is a possible explanation but this leaves me with the feeling that Bob’s selection of songs for albums, choosing titles and so on can on occasion be pretty haphazard and spur-of-the-moment
But then it does go the other way around, as Bob wrote “Farewell Angelina”, which is a wonderful song, but never performed that. There I guess the reason was that Joan Baez did record it.
And maybe Bob was influenced in terms of not touching songs with the name in it because he also created, but then abandoned that most wonderful song, “Angelina.” And Angelina is indeed one of my all-time favourite songs. Maybe my most favourite of all.
Now if you have been reading my ramblings about Dylan for longer than is good for you, you will know where I am going next, not least because I gave a clue at the start with my opening song insert.
So, you may reasonably ask, where is this going? Is the old fellow getting past it, and really he ought to be passing Untold Dylan onto someone else? Which is a fair enough question, but if through this particular ramble, I have managed to introduce “Angelina” to one reader who has not heard it before, then it has been worthwhile.
But just to show you how painful my job can be on occasion, I am now going to include now an amateur cover version of this song which I really, really, really, don’t like. And I’m putting that in, to show how easy it is to destroy a beautiful work of creative art. You don’t have to play more than 15 seconds, but the question arises, why do this?
And still you may ask (if you are still with me) “where is all this going?” Well, as you still here, I will tell you. A couple of months back “Far Out” magazine published an article “‘Angelina’: the darkest lyrics of Bob Dylan?” which opens with the lines, “Blending surrealism with religious imagery and Biblical references, ‘Angelina’ features some of Dylan’s most brooding lyrical ideas, as he seems overawed by a scent of impending doom. The identity of the song’s subject is much debated, with some arguing that Angelina could be a planet or a country, or indeed a woman. What feels clearer, though, is the cloud of darkness that hangs over the writer, an unusual characteristic among Dylan’s wider lyrical reflections.”
And yes of course these lines pepper the song – and maybe that is what puts performers off this magical compositon. Perhaps the world is not ready for “I see pieces of men marching, trying to take Heaven by force,” although being an atheist myself,I love that line. (Besides, people who believe have millions of songs, people who don’t believe are a bit starved of music that expresses their point of view, as I see it).
But the reviewer and I concur in the end, for after considering the darkness of the images the reviewer says, “One thing is for sure, though, ‘Angelina’ is a devilishly good song.” And with that, I can agree.
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Isn’t it “peaceable men marching”?