Untold Dylan

By Peter McQuitty

Girl From the Red River Shore and Mother of Muses are unusual in the Dylan canon. These songs are not about any of the earthly muses who have inspired Dylan’s work and they are not about human relationships. They work on a philosophical level, exploring the relationship between the artist and the Muse, that mysterious source of inspiration and creativity that transforms people into artists. They are also, of course, a window onto the artist’s state of mind. (For ease of reference I will refer to the artist in these songs as Dylan, although I fully understand that not all Dylan songs are self-portraits).

Dylan uses the opening stanza of Girl from the Red River Shore to provide a rough definition of the artist. Some of us are content with the beauty of the natural world; we turn off the lights and “live/In the moonlight shooting by.” Others – the artists – want more. They leave the light of the natural world behind and “scare ourselves to death in the dark,” questing further and higher to the source of things, to “be where the angels fly.”

By the time he recorded Girl from the Red River Shore, the creative confidence of Dylan’s early career was long gone. While the beauty of the natural world can still give him a song he is painfully aware that he is no longer flying with the angels. His Muse – symbolised here by the elusive girl from the Red River shore – has abandoned him. The song is an elegy for the death of the artist’s creativity (and thereby part of a noble tradition, in which the poet writes a great poem lamenting the failure of his poetic powers).

Dylan tells a tale of despair. From the moment that he first laid eyes on the Muse and discovered the joys of creativity, he has known that he “could never be free.”  As a confident, young man he assumed that “She should always be with me”. He learns the hard way that she is not that kind of girl; she rejects his marriage proposal and is definitely not available on demand. She wonders whether he is strong enough to live the artist’s life: “she said/Go home and lead a quiet life.”

The good and creative times – “All those nights when I lay in the arms/Of the girl from the Red River shore” – are now “a thousand nights ago,” like something from a fairy tale. Dylan is “living in the shadows of a fading past” and there are those critics who say that he and the Muse have never been united: “Everybody that I talked to had seen us there/Said they didn’t know who I was talking about.” He is bereft: “Well, the dream dried up a long time ago/Don’t know where it is anymore.”

And then in the last stanza we have a dramatic and radical transition as he takes us suddenly into Biblical territory, with Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  This is a powerful intervention, given the importance of Christian iconography in Dylan’s work. It is particularly powerful because Dylan uses it not as a metaphor for hope but as a gauge of his despair. He is not here this time to praise Jesus or to preach his gospel. He is here for himself and this tale of resurrection only serves to counterpoint the death of his own creativity: “Well, I don’t know what kind of language he used/ Or if they do that kind of thing anymore”. That guy “who lived a long time ago” can work his miracles for Lazarus but it’s unlikely that he can help this artist: “Sometimes I think nobody ever saw me here at all/Except the girl from the Red River shore”.

As the evidence shows, the Muse did not desert Dylan. His long creative career has had peaks and troughs and the old artist in Mother of Muses is at ease with himself and his Muse. He doesn’t expect her to be with him every hour of his life and he is confident that, wherever she is, she will hear his prayers.

Mother of Muses is many things. It is a prayer for inspiration. Dylan prays to the Muse to stay with him to the end, to clear his vision and remove the invisible barriers that are blocking his creative path.  It is a prayer for consolation. As he nears the end he asks her to sing of the things that he has loved – the mountains and the seas, the lakes, the nymphs of the forest and the heroes who have shaped his world.

It is also a prayer for his artistic legacy to be remembered.  It is appropriate that Dylan – who has lived the performance artist’s life – as he sings in Dark Eyes, “in another world/where life and death are memorised” – should invoke Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory and remembrance. It is also appropriate because memory, remembrance and artistic legacy are important themes in this song. He wants to be remembered for and through his art and he prays to the Muse to “Forge my identity from the inside out.”

While Dylan’s praise for the Generals who defeated slavery and Nazism should come as no surprise his real themes in this section are memory and legacy rather than the military. Names carved on tablets of stone will crumble into dust, but memories live on and grow. As Dylan says of his Generals: “Man, I could tell their stories all day.” And as he writes about memory and legacy he is also writing about himself. He concludes the stanza praising “the heroes who stood alone” with a plea for his own legacy: “Mother of Muses, sing for me.”

His explicit alignment of himself with other writers on this album is unexpected and is a slightly sad legacy plea. He “contains multitudes” like Whitman; he’s got “a tell-tale heart, like Mr. Poe,”; he “writes songs of experience like William Blake”; he “was born on the wrong side of the railroad track/Like Ginsberg, Corso and Kerouac.” And then there are ostentatious Shakespeare references – “the winter of my discontent,” “to be or not to be”. Dylan seems to be drawing attention to his own credentials as an artist by highlighting the artistic company he keeps. As he sings on False Prophet: “I’m first among equals/Second to none.”

The final stanza of this song sets out a much more convincing legacy strategy, one so bold that only Dylan could have thought of it and only the irreverent Greek mythology that he is working through could have enabled it.

Dylan has already outlived his life by far and has been “slow coming home” but he’s ready now. And he certainly doesn’t intend to just fade away. He asks Mnemosyne to take him to the river – probably the Lethe, one of the five rivers leading to the underworld. Those who drink from the Lethe experience forgetfulness and oblivion but Dylan goes a step further. He uses the Greek mythic convention where divinities have sex with mortals to envisage a final and dramatic consummation of the relationship between artist and Muse: “Take me to the river, release your charms/Let me lay down a while in your sweet, loving arms/Wake me, shake me, free me from sin.”  This final consummation will lead to a dramatic metamorphosis. His physical presence will be obliterated and he will become “invisible, like the wind”. I’m not saying that vanity got the best of him but he certainly plans to leave here in style.

In conclusion I would like to say a little more about Dylan’s dazzling ability to manipulate genre. In Girl from the Red River Shore he exploited and disrupted the cowboy ballad formula. In Mother of Muses he adopts a form from “Long before the first Crusade/Way back ‘fore England or America were made.” Mnemosyne, Calliope, and the “women of the chorus” are hardly familiar figures in rock music and Douglas Brinkley, in the preface to his New York Times interview with Dylan (12 June 2020) demonstrates how alien the song is to many when he describes it as “a hymn to . . . gospel choirs.” Dylan, in his sly way, does imply a  sideways allusion from the Greek chorus to the women who sang their hearts out in his own past backing bands (and who became part of his life) but this song is definitely not about gospel choirs. Similarly, his reference to “the nymphs of the forest” inevitably takes us back to the “glamorous nymph with and an arrow and bow” who misguidedly wandered into the lyrics of Sara.

Dylan is sufficiently confident about the formulas within which he is working to make a joke about genre. His relationship with Mnemosyne is strong and he mentions to her that he is “falling in love with Calliope,” one of her daughters. Calliope is the goddess of epic poetry, a long narrative form which celebrates the deeds of warrior heroes and gods. The Iliad – the story of Achilles and the Trojan Wars – is the most famous of all epics and is referenced in My Own Version of You. Dylan has co-opted some elements from this now unfashionable genre into this song and into Murder Most Foul and he wonders in passing if Calliope might have a future with him: “She don’t belong to anyone, why not give her to me?” This is just his passing thought. Dylan writes very long songs but these do not in themselves constitute epics. And, as we have seen, he is in any case more interested in the mother than the daughter.

In a song that is full of surprises, one if the best is to learn that Dylan could sit around all day telling stories about the military exploits of his five favourite Generals. That could lead to a new audience for him.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

by Jochen Markhorst

I           A bloody mess

 Oh Mercy! is quite a beautiful album anyhow. Otherwise we would have been forced to impose a serious reprimand on Dylan for omitting the masterpieces “Series Of Dreams”, “Born In Time” and “Dignity”. One reproach can still be made, though: “Dignity” would have been a much more successful opening than the equally driving, but melodic and lyrically much less catchy “Political World” – great song, but hardly as monumental as “Dignity”.

In Chronicles the bard remembers the rise and fall of the song. As usual crystal clear, yet incomprehensible. He describes how he is shocked by the news flash on the radio about the sudden death of the basketball player ‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich, whom he admires († 5 January 1988) and writes the whole song (and more) in a kind of inspired frenzy in the course of the same day and following night. “It’s like I saw the song up in front of me.” That primeval version is a bit longer, with even more archetypes, he tells. Big Ben, Virgin Mary, the Wrong Man and more: “The list could be endless.”

However, the connection between the legendary basketball player or his death with one of these characters, or with the theme of the song lyrics at all, remains unfathomable.

While writing, Dylan already hears the music in his head, too. Rhythm, tempo, melody line, everything. And He saw that it was good: “This song was a good thing to have.” He is in no hurry recording it, though. A song like this he won’t forget, he knows, and recording it is so boring. What’s more: “I didn’t like the current sounds.”

All of a sudden there appears to be a sharper discernment than we are used to from the man who, in this decade, doesn’t think recordings of brilliants like “Angelina”, “Caribbean Wind” and “Blind Willie McTell” are good enough. Fear of the disastrous effect of the 80’s sauce over a song like “Dignity” is indeed justified and it is to be applauded that the bard prefers to wait for better times with a fresh producer.

He does not have to wait very long. Just over a year later, in February 1989, better times have come, and a skilful, passionate producer has been found: Daniel Lanois.

Dylan will provide a series of beautiful recordings for Oh Mercy. And indeed, Dylan hasn’t forgotten “Dignity”; it’s one of the first songs of which a demo will be made.

Things are going well until then, at least: according to the chronicler himself. There’s nothing wrong with a first, sparingly instrumented recording with the vocals up front, he thinks, but an infectiously enthusiastic Lanois has some wild dreams about what he can achieve with this song when they record it tomorrow with Rockin’ Dopsie and his Cajun Band. Dylan lets himself be convinced.

And that is where the downfall of “Dignity” begins. After a day of muddling through text changes, tempo modifications and alternative keys, and after more than twenty recordings, the promise “was beaten into a bloody mess”. Disillusioned, Lanois and Dylan turn away from the song. The demo and one of the many outtakes can later be found on Tell Tale Signs (2008), others on bootlegs like Deeds Of Mercy and The Genuine Bootleg Series.

After Oh Mercy the song seems to be forgotten for a while, but in ’94 it reappears at the MTV Unplugged sessions. At the time ignored and even vilified, for obscure reasons, but as a matter of fact still very enjoyable today.

The same goes for the version used for Greatest Hits Vol. III (November ’94). Producer Brendan O’Brien (from, among others, Pearl Jam) waltzes off with the Lanois recordings, throws away everything except the voice and puts his own beautiful organ under it. This version also receives all the (un)necessary criticism, which from a present-day point of view seems just as empty; it really is a beautiful, “dry” recording, exciting and subdued at the same time. Dylan himself seems to think so too; a lot of (and the best, actually) live performances in the Never Ending Tour are grafted onto this version – with the troubadour singing better and better, too.

MTV Unplugged

The lyrics are from a Dylan at the top of his game. Fascinating, rich and mysterious, and by all means comparable to a highlight like “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”: a collage of unrelated images, half-known cinematic fragments, literary references, cool humour and biblical imagery, which together sketch a gloomy, grim world view in which there is no place for Dignity.

The images are connected by a literary stylistic device we don’t encounter too often in Dylan’s oeuvre: the allegory, the personified abstraction, in this case Dignity. The narrator searches from Alaska (“The land of the midnight sun”) to the Valley of the Dry Bones (from one of Dylan’s favourite Bible books, Ezekiel), searches in literary masterpieces (in Rimbaud’s Le Bateau ivre, among others) and everyone he meets along the way is also looking for her – in vain. He is stranded on the shore of a lake and seems to give up – in this world he will no longer find Dignity. Gloomy indeed.

Fortunately, the music offers hope. It pushes forwards, expresses optimism and does not fade away – on the other side of the lake we will resume our quest.

A strong unity apparently, the lyrics and the music. The covers seldom deviate, do imitate the compelling urgency of the rhythm and tempo of the original and copy remarkably often percussion guitar and organ (Joe Cocker, the French “La Dignité” from Francis Cabrel, the splendid Italian “Dignità” by Francesco Di Gregori). Even the implausible Nana Mouskouri adheres to this format (1997), puts a pleasant piano part under it, and then confirms the prejudices by inviting a gruesome women’s choir into the studio.

Elliot Murphy does not fall for that trap. His version is beautiful but doesn’t really add anything (on the “Reporters sans frontiers” album Dignity, 2002).

Robyn Hitchcock, in contrast, does his utmost best to be original, but unfortunately – he produces a weird, monotonous cover that only gets some attraction halfway, when the bass joins in.

No, the best cover is recorded in Amsterdam, by The Low Anthem (2 Meter Sessions, 2009). The quintet from Rhode Island leaves the ambiguous character of the song for what it is and opts for a one-dimensional, text-oriented acoustic interpretation that shines thanks to a gloomy clarinet. Singer Ben Knox Miller browses the different versions in a seemingly random way, choosing the verses he likes the most, messing up the order as well.

Surely the master will allow all that – Ben Knox Miller is, after all, a young man lookin’ in the shadows that pass.

To be continued. Next up: Dignity part II: Blades

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books 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

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

A list of the other articles in this series is given at the foot of this piece.

by Patrick Roefflaer

• Released: October 26, 1993
• Photographers: Ana Maria Vélez Wood (front) & Randee St. Nicholas (back)
• Liner Notes: Bob Dylan
• Art-Director: Nancy Donald

Many people have the impression that the photo on the cover of Dylan’s second acoustic album of the Nineties was carefully staged, like the one on Bringing It All Back Home.

What certainly adds to the impression is that Bob is dressed in character: a black coat, black gloves, a top hat and a walking stick (it’s actually an umbrella).

Then there’s a the setting: a green wall, a green table cloth and what looks like one of Dylan’s painting behind him. On the table there’s a blue bottle with a red candle…

The light coming from the right, with the singer face half hidden in the shadow.    The photo is printed in a slight tilted angle, accentuated by the black line with the artists’ name and title of the album.

Certainly, Bob Dylan is dressed the same in the video Dave Stewart made for one of the songs from the album: ‘Blood in My Eyes’. But the circumstances of this photo session remained a mystery, until twenty years later.

From 25^th October to 8^th November 2012, there was an exhibition in Battersea, London, called Blood in my Eyes. More than hundred photos were on display; all made by Ana Maria Vélez Wood on one day: July 21^th, 1993. The day both the video and the photo were shot.

There was a catalogue available, in which the photographer and  the director gave their comments on what happened that day. As much time had passed since then, they contradicted each other on some of the details. For example Dave Stewart and Ana Maria Wood differ about where and when the photographer got involved. Dave says he asked her about an hour into the shooting and she met them at Camden Lock, while Ana states that she met Dylan at The Church Studios, well before filming started…

In this story, all of the quotes from Wood and Stewart were taken from the catalogue of the exhibition.  Thanks to the great Dutch Dylan collector Arie de Reus, for helping me by providing scans from the catalogue. So here it goes:

In the middle of the night, Dave Stewart and his wife Siobhan were alarmed by the phone ringing unexpectedly.  When the former Eurythmic picked up the phone, he heard a man with an American accent saying something like: “Hi, this is Bob. I’m coming to London in a couple of hours to make a video. Would you help me?”

A sleepy Stewart soon realized that it was Bob Dylan who needed his help. He surely knew Dylan was in Europe at the time, as his Summer Tour had ended in Germany, four days before the call.

Although he hadn’t heard from Bob in a long time, the call didn’t come completely out of the blue, as Stewart has worked with Dylan before. In August 1985 he had been executive producer for the video clip of ‘Emotionally Yours’ and a few months later, Dylan even came to London to try out Eurythmics’ studio, The Church, in Crouch Hill, North London.

A few hours later, Bob Dylan meets Dave on his houseboat on the Regents Canal in Camden Town. There is not much of a plan and certainly no script for the video of ‘Blood In My Eyes’. So, they decide to do what Dylan usually does in this situation: go out in the street and see what happens.

This is something he picked up from photographer Don Hunstein during the shoot for his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

It must have been a strange sight for the shopping people on the streets that Wednesday morning: there is Bob Dylan, wearing a strange outfit and accompanied by Dave Stewart carrying two 8 mm cine cameras. No security.

Bob is in a very good mood, willing to give autographs and chatting to people young and old, as they stroll through town.

“I decided this should be documented as it became quite surreal”, explained Dave Stewart in August 2012. “We had been filming for about an hour. Then we had a 5 minute break and a cup of tea outside a cafe,

I seized the opportunity to call the one person I knew I could rely on and would drop everything and get to our location in record time, and she did!’

Stewart refers to Ana María Vélez Wood, a Colombian dancer, guitarist and singer he had worked with some time ago.

“Ana told me later she was a photographer,” Stewart recalled, “and actually came to the UK by winning a photographic contest in her home country Colombia. Over the years I got to know and love Ana’s sense of humour along with her lack or fear and ability to tackle anything from opening a Eurythmics show to cooking for 20 people at ten minutes’ notice!”

Ana remembers Dave sounded excited on the phone, “but in his characteristically laidback manner told me Bob Dylan had called him at 4am wanting him to film and direct a video for one of the tracks of his new forthcoming album ‘World Gone Wrong’, and he asked me if I could come along and shoot some stills.”

It appeared it was cheer luck she was in town: she had just returned from Colombia, where she had made a trip to the Amazon on her own.

“I still had the musty smell of the jungle and my photo equipment was in a plastic milk canteen I had used as a photo bag. This was a preventative measure so that my photo equipment would float in the event we overturned in any of the small canoe journeys through the small islands in the swamps of the Amazon River.

I was still in bed when Dave called so I got up quickly and transformed my photo bag into a ‘first world package’, took a taxi, got some film, and went straight to Dave’s recording studio [sic].”

“Ana immediately became invisible”, Dave adds, “and started shooting at a short distance aware of the fragility of the situation and the possibility that this could bring even more attention to a crowd that was growing by the minute. I introduced Ana to Bob and he immediately felt comfortable with her gentle way, so now we were three!”

“The first shots were done on the Lock”, writes Wood, “where curious onlookers started gathering slowly and Dave ( as only he can do), recruited them to be part of the video and escort Dylan across the bridges and paths, to perform juggling acts and support; at one point even recruiting a German Sheppard carrying a stick in his mouth who proudly paraded on a lead with Dylan. All along Dylan stood out underneath his top hat, but strangely, at the same time blended in perfectly with the surroundings.”

From Camdem Lock, they turn to the Camdem High Street, with their “small army of followers, in front of souvenir shops, zebra crossings, hair dressers and barber shops, slowly covering the length of High Street.”

Some scenes are required where Bob can mime some lines from the song.

“We stopped at café and this time Dylan took up position at a table by the sidewalk. As the waitress engaged in conversation with Dylan, a passing busker joined Dylan and Dave at the table.”

As this proves to be too busy, they search for something quieter. They find a another small café, called Flukes Cradle, where Bob can sit inside, the light coming through the window. In some scenes you can see the people on the outside, looking in, while Dylan’s face is reflected in the glass. There’s a painting on the wall behind the singer, “propped up” on it’s left side by the mantelpiece.

In one of the photo’s in the exhibition, there’s a young man with an impressive quiff, sitting at the same table. In 2014, the guy is identified as Desmond van Oostrom. The Dutchman, was 21 years old at the time. He was shopping in London with a friend when he is approached by female photographer for a photo shoot. He is seated at a table in a cafe where, completely unexpectedly, as a table guest the legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan is next to him. Desmond is taken by surprise and Dylan – of course – is stoic. With a simple ‘thanks’ from Dylan, Desmond is thanked for the cooperation and he can go.

Although he leaves his address with the photographer, it’ll take more than 20 years before he receive the indisputable proof of his Bob Dylan moment.

So, in a way, the photo shoot wasn’t completely spontaneous after all.

After this scene, they return to Dave’s houseboat, where an impromptu film set is set up for more singing scenes, “with lights and everything in a space of not much more than a square meter”, as Wood remembers.

When all necessary filming is done, the small party heads to The Church Studios, to wind down. That was needed particularly for Dylan, explained Wood as he “Surely deserved his own space to shed the persona he adopted throughout the entire day’s shooting.”

When Dylan has changed, Dave hands the photographer an acoustic guitar to sing a few songs in Spanish and Portuguese for Dylan.  The evening is wrapped up in a local Indian restaurant in Crouch End.

While Dylan heads off to his hotel, Dave and Ana Maria go “straight to Joe’s Basement, a 24-hour photo lab in Soho, to develop the film.

We asked for an express service, then walked the few blocks to Dave’s flat in Covent Garden. In less than an hour we returned to pick up the photographs.”

As Dylan has already flown to L.A. the next morning, Dave Stewart follows him the next day, to present him the photographs.

Bob picks one of Ana Maria’s photos from inside the restaurant for the cover of World Gone Wrong. Another photo, taken on the house boat is selected for the inside sleeve. On this Dylan is seen holding a glass of whiskey.

L’étranger

As stated earlier, the painting in the café was not by Bob Dylan. It was already there.  The extraordinary story of the painting was revealed in 1995 by it’s painter, Peter Gallager, in a letter published in Isis Magazine.

“This story began in the early months of 1993, when, together with a friend of mine from the states, I trawled the art galleries of London, hoping to break into the closed-shop art exhibition circuit with a pile of heavy canvasses and portfolio of photographs and slides.

My heavily dour and moody portraits did not excite the optimistic decorative galleries, and we were shown the door many times before I could skate across the polished wooden floors to lay out my paintings for viewing. It seemed that our efforts were all to no avail, until we happened upon Flukes Cradle Cafe bar in Camden, who exhibit the works of many London artists. The manager decided to give me a chance and after two weeks of frantic preparation, my paintings were hanging shoulder to shoulder around this popular coffee bar.

After a steady start, I began to sell regularly and Flukes Cradle kept me on. Spring and summer passed and the autumn was drawing to a close when a bizarre chain of events occurred. This series of events began when I received a ‘phone call from a lady who, for the purpose of this essay will be known as Katherine. Katherine had called with a view to buying one of my paintings entitled “L’Etranger” which was hanging by the window at Flukes Cafe. Despite it’s catalogue price, I’d previously given the picture, as a present to Phil, a close friend, and I explained this to her. Curiously, she said, “I must have it!” and demanded my friends phone number. After I refused several times, she announced she was prepared to pay a lot of money for the painting. She said it no longer concerned me anymore, now that I had given it away. It interested me to know what she would offer my friend so I gave her his telephone number. It turned out that she was prepared to pay £500. Phil and I discussed this matter and decided to come to an arrangement, whereby we split the money between us.

On October 30th 1993 we met Katherine at Flukes Cradle Cafe bar, she was accompanied by a friend. I told the manager that I’d found a buyer for “L’Etranger”. He said that the painting would now be worth a lot of money. I didn’t understand what he meant, until he told me that Bob Dylan had sat beneath the painting and had been video’d by Dave Stewart, during the summer, with an album cover in mind. It was quite a surprise as you can imagine, especially since I’d been a regular patron there and nobody had mentioned it until now. Quite unbelievable really.

The painting itself shows a desperate and forlorn figure, on a beach having just committed a murder. His name Meursault, from Albert Camus’ famous (1942), novel, “L’Etranger”. The picture was “propped up” on it’s left side by the mantelpiece, in the front room of the café. The picture had fowled there when I had originally hung It, and to me it seemed that the mantelpiece “steadied” the painting from it’s dizzy and reeling subject matter. I was content to leave it tilting in such a way for this effect.

It’s always been my policy to be around personally to hand over my paintings to buyers and this was not going to be an exception. I like the feedback. The paintings mean a lot to me and I put my heart and soul into them. We spent a full hour with Katherine and her friend and I told her about Bob Dylan’s interest in the picture for his album cover.

It didn’t stir much of a response in her, she hardly twitched. I asked why she wanted the picture so badly. But equally, she hadn’t liked it when she first saw it, but had got to love it gradually, and she hoped to hang it above her bed and wake up to it every morning. She said it would bring her luck. Really? I thought. She seemed more intent on talking to my friend Phil, and Quantum Mechanics were mentioned several times between them. The only thing I know about Quantum Mechanics is that when a butterfly flaps it’s wings, there’ll be a blowin’ in the wind. Katherine was perhaps thinking of other things when she bought the picture.

A couple of weeks passed and my sister’s boyfriend rang me to say that he had just seen Bob Dylan’s CD ‘World Gone Wrong’ in Tower Records, London, and that my painting was indeed featured in the background. London Underground were now running large 5′ x 4′ posters of the album sleeve (the format of the posters was actually taller than that of the album cover, and in consequence displayed even more of my picture). There was a promotional video of the album’s single ‘Blood In My Eyes’ filmed in Camden, showing on national network T.V in the States. Full page magazine adverts. A number of people even likened my style of painting to that of Bob Dylan.

That was the good news, now for the bad. I had signed the painting in the bottom right hand corner, but unfortunately it was obscured by Dylan’s top hat. ‘Sony-Columbia’ had not approached me, and there was no mention of my name on the album credits. But for the manager of Flukes Cradle making a cursory remark two weeks previous, I might have come face to face with my painting on London Underground, late at night, alone on a platform, in a drunken stupor. What would you have done? Jump! This is the misery line.

Like all good euphoric attacks there is an equally disabling depression just around the comer. Could not the record company have said something; asked permission. My brother suggested I ring Sony Columbia in London. I had started off in Camus and ended up in a Kafka novel. Look for a decision maker. Find the responsible person forget it! I got a music solicitor to find out why nobody asked me for license to use the painting. I still had copyright, and it was my intellectual property. Why no credit? What followed was, almost a year of knee bending, twitching swordplay, legal bluff. Noise of wind, in impotent gusts wafting to and fro across the Atlantic. More blowin in the wind. Gastro Enteritis I call it.

It was in February 1994 that Sony Columbia informed me that Bob Dylan had bought the painting “with the specific objective of avoiding any further difficulties.” In March, Sony’s New York law dept. continued with a letter. It followed that; “Jeff Rosen (from Dylan’s New York office), had asked one of Dave Stewart’s employees to purchase the painting, so he would have rights to it when the album was released. Two of Dave Stewart’s employees located the (Camden) restaurant but were told that the painting had been sold to Katherine.” Within 48 hours they met Katherine and had bought the painting from her for £2,500. Well, she had said it would bring her good luck! £2,000 profit in two days. I call that incredible good luck!!

Strange to say that as a sixteen year old I used to play tennis with a Bob Dylan fan. I had little interest or awareness of his hero’s songs until one day he rammed Dylan’s lyrics down my throat and told me I must be stupid if I didn’t understand him. I just felt hurt. I have never listened to a Bob Dylan album since that day, apart from ‘World Gone Wrong’ It’s all the more poignant now. I did however, like the album.

As a painter and musician in my own right, it’s been a strange year. Bob Dylan on one side, me on the other and a minefield of legal jargon between us. I still don’t understand him. Has the World Gone Wrong? To avoid further calamities I accepted the painting back from the Dylan camp and they agreed to a credit on future printings of the album. Sony paid my legal fees and suggested I could make a good price from the painting, because of its association with Dylan.”

The photo on the back sleeve is made by celebrity photographer-designer Randee St. Nicholas. She’s the ex-wife of Steppenwolf singer Nick St. Nicholas – hence the name. The photographer, living in Los Angeles is specialized in photographing musicians and perhaps most famous for her Prince book 21 Nights (2008). Other photos from the Dylan shoot were used as late as 1997 on the single ‘Dreaming of You’.

Because Dylan had been criticized for being very vague about the authors on his previous acoustic cover record, Good As I Been To You, he wrote extensive (and excellent) liner notes, titled About The Songs (what they’re about). This filled the rest of the vinyl album’s back sleeve.

Previously published…

• The art work of Street Legal and the secret cover location
• The story of the art work on Bringing it All Back Home
• The untold story of the artwork on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
• The Sleeve Art of Bob Dylan’s album: “Bob Dylan”
• The Sleeve Art of Bob Dylan’s Album: Slow Train Coming
• The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – the untold story of the artwork of the album
•  Times they are a changin’: the album artwork
• The art work on Bob Dylan’s albums: The Basement Tapes
• The source of the artwork of “Another side of Bob Dylan”
• The art work on Bob Dylan’s “Infidels”: what’s in a name?
• The art work of Nashville Skyline
• Absolute Exclusive: Empire Burlesque and Biograph artwork
• The artwork to Knocked Out Loaded
• The Art Work of the Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 (guest visitor, Michael Palin)
• The untold story of the artwork on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
• The Sleeve Art of Bob Dylan’s album: “Bob Dylan”
• The Sleeve Art of Bob Dylan’s Album: Slow Train Coming
• The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – the untold story of the artwork of the album
•  Times they are a changin’: the album artwork
• The art work on Bob Dylan’s albums: The Basement Tapes
• The source of the artwork of “Another side of Bob Dylan”
• The art work on Bob Dylan’s “Infidels”: what’s in a name?
• The art work of Nashville Skyline
• Absolute Exclusive: Empire Burlesque and Biograph artwork
• The artwork to Knocked Out Loaded
• The Art Work of the Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 (guest visitor, Michael Palin)

By Larry Fyffe

Poet William Blake critiques organized religion for suppressing sex as a unifying fiery force within the physical world; he envisions sexual union as a holy spirit that ought to be enjoyed by humankind rather than the spiritual sexual urge being chained up and confused by the doctrine of death -‘original sin’ – as taught by black-robed priests:

Unless the heart catch fire
The God will not be loved
Unless the mind catch fire
The God will not be known
(William Blake: The Pentecost)

The preRomantic poet draws on metaphoric gnostic-like imagery of the Christian God found within the Holy Bible:

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow
And his eyes were as a flame of fire
(Revelation 1:14)

Blake’s sensual imagery is not lost on the rocknrollers of modern popular music.

With piano a-pounding:
I laughed at love because I thought it funny
You came along, and you moved me honey
I've changed my mind, this love is fine
Goodness gracious, great balls of fire
(Jerry Lee Lewis: Great Balls Of Fire ~ Blackwell/Hammer)

With guitar a-blazing:

Say my arrows of are made of desire, desire
From far away as Jupiter's sulphur mines
Way down in the Methane Sea
(Jimmy Hendrix: Voodoo Child/Slight Return)

Singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan grows up in an era when rocknroll music dominates the air waves emanating from popular music radio stations:

They killed him on the altar of the rising sun ...
Play 'Lucille'
(Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul)

‘Lucille’ –  piano a-pounding:

I woke up this morning, Lucille was not in sight
I asked my friends about her, God, all they did was laugh
Lucille, come home where you belong
(Jerry Lee Lewis: Lucille ~ Collins, et.al.)

Likewise, an earlier rendition thereof:

I woke up this morning, Lucille was not in sight
I asked my friends about her, but all their lips were tight
Lucille, please come back where you belong
(Little Richard: Lucille)

Quieted down is the guitar tempo in the gnostic-tinted song below:

Well, I went back to see about her once
Went back to straighten it out
Everybody that I talked to had seen us there
Said they didn't know who I was talking about
(Bob Dylan: Red River Shore)

The guitar subdued again in the song below:

They walked along by the old canal
A little confused, I remember well
They stopped into a strange hotel
With the neon burning bright
He felt the heat of the night
(Bob Dylan: Simple Twist Of Fate)

Piano a-rolling in the following lament:

He had a lovely wife, and two children seldom seen
But they shot him in the backseat of a Lincoln limousine
(Jerry Lee Lewis: Lincoln Limousine)

Slowed down piano in the double-edged lament below with the  alliterations still abounding; John Kennedy’s physical body is destroyed, but the memories of his lively spirit are not:

I'm riding in a long, black Lincoln limousine
Riding in the backseat next to my wife
Heading straight on in to the afterlife
(Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul)

Commentary by Tony, research and opening comment by Aaron:

Here’s a track which Bob tried out five times in soundchecks in 78, this one is from Paris. It’s called Fix It Ma. Not the best sound quality but here it is.  (It does get a little clearer as it progresses, stay with it…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFSAfO0K09I

This was the year in which Dylan wrote a number of songs with Helena Springs.  As far as we know the only songs that were not written with Ms Springs that year were (in chronological order)…

1. New Pony
2. Baby Stop Crying
3. Stepchild
4. You don’t love me no more
5. This a-way that a-way.
6. Take it or leave it
7. Daddy’s gonna take one more ride
8. Legionnaire’s disease
9. Slow Train
10. Do right to me baby (do unto others)

So this would make the 11th Dylan solo composition of the year.  But what about the lyrics (apart from “You better fix it ma”)?  Earlier we asked if anyone wanted to have a go at writing them out, and Larry Fyffe duly obliged

It was down around Tokyo, ready or not
Get out of pokey Ozzie, dead or a alive
You better fix it mama, fix it mama
You better fix it mama, you better fix it mama
You better fix it mama real quick
If you wanna get along with me
Just fix at me

Well you want to go down, and get your bad tooth, slam the door
Well you tried to tell the daddy-o that he broke the law
Well you better fix it ma
You gotta fix it ma
You better fix it for me real quick
Because I'm outside your gate
If you wanna get along with me

Musically it is a standard 12 bar blues.  We have two verses here, with the first four lines containing the original lyrics.  Then we have four lines of “you better fix it ma”.

I should add that the phrase “12 bar blues” has long since been a misnomer, and is now used to refer not to the number of bars of music, but to the structure of the chord sequence, which in this case would be written…

I, I, I, I
I, I, I, I
IV, IV, IV, IV
I, I, I, I,
V, V, V, V
IV, IV, I, I

which will mean quite a lot to rock musicians.

The song is listed on BobDylan.com although without any information added to the title.  Olof Björner has it listed as being played five times in 1978, but Heylin makes no mention of the song at all.  It was included on the bootleg album, “All this tangled rope.”

In fact around 20 websites have the song mentioned – but none go into any detail of the music nor the lyrics.  The music is simple to decode, but the lyrics… here is your chance of immortality.

By all means write your version in the comments below, but if you email them to Tony@schools.co.uk (please write Fix it ma in the subject line) I’ll get to see them quicker, and integrate them into this text, with a full acknowledgement.

Thanks.

by Jochen Markhorst

She belongs to me

• She Belongs To Me (1965): I – No colours anymore
• She Belongs To Me (1965) part II: Images which have got to come out
• She Belongs To Me (1965) part III: Walking in darkness

IV         Marie is only six years old

The brilliant closing stanza, finally, reaffirms the ironic overtones – though on a different level. As with, for example, the beautiful Basement song “Nothing Was Delivered”, or in “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, or “Highway 61 Revisited” (there are many examples), we see in this verse Dylan’s artistic kinship with that other great Jewish poet, with Heinrich Heine, the patriarch of the Ironische Pointe, the ironic punch line. With this stylistic tool, the writer destroys expectations by ending lofty, sentimental or melancholy lines with an inappropriate platitude, a dry comic footnote or a vulgarity. Don’t follow leaders, watch the parking meters is one of Dylan’s best-known, but this one ain’t bad either:

Bow down to her on Sunday
Salute her when her birthday comes
For Halloween give her a trumpet
And for Christmas, buy her a drum

The first two verses still are a logical result of all the previous character descriptions. This is a very special lady, far above us, simple footmen, a lady who may only be admired kneeling and from a distance. The poet emphasizes her majesty with appropriate, status confirming imperatives: bow down and salute her, to finally contrast all the more inappropriately with the sobering punch line. The glorified dame receives a trumpet and a drum.

A trumpet and a drum? For an unassailable highness? Is this really a majestic ladyship being sung here?

In 1958 Chuck Berry records “Memphis, Tennessee”. The song undeniably belongs to the rock canon, to the elite of indisputable rock monuments – after all, the song is a member of the very exclusive and very small club of songs recorded by the Holy Trinity; by Elvis, The Beatles and The Stones. And large parts of the premier league just below that Olympus also honour the masterpiece with studio recordings and live performances. The Who, Jerry Lee Lewis, Led Zeppelin, Roy Orbison, Bo Diddley, Rod Stewart and, well, anyone who can hold a guitar, basically.

The song is deceptively simple. Two chords. The primal version, Chuck’s recording, is rough and rowdy. Simplistic drumming on a single tom, no bass (the low strings of the electric guitar provide the service), languid, sloppy licks by Chuck on his guitar, and after two minutes and a bit it’s done. Pieced together all by himself, as Berry remembers in his memoirs (Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, 1987):

“Memphis Tennessee” was recorded in my first office building at 4221 West Easton Avenue in St. Louis on a $145 homemade studio in the heat of a muggy July afternoon with a $79 reel to reel Sears & Roebuck recorder that had provisions for sound-on-sound recording. I played the guitar and bass track, and I added the ticky-tick drums that trot along in the background which sound so good to me. I worked over a month revising the lyric before I took the tape up to Leonard Chess to listen to. He was again pressed for a release since my concerts (driving on the road then) kept me from the recording studio for long periods.

On the level of details, Berry’s book is full of minor mistakes (in those years, Sears & Roebuck didn’t have a $79 reel-to-reel tape recorder for sale that would allow sound-on-sound, for example), but the big picture is probably correct. Berry also recognises what makes the song such an exceptional masterpiece: not so much the music, however brilliantly simple it may be, but the lyrics, on which he has been polishing for more than a month after that primal recording.

The unbridled brio, obviously, is in the twist. For three verses we hear a pitiful sucker trying to call his girl in Memphis – but he has lost the number. He begs the operator to help him –

Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee
Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me
She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call
Because my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall

… and desperately bombards the poor telephone operator with useless information about Marie and her whereabouts (“her home is on the south side, high upon a ridge, just a half a mile from the Mississippi Bridge”). So far not very striking; song lyrics in this category, the desperate suitor who cannot reach his girl, we already have come to know in enough variations. Chuck indeed does freely reveal that he copied it from some run-of-the-mill song:

The story of Memphis got its roots from a very old and quiet bluesy selection by Muddy Waters played when I was in my teens that went “Long distance operator give me (something….something), I want to talk to my baby she’s (something else)”. Sorry I don’t remember anymore now but I did then and spirited my rendition of that feeling into my song of Memphis. My wife had relatives there who we were visiting semi-annually but other than a couple of concerts there, I had never had any basis for choosing Memphis for the location of the story.

Again, incorrect at a detailed level, probably. Muddy Waters may have a song called “Long Distance Call” (1951), but that song doesn’t contain the word operator, nor a verse that resembles Chuck’s remembered words. Little Milton’s “Long Distance Operator” looks a bit like it,

Long distance operator
Can I talk to my girl tonight?
I feel so sad and lonely
And you know, I just ain’t feeling right

…but that single was not released until February ’59. Jimmy Reed’s 1957 “Baby What’s On Your Mind” might have been a candidate (“I’d call up the operator and tell her give me your private line / I feel so bad, baby, livin’ downtown all alone”), but that still doesn’t add up to Chuck’s recollection that he heard it in my teens – that should be somewhere in the 1940s.

Not too important, of course. There are dozens of songs in this category. Here too, at least, the spirit of Chuck Berry’s story will be true; that he borrowed the plot’s setting, a man laments his sorrow to an anonymous operator. Just as Dylan and The Band will do for their “Long Distance Operator” (The Basement Tapes), by the way.

More important is the brilliant twist, the punch line that tilts the entire lyrics:

Last time I saw Marie she's waving me goodbye
With hurry home drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
Marie is only six years old, information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

This is 1958 – it is perhaps the first pop song to thematise child custody and the resulting suffering of the father after a divorce. And moreover: such an adult theme is enormously out of tune in these years, the years of bubble-gum, surfing fun and high school romance. So, at first, the Chess record company does not quite know what to do with it. It is finally put on a B-side (from “Back in the USA”) in June ’59.

After “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, for which Dylan uses as a template Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business”, the Father Of Rock and Roll seems to inspire Dylan again, this time on a lyrical level: to the surprising punch line of “She Belongs To Me”, to the conclusion that the sung lady is a girl of about six years old. Who can look forward to a classic Christmas present: a drum.

However, unlike with “Memphis, Tennessee”, the surprising twist does not tilt the whole text. With hindsight, parts of the lyrics take on a different meaning, though. She don’t look back of course suits a six-year-old (who, after all, has no past), nobody’s child suddenly suggests a custody battle and next to a child you are a walking antique, evidently. But fragments like peeking through her keyhole suddenly get a – no doubt unintentional – creepy charge, so: no.

No, “She Belongs To Me” is and remains a beautiful collage song, a mosaic which sketches what goes around her sometimes. With a sparkling twist demonstrating a poetic congeniality with both one of the greatest European poets from the early nineteenth century and the twentieth-century, very American “Shakespeare of rock and roll” (Dylan), Chuck Berry.

The song, with its enchanting melody, is an instant success. Alone in the year of its release, 1965, seven covers are recorded, of which Barry “Eve Of Destruction” McGuire’s is the best known. Attractive drive, beautiful harmonica solo, but the affectionate vocals and Barry’s artificial recital do not stand the test of time. Then the chaotic, disrespectful cover of the weirdos from The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (also ’66) is more bearable – but equally dated.

Most charmed, Dylan himself undoubtedly is by Rick Nelson’s cover (Rick Nelson And The Stone Canyon Band, 1969), given his appreciative words in Chronicles:

“Ricky’s talent was very accessible to me. I felt we had a lot in common. In a few years’ time he’d record some of my songs, make them sound like they were his own, like he had written them himself. He eventually did write one himself and mentioned my name in it.”

Ricky scores a small hit with it, but this cover really is a bit too unimaginative. In that area The Nice, also in 1969, is doing better. In which regard they do have an obligation, of course, being a progrock group and all. Theatrical and with a spun-out, Teutonic middle part they stretch the song to twelve minutes, but it still has an equally fascinating, magnetic appeal as, for example, the cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” on The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper.

Tina Turner turns it into “He Belongs To Me”, the Grateful Dead loves the song and has been playing it since the first concerts in 1966, it is popular in folk, country and rock circles, is translated all over the world – “Elle m’appartient (C’est une artiste)” by Francis Cabrel from 2008 is the most beautiful – and Dylan cherishes the song too; in 2016 it is still on his set list (46 times even), thus making Olof Björner’s list of Songs Performed More Than 500 Times.

The best cover comes from Norway. Ane Brun is blessed with an unearthly voice (and was rightly recruited by Peter Gabriel as a backing vocalist), and does everything you have to do if you dare to do a Dylan cover: an idiosyncratic approach, respect for the original and an enriching je-ne-sais quoi.

Recorded for one of the best Dylan tribute records of this century, Subterranean Homesick Blues: A Tribute To Bob Dylan’s ‘Bringing It All Back Home’ (2010), performed by artists who weren’t born yet when Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home – all of them artists who, thankfully, do look back on this walking antique.

———–

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books 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

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

All Directions at once: how Dylan chooses what to write

• 1: A song is like a painting, you can’t see it all if you’re standing too close
• 2: All directions at once: how Dylan’s lyrics empower those who wish to be empowered
• 3: All Directions at once: The prelude to the explosion (1959-1961)
• 4: All directions at once: The explosion (1962).
• 5: All directions at once: Making a name, getting known, arguing about copyright
• 6: All directions at once: learning the folk, moving on

By Tony Attwood

In my last article in this series I argued that Dylan had become a man who could operate in a whole wide range of song styles, while at the same time he had become the ultimate storyteller, able to write protest songs, love songs, gambling songs, the blues etc etc etc.

Also we looked at how Bob could not only take up the themes he had previously considered (songs of leaving, lost love, protest etc) but also bring into focus new themes such as individualism, and the thought that what defines us as individuals is the way in which we choose to see the world – not the way the world is.  A sophisticated concept not generally explored in popular music – or indeed in folk music.

The old year had ended on such a high with the creation of songs we now see as classics – songs such as When the ship comes in,  The Times they are a-Changing, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, One too many mornings and  Restless Farewell.   I imagine there must have been some debate within his record company,at this point, as to whether Bob could possibly keep up this pace and this quality of writing.  I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had said, “Even if the next batch are only half as good, we’ve still got more than enough for the next album.”  Looking back, the quality and quantity of Dylan’s creativity at this time was astonishing.

But the issue of the future was serious: after songs like that, would Bob Dylan now go into eternal decline as so many artists have done after the first flourish artistic brilliance?   And anyway, what on earth could Dylan do to top all that he had done?  He had composed 20 highly memorable songs in each of the last two years – more than most songwriters can do in a lifetime.  Could he really keep up the quality of his writing, the variety of styles and the sheer volume of excellent new songs for another year?

Of course as we know now, the answer turned out to be, most assuredly, “yes”. Inevitably  we find some songs that don’t get an automatic mention in any list of Bob’s greatest songs, as with his opening piece in the new year Guess I’m doing fine – an ironic work in which Bob actually says he is hurting.  But after that warm up, songs of the highest quality emerged once more from his typewriter, one after the next after the next.  And again that by-now famous ability to keep changing his subject matter was on display.

In my original article on this site exploring this year, in which I pulled together the list of songs written in the chronological order or their composition, I ascribed the shortest possible description of each song’s lyrics.  What I didn’t particularly note however was the remarkable fact (or at least it would have been remarkable in any other songwriter) that the first eight songs of the year were each on very different themes…

1. Guess I’m doing fine (I’m hurting)
2. Chimes of Freedom (Protest)
3. Mr Tambourine Man (Surrealism; the way we see the world)
4. I don’t believe you (She acts like we never have met) (Lost love)
5. Spanish Harlem Incident (Love)
6. Motorpsycho Nightmare  (Humour)
7. It ain’t me babe (Song of Farewell)
8. Denise Denise  (Taking a break, having a laugh)

If we didn’t know about thing about Bob’s work and were to listen to “Guess I’m doing fine,” the first song of the year, I think any record company A&R man of the day might be tempted to say, well, ok, keep trying Bob; it’s interesting but see what else you can come up with – and then give us another call.

This is not to say that “Doing fine” is a bad piece of music, but rather when one compares it with all that has gone before, it really isn’t anything special.   In fact, if you leave that recording above running it moves onto the album release of “Restless Farewell” written just a short while before.  The contrast is extraordinary.

Thus a person, unfamiliar with Dylan’s work but hearing his reputation, would I suspect have been disappointed.  But that disappointment would have been short lived because the very next piece Bob wrote was one of his all-time classic works: Chimes of Freedom.   I particularly like this video below because if you watch the mess of the start, it is hard to imagine that this guy is going to deliver anything, yet alone this piece of artistic mastery…

The core message of the song is encapsulated in that opening verse – there is hope for everyone who is not part of the powerful or the elite.  We are all going to be liberated from the shackles of this world.  Just hold on in there.  It’s a matter of how you see the world, not the way the world is…

And just in case we haven’t got who it was he was thinking about…

Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

It is a most extraordinary song of hope, packed with the most brilliant images.  A song that takes the inevitably better future message of “Times they are a changin” and which then tells us what it will feel like.

Take this verse which appears part way through…

Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanour outlaw, chased an’ cheated by pursuit
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Maybe I missed it, but had anyone else thought of writing a folk or pop song like this before?   Had anyone else ever thought of writing a song in the popular style which ended with as much hope and positively as the lines that end this song without actually being overtly religious.

And indeed that is another point about this song: it offers the joyful future of Christian revivalist singing, without any of the religion.

Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing

Writers have commented on this song in many different ways; Rimbaud has been quoted as a source, others see the death of Kennedy as a theme.  Paul Williams called it “Dylan’s Sermon on  the Mount.”  Others get tangled up over when and where the piece was written, trying to find immediate influences and antecedents.   And I agree these are interesting points.  I also went looking for antecedents, but I would stress, not because I thought they were desperately important, but because I like to try to keep the vast number of songs in my head in some sort of order.

So for anyone who wants to go down that route then musically I’ve little doubt that the origin is Chimes of Trinity written in 1895 (if you play the recording do let it run – you’ll hear what I mean in the second half of the verse – from about 1 minutes 5 seconds onwards).

But as ever, the origin of the language and indeed the music, is an academic debate, interesting, and one which I’ll drop into my PhD if I ever finish it, but which can also be used by academics and would-be academics to hide their lack of understanding as to exactly what is going on in the work of art.

Does it matter that Bob lifted the music in part from “Chimes of Trinity”?  No, but it is interesting because it shows us he must have heard “Chimes of Trinity” somewhere – which in turn emphasises the phenomenal range of music that Bob had not only heard but also remembered, but this time.

In my view, and as I have mentioned before, breaking down a work of art into its constituent elements often tells us less than nothing about the work of art. It’s a bit like studying the brick work at St Paul’s Cathedral and expecting to learn something profound about Sir Christopher Wren.   The artist, be she or he a musician, painter, poet, architect, dancer… is creating a work.  A fulsome piece which is offered to anyone willing to look and/or listen and/or be inspired as a means of passing the time of day or perhaps gaining an insight into an aspect of the world today or the world beyond.  That’s what art is.

If we reduce this song to a “meaning” and suggest perhaps that (as Wikipedia has it) it is an “unforgiving storm giving way at the end of the song to a partial lifting of the mist,” then every single element in the song is lost and its glorious language is reduce to doggerel.

Ian Bell, an eminent and highly acclaimed writer, says that the this song is about the fact that liberty exists in many forms, and yet the song is “too over-wrought and self-conscious to be a total success,” I have to disagree.  To return to a point I made much earlier in this series, I am not at all sure that one can say what this song is about, any more than one can say what the Millennium Bridge in London is about.

But I have walked that footbridge between St Pauls and the Tate Modern art gallery countless times, and each time I am completely overwhelmed by my approach either to the cathedral or what was once upon a time a power station.  I can’t describe that walk in any way that might convince another person to do the walk, but it is, for me overpowering.

In short we do not have to be able to explain art to understand its power.  I can of course give you the chord sequence of the song, report on its origins or look in depth at the words, but none of that helps me express to you what this song is.  Your best bet, in my view, is to listen to the recording above.

Also, I don’t recommend you spend long on this cover version but to my mind the arranger and performers have not got the slightest idea of what is going on in the piece. 

Endless debates about where the lyrics “come from” and what they mean are futile, to my mind.  The composition is a work of art which either illuminates your life or it does not.  To me, it most certainly does illuminate.  The sheer beauty, power and hope expressed therein.  Breaking it down into points in a critical debate immediately removes a key part of the essence of the the song.

For me, it was the decision of the self-appointed critics of Dylan’s work around this time to express the meaning in each and every song that led to the collapse into pointlessness of critical reviews of Dylan’s work.  If Dylan wants to make the meaning clear, he is perfectly able to do so – just consider “Masters of War”.  If he wants to give us a set of shimmering images of hope, he can do that.  He can do it because he has this staggering ability with words, and to start analysing the antecedents or meanings in this song shows, I feel, a complete lack of understanding of what not only this art but all art, is about.

Yes such analysis can be interesting as an academic study of antecedents or meanings, but this activity should not be confused with appreciating the music for what it is.

But this is not to say one should not look at individual lines.   The line, “for every hung up person the whole wide universe,” for example, resonates especially as the next three songs Dylan wrote show a certain amount of being hung up – although there again, maybe that was just a coincidence.

The series continues shortly.  If you have been, thank you for reading.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

By Aaron Galbraith; additional thoughts from Tony (sorry Aaron, couldn’t resist)

“Doug had a hit record (“She’s About A Mover”) and I had a hit record (“Like A Rolling Stone”) at the same time (1965). So, we became buddies back then, and we played the same kind of music. We never really broke apart. We always hooked up at certain intervals in our lives.”
–Bob Dylan to Douglas Brinkley, Rolling Stone, May 11, 2009

One such time was in 1972 when Bob joined Sahm for the sessions for his first solo album “Doug Sahm And Band”. He contributed guitar, vocals, harmonica, organ plus a song to the sessions. Eight tracks appeared on the album with Bob’s involvement, a further three tracks from the session appeared on The Sir Douglas Band album “Texas Tornado” the following year. Then in 2005 , five more turned up on “The Genuine Texas Groover” (this is the one to get as it includes the above two albums plus 19 more tracks!).

Dylan’s contributions to “Doug Sahm and Band” are “(Is Anybody Going To) San Antone”, “It’s Gonna Be Easy”, “Poison Love”, “Wallflower”, “Dealer’s Blues”, “Faded Love”, “Blues Stay Away From Me” and “ Me And Paul”.

Here’s “Is anybody going” with Bob on backing vocals…

The three from “Texas Tornado” are “Tennessee Blues”, “Ain’t That Loving You” and “I’ll Be There”.

The five from “The Genuine Texas Groover” are “On The Banks Of The Old Ponchatrain”, “Hey, Good Lookin’”, “Please Mr Sandman”, “Colombus Stockade”, and “The Blues Walked On In”.

Here are just a few more of the best ones from across the three albums. We all know Wallflower so let’s skip that one.

But here’s a cover of Willie Nelson’s Me and Paul with Bob on guitar and harmonica…

And now…

“Tennessee Blues” with Bob on uncredited harmonica

Coming up next is the Hank Williams song “On The Banks Of The Old Ponchatrain”

There are some more great performances with Bob and all are on YouTube if you want to check out “Hey Good Looking” or “Columbus Stockade”.

But I thought I’d save my favourite for last.  With Bob on guitar and vocals, it’s “Blues Stay Away From Me”.

Bob knows the song well, having already performed a run through of the track back in 1965 with Joan Baez at the Savoy Hotel.

Then again in 1987 he broke out the song again (the video says it’s with Tom Petty…but I’m fairly certain it’s Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, although I could be wrong!)

Note from Tony:  Aaron also included Bob Dylan’s cover of Sahm’s biggest hit – which he performed twice, and suggested he’d leave it out of this article so I could use it in my Live Rarities series.   But he’s done the research so it should go into his piece.

Aaron writes: Bob covered Sahm’s biggest hit “She’s About A Mover only twice”…once in 1988 (I think with Sahm on stage)…and again in 2000, following his death in 1999

Now if it is quite a while since you have heard this (and here is Doug singing below) you might feel there is something of a similarity with “Outlaw Blues”.  Or maybe that is just me getting carried away as usual.

And here is the original – this sounds far less like “Outlaw Blues” than Bob’s version, – it was clearly just the way Bob performed it.  And

Ah… the days when 12 bar blues were hits, even when including “hey hey in the lyrics”.

Anyway, both “She’s about a mover” and “Outlaw Blues” were written in 1965. Which came first?  I really don’t know.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the song…

“The song was named the number one ‘Texas’ song by Texas Monthly, also charting at #15 on the UK Singles Chart [which explains why Tony knows it!] With a Vox Continental organ riff provided by Augie Meyers and a soulful vocal by lead singer-guitarist Doug Sahm, the track has a Tex-Mex sound. The regional smash became a breakaway hit, and the recording was used in the soundtracks of the films Echo Park (1986), American Boyfriends (1989), The Doors (1991), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Sorority Boys (2002), and Beautiful Darling (2010).

Previously in this series…

• Bob Dylan: side man. Farina, von Schmidt and Bob
• Dylan with Belafonte, Hester and Big Joe Williams
• Dylan and Barry Goldberg
• Jack Elliott, Geoff Muldaur, Neill Young (plus Carolyn Hester)
• Dylan the sideman: Bromberg, Booker T, Priscilla Jones, David Blue
• Playing with friends in the 80s

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

This article continues from

• Stuck inside of Halifax with the Tombstone Blues Again
• Bob Dylan: The Titanic Tombstone Blues (Part II)
• Bob Dylan And The Tombstone Blues (Part III)
• Bob Dylan and the Tombstone Blues (Part IV)

By Larry Fyffe

A song of comedy from the happy days of youth:

Well, my telephone rang, it would not stop
It's President Kennedy calling me up
He said "My friend Bob, what do we need to make the country grow"
I said "My friend John -  Brigitte Bardot"
(Bob Dylan: I Shall Be Free)

A song of tragedy from the sorrowful days of adulthood – in the song lyrics below, the  singer/songwriter laments the murder of President Kennedy, the first Catholic elected to that position:

The day they killed him, someone said, "Son
The Age of the AntiChrist has just only begun"
(Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul)

Construed it can easily be that some of the US presidents following Kennedy are manifestations of the metonymical AntiChrist as described by an unknown ‘someone’ in the Holy Bible:

Little children, it is the last time
And as ye have heard that AntiChrist shall come
Even now are there many AntiChrists
Whereby we know that it is the last time ....
Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ?
He is AntiChrist, that denies the Father and the Son
(1 John 2: 18, 22)

Words that echo, albeit ambiguously so, in the lines below:

Hush little children ....
The Beatles are coming, they're going to hold your hand
(Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul)

Dylan obfuscates on the matter; nevertheless, it is apparent that President Obama, the first ‘black’ elected to that position, is excluded, like the idealized Kennedy, from the list of possible AntiChrists ruling the New Babylon.

President Obama presents the Medal of Freedom to Bob Dylan at the White House:

There is no doubt that President Obama is the presenter. I know a witness. In the process of being 3D’ed in the White House, behind the seated President stands my bearded nephew Graham Fyffe, son of my twin brother:

US Presidents following Kennedy are Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr,  Obama, Trump.

US Presidents following Kennedy are Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr,  Obama, Trump.

The following song quite surely takes a jab at about-to-be-ousted Pesident Nixon:

While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
But even the President of the United States
Must sometimes have to stand naked
(Bob Dylan: It's Alright Ma)

Carter, a fan of Dylan’s lyrics, mentions the above song in his presidential nomination speech: “We have an America that, in Bob Dylan’s phrase,  is busy being born; not busy dying”  though the precise phrasing is “that he not busy being born is busy dying”.

The lyrics below ponder the role played by Kennedy’s ‘how-many-kids-did-you-kill-today’ replacement:

Airforce One coming in through the gate
Johnson sworn in at two-thirty-eight
(Bob Dylan: Murder Most Foul)

As one might expect, analyst Kees de Gaaf throws down a ‘red herring’ and attempts to interpret the song above as one really about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ rather than about the assassination of President Kennedy.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

Dylan’s promotional videos – the story so far

• An emotionally tight connection in the night.
• The deal, dreaming of you, beyond here lies nothing.
• Must be Santa, Drummer Boy, Duquesne, the noir
• Sweetheart, Clean Cut Kid, Jokerman, Neil Young

For this instalment let’s take a look at a handful of videos from the Oh Mercy and Under The Red Sky albums.

First up it’s Political World, directed by John Mellencamp.

Dylan is playing at a dinner for rich (mostly white) ageing politicians, sheikhs, dictators and kings. There are woman there but they mostly seem bored to start with, until one of the rich guys starts to talk to them. Looks like money changes hands and lots of shady deals are going on around the tables. Then people start dancing to the music (the guys are very bad dancers). I guess no one is listening to the words Dylan sings!

We live in a political world
The one we can see and feel
But there's no one to check
It's all a stacked deck
We all know for sure that it's real

Moving on to our second offering from Oh Mercy, here is Most Of The Time.

This one is a fairly straight forward performance video, but it has a few things of note. Firstly, it is a new version, recorded live as the cameras roll. I’m not sure anyone else ever attempted that before. I have a feeling that McCartney might have done it but I’m not sure. So that’s pretty cool.

Secondly, it was directed by Bob’s son Jesse Dylan. Which is also pretty cool. Jesse finds some interesting angles at time and I think the lightning is stunning. Bob looks pretty cool also, certainly better than the baggy old t-shirt look he went for in the Political World clip!

Next up, we present Unbelievable from Under The Red Sky.

This one was directed by Paris Barclay and co starred a young Molly Ringwald. Paris Barclay is a highly respected TV director, winning two Emmys and directing episodes of (amongst others), West Wing, Lost, House, CSI and Glee. He also directed music videos for New Kids On The Block, Janet Jackson and LL Cool J.

The main story involves a young man chatting up a girl in a bar, he gets beat up, they go to a motel room and then she runs off with his car and money. Fairly standard music video fare. But then you introduce the Bob stuff and that’s when it gets weird and interesting!

Bob is some kind of chauffeur driving around the desert with a pig in the back, stopping every so often to play guitar on the bonnet of the car. Bob looks really cool in this video!

Last one up is this video for Series Of Dreams

I actually wasn’t going to include this one as my memory of it was flawed. I remembered it as just being a series of still pictures. But then I watched it back recently and was amazed by how well it was put together. It works extremely well for me. It’s fantastic.

Tony: In the past I’ve been jumping in with my comments all the way through, but I’ve realised (as I suspect is apparent) with these videos that I am obviously not the audience for whom they were made.  Mostly they distract from the music for me, which no matter how many times I have listened to the track, is where I focus.

Except… I really wanted to (and have) re-run the video of Series of Dreams.   Several times.  To me this is way, way beyond all the other videos we’ve looked at.   It is entertaining and clever in a way that holds my attention throughout.   The use of images grabs me by the throat and won’t let go – I am forever wondering how each can be made to fit with the music, how each was done, the clashing of images…  It all reflects the lyrics of the song, but without being forced and never doing the obvious.   It would have been so simple to use mists or shots from the era when it was written, but no… this takes us all over the place.  The lyrics say “from another world” and that is what the video gives us.

This to me is what music videos should do – they should challenge us, push us forward and back, make us rethink, make us listen as we have never before, make us hear the music in another way, make us understand what the composer was doing.

Of course it is helped by being a fantastic piece of music – but for me it has just become even more wonderful.   Utterly brilliant.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

Previously in this series

• She Belongs To Me (1965): I – No colours anymore
• She Belongs To Me (1965) part II: Images which have got to come out

by Jochen Markhorst

III         Walking in darkness

The third verse illustrates, almost in so many words, that the title should actually be read as “I Belong To Her” or at least as “She Belongs To No One”;

She never stumbles
She’s got no place to fall
She’s nobody’s child
The Law can’t touch her at all

Choice of words suggests that Odetta’s “Stranger Here” contributed not only to number 5 of Side A, “Outlaw Blues”, but even more so to “She Belongs To Me” –

Ain't it hard to stumble
When you got no place to fall
Stranger here
Stranger everywhere
I would go home
But honey I'm a stranger

… though Harry Belafonte’s arrangement of the song might be a better candidate. As with the next song on Bringing It All Back Home, “Maggie’s Farm”, which owes the opening words to Belafonte’s performance of “Diamond Joe” (“Ain’t gonna work in the country / And neither on Forester’s farm”), the similarity is too remarkable to be coincidental. Harry’s version is called “The Way That I Feel” and has largely the same words:

It sure is hard to stumble down 
    when you ain't got no place to fall
Seems like in the whole wide world I ain't got no place at all
Well I'm feeling like a stranger here
I feel like a stranger everywhere

It can be found on the beautiful album Belafonte Sings The Blues (1958), of which the track list alone suggests that Dylan cherishes this album. It contains, for example, “Cotton Fields”, the song Dylan declares being his personal Big Bang, in his Nobel Prize speech:

“And somebody – somebody I’d never seen before – handed me a Leadbelly record with the song “Cottonfields” on it. And that record changed my life right then and there. Transported me into a world I’d never known. It was like an explosion went off. Like I’d been walking in darkness and all of the sudden the darkness was illuminated. It was like somebody laid hands on me. I must have played that record a hundred times.”

Furthermore, “Mary Ann” and “Sinner’s Prayers”, of which echoes will descend later in Dylan’s “If You Ever Go To Houston” (Together Through Life, 2009); “One For My Baby”, the most quoted song in Dylan’s oeuvre (quotations and paraphrases from this song can be heard in at least six Dylan songs); and especially “Fare Thee Well”, or also “Dink’s Song”, which is on Dylan’s repertoire as well. The King Of Calypso’s version, by the way, is a crushingly beautiful version.

“Nobody’s child” and “The Law can’t touch her” reinforce the image of the untouchable lady who certainly does not belong to anyone.

The expression nobody’s child is quite unusual in the art of song. Dylan may know it from the antique “Limehouse Blues”, the old jazz standard that could be found in his record case in the bluegrass performance of Reno and Smiley (1954);

Oh, Limehouse kid
Goin' the way
That the rest of them did
Poor broken blossom
And nobody's child
Haunting and taunting
You're just kind of wild.

But more likely Dylan knows it as a song title; one of his heroes, Hank Snow, recorded it in 1949 and with the Traveling Wilbury’s Dylan will record it in 1990. It may also have been a suggestion by George Harrison, though; in 1961 The Beatles, as an accompaniment band, record “Nobody’s Child” with Tony Sheridan (released in 1964 as a B-side for “Ain’t She Sweet”) – without Harrison, so maybe George felt a need to catch up.

Being “outside the law” appears in many songs, even in amorous contexts (such as in Al Hibbler’s “You Will Be Mine”, 1955; But a woman in love, she’s above the law), but remarkable here is Dylan writing the word “Law” with a capital. No mistake; from the first edition of Writings & Drawings, in all editions of Lyrics, and on the site, law is capitalised. The connotation is Biblical, or more specifically; the five books of Moses, which the Jews call the “Torah” – “the Law”, so with a capital letter, or “the Law of Moses”, the most important books of the Jewish religion.

It is a deliberate action, writing with a capital letter, and the Jewish Dylan, who did have lessons from a rabbi in the run-up to his bar mitzvah, undoubtedly knows the meaning of the word Law with a capital letter. It does not lead, however, to a subsequent, unambiguous conclusion regarding the lady described in this verse. A shiksa, a non-Jewish woman, would be obvious, but the opposite is more attractive: Jewish, but so independent and self-willed that even Moses’ authority is not acknowledged by her.

In line with this is the other striking capital letter, the capital letter in Dylan’s instructive art confession in the liner notes: I am about t sketch You a picture. From a linguistic point of view this is only correct as reverential capitalisation, only if the writer wants to refer to God. In this case, at this point in Dylan’s career, it is more likely that the poet uses it ironically, but Christian Dylanologists, a not insignificant faction of the dogged key-seekers, will gladly see it as a profession of faith. “All my creations are at the service of Your glory,” something like that.

The fourth stanza, then, is the verse with the famous Baez trigger.

She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She’s a hypnotist collector
You are a walking antique

… officially a Baez reference since Robert Shelton’s 1986 book, No Direction Home – The Life & Music Of Bob Dylan:

“I looked down at Joan’s Egyptian ring. “Is that a little gift from a pharaoh in Cairo?” Joan laughed: “Yes, it’s the funniest thing. The fact of the matter is that… Well, that’s supposed to be a secret. Anyway, it’s in the song.”

But Shelton, in addition to all the enviable contacts and with all his talent, also demonstrates in his Dylan interviews a susceptibility to red herrings and is quite keen on assumed hidden codes. Dylan seems to enjoy sending him into the woods, and Baez is not averse to pulling a prank either, as we know. At any rate, in her autobiography she does reveal that Dylan is far from attentive and never gives presents. Except for that one time:

“I told Sara that I’d never found Bob to be much at giving gifts, but that he had once bought me a green corduroy coat, and had told me to keep a lovely blue nightgown from the Woodstock house. “Oh!” said Sara, “that’s where it went!””

… which, incidentally, is consistent with the testimonies of other women in Dylan’s life. Ruth Tyrangiel goes public in 1994 with a lawsuit against Dylan. She alleges to have had a relationship with Dylan for seventeen years, from 1974 to 1991, claiming five million dollars in a so-called palimony lawsuit. She declares that in those seventeen years she had received a gift twice: one time a rose, another time a tangerine.

Okay, a little weird, but still: both Tyrangiel’s statement and Baez’s revelation make it all the more unlikely that Dylan would ever have gifted something as precious and symbolic as a ring to Baez. Nevertheless, it is of course quite possible that a sparkling ring on Baez’ hand is one of those images which are just in there and have got to come out. And it gives the lyrics an attractive mystical sheen, just like the continuation with the beautiful catachreses, with the unknown word combinations “hypnotist collector” and “walking antique”. Code crackers then find explanations like “Joan Baez is the frontwoman of naive political folkies, lying at her feet like hypnotised sheep”.

No, then perhaps John Cale does have a better point. In 2004, when he is a guest on the legendary BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs, the programme in which the guest has to choose the eight records he would take with him to a life on a desert island, the Velvet Underground co-founder’s first choice is “She Belongs To Me”. The record is introduced with Cale’s stories about his arrival in New York, Andy Warhol and his Factory, and the “screen tests” to which each Factory guest had to submit.

“Bob Dylan. Anybody who came by had to sit for a screentest, as it was called. And he was the only one who got up and walked off. Everybody else sat there for six minutes, but after about two he said, that’s it, I’m …”

“We better have your first record, ’cause it’s him, isn’t it. Why did you want to take this one?”

“Well, everybody was looking sideways at Bob because they were astonished at all this power that was coming out of his lyrics. And we knew that Nico had just come down to be a member of the band and she used to hang out with Bob in Woodstock. So when this song came along everybody looked at each other and said, wait a minute, this is about somebody we know.”

Photographs from that time do confirm that Nico usually wears large, flashy rings with mystical symbols and antique looking shapes. As on the cover of her debut album Chelsea Girl (1967, with Dylan’s “I’ll Keep It With Mine” on it). And from Nico, the frontwoman of the avant-garde, one indeed can say: She’s an artist, she don’t look back.

In conclusion, the guest, the castaway, must appoint the special one from the eight favourites, the one he’d pick if he had only been allowed to choose one song.

“Now, John, if you could only take one of those eight records – which one would you take?”
“I think I’d take the Bob Dylan.”
“She Belongs To Me…”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“For remembering Nico too, hm?”
“No, it’s more of Bob and…. the rusty voice of his, that’s really… A lot of character in it.”

——————-

 To be continued. Next up: She Belongs To Me part IV: Marie is only six years old

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books 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

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

by Larry Fyffe

This article continues from

• Stuck inside of Halifax with the Tombstone Blues Again
• Bob Dylan: The Titanic Tombstone Blues (Part II)
• Bob Dylan And The Tombstone Blues (Part III)

Buried be they in a Nova Scotian graveyard – a number of passengers (including Luigi Gotti of the ‘Ala Carte’ restaurant) who die when the White Star ocean liner ‘Titanic’ sinks into the icy waters of the North Atlantic.

By an American poet – a pacifist who turns antifascist:

Down, down, down, into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, and the kind
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned
(Edna Malley: Dirge Without Music)

More specific be the reference to the sinking of the ‘Titanic’ in the following song:

When the Reaper's task had ended
Sixteen hundred had gone to rest
The good, the bad, the rich, the poor
The lovliest, and the best
(Bob Dylan: Tempest)

The liner ‘Olympic’ suffers not such a tragic fate. By way of analogy, according to Greek/Roman mythology, the Olympians overthrow the Titans. Zeus becomes the chief of the Olympian gods and goddesses. As the God of Thunder and Lightning, he overpowers the Giants, but not the Judeo-Christian God – not even Jesus Christ comes to rescue the travellers aboard the ‘Titanic’:

When they were building the Titanic
They said what they could do
They were going to build a ship
That the water could not go through
But God with mighty hand
Showed the world that it could not stand
It was sad when that great ship went down
(Ernest Stoneman: The Titanic ~ traditional)

In the song ‘Tempest’, for instance, had imaginary time-traveller Bob Dylan, or at least his persona, instead of turning quite leisurely away from the disaster, persuaded, or perhaps tricked, Zeus into smashing  the iceberg to pieces before it strikes the ‘Titanic’, how might history have  turned out?

For one thing, the American singer/songwriter would have no actual historical event to inspire the following lyrics:

The ship was going under
The universe had opened wide
The role was called up yonder
The angels turned aside
(Bob Dylan: Tempest)

Nor to inspire the lines below addressed to the Olympian ruler of the water world:

Praise be to Nero's Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
Everyone's shouting
"Which side are you on?"
(Bob Dylan: Desolation Row)

And the hyperbolic poet from Nova Scotia would not have penned the lines below in which the mighty iceberg becomes an objective correlative for the marble-hearted God of modern times:

We'd rather have the iceberg than the ship
Although it meant the end to travel
Although it stood stock-still like cloudy rock
And all the sea were moving marble
(Elizabeth Bishop: The Imaginary Iceberg)

And Jack Dawson would not have had to sacrifice himself in to order to save lovely Rose in the previously-referenced film by Canadian James Cameron:

In the movie, Jack says:

“I don’t know about you, but I intend to write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about this”.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

A list of earlier episodes of this series appears at the end of the article.

By Tony Attwood

Bob Dylan ended 1962 by writing three highly exploratory songs.  Hero Blues puts forward the proposition that one should be wary when your girlfriend loves you because you are famous.   The Ballad of the Gliding Swan says that life can throw up every surprise at you, but life still goes on.   While the final song of the year, Whatcha Gonna Do? was an unlikely venture in that it asks how we will be placed at the time of the second coming.

But unlikely though that final work may be for a young man, the music overall is stunning. Having started the year with a truly remarkable blues in terms of Ballad for a Friend, Bob ends it with something of almost the same stature.

By my rough and ready calculation Dylan had written on the following themes in the previous year

• Protest / social commentary / civil rights: 9 songs
• Lost love / leaving / moving on: 8 songs
• Change: 5 songs
• Blues: 3 songs
• Comedy: 3 songs
• Moving on, gambling: 2 songs
• The way we see the world: 2 songs
• Love / desire: 2 songs
• Do the right thing: 1 song

These are of course approximate totals – merely a guide to the type of lyrics that Dylan was writing, and one can always argue about the central message of this or that particular song.  But although approximate it is nonetheless interesting because his key themes were still there at the start of the new year; a new year which began with five songs that fitted completely into those top two categories of protest and lost love.

But we must step back a little for at the end of 1962 Dylan gained another valuable and insightful experience, which was going to benefit his songwriting enormously; an experience that came through Philip Saville who had heard Bob perform in Greenwich Village.

Philip Saville had become known in England as an actor before becoming a screenwriter and then a man whom the British Film Institute’s website calls “one of Britain’s most prolific and pioneering television and film directors”.  At the time he saw Dylan he was working on the TV series “Armchair Theatre” – although to UK audiences he is best remembered for his later work with the series “Boys from the Blackstuff”.

It should also be remembered that at this time British television had developed in a very different way from that in America, with only two channels licensed by the government, the commercial ITV and the non-commercial BBC (the third channel, BBC2 still being a couple of years away).  Therefore audiences for both channels were huge and appearances even by unknown artists would always generate a lot of interest and comment.

Philip Saville invited Bob to perform three songs in a live TV drama “Madhouse on Castle Street”.   “Blowin’ in the Wind” was used at the start and the end of the programme over the credits.  Dylan also performed two traditional English folk songs, “Hang Me, O Hang Me”, and “Cuckoo Bird”, and then “Ballad of the Gliding Swan” for which Saville had written the words (but which, it is said, Dylan changed during the actual performance).

Philip Saville had heard Dylan singing “Blowin’ in the Wind” one morning while Dylan was staying in his house.  On that basis the arrangement to use Dylan was made.

The programme might have been just a footnote to Dylan’s extraordinary work in 1962 were it not for  the fact that while in London Dylan spent time also visiting the clubs in what was now a very vibrant folk scene.  Here, traditional songs, contemporary re-writes and newly created pieces in the British folk style were performed one after the other and through visiting the clubs Dylan got to know people such as Martin Carthy (pictured left, now Martin Carthy MBE in recognition of his lifetime’s work) and Bob Davenport.

Martin Carthy is reported to have taught Bob Dylan his arrangement of “Scarborough Fair” which Bob then re-worked as it became the basis of “Girl from the North Country“.  Another well-known British folk song “Lady Franklin’s Lament” that Martin Carthy taught Dylan became the melody for “Bob Dylan’s Dream”.

https://youtu.be/l1NgNpeyU80

If you have never heard Lord Franklin I would (if I may) urge you to listen to the recording below.  I have had several occasions over the years where I have invited friends who know Dylan’s work but who don’t know the song to listen to it, and mouths do tend to drop open.

Bob then went on to Italy, and during these travels wrote “Masters of War” which was quickly followed by Boots of Spanish Leather and Bob Dylan’s Dream

This was an extraordinary outpouring of songs, and yet it was just the start for in this year Dylan wrote 31 songs.   And while this was slightly fewer than the previous year, many more of the 1963 songs have reached a stature such that even casual Dylan fans will know them.   Indeed when one remembers that this year included the creation of not just the four songs mentioned above but also “Davey Moore”, “Seven Curses”, “With God on our Side”, “Only a pawn”, “North Country Blues”, “When the ship comes in”, “Times they are a changing”, “Hattie Carroll” “One to many mornings” and “Restless Farewell,” you can see what a creative explosion was happening here.  And those are just  the songs I’ve picked out as the ones I can instantly recall from this year without looking them up on Untold Dylan!  As we’ll see there are many more.

After returning to New York in January 1963 Bob wrote a collection of songs for Broadside, which also published “Masters of War” among others, as Bob turned his attention back to finishing what was become Freewheelin, now working with Tom Wilson as producer.

By April the album’s recordings were completed and Dylan’s fame had reached such a level that he was booked into the Ed Sullivan Show.  Here he decided to perform Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues which he had written the previous year and which was initially scheduled for inclusion in Freewheelin’.  There were however concerns that the John Birch Society might sue for libel, (and interesting thought from a 21st century perspective) and as a result of the arguments the song was dropped from Freewheelin, and Dylan did not appear on the Ed Sullivan show.   Commentators have spent quite a bit of time bickering with each other as to which came first – the dropping of the song from the album or the  refusal to appear on TV, but I must admit I personally find such matters of little importance.   In reality there was a huge amount of chopping and changing of the songs for Freewheelin going on irrespective of the John Birch issue, simply because Dylan was writing more and more songs of significant artistic merit.   And when the album was most certainly going to include “Don’t think twice” and “Blowing in the Wind”, along with “Hard Rain,” no one could surely think there was going to be much to worry about in terms of sales.

Indeed as the tracks were pulled together it must have been obvious to everyone what an extraordinary album was being created, for apart from those tracks it was by now clear that the album also had to include “Girl from the North Country”, and “Masters of War.” No matter what the other tracks were that collection was surely more than enough to keep audiences gaping in amazement.

But then as if to suggest that maybe those brilliant songs were not quite enough Dylan then also produced Bob Dylan’s Dream, and made it one of the most evocative pieces imaginable, especially for those who did not know the original.  It sounds as if it should have been written by an old man, or at least a man of middle age looking back on his life, but this is the young Dylan showing an utter maturity in his writing (even if it was re-writing of a traditional song) that is remarkable for his age.

Indeed, the “Dream” makes me think of Ballad for a friend – not because they are musically alike, but because of the maturity both of the music and the thought behind the song.  These songs sound as if Dylan had had his life and was looking back with fondness and sadness – and yet he was only just starting out.

Of course many will interrupt here and say but “he merely copied the music, the feel and the style of the original,” and yes, he has copied that folk song.  But the fact is anyone could have done this at any time and brought Lord Franklin into the contemporary world, yet no one else did.  There was, before Dylan, very little crossover between the phenomenally rich world of British folk songs, and contemporary audiences.  Martin Carthy and others kept the traditions alive and brought them to a new audience in the 1960s and thereafter, and for that those folk singers deserve our undying thanks, but it was Dylan who introduced a world-wide audience to this heritage.

The level of emotion in Dylan’s song is quite extraordinary; it is one of those songs that above all others has stayed with me from my young days when I heard it, not appreciating what it could be like to look back on a life where so many friends have now been lost.  Now I know, it hits me even harder.

But in terms of the writing, and leaving aside debates about what to put on the album, Dylan continued composing, going back to his own folk roots with Only a Hobo, before suddenly taking off in an utterly different direction with a song about boxing (a subject that was hardly on the agenda for the socially conscious young rebel) with Who killed Davey Moore?  one more based on the English traditions – this coming from the 18th century (if not earlier).  Indeed of that song one can also say not just “who writes songs about boxing?” but also, “who writes a contemporary song using Who killed cock robin?”

What also strikes me, and not for the first time, is that in this one year Dylan produced not only what would have been five years or more’s worth of composition, but he was so varied in his writing, for he then took in the theme of desolation with Seven Curses and then goes into desperation and hopelessness with God on our Side.

Quite how the young Dylan could jump from subject to subject I am not sure; I think in the end I just have to use the get out word, “genius”.  Yes he was borrowing themes and music from classic folk music, but even so… for before we can blink he is telling us in Eternal Circle that there is nothing we can do, for nothing ever changes.

This is, no matter which way you look at it an incredible tour de force.  Not just because Dylan wrote 20 glorious, memorable songs during the course of one year, but because in doing that he jumps from subject to subject to subject, from style to style, from subject to subject, to…

And, if you are still not convinced, consider what happens next, for now he suddenly diverts his talent once again and creates (or revises, opinions disagree on the dating of this song, just as the do on the implication and meaning) Gypsy Lou – a song which has caused a huge amount of debate during the years of creating this site.  And then we are travelling in another direction by suddenly taking in a Biblical theme with When the ship comes in.

The positivism of When the Ship undoubtedly paved the way for The Times they are a-Changing which goes back to the notion found in “Paths of Victory,” proclaiming that the future will be fine, just let it happen.  (Although many people have insisted in seeing Times as a call for the young to rise up, the lyrics actually suggest no such thing.  According to this song, it’s just going to happen and there’s nothing you can do.)

Indeed in many ways these songs are a very curious mix.  In the songs that led up to “Times” Dylan was upbeat with the metaphorical ship soon to be coming in, and then in Eternal Circle Dylan is telling us nothing can change and that we are all just stuck in our own circumstances – we are all pawns in their game.

The only implication I can take from this is that just as the songs are not coded messages (as many to this day, do insist that they are) they are also most certainly not a series of instructions on how to see the world.   Indeed while writing this piece I have read Jochen’s excellent article on this site in which he highlights the nonsense of claiming that “Louise in “Visions Of Johanna” is “actually” his wife Sara, and Johanna is “actually” the absent Joan Baez.”  Jochen describes these as “One-dimensional, superficial interpretations generally, which are, in fact, repeatedly refuted by the poet himself…”  Quite so, in my view.

And I would add to that view, the fact that Dylan’s ability to write about so many different topics in so many different ways adds to the inevitable view that Dylan is not offering us a unified view of the world but rather a set of constantly varying views.  What’s more, fully to understand Dylan we really do have to stop and consider the fact that Dylan is not writing all these songs because he believes in what the song says.  No more, indeed, than a novelist or writer of a film script believes in the story that he writes.  The storyteller tells stories because he/she likes telling stories, and finds it fun and can do it well.  The storyteller does not have to preach in each story – stories can be told for the enjoyment of others.  Story tellers tell stories (in my experience as an author myself) because they are good at it and from time to time readers or listeners are kind enough to say that they have enjoyed the work.

Thus I would argue (and although I haven’t checked with Jochen, I rather suspect he feels this also) that many commentators have tied themselves up in knots trying to explain each Dylan song in terms of one consistent moral code or vision of the world.

Times they are a changing tells us that the new, wonderful, vibrant, brilliant future is just around the corner and is going to happen no matter what we do, whereas Hollis Brown tells us the world is falling apart and the level of human misery our socio-economic system continues to generate is appalling.  Indeed at the risk of becoming incredibly boring, allow me just once more to make the point that on the Times they are a changing album most of the songs tell us that times are very much not changing by human design or God’s grand plan.   Not every Dylan song has a heart-felt message tucked away inside it, any more than does every piece of modern visual art, nor every piece of contemporary orchestral music.

Of course being Dylan, immediately he has started to explore such themes and contradictions as are in Eternal Circle and Times they are a changing, he’s back pulling at every emotional heart string and political sense of fair play with The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll before taking us into the world of nature with Lay Down your Weary Tune

And finally as if all this were not enough he then comes up with what I consider to be one of the greatest songs of leaving written in the 20th century: Restless Farewell, a song based on the Irish ballad “The Parting Glass”.

What is it, I therefore feel we must ask, that drives Dylan through this extraordinary creative output?

Of course he did have a strong engagement with the protest movement and with civil rights, I am not denying that.  Of course he was deeply concerned about the well-being of the rural poor through his upbringing, although he had been considering the urban poor in New York in his time there.  Of course he is concerned about justice.   But throughout all this there are two other factors we must acknowledge.  First Dylan is a natural storyteller, and second Dylan now has access to and knowledge of the vast wealth of music that is the Scottish, Irish and English folk traditions.  He knows the songs, he knows the themes, and he knows how to bring them into the modern day.

“Restless Farewell” is one of the absolute masterpieces of the early years of Dylan’s writing – a song written quickly as the whole message poured out of him, a song about getting up and being on the road once again.  It is a song that is a picture; a picture as powerful as anything he had produced up to this point.  A song as magnificent in its achievement as “Ballad for a Friend”, “Hard Rain” and “Bob Dylan’s Dream.”  Indeed if all he had ever achieved had been those four songs he should have been remembered as one of the great songwriters of the 20th century.  But even in this one year there was so much more.

That recording above, for the Sinatra concert, shows the absolute power and insight of this song.  This version is so very different from the original, but it adds even more power to the piece than the original.

So what we have here is a man drawing on many different sources of inspiration, and seemingly quite capable of being able to shift from one musical source to another as well as one lyrical theme to another, and all within a matter of days.  A man who can write songs that he himself can rearrange weeks, months or years later and find new and even deeper meanings reflecting his own life as well as those of a musician he admires.

Consider, for example, this much earlier version of Restless Farewell

Looking at the list of songs for this year one can fully understand why Dylan became rather fed up with being pigeon holed as a “protest singer”, because such utter masterpieces as “Dream”, “Ballad for a Friend” and “Restless Farewell” are not protest songs. To call him a protest singer is to ignore these early pinnacles of Dylan’s achievement; these early expressions of his genius.

What is missing in this year is much of a Robert Johnson input – although it would soon return.  Probably it went because Bob really was continuing to move in every direction at once.  And it was through this multi-directional approach that we do see the flowering of the songs of sadness and regret for what has been left behind, and what must be left behind.

Whichever way you look at Dylan in 1963, it was the most incredible, awesome achievement to produce not just this many brilliant songs, but this many songs in such diverse forms and with such diverse visions of the world.

Earlier in this series…

• A song is like a painting, you can’t see it all if you’re standing too close
• All directions at once: How Dylan’s lyrics empower those who wish to be empowered
• All directions at once: The prelude to the explosion
• All directions at once: The explosion (1962).
• All directions at once: Making a name, getting known, arguing about copyright

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

Previously in this series: She Belongs To Me (1965): I – No colours anymore

by Jochen Markhorst

II          Images which have got to come out

Those liner notes on Bringing It All Back Home should be a goldmine for the key-seeking Dylanologist, but most exegetes prefer to ignore them. After all, the most honest lines in them, I am about t sketch You a picture of what goes on around here sometimes. tho I don’t understand too well myself what’s really happening, do demythologise Dylan’s poetry quite a bit. To the dissatisfaction of the puzzling Dylanologist with crypto-analytic ambition, it is a fairly unambiguous art statement from a thoroughbred Impressionist.

Although there is no uncontroversial definition of “impressionism”, we do agree on its essence: the artistic expression of an impressionist is a notion, an impression of a moment. “Volatility” is another characteristic, and Renoir’s paintings, for example, illustrate this perfectly; paintings with the vagueness and ephemerality of a photograph taken from a passing car. Paintings that capture a blurred impression of a moment – seems like a freeze-out, as Dylan initially will call “Visions Of Johanna”, written shortly after “She Belongs To Me”.

In any case, “a nonunderstanding sketch of what is happening here”, the somewhat more cumbersome way of saying “impression”, does indeed seem to be an adequate choice of words to describe his own poetry, certainly that of these mid-sixties.

What the poet does perceive, which event does provide the impressions, the poet discloses right at the beginning of those revealing liner notes: “i’m standing here watching the parade”. Which is, added to the “sketch confession”, rather consistent with the observation that songs like “Just Like A Woman”, “Visions Of Johanna”, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” and “Farewell Angelina”, to name but a few, are collage songs, sketchy images of the parade that goes on around here sometimes.

Such a vision clashes with the vision of interpreters who are so eager to explain that the lyrics are in fact one coded narrative, telling one life fact or event from the life of the human Dylan. And then – for example – argue that Louise in “Visions Of Johanna” is “actually” his wife Sara, and Johanna is “actually” the absent Joan Baez. One-dimensional, superficial interpretations generally, which are, in fact, repeatedly refuted by the poet himself – whatever that may be worth.

Most emotionally at that eruption from the stage in England, in the Royal Albert Hall, 27 May 1966: “I’m sick of people asking what does it mean. It means nothing!” And equally convincing in calm interviews, such as in the captivating SongTalk interview with Paul Zollo (April 1991), when the interviewer wants a reaction to another high point of the mercury years, to “Absolutely Sweet Marie”, and then specifically to that one verse I stand here looking at your yellow railroad in the ruins of your balcony. That’s just true, Dylan says at first, “Every single letter in that line. It’s all true. On a literal and on an escapist level,” to come back to it a little later:

“So you must make yourself observe whatever. But most of the time it hits you. You don’t have to observe. It hits you. Like “yellow railroad” could have been a blinding day when the sun was so bright on a railroad someplace and it stayed on my mind.  These aren’t contrived images. These are images which are just in there and have got to come out. You know, if it’s in there it’s got to come out.”

… words of a full-blooded Impressionist. Spoken a quarter of a century after those liner notes from Bringing It All Back Home – at the very least, these code-crackers and key seekers could consider taking the words of the artist himself just a tiny bit seriously. And if not, the words the poet spoke, again a quarter of a century hereafter, at the Nobel Prize speech 2017:

“I don’t have to know what a song means. I’ve written all kinds of things into my songs. And I’m not going to worry about it – what it all means.”

It is not that difficult, after all, to take the sobering self-analysis of the poet a bit seriously; both the characterization “sketched observations of fleeting impressions” and the self-analysis “images which are just in there and have got to come out” fit wonderfully well on most of his lyrics.

The same could apply for the tremendous number 2 of Bringing It All Back Home, for “She Belongs To Me”. The communis opinio seems to be that Dylan sings Joan Baez here. Gray, Shelton, Heylin… they all feed the thought that is being expressed even more widely on fan forums: Dylan once gave Baez an “Egyptian ring” (whatever that may be) and therefore this song must be about her.

It is, apart from rather thin evidence, a somewhat ludicrous statement. Not only does such a sentimental “interpretation” trivialise the lyrics, it is also difficult to keep the statement upright if you do take it seriously and put the other lines of text next to it. The opening, to begin with:

She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist, she don’t look back
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black

The only words that could apply to Baez here are “she” and “artist”. As for the rest, for the narrative content of the verse lines: it is quite difficult to maintain that they have any relationship with the Queen of Folk. As a certified fighter for the Righteous Cause, Baez is constantly protesting, is at the forefront of demonstrations and protest meetings and lends herself at least once a week to the dernier cri du coeur. No, she is not really a lady who got everything she needs.

Equally inappropriate is the qualification she don’t look back. Three-quarters of Baez’s repertoire consists of reinterpretations of ancient songs, by now she has already written memoirs twice and she is by no means a progressive, avant-garde artist – one of her few good self-written songs is “Diamonds And Rust”, which is reflecting and looking back all the way.

Finally, the paint it black lines can at best be interpreted as a far-fetched, ironic reversal on Baez. Whatever else one may think of her, she is undeniably an angelic appearance with an ethereal, vibrating soprano – more of a light-bringer than an eclipse. Dylan himself would agree on that, as can be deduced from his autobiography Chronicles; “She had the fire,” he says, and “a voice that drove out bad spirits.” The opposite, in short, of a creature that darkens the daylight.

On the other hand, already the title is an ironic reversal, as the second verse shows;

You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole
Down upon your knees

… this storyteller cannot claim with a straight face that she belongs to me – on the contrary, he is the slavish part of this dubious relationship, allows himself to be forced to his knees and also reduces himself figuratively by fulfilling her immoral desires, to steal anything she sees.

The contrast hereto, the dominant, unassailable opponent, is bluntly painted in the next verse.

To be continued. Next up: She Belongs To Me part III: Walking in darkness

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books 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

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

by Tony Attwood

There are over 40 previous articles in the “Why does Dylan like” series and they are indexed here.

“Lady came from Baltimore” has been on my list of Dylan rarities to write about for some time, but for me it comes with baggage.  Nothing personal at all, but simply the tragedy of an oh so talented composer.

In my youth I loved the music of Tim Hardin – his first album had “Reason to Believe” as the opener on side two, and when I started to perform in folk clubs some years later I always sang this.  It simply was the type of song I always wanted to be able to write – something so clear and simple and yet so magical – but at the same time musically it just is so different from everything else in the repertoire.

Indeed it is one of the most powerful short songs I have ever come across – how he puts across so much in such a short song is completely beyond me.  Although that unexpected chord change at the start of line three has a lot to do with it.

If I listen long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true
Knowing, that you lied, straight-faced
While I cried 
But still I'd look to find a reason to believe...
Someone like you makes it hard to live
Without, somebody else
Someone like you, makes it easy to give
Never think of myself

If I gave you time to change my mind 
I'd find a way to leave the past behind
Knowing that you lied, straight-faced
While I cried
But still I'd look to find a reason to believe...

If I listen long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe it's all true
Knowing that you lied, straight-faced
While I cried
Still I'd look to find a reason to believe...

Tim Hardin’s second album included his song, “If I Were a Carpenter” which surely everyone knows, and also therein is “Lady came from Baltimore”.

According to Dick Weissman’s book, “Which side are you on?: an inside history of the folk music revival in America” the song was written about his courtship and marriage to actress Susan Morss.

According to Bob Dylan Tour stats Bob performed this song twice on 6 and 13 April 1994.

It is a beautiful and delicate song, just like so many of Tim Hardin’s pieces.

Here is Tim Hardin

Tragically Tim Hardin died of a heroin overdose on 29 December 1980.  Here’s Reason to Believe.  It still after all these years has that same emotional pull…

Now to help me recover, something utterly different.  Trail of the buffalo

Bob played this 43 times in in 1991 and 1992.   It has of course turned up in many forms including with the name “The Buffalo Skinners” and “The Hills of Mexico”, telling the tale of a buffalo hunt in 1893 – or perhaps it was 1873.

As for why Bob likes this, apart from it being a reflection of a core part of American history, and the song allows the singer to deliver a full-on solo, without it sounding like anything else.

And moving on to the final selection…  Confidential.

Confidential was played 12 times by Dylan between 1989 and 1995.  It was written by Dorlinda Morgan in 1955, by which time she had been writing songs for some 25 years with tracks recorded by Ray Charles, Louis Jordan, and many others.  Dorlinda Morgan passed away in 1988.

This song was Sonny Knight’s biggest hit although he is noting for also writing The Day the Music Died, under his real name Joseph Coleman Smith a fictionalised account of racism in the American music business in the 1950s.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

This article continues from

• Stuck inside of Halifax with the Tombstone Blues Again
• Bob Dylan: The Titanic Tombstone Blues (Part II)

By Larry Fyffe

The Untold Office received a call back from Bob Dylan in which he apologizes for not telling the whole truth about his time-travel journey back to the Titantic right before the steamer slams into the iceberg. “Scotty never beamed me up”, he says.

“I didn’t want anyone to know that I had violated ‘the Prime Directive’ not to interfere in past history when coming from future times”, he explains. And the songster adds that what really went down is encoded in the lyrics of “Romance In Durango”:

Sold my guitar to the baker's son
For a few crumbs of bread, and a place to hide
But I can get another one
And I'll play for Magdalena as we ride

(Bob Dylan: Romance In Durango ~ Dylan/Levy)

Tells ‘Untold’ that Luigi Gatti is the manager of a high class restaurant on the Titanic, and that the restaurateur wants to buy a gift for his son Victor back in England, and so the singer/songwriter sells ‘the baker’ his guitar. Says Dylan, “He hides me on a lifeboat in which, purely by coincidence, ‘Jack’ Astor is able to get his pregnant wife Madeleine a seat before the New York businessman drowns in the deep dark ocean”.

Anyway, Luigi doesn’t make it either; ends up buried in Halifax. To make a long story short,  the rescue ship ‘Carpathia’ picks up Dylan and Madeleine, and drops them off in New York, and they eventually wind their way to Durango, Colorado.

Turns out that ‘Jack’ Astor and Madeleine Force hightail it to Egypt after the wealthy businessman divorces his wife, and marries Miss Force who’s 29 years younger than he is. They are returning to New York City aboard the Titanic when the disaster happens to her husband Astor, from which she escapes.

Apparently, the singer/songwriter calls her ‘Mary’, and she moans “Oh, Jesus” a lot. Madeleine tells everyone she wants to be alone, gets “Jakey” looked after in New York once he’s born, and no one is  the wiser. Widow Madeleine will lose her money from her drowned husband if she remarries. Time-traveller Dylan just shrugs it off, and muses that he can’t help it if he’s lucky.

Meanwhile, of course, the time-line of the unfolding Universe has been broken all to threads. Things start to go terribly wrong for our wandering troubadour. It turns out that Ramona with the ‘cracked country lips’ is a man, and the singer shoots the ‘floater’ down like a dog:

Then I see the bloody face of Ramon
Was it me that shot him down in the cantina
Was it my hand that held the gun?
Come let us fly, my Magdalena
The dogs are barking, and what's done is done

(Bob Dylan: Romance In Durango ~ Dylan/Levy)

Suddenly, the ‘future’ doesn’t look so bright for Bob:

Was that the thunder that I heard?
My head's vibrating, and I feel a sharp pain
Come sit by me, don't say a word
Oh, can it be that I am slain?

(Bob Dylan: Romance In Durango ~ Dylan/Levy)

In another song our roving gambler encodes the message that he deals the “Zeus card” from the bottom of the deck, and saves himself from certain death:

Just then a bolt of lightning
Struck the courthouse out of shape
And while everybody knelt to pray
The drifter did escape
(Bob Dylan: Drifter's Escape)

In any event, the Captain of the Titanic gets most of the blame for the seafaring disaster:

Captain Smith must have been drinking
Not knowing that he done wrong
By trying to win the record
He let the Titanic go on
The band was loud a-playing
It playing far out on the sea
They spied the Titanic was sinking
Played 'Nearer My God To Thee'

(Carter Family: Titanic ~ Maybelle/Sara/A.P. Carter)

But I can’t think for you, you have to decide: should Bob Dylan, when he was aboard the Titanic, have gotten Zeus on the passengers’ side?

And saved everybody on the ship before it went down.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

So far in this series

• A song is like a painting, you can’t see it all if you’re standing too close
• All directions at once: how Dylan’s lyrics empower those who wish to be empowered
• All directions at once: The prelude to the explosion
• All directions at once: Part 4. The explosion (1962).

By Tony Attwood

We left Bob Dylan having written his first absolute masterpiece, “Blowing in the Wind.”   He now followed it up with

• Honey just allow me one more chance
• Rocks and Gravel
• Quit your Lowdown Ways
• Baby I’m in the mood for you

Relationships, the ending of them, and moving on, were clearly on Bob’s mind, and as time past.  And we must remember that we are still in 1962, with the PPM version of Blowing in the wind not being released until the following year.  So Dylan was not yet wealthy – but he was getting known, as we shall see.

His first album had come out on 19 March 1962, and although sales were very modest (only 5000 copies were pressed of the first edition) the recording of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (provisionally titled at the time as Bob Dylan’s Blues) began the following month – and continued until April 1963 with the album being released on 27 May 1963.  The Wiki entry for Freewheelin’ includes the comment, “Dylan recorded four of his own compositions: “Sally Gal”… but I can’t see any evidence anywhere to back up the claim that he did write “Sally Gal”.  But he clearly liked “Sally Gal” and played it at early gigs – and it is a jolly, rousing, lively piece, exactly the way to get  the session going.

So what we now have is Dylan the songwriter continuing his work, completing on average three new songs a month, (once more reminding us of Irving Berlin, the only American songwriter who seems to have written consistently at this sort of speed).  At at the same time he was performing, and on occasion recording his compositions including Death of Emmett Till, “Rambling Gambling Willie “, and “Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues“.   (Although I must add that there are two “Rambling Gambling Willie” songs in Dylan’s collection.  The original one from the era we are dealing with is discussed here). He also recorded the traditional, “Going To New Orleans” and the 1920s song “Corrina, Corrina”, plus Hank Williams’ “(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle”

Dylan continued recording a wide range of his own recently complete compositions and classic folk and blues, songs from “Let me die in my footsteps ” through to “Talkin Hava Negeilah blues”  which was written the previous year.   He was obviously getting used to the studio just as they were getting used to him, and although these recordings are a goldmine for researchers, in the end none of the early takes were used in Freewheelin.   And indeed when we consider that he hadn’t actually written “Don’t think twice” yet and had only recently completed “Blowing in the wind” we can see why many of these early recordings were never used.

“Blowin’ in the Wind” was first performed at Gerde’s Folk City on 16 April 1962 and recorded on 9 July along with “Bob Dylan’s Blues “, “Down the Highway “, and “Honey just allow me one more chance “.  But still other songs (such as “Baby I’m in the mood for you“, were being tried out.

The fact that as we can see, ideas were pouring into Bob Dylan’s head through this, the most productive year of his songwriting, and then being tried out in gigs and in  the studio, reveals completely just how Bob was learning his craft and experimenting as he went along.  It really was a year of a talent utterly exploding in (to use my phrase again) all directions at once.  And we must be thankful that Bob did record so many of these songs.  A lot of them were rejected, inevitably, but these recordings give us a real insight into how his talent was developing.

And of course the potential of this talent was being recognised, as with the fact that the first contractual battles appeared at this time with Albert Grossman (angling to be his manager) and John Hammond (who had signed him for CBS) fighting for control over the emerging talent.  Dylan watchers see this battle as an event that changed Dylan’s personality, perhaps making him more reclusive.  I am not so sure of that – certainly they had no impact on Dylan’s creative output, which is often (among people with this level of creative talent) the first thing to falter when life beyond their art starts to contain difficulties, rows, arguments, disputes or any of the other nastier elements within life.

Indeed if anything Bob’s creativity continued to grow apace.  For what we also see is the evolution of Dylan the showman with his appearance of Dylan at the Carnegie Hall Hootenanny.  What is so interesting here is that although the recording of the show does not allow us to hear exactly what Dylan is saying, it is obvious that he already has command of his audience and is in full control of his own on stage persona.  No one is pulling strings – this is Dylan being himself and it is fascinating to compare this with the hesitant, apologetic young man who was falling over his own words to excuse his errors, after he had recorded Ballad for a friend just a eight months earlier.

The 22 September gig was called “Hootenanny At Carnegie Hall” and was presented by “Sing Out!” magazine. Dylan came on second out of six performers, the star of the show being Pete Seeger.  Dylan performed

• Sally Gal
• Highway 51
• Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues
• Ballad Of Hollis Brown
• A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

Thus self-evidently Dylan was writing songs and then almost immediately performing them on stage.  No period of reflection, no thought of re-writing the lyrics or amending the melody or chords.  Write the song, move on to the next, seems to have been the order of the day.

But this is not to say Bob was not affected by events around him, both in terms of his success on stage and in terms of his private life.  For we may note that following “Blowing in the Wind”, five of his next eight compositions were on the theme of lost love.  Ain’t gonna grieve is a civil rights song, Long Ago Far Away has political connotations suggesting nothing is changing, Long Time Gone  returns to the moving on theme.

But then, seemingly out of nowhere (other than the fact that Bob was writing, writing, and writing some more)  we hit two masterpieces one after the other, both with political connotations and both deadly serious: Hard Rain’s a gonna fall concerning the worries about a possible nuclear war (made all the more relevant by the revelations of the USSR using Cuba as a nuclear arms base one month later), and Ballad of Hollis Brown which is probably the most hard hitting attack on the plight of farmers in the USA ever written.  Even if the ideas for these two songs were not directly related to the need for material for the forthcoming concert, it seems very likely that the concert itself focused Bob’s mind in terms of what the audience might want to here.

Certainly at this time it appears that Dylan wanted to show off all sides of his ability so he gave his biggest audience so far (in order) the knock about, the blues, the humour, the contemporary tragedy and the warning of the future.

After these recordings Bob then wrote on more protest song, John Brown – an anti-war song, before he brought in another new composition, “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right“, on which more in a moment.  That of course made the cut for Freewheelin, but Hollis Brown was omitted. 

On 6 December there was a final recording session of the year which included “I shall be free” and “Whatcha gonna do”, the latter being the last song Bob wrote in the year.  If we look at this list of the last 13 songs of the year we can see the incredible range of topics Dylan was covering in his songwriting….

• Don’t think twice (Song of Leaving)
• Mixed up confusion (Rock n roller is confused)
• I’d hate to be you on that dreadful day (Bob gets the ship ready to come in)
• Paths of Victory. (The future will be fine)
• Train A Travellin’  (Stand up and protest about what’s going on around you)
• Walking Down the Line (keep on moving on)
• Ye Playboys and Playgirls  (Stand up and change the world)
• Oxford Town (Racism Protest)
• I shall be free (comic talking blues)
• Kingsport Town (lost love, moving on)
• Hero Blues (beware when your girlfriend loves you because you are famous)
• The Ballad of the Gliding Swan (Life throws up every surprise, but life goes on)
• Whatcha Gonna Do? (How will you be placed at the second coming)

The Freewheelin version of “Don’t Think Twice” was recorded on 14 November and has widely been noted as an autobiographical response to Bob’s girlfriend prolonging her stay in Italy.  And we can also note that as with many other songs, Bob was utilising earlier material as the basis for his writing.

The original version was, “Who’s gonna buy your chickens when I’m gone” which over time, through numerous re-writings had mutated into “Who’s gonna to buy your ribbons when I’m gone.”

The melody and some lines of the lyrics use by Dylan were taken straight from Paul Clayton’s re-working of the folk song from “Who’s gonna buy you chickens” into “Who’s Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I’m Gone?”

Now what we have to note here is that Dylan and Clayton knew each other and were on friendly terms, and Clayton recorded his reworking of the traditional “chickens” song two years before Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice.”

This then raised a copyright issue, as Dylan’s version included lines from Clayton’s song such as “T’ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, darlin’,” and, “So I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road,” along with much of the melody, but the question then was, how much of the lyrics and music that Dylan used came from the original “chickens” song which was long since out of copyright and now considered “folk music” and thus copyright free with no composer assigned the piece, and how many came from Clayton’s own re-working of the folk song.

Even more confusing is the point that when first performing the song Bob Dylan changed some of the Clayton lyrics, but Clayton’s original lyrics did gradually drift back into Dylan’s performances as time when by.

Clayton performed in Greenwich Village and was friends with Dylan in his early years, but the use of the song by Dylan did result in a legal case between each artists’ respective publishers, fronted by the duo’s respective recording companies.  Inevitably the case was settled out of court, almost certainly (although obviously I don’t have access to the legal documents so I can’t prove this) because of the difficulty of considering the copyright ownership of a traditional song which had already mutated over time, and already been re-written for contemporary use.  In other words, did how much copyright did Clayton actually own in terms of his recording, given that he had himself borrowed it from a traditional folk song.  I suspect both sides realised that the case could cost a fortune, with neither side being certain to win, and an out of court settlement would be the best way forwards.  It appears that some of Dylan’s earning from the song would go to Clayton, and it is reported that Dylan and Clayton remained friends.  Sadly however Clayton suffered from severe bouts of mental illness and ultimately committed suicide in 1967.

The song has of course turned up many times over the years in films and TV programmes, and its simple message of “Don’t worry about it” is in fact quite different from the message within the original folk song in which the woman left behind after her benefactor has died, has a lot to worry about.

“Don’t think twice” is itself a summation of Bob’s numerous lost love songs and songs of leaving of this period.  In the months prior to writing “Don’t think twice” Dylan wrote Corrina Corrina,  Honey just allow me one more chance,  Rocks and Gravel, Down the Highway, and Tomorrow is a long time all of which dwell on the theme of the end of the affair, leaving and walking away.   This song summed it all up, although with that underlying feeling of putting on a brave face by walking away first, while there is the suggestion that at least some of the anguish and hurt is still there, underneath.

As I said at the opening of this piece, relationships, the ending of them, and moving on, were clearly on Bob’s mind.

The series continues…

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 8000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

I:  No colours anymore

Mick Jagger is a fan. In her memoirs (Faithfull; An Autobiography, 1994) Marianne Faithfull tells about her copy of The Basement Tapes: “I drove Mick crazy playing it over and over again,” but Jagger has been making it clear in various ways for almost sixty years now that he is and remains an admirer. Quite outspoken, even. When Mick Jagger is a guest on a Dutch talk show in 2001, the renowned interviewer Sonja Barend tries to make a point of his age in a cumbersome way. Laboriously searching for words, she stumbles over a series of half sentences that eventually lead her to some kind of a question: whether Jagger isn’t afraid that he will come across pathetic when he is sixty (he is 57 now), jumping and running over a stage. Miss Barend also seems to sense that this is becoming somewhat awkward, but Sir Michael Philip Jagger is every inch a gentleman and accordingly answers elegantly:

Jagger: Do you like Bob Dylan?
Barend: Yes, I do like Bob Dylan…
Jagger: Well, he is over sixty and I quite like watching his shows. I think it’s quite fun and I enjoy watching him performing.
Barend: Yes, I enjoy watching him, but his voice is…
Jagger: You don’t like his voice? It’s a funny voice. It’s like… it’s a voice that’s never been one of the great tenors of our time…
Barend: No… [audience laughter, Jagger smiling patiently]
Jagger: … but it’s got a timbre, it’s got a projection and it’s got a feeling. And you were talking earlier about getting older… you know as you get older, your voice takes on a certain different resonance and a different pitch… so, there’s something to be said for that.

It is not a one-off outpouring. Throughout all the decades Jagger confesses his admiration. In 2012 he posts on his Facebook page Bob Bonis’ photo Mick Jagger with Bob Dylan album, Savannah, Georgia, May 1965 #1 (the album being Bringing It All Back Home, obviously), at the memorial service for his partner L’Wren Scott he sings “Just Like A Woman” and when interviewers start talking about the assumed depths or the poetic beauty of his own lyrics, Jagger almost always brushes it off by pointing out the quality difference with Dylan. As in the Rolling Stone interview with Jonathan Cott, in 1968:

What about people who see your songs as political or sociological statements?
Well it’s interesting, but it’s just the Rolling Stones sort of rambling on about what they feel.
But no other group seems to do that.
They do, lots of groups.
What other group ever wrote a song like “19th Nervous Breakdown,” or “Mother’s Little Helper”?
Well, Bob Dylan.
That’s not really the same thing.
Dylan once said, “I could have written ‘Satisfaction’ but you couldn’t have written ‘Tambourine Man.’”
He said that to you?
No, to Keith.
What did he mean? He wasn’t putting you down was he?
Oh yeah, of course he was. But that was just funny, it was great. That’s what he’s like. It’s true but I’d like to hear Bob Dylan sing “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.”

Dylan’s influence on Mick’s lyrics is fairly obvious on Between The Buttons (1967). And on the overall feel as well; “She Smiled Sweetly”, incidentally the first Stones song without a guitar, is in a few ways a “Just Like A Woman 2.0” – the mercury organ sound, Jagger’s way of singing, the waltz tempo and the atypical lyrics, with Dylan echo’s like

There's nothing in why or when
There's no use trying, you're here
Begging again, and over again

That's what she said so softly
I understood for once in my life
And feeling good most all of the time

That Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde have been on Jagger’s turntable a lot is even clearer in the most Dylanesque song in the Stones catalogue, in one of the other highlights of the underrated Between The Buttons, in “Who’s Been Sleeping Here?”:

Don't you look like, like a Goldilocks
There must be somewhere, somewhere you can stop
Yes there's the noseless old newsboy the old British brigadier
But you'll tell me now, who's been sleeping here  

… a fairy tale reference, a hallucinatory procession of Dylanesque archetypes like an “old British brigadier” and a “noseless old newspaper boy”. Elsewhere in the song “a laughing cavalier”, “the three musketeers” and “cruel old grenadiers” pop up, Brian Jones plays his utmost Dylanish harmonica, couplets ending with a recurring verse line … it’s a great, folk rocking Dylan song, larded with vile Stones rock and some psychedelia.

But the album Jagger so impressed is admiring, on that beautiful pool photo in Savannah, provides the inspiration for one of the greatest Stones songs ever, for “Paint It Black” (Jagger prefers writing it without a comma);

I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colours anymore, I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

… words that may already be bubbling up as Sir Mick is listening to “She Belongs To Me” by the poolside, listening to

She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist, she don’t look back
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black

Jagger doesn’t call himself a poet, and he may always quickly be pointing to Dylan, but meanwhile, he does deliver superb, poetic hits. The interviewer complimenting “19th Nervous Breakdown” does have a point;

You're the kind of person you meet at certain dismal, dull affairs
Center of a crowd, talking much too loud, running up and down the stairs
Well, it seems to me that you have seen too much in too few years
And though you've tried you just can't hide your eyes are edged with tears

… is, of course, thematically a “Like A Rolling Stone” decoction, and indeed written shortly after its release, but apart from that a beautiful, well-nigh literary quatrain, which – like Dylan so often does – conceals by its layout that a classical, medieval template is the basis. In this case this quatrain is “actually” a sestain with an aabccb-rhyme scheme:

You're the kind of person
you meet at certain
dismal, dull affairs
Center of a crowd,
talking much too loud,
running up and down the stairs

… a “restructuring” which can be applied to each verse of “19th Nervous Breakdown”. The song actually has the same rhyme scheme as Dylan’s “She’s You Lover Now” and (later) “No Time To Think” and “Where Are You Tonight?”, and, moreover, the same scheme as one of the absolute highlights of French literary history, Paul Verlaine’s brilliant masterpiece Chanson d’automne (1865).

Which is not to say that Jagger deliberately copied this template or made a study of French classical poetry, but it at least shows that – despite himself – he is a poet, an artist who at least has an intuitive sense of rhyme, rhythm and reason. “I watched in glee as your Kings and Queens fought for ten decades for the gods they made” is a delightful, flowing, extremely musical and frightening verse (from “Sympathy For The Devil”). The fact that Jagger not only points to Dylan when mentioning “19th Nervous Breakdown”, but also in relation to “Mother’s Little Helper”, is understandable too:

"Kids are different today"
I hear ev'ry mother say
Mother needs something today to calm her down
And though she's not really ill
There's a little yellow pill
She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day

… the mockery and sarcasm of the best of Dylan’s mid-60s work, like Dylan’s best songs conveyed in superior rhyme, rhythm and reason.

And in this “Paint It Black” a fine verse like I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky does have a highly visual, apocalyptic, Dylan-worthy quality in terms of content as well – the Glimmer Twin should be proud.
“i am called a songwriter,” the heartbreakingly young Rolling Stone reads, as he studies the Bringing It All Back Home’s liner notes, in Savannah, May 1965, “a poem is a naked person … some people say that i am a poet.”

————–

To be continued. Next up: She Belongs To Me part II: Images which have got to come out

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books 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

By Larry Fyffe

This article follows on from Stuck inside of Halifax with the Tombstone Blues Again

In an exclusive interview at the Untold Offices atop the St. James Hotel in New York City, singer/songwriter Bob Dylan talks about another one of his time-travelling experiences – this time back to the sinking of the steamship ‘Titanic’ in the Atlantic after it struck an iceberg – that he recalls in the song ‘Tempest’.

{The Interview}

Untold –

To whom are you referring in the lines quoted below?:

"Wellington was sleeping
His bed begins to slide"

Dylan –

Not sure. When I first came on board the sinking ship, I thought I heard someone yell, ‘Wellington, never mind the bra. No time. Grab a life jacket.” But it might have been “Willingham” instead, or something like that.

Untold –

Everyone wants to know whom you are talking about in the lines given below?:

"Calvin, Blake, and Wilson
Gambled in the dark
Not one of them would ever live to
Tell the tale of the disembark"

Dylan –

A little poetic licence here and there. Like Davey the Pimp, and Jim the Dandy. And ‘Cal’ refers to the bad guy in the movie “Titanic” – the name’s short for Caledon there, not Calvin. However,  Blake and Wilson are the names of actual people I met on board the Titanic when I dropped in for the visit. There was Bert Wilson, second engineer, who did not survive; said for me to call him ‘Bertie’. There was Helen Wilson,1st class, she survived….I lied about her. She managed to make it back alive after having travelled to Egypt.There was crew member Percival Blake, worked with the coal, who also survived. Known as ‘Nunk’ he was. There was Stanley Blake, son of a William Blake, a short fellow with brown hair, a mess steward; he did not survive. And Thomas Blake, another coal worker, who did not make it either.

Untold –

What about this line: “Leo said to Cleo ‘I think I’m going mad’ “?

Dylan –

Lots of people think I’m referring to the movie actor Leonardo DiCaprio who starred in the movie ‘Titanic” as J. Dawson. No, I ran into my namesake on my time-travel trip; had a little chat with him. Leo Zimmerman, in 3rd Class, headed for Saskatoon. I found out later that he did not survive. A German farmer on his way to visit his brother. I just threw in Queen Cleopatra because it rhymed, and Egypt was a popular place for the wealthy to visit at the time.

Untold –

You spoke with John Astor, the wealthy businessman on board?:

"The rich man, Mister Astor
Kissed his darling wife
He had no way of knowing
Be the last trip of his life"

Dylan –

Yes, in 1st class. He and his wife were headed back to New York after visiting Egypt. He told me to call him ‘John’; sadly, he did not survive though he helped his wife escape into a lifeboat.

Untold –

And the following lines?:
"The captain, barely breathing
Kneeling at the wheel ....
Needle pointing downward
He knew he lost the race"

Dylan –

Here, I’m talking to Captain Edward Smith, and the ship starts really sinking. The captain in the tower didn’t survive, as you know. He told me that he blames himself for the disaster, for steaming too fast through Iceberg Alley –  told me so just before I opened up my communicator, and said, “This is ‘Cupid’ – Scotty, beam me up!”

{End of Interview}

Conducted by myself in secret …

I swear all this is true…

Cross my heart.

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