It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry 17: Well, I ride on the A train, baby

by Jochen Markhorst

XVII     Well, I ride on the A train, baby

After those 11 smashing performances at the Rolling Thunder Revue 1975-76, the song seems to sink back into oblivion: one performance in 1978, one in 1984 and two in 1988 – that’s it in the 12 years after 1976. Enough, however, to see Stravinsky’s and Dylan’s shared conception of art confirmed; repeat anyone else you like, only not yourself. After the pure rock version from Rolling Thunder Revue, Dylan regaled his Philadelphia audience in 1978 with what his critics at the time disdainfully called “Las Vegas”.

It is the year after Elvis’ death, which hasn’t left Dylan unmoved. With some romantic goodwill, you could see the entire world tour plus the 62 US concerts of the autumn tour as one long ode to Elvis. Dylan wears a white suit and has backing vocalists, his catalogue is big-band arranged, the full stage features Elvis’ bassist Jerry Scheff and Elvis’ saxophonist Steve Douglas, and Dylan’s eyeliner also looks rather inspired by The King. Accordingly Elvis-y is the only execution of “It Takes A Lot To Laugh” in that Elvis year 1978. Good old rock’n’roll including two guitar solos, ripping sax, the bass mixed up-front, pounding drums… bring a nickel, tap your feet, as John Fogerty would say.

1978 Oct 6 Philadelphia

A bit puzzling is its isolated position, though. The song is clearly rehearsed, but not to be found on the so-called Rundown Rehearsal Tapes, the quadruple-CD bootleg containing the January ’78 rehearsals for the world tour, and it is never performed in the 114 concerts of that exhaustive tour. Except for that one time in Philadelphia, 6 October. By special request, according to the unclear announcement that raises more questions than it answers:

“All right, we’re gonna do this as a special request for you. It’s for this (….). He’s another guy who’s been doing nothing but writing ever since he started. He’s been writin’ and writin’.”

The performance is driven enough, but apparently does not ignite the fire. Which is also true of the only appearance six years later, in Nantes. Another one-off surprise with no follow-up, at one of the 27 concerts of the 1984 Europe tour. Special guest Carlos Santana joins in, but that doesn’t push the song towards Latin – this time the interpretation chafes at boogie-woogie. However, after a tentative introduction in Berkeley on 10 June 1988, the third concert of what we have come to call the Never Ending Tour, the song has apparently undergone a reappraisal; between 10 June 1988 and 20 November 1999 Newark, “It Takes A Lot To Laugh” is 137 times on the setlist – the song has been promoted to the hard core.

In the process, Dylan – naturally – continues to experiment with form. A languid big-city blues (Utrecht 1993), even slower and bluesier than ever in 1994 (Woodstock, for instance), sandwiched between and dominated by two scruffy electric guitars in Monterey 1995 (a drawn-out rendition of almost seven minutes with undylanesque space for guitar violence), and an old-fashioned cosy one when he assists Clapton on stage: coming already awfully close to wailing Derek & The Dominoes jamming “Key To The Highway” (Eric Clapton & Friends To Benefit Crossroads Centre Antigua, 30 June 1999).

In the twenty-first century, the song then seems to die a gentle death; only nine performances between 2000 and 2018. Though still including two very special ones. The nicest one Dylan serves on 8 August 2003 in New York. As a guest at The Dead’s Summer Getaway 2003 Tour. They share the bill a couple of times that summer, Dylan with his band, Robert Hunter, Joan Osborne and the Grateful Dead, and as an interlude, Dylan does three or four songs with The Dead on such a night. “Alabama Getaway”, “Friend Of The Devil”, “You Win Again”, “Big Boss Man”… short setlists like that. A Dead classic, a song from the blues or country canon of Hank Williams or Jimmy Reed or something, and then usually complemented by a Dylan song or two. But 8 August is Dylan’s eighth and last night, and he apparently wants to say a proper and special farewell: first debuting a peculiar, ragged, Dead-like version of “Tangled Up In Blue”. Fairly chaotic, evidently animating him; he leaves the piano for the first time this tour, buckling up a guitar for the first time and playing “It Takes A Lot” for the first time.

2003 NYC Aug 8 (Grateful Dead)

It’s an American Beauty. The Dead has been playing the song with some regularity since 1972, so now, in 2003, they have performed it about as often as Dylan himself. The irresistible pulse of the drumming duo Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, the Moby Grape-esque wallpaper of three guitars, Phil Lesh’s unflappable, steady swinging bass and the long instrumental interludes shift the whole song into the Dead catalogue, and from the sound of it, a charged Dylan is totally fine with that:

“What makes them essentially a dance band probably begins with the jazz classical bassist, Phil Lesh, and the Elvin Jones–influenced Bill Kreutzmann. Lesh is one of the most skilled bassists you’ll ever hear in subtlety and invention. And combined with Kreutzmann, this rhythm section is hard to beat. That rhythm section along with elements of traditional rock and roll and American folk music is what makes the Dead unsurpassable. Combined with their audience, it’s like one big free-floating ballet. Three main singers, two drummers and triple harmonies make this band difficult to compete with. A postmodern jazz musical rock and roll dynamo.”
(Dylan, The Philosophy Of Modern Song, Ch. 29, 2022)

Following this, Dylan then switches seamlessly, with equal passion and pleasure, to a ten-minute (!) rendition of Jerry Garcia’s “West L.A. Fadeaway”, for which he does briefly retreat back behind the piano (perhaps to consult a lyrics sheet), but on the closing track “Alabama Getaway” he picks up the guitar again for the second and, for now, last time.

Even more striking is Dylan’s contribution to the life work of Wynton Marsalis Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the orchestra that, under Wynton’s inspiring direction, has been promoting the beauty of jazz around the world for decades now in schools, in concert halls with symphony orchestras, on television and whatnot. In addition, Marsalis and his orchestra have released dozens of albums since 1992, pretty much always stunning and/or fascinating.

Wynton’s big band arrangement of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, jazzed-up nursery rhymes like “Old MacDonald” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” on Jazz For Kids, the enchanting live recording Wynton Marsalis & Eric Clapton Play The Blues (with a perfect “Forty-Four Blues” and the perhaps finest “Joe Turner’s Blues” ever)… with the Essentially Ellington: The JLCO Recordings, 1999-2025 in 2025, the tally reaches 41 great records, and there is no end in sight.

Dylan’s contribution to Wynton’s mission work can be found on United We Swing, a 2018 compilation album on which Wynton compiles collaborative projects with colleagues such as James Taylor, Lenny Kravitz and Ray Charles. The album opens with the irresistible Five Blind Boys of Alabama and their signature song “The Last Time”, and then follows track 2: the Wynton Marsalis Septet’s 2004 recording with Bob Dylan of “It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry”.

Arranged, unmistakably, by Marsalis. Strictly speaking not a big band (the accompanying band is a septet, after all), but still arranged for big band, by the sound of it – and then in the spirit of Duke Ellington. The bright, short dissonant accents, the off-beat syncopations of the horns… it seems obvious that “Take the “A” Train” was playing through Wynton’s head when he wrote the arrangement. The role of the soloing muted trumpet is passed to Dylan, improvising on his harmonica, and Wynton, like Duke, opts for the predictable but irresistible artifice of having the horns suggest a steam train. Well, I ride on the A train, baby, can’t buy a thrill.

It is a transcendent experience. Wynton’s mission, “to engage a new and younger audience for jazz”, succeeds. And will probably have reconciled those lucky enough to attend the 3rd Annual Jazz at Lincoln Center Spring Gala ‘Teach Me Tonight’ Benefit on 7 June 2004 at the Apollo Theatre on West 125th Street with the price of admission: the cheapest tickets are $1000. It takes a lot to laugh.

To be continued. Next up It Takes A Lot Part 18: “I just serve the song”

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Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books, in English, Dutch and German, are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967
• Mississippi: Bob Dylan’s midlife masterpiece
• Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
• John Wesley Harding: Bob Dylan meets Kafka in Nashville
• Tombstone Blues b/w Jet Pilot: Dylan’s lookin’ for the fuse
• Street-Legal: Bob Dylan’s unpolished gem from 1978
• Bringing It All Back Home: Bob Dylan’s 2^nd Big Bang
• Time Out Of Mind: The Rising of an Old Master
• Crossing The Rubicon: Dylan’s latter-day classic
• Nashville Skyline: Bob Dylan’s other type of music
• Nick Drake’s River Man: A very British Masterpiece
• I Contain Multitudes: Bob Dylan’s Account of the Long Strange Trip
• Bob Dylan’s Rough And Rowdy Ways – Side B
• Bob Dylan’s High Water (for Charley Patton)
• Bob Dylan’s 1971
• Like A Rolling Stone b/w Gates Of Eden: Bob Dylan kicks open the door