A list of previous articles in this serises about Bob Dylan’s music (as opposed to his lyrics) appears at the foot of the article.
By Tony Attwood
After “Three Angels” Bob was not finished with the idea of the spoken lyrics against a musical background, as he did it again with “If Dogs Run Free” but here he had Al Kooper on piano and Maeretha Stewart singing scat style.
In one sense, there is an interesting experimentation since the basics of the piece are the chords of the 12 bar blues, but taken further than I can recall anyone else doing. But Bob did explore the song a little further in 55 live performances. Here’s one…
But although an interesting experiment, it seems to me to be one of those experiments that leads to a cul-de-sac, for the next song Bob wrote was, “The Man in Me” which got 155 outings over a 35 year period. In a sense, there is a link between these songs, in as much as there are thoughts here about the rural life, and just letting yourself go.
The opening line of “The man in me will do nearly anything” seems rather apt, having heard those previous two songs (“Three Angels” and “Dogs”), which simply abandoned melody completely. I guess Bob had realised that after two such recitation pieces, he really was better off with what he did best: writing songs with interesting lyrics, a melody and chords – plus an accompaniment beyond the guitar, although that wasn’t always needed. But the issue of melody stayed with him through the year, as we can see with the “locusts” song a little later.
There is, for me at least, something rather beautiful about “The Man in Me” howeve, which doesn’t actually need as much accompaniment as it gets from the lady vocalists – but they were there on tour, so I guess they had to have something to do.
Mind you, we also have a couple of warning lines in this song, which do seem like warnings when we consider the two songs Bob wrote before this, neither of which had any melody…
Storm clouds are raging all around my door I think to myself I might not take it anymore
Did he really feel like giving up the songwriting business? Mind you, Bob also brought in the couple of “husband” lines in this version. Was that related to the situation at that time?
Whatever was going on, Bob had gone on his wild ways of songs without melodies and come back with a beautiful if tragic, song about a woman he couldn’t have, but who had very clearly “got through” to him.
And musically, which of course is our main concern in this series, Bob was right back in the mainstream as the song consists of verse 1, verse 2, middle 8, verse 3; and one cannot get more standard than that. This is a binary form as used in hundreds of thousands of pop songs. (And perhaps I should add that this is “binary” because there are two separate parts – the verse and the middle 8. The fact that the verse is repeated musically is ignored when considering the form, because it is, well, a repeat.
So we go through the chord sequence of G, C, Am D, C, G, which can be heard in hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of songs. What distinguishes
G C C Am
The man in me will do nearly any task,
D C G
And as for compensation, there's little he would ask.
G
Take a woman like you
C G
To get through to the man in me.
And for the middle 8....
Am G Oh, what a wonderful feeling Am G Just to know that you are near Am G Sets my a heart a-reeling Am D From my toes up to my ears.
So the wild experimentation of spoken songs is gone, and we are absolutely back to standard pop music. Even the lyrics, although elegant and memorable, it tells the standard story of the man saying how much he needs this woman, along with a strong element of the love of rural life in this song.
And so, perhaps thinking of such matters, it is not surprising that rather than go back either to folk music or to rock music, Bob then wrote, of all things, a waltz and I really do think it is worth pondering for a moment just what road Bob was travelling at this time, in terms of the music.
The songs in this sequence of compositions in 1970 were New Morning (exploring the opportunities of love and moving on in a new world using the standard approach of pop music), the two talking songs, and then a song about being true to yourself. Throughout, Bob was trying different patterns of music but still kept finding himself coming back to the pop and rock standard approach as with The Man in Me.
Next came “Winterlude” which is musically unusual for Bob in that it is a waltz – and perhaps that is why it never got played in public – which is also exactly the case of “Day of the Locusts” which has the same musical sequence repeated line after line. However what does distinguish this song is the melody that Bob sings. But the band have quite a job keeping the music interesting. Which is perhaps why once again, the song was never performed in public.
Thus in terms of compositions, Bob has managed to create 15 songs, in a sequence in which he states he is glad to “get out of there alive.” That presumably means the degree ceremony, and that I find sad and strange. Bob was honoured, as of course he has been since, and what he did was create a song in a fairly standard musical format that spoke of how he was glad to get out.
But maybe I am, as ever, unable to gauge what Bob does in any sort of abstract way, since my own life experiences include moments that coincide with Bob’s but which give me utterly different feelings. Although it was many years ago now, I was awarded my research degree and attended the ceremony with my wife-to-be and my parents, at the University of London, and walked across the stage to receive it, and felt immensely proud and happy. And I wonder not particularly why Bob didn’t feel proud and happy, and so I wonder why he agreed to go? Bob has spent so much of his life being Bob, doing his own thing, why at that moment, did he give in and attend the event if he didn’t want to?
It was, after all an honorary degree – he didn’t do any extra work for it.
But that is all part of the contradictions of the time. He seems to be writing softer and sweeter songs, and getting angrier at the same time.
Previously in this series….
1: We might have noted the musical innovations more 2: From Hattie Carroll to the incoming ship 3: From Times to Percy’s song 4: Combining musical traditions in unique ways 5: Using music to take us to a world of hope 6: Chimes of Freedom and Tambourine Man 7: Bending the form to its very limits 8: From Denise to Mama 9: Balled in Plain 10:Black Crow to All I really want to do 11: I’ll keep it with mine 12:Dylan does gothic and the world ends 13: The Gates of Eden 14: After the Revolution – another revolution 15: Returning to the roots (but with new chords) 16: From “It’s all right” to “Angelina”. What appened? 17: How strophic became something new: Love is just a four letter word 18: Bob reaches the subterranean 19: The conundrum of the song that gets worse 20: Add one chord, keep it simple, sing of love 21: It’s over. Start anew. It’s the end 22:Desolation Row: perhaps the most amazing piece of popular music ever written 23: Can you please crawl out your window 24: Positively Fourth Street 25: Where the lyrics find new lands, keep the music simple 26: Tom Thumb’s journey. It wasn’t that bad was it? 27: From Queen Jane to the Thin Man 28: The song that revolutionised what popular music could do 29: Taking the music to completely new territory 30: Sooner or Later the committee will realise its error 31: The best ever version of “Where are you tonight sweet Marie?” 32: Just like a woman 33: Most likely you go your way 34: Everybody must get stoned 35: Obviously 5 Believers 36: I Want You Creativity dries up 37: Creativity dries up - the descent towards the basement. 38: One musical line sung 12 times to 130 worlds 39: Bob invents a totally new musical form 40: There is a change we can see and a change we can't see 41: A sign on the window tells us that change is here 42: One more weekend and New Morning: pastures new 43: Three Angels, an experiment that leads nowhere