Previously in this series:
By Tony Attwood
As I noted before, after the musical monument that is “Idiot Wind” Bob calmed down his writing both in terms of his lyrics and in terms of the music – and a perfect example of this comes with his next composition, “Up to Me”. The chord sequence repeats itself around just three chords (with a slight timing variation in the third line), and with a melody that repeats three times and then rounds off each verse with the title line.
This is not to say that the song doesn’t work, or doesn’t deserve to be on an album – there is, after all, nothing wrong with simple songs and repeated lines. But what we can note is the extreme difference between Idiot Wind, and the remaining four songs that Dylan wrote in the rest of 1974 of which “Up to Me” is one example. It is as if lyrically and musically Bob has used up all his complex ideas and analyses in one piece, and so now he is giving us simplicity by way of contrast.
“Up to me” is a perfectly fine song, with a perfectly fine recording – but having written and recorded it, Bob didn’t want to do anything with it. It was never performed in public, and this is a theme we find with the songs composed at this time.
Yet “Up to me” is entertaining and enjoyable, which shows the quality of the piece given that it is in fact over six minutes long and with a dozen verses each of four lines with the last line ending “Up to me”. The only chords used are the three primary chords of E major (E, A, and B), but it manages to bne soothing and entertaining at the same time. As such, it is a perfect example of how an entertaining song can be simple and how a simple song can indeed be highly entertaining.
Roger McGuinn took it on, changed the melody somewhat, and did a lot more with the accompaniment as well as putting a lot more into the song through such changes. The variations in the music from the guitars keep us with the song without always needing to focus on the lyrics.
Others have worked with the song, but its repetitions do challenge the performer to find ways to keep the listener’s attention, and sadly, most don’t meet this basic need.
But even though Bob did not put the song forward in concert, he must have been interested in this minimalist approach to writing as a complete variation on the complexity he had explored within “Idiot Wind”. For the next song he composed, was again musically very simple: “Bucket of Rain”. So Bob was persevering with this new (for him) concept of musical simplicity, but again, he was not ready for live performances – in fact, the data shows the song only being performed once by Bob in November 1990.
“Buckets of Rain” is also, we must note, another very simple song – four lines of music and three chords. Again the opposite of “Idiot Wind”. But we do have a remarkable recording showing Bob really thought that there was more to be found in this song. The music starts just after the one-minute mark in the recording.
It is again a song that is utterly strophic and musically very straightforward and thus once again the antithesis of “Idiot Wind”. Yet again a song that Bob didn’t feel he could take onto stage, or indeed take forward.
The year ended (in terms of musical compositions) with “Meet me in the Morning”. This song did actually make it onto “Blood on the Tracks” and got one performance in 2007, but no others. So we are still with Bob the composer who felt his songs were not set for the stage.
As a classic 12 bar blues, this is the simplest of all these songs that followed the utter complexity of “Idiot Wind”. The chord structure is of course, set, as is the lyrical pattern of the second line, repeating the first, with the third line providing an answer.
In effect, Bob has taken us from perhaps his most complex composition ever (I’ve not checked, but it feels that way) through a series of ever simpler songs until at the end of the year (in compositional terms) he has got back to the very basics of his music.
Now this is not to suggest that Bob should have tried to emulate his own extraordinary triumph that was “Idiot Wind,” (and of course I would never dare walk down the path of suggesting Bob should have done something else), but rather it is to point out the extremes of his movement compositionally at this point. Idiot Wind was complex in a way that nothing in the rock or folk genre had been before, and certainly was like nothing that Bob had composed before. But then, having reached and climbed that monument, it seems Bob couldn’t wait to get back to the old ways.
And yet, and yet, “Idiot Wind” got 55 live outings. Not many when compared with “It ain’t me Babe” or “Tangled up in Blue” but still in the top third of his own compositions that Bob played live.
Previously in this series….
- We might have noted the musical innovations more
- From Hattie Carroll to the incoming ship
- From Times to Percy’s song
- Combining musical traditions in unique ways
- Using music to take us to a world of hope
- Chimes of Freedom and Tambourine Man
- Bending the form to its very limits
- From Denise to Mama
- Balled in Plain D
- Black Crow to “All I really want to do”
- I’ll keep it with mine
- Dylan does gothic and the world ends
- The Gates of Eden
- After the Revolution – another revolution
- Returning to the roots (but with new chords)
- From “It’s all right” to “Angelina”. What appened?
- How strophic became something new: Love is just a four letter word
- Bob reaches the subterranean
- The conundrum of the song that gets worse
- Add one chord, keep it simple, sing of love
- It’s over. Start anew. It’s the end
- Desolation Row: perhaps the most amazing piece of popular music ever written
- Can you please crawl out your window
- Positively Fourth Street
- Where the lyrics find new lands, keep the music simple
- Tom Thumb’s journey. It wasn’t that bad, was it?
- From Queen Jane to the Thin Man
- The song that revolutionised what popular music could do
- Taking the music to a completely new territory
- Sooner or Later the committee will realise its error
- The best ever version of “Where are you tonight sweet Marie?”
- Just like a woman
- Most likely you go your way
- Everybody must get stoned
- Obviously 5 Believers
- I Want You. Creativity dries up
- Creativity dries up – the descent towards the basement.
- One musical line sung 12 times to 130 words
- Bob invents a totally new musical form
- There is a change we can see and a change we can’t see
- A sign on the window tells us that change is here
- One more weekend and New Morning: pastures new
- Three Angels, an experiment that leads nowhere
- An honorary degree, nevertheless. But why was Bob not pleased?
- When Bob said I will show you I am more than three chords
- Moving out of the darkness
- The music returns, but with uncertainty
- Heaven’s Door, Never Say Goodbye, and a thought that didn’t work…
- Going going gone
- Bob goes for love songs
- On a night like this and Tough Mama
- I hate myself for loving you
- Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
- Imagine you had just written a masterpiece. What then?
- After “Lily” and “Tangled” what on earth could Bob compose next?
- If you see her, to Call letter blues
- From the SimpleTwist to Idiot Wind
- After Idiot Wind: “You’re gonna make me lonesome”