Recently on Untold Dylan…
- How Bob Dylan revealed how the form of folk songs could be changed forever.
- What makes Bob Dylan so very special?
By Tony Attwood
Fred Muller in New Zealand (about as far away from where I sit and type these daily thoughts on Bob and his music, as you can possibly get) sent me a selection of some of his favourite Dylan covers.
I have only just started working my way through it, but I thought I would share the first three with you because of something curious I found.
First, Wallflower: Buddy and Julie Miller
And second What Good am I? by Solomon Burke
And after two tracks I was beginning to feel a bit unsure how to handle this collection. I love covers of Dylan songs because so much of the time they give me new thoughts and ideas relating to the songs, and in many cases remind me of why I love the songs, and why I am so devoted to Bob’s work as composer.
But here I was disappointed – neither of these recordings offers me anything that I didn’t have before in terms of Bob’s work. And I wondered why that is. Is it me getting (very) old, or was these recordings; did they simply not offer me something new? For it was true in each case I would prefer to go back to other recordings of the songs rather than listen to these covers again.
However I did persevere , and then was rewarded, because the third track in the collection was “Lay Down Your Weary Tune” by Tim O’Brien and the O’Boys, and suddenly I was awoken and revitalised, in a way this song has never affected me before.
- When the ship comes in
- The Times they are a-Changing
- Percy’s Song
- The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
- Lay Down your Weary Tune
- One too many mornings
- Restless Farewell
and “Lay Down” is the odd one out. All the others became directly associated with Bob, his ability as a composer, but this recording was left to one side until 1985.
Bob did say that he was trying to capture the feeling of a Scottish ballad, and maybe the thought that he hadn’t quite got that made him leave this out. But take away that thought, and any like it, and what we have is an astounding piece of music, really worthy of inclusion on any album, anywhere. In the end in fact the Byrds picked it up…
I would stay with Bob’s version any day, but I am glad that the song did get some extra coverage.
Such notes as we have on the song is that it was written during Bob’s time in California when he also wrote “Hattie Carroll”. There was a suggestion that tit was conceived as a duet but a performance along those lines didn’t happen. The song was dropped from the forthcoming album and replaced by “Restless Farewell”.
Quite a few commentaries appeared interpreting the song in various mundane or grandiose terms, which I don’t want to repeat, for increasingly I get to feel that all these songs stand on their own, and don’t need critics to help any of us enjoy them.
Do I hear “Dylan struggling to put into words the melody that haunts him”? No I don’t. I hear a beautiful song which so aptly reflects days when I most certainly can feel weary, and perhaps sad, wondering if I have made anything worthwhile out of my life, but can then be lifted by a piece of music like this – as I can by some other pieces of music.
Songs are a human activity – a way of reflecting on the past, of joining us together, of contemplating the future, of expressing our emotions. They are a fundamental part of the uniqueness of mankind. And this song captures all of that.
This may be a song that links politics and mysticism, it may not – it doesn’t matter. To me it is one of those utterly beautiful Dylan songs that each time I hear it, I want to play the recording over again.
Is this a moment when Bob moved from politics to mysticism? I’ve no idea and I don’t care, because I want to sit quietly in my study (as I am as I write this) looking at the trees begin to get the first touches of autumn.
And so if any of these critics, who wished to turn this beautiful music into something more, asked me what I thought, then I would say simply “it is a vision.” Not for me a vison of the Almighty, but a vision of what my world can be, when I can get myself together. When I can jettison the worries and thoughts about what I have got wrong, and where I have gone wrong, into a world that is not perfect, but is good and will carry me through to this evening.
The view from where I sit and write each day is stunning and beautiful, and this is a beautiful song to go with it, and I am so sorry we had to wait so long to hear it, but at least in my old age I can live with it and play it over and over again.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down Lay down the song you strum And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings No voice can hope to hum