- The utterly brilliant Angelina, plus Maybe Someday, Under you spell
- 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
- World Gone Wrong, She’s your lover, Foot of Pride
By Tony Attwood
In this little series of articles about songs Bob Dylan put onto an album, but then didn’t play in concert, we have reached the songs from Biograph, although this is a bit of a misleading place to be because the Biograph songs are songs which seemingly were recorded by Bob but then abandoned and only resurfaced as a way of filling the Biograph album.
However, there are two songs from the list which I would argue most certainly could have been used and developed live on stage. First we have Abandoned Love.
Maybe Bob has an aversion to singing in harmony, maybe he couldn’t find an arrangement that didn’t involve a viola. But had he suddenly introduced the piece into a concert I think the audience, recognising an absolute rarity would have gone wild. Well, at least I would.
It is four and a half minutes long and eight verses without any repeats – which should be no problem for Bob with his prodigious memory for lyrics, and really, although it exists in the most simplest of musical terms, it works at every level.
I can hear the turning of the key I’ve been deceived by the clown inside of me I thought that he was righteous but he’s vain Oh, something’s a-telling me I wear the ball and chain
Maybe Bob doesn’t like the admission of his failures, or the fact that he is trapped – but then surely we long, long ago stopped seeing Bob songs as autobiographical. But maybe it was that somewhat odd, almost spooky verse…
I’ve given up the game, I’ve got to leave The pot of gold is only make-believe The treasure can’t be found by men who search Whose gods are dead and whose queens are in the church
“Whose gods are dead and whose queens are in the church,” indeed. If I was running a Bob Dylan quiz one of the questions I would pose would be a quote of that line, and the question, “Which song is this from?” And then if some clever-dick knows the answer, I’d ask, “and what does it mean?”
But maybe it was the Everly Brothers who did it for Bob – perhaps he just didn’t want to do a song the boys had done – although they didn’t offer up their cover until 1985 – ten years after Bob wrote it. (By the way, what is the lead instrument in the break at around 3’30”?)
And now moving on to my second “never played in public song, here’s “Up to me”
In fact some ten years ago or so, I wrote a review of the song under the rather obvious headline Up to Me, but with the somewhat better sub-heading, “An astounding Dylan masterpiece left on the shelf.” And in doing that piece we also found a superb cover version for the long-running Cover a Day series…
It certainly is a long piece – 12 verses indeed, and I can imagine Bob having fun with this if he had ventured to perform it in public, but no, we’ve not had a performance.
And that’s just considering the song, for there are also the lyrics – and maybe in the end Bob just thought there was just too much of the song to hold the audience’s attention.
Characters suddenly appear and vanish again in that way that somehow only Bob can pull off… These verses are two-thirds of the way through but they don’t link back to anyone mentioned before…
Dupree came in pimpin' tonight to the Thunderbird cafeCrystal wanted to talk to him, I had to look the other wayNow, I just can't rest without your love, I need your companyBut you ain't a-gonna cross the lineI guess it must be up to me There's a note left in the bottle, you can give it to EstelleShe's the one you been wond'rin' about, but there's really nothin' much to tellWe both heard voices for a while, now the rest is historySomebody's got to cry some tearsI guess it must be up to me So go on, boys, and play your hands, life is a pantomimeThe ringleaders from the county seat say you don't have all that much timeAnd the girl with me behind the shades, she ain't my propertyOne of us has got to hit the roadI guess it must be up to me If we never meet again, baby, remember meHow my lone guitar played sweet for you that old-time melodyAnd the harmonica around my neck, I blew it for you freeNo one else could play that tune, you know it was up to me
I just listen to that now and think what I would have given to have heard Bob make something of it in a live gig.
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