By Tony Attwood
“The Philosophy of Modern Song” was Bob Dylan’s publication, provided after he was awarded an honorary doctorate for his work as a songwriter. My suspicion was that Bob didn’t actually realise that he was going to be required to write a book as a response to the honour of being given the PhD, which is why it took rather a long time to reach publication, but either way, he dutifully did it.
And I am sure many fans bought the book, even though of course, the one thing that you don’t have if you have the book is a copy of each of the songs so you can listen to each one and consider why Bob included that particular song in his selection. So I have tried in my recent series on this site to make that easier with a short commentary about the song in each case, and (much more importantly) a recording of the song so you don’t have to go searching.
This labour of love is now complete (the list of the songs with links to recordings that exist is on the internet – at least at the time I wrote the review) but it left me wondering about Bob’s own work. He was modest enough not to include anything written by himself, and maybe it was that which started to make me wonder about Bob’s compositions. As in which compositions of Bob’s actually had a profound impact on contemporary music and should be included in any review of “The Philosophy of Modern Song”?
This turns out to be a very different question from “Which Dylan tracks do I really like?” although other topics I have touched on do have this element within them. But I remain fascinated by the concept within the philosophy of modern song. Even to the point of asking, “are there philosophies within modern songs at all?” Indeed, if someone asked me to give a talk or write an article on why Bob Dylan is such an enormously important figure in Western society, I would start by discussing a couple of songs he wrote that I like and a couple of others that I don’t. In short, I’d be making the point that Bob Dylan has had an enormous impact on modern music no matter what music you like personally.
Thinking along these lines, I find my thoughts wandering around all these 500+ songs that Bob has composed, while trying to pick those which have offered something completely new to popular music.
I am, as you probably have guessed by now, going to try and write about some of the songs that I think fall into this category – songs that have offered something completely different or new to popular music. And as I have thought about this, I have realised it is in fact a case of turning “The Philosophy of Modern Song” on its head. Having reviewed the compositions considered in that book, and listened to recordings of the songs many times, I find that although some of those songs did take popular music in a new direction, in my view (and of course that is all it is) many other songs by Bob did not. And that is exactly the same issue as that which we have with the compositions of Bob Dylan himself selected in his “Philosophy”.
Which leads to a problem, because there will be songs that I think really do have Bob setting out on a new path, but for which someone who knows a lot more about folk music than I do will come back and say “but that is…” [and then insert the name of a folk song that Bob usd as a basis for his song – a folk song I’ve forgotten or never heard in the first place]. But then over the years I have got very used to being wrong, and anyway, at my age it doesn’t matter any more.
So here is my first offering…. “Ballad for a Friend”
The music and the lyrics link together over just one chord – everything is portrayed by the sadness of the lyrics and the implied desperation of the repeated music, along with the relentless rise and fall of the melody.
Indeed, part of the genius of this early song comes in the simplicity of the lyrics, and the unusual pattern of the rhyme scheme. Written out, the rhymes (AAA, BBB. CCC) look ludicrously simple but the pattern works perfectly with the song, because the rhymes fit above the same chord on which all the music is based. There is only one chord, there is only one rhyme per verse – and where the rhyme breaks down at the end of the song, we are so bound up in the tragedy it doesn’t matter any more.
Sad I’m a-sittin’ on the railroad track Watchin’ that old smokestack Train is a-leavin’ but it won’t be back Years ago we hung around Watchin’ trains roll through the town Now that train is a-graveyard bound Where we go up in that North Country Lakes and streams and mines so free I had no better friend than he Something happened to him that day I thought I heard a stranger say I hung my head and stole away A diesel truck was rollin’ slow Pullin’ down a heavy load It left him on a Utah road They carried him back to his home town His mother cried, his sister moaned Listenin’ to them church bells tone
The song is so simple, and perhaps so iconic, hardly anyone has tried to record another version, but there is one. I have featured it before, but maybe you didn’t catch it then. And even if you did, you might not recognise it.
And so to my point. If I were writing a philosophy of modern song, I would start with this song, because before or since I have not heard anything like it. Utter simplicity is still a perfect way to write about that one certainty in life: that we all die.