Untold Dylan

1990: The re-birth of protest, before the end of all songs

Posted on July 13, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

If we look at the lyrics of Dylan’s songs in the second half of the 1980s we see a very troubled writer, as the titles of the recent articles in this series suggest…

1984: Back to the old ways (again)
1985: Bob Dylan slips back into negativity
1986: The year Dylan slowly turned himself all around
1987/8: Possibly the greatest trilogy of compositions in Dylan’s career
1989: The menace emerges

And what’s more the trilogy of compositions that I rate so highly in 1987 consisted of three songs that reflected Bob’s clearly troubled mind: Political world, What good am I, Dignity.

I have also contributed to this site an earlier article on 1989: Bob Dylan stalked by the darkness in which I try to express my feeling that while the writing that year was, to my mind, brilliant, Bob was looking into very dark places to find his muse.

Of course this doesn’t apply to every song, but if we consider works such as Disease of Conceit, What was it you wanted, Everything is Broken, Most of the Time and Man in a Long Black Coat it is hard to think of a time when Bob has been so persistently dark.

There had to be a response to this – a lighter touch perhaps – for his own psychological well-being. And indeed that is what Bob moved into in 1990, with a totally different sort of song.

Within this search for a different mode of expression Bob was at least partially helped by the diversion of creating another Willbury’s album – an album which included Where were you last night which I would class as the best straight pop song Dylan has ever written.

Meanwhile the protest songs of the classic variety found a new outlet on the Never Ending Tour which had begun in 1987 and which is being cover in Mike Johnson’s brilliant series on this site. In addition Bob found a new type of protest song to write for his new recordings.

Now this thought keeps hammering at me not just because that’s how it sounded to me as I first started sketching out this series, but also because of what Mike Johnson wrote on this site as he started his three part review of the Never Ending Tour in 1990. He writes

“The performance I keep coming back to is that protest song to end all protest songs ‘It’s all right Ma.’ Not only the best of 1990, but maybe the best performance of this song since the flat, hard-driving 1964 performances. We have the swirling performances from the Rolling Thunder Tour, and the fast and furious versions from the Tom Petty years. Dylan stayed with this fast and furious version through the early years of the NET, and you won’t find a better performance of it than this one (02-07)…”

Now I must stress at this point that Mike and I don’t collaborate on these Never Ending Tour articles – they are all his work, not least because we live (literally) on opposite sides of the globe, and also because I don’t have any words to offer that could improve what Mike does one iota. So to set the scene, here, once again, is the performance from 1990 that Mike selected. As the saying goes, ‘I am the enemy of the unlived meaningless life.’

It’s all right Ma

By 1990, Bob’s classic protest songs had long since been written, and of course could be varied and re-presented on tour. But Dylan clearly also wanted to present the message again, and he needed a new way to do this. And what he did was utterly revolutionary. For Bob Dylan approached his theme not by returning to the style and approach of “Hollis Brown” and “It’s alright Ma” but by going in the opposite direction, taking childhood themes to point out the destruction of the past. Where there is a look back to Hollis Brown, it is via an expansion of the cause embedded in that song.

Also notable is that fact that many songs around this time had changing lyrics – as did Wiggle Wiggle from whence come the lines…

‘Wiggle till you’re high
Wiggle till you’re higher
Wiggle till you vomit fire’

This all seems fairly clear to me. In the aftermath of his Christian period Bob had slipped into a vision of doom, something which (as I have oft hinted up to this point) took as its starting point Making a liar out of me

I have noted at the start of this piece the articles that trace this period of darkness in Bob’s writing. Now, he had one more bash at trying to find a new way to express his horror of the world around him and amplify the message he expressed in “Making a liar”. Here is the list of songs from 1990 including the songs from the second Wilburys set which appear to contain a strong level of input from Bob. The songs near the end with the asterisks are Wilburys pieces which credit Dylan as co-composer, but which in my view are not songs to which he actively contributed much.

I am no longer trying to fit the songs into the subject titles that I have used before, since Bob had now moved on. Everything had changed.

Handy Dandy (Contradictions)
Cat’s in the Well (It’s all over, there’s no way out)
10,000 men (All is not as it seems)
Unbelievable (We are being fed a pack of lies)
Under the red sky (Our childhood has been obliterated)
Heartland with Willie Nelson (Capitalism is destroying us)
Wiggle wiggle (You have to learn to protest, and you need to do it in new ways)
2 x 2 (We have to change)
The Devil’s been busy. (Everything is bad)
If you belonged to me (Disconnected snapshots of life gone wrong)
Inside Out (Environmental degradation)
Seven Deadly Sins (Lost love)
She’s my baby (50s style love song, a tribute to the genre)
Where were you last night (lost love)
New blue moon *
Wilbury Twist *
Poor House *
Cool Dry Place *
You took my breath away (Lost love? Tribute to Roy Orbison?)

In the earlier part of this series I contented myself by giving one or two word descriptions of the songs’ subject matter but by this period of Dylan’s life this had changed. Thus taking all the songs written up to 1977 the lead subjects were love and desire (56 songs), and lost love (43 songs). There were 17 songs about the environment and specific places and 11 blues songs. Now we were travelling in a very different direction.

If you have read my comments elsewhere you will know that to my mind the masterpiece in the Wilburys collection is “Where were you last night?” Yes it is a straight lost love pop song, a bit of male angst over a woman breaking a date. Hardly revolutionary stuff for Bob to get his teeth into, but compared with Disease of Conceit this is positively a lighthearted romp and I suspect exactly what he wanted, and what the Wilburys band wanted at this time. (Other members of the band have been reported as saying that they were all pretty much out of ideas at this time).

In short it was exactly the release Bob needed before shooting off with the 1990 round of the touring dates. Except that this time the tour didn’t end. It just kept going, perhaps in part because Bob, after his burst of creativity with the Wilburys, had stopped writing. Perhaps the darkness of the Black Coats was too dark, the notion of an alternative type of protest through the Red Sky was not welcomed by critics, and now he felt he had had enough.

Bob is quoted as saying around this time that he had “had it” with songwriting, and hence, the tour. He didn’t want to sit around doing not much as the rest of the Wilburys, he couldn’t produce new songs to record which would be highly regarded.

And this shows us the problem with people like Patrick Humphries, who wrote The Complete Guide to the Music of Bob Dylan in which he spoke of “sloppily written songs, lazily performed and unimaginatively produced.” Or as I might say of his work “sloppily written reviews, lazily produced reviews and unimaginatively considered background.”

It’s easy to criticise. It’s quite a lot harder to create.

If we put together this period of Bob’s life from 1985 to the end of the decade it is not that hard to see that Bob had gone through hard times creatively, but had emerged from that to make an album of songs that in many ways looked back to childhood, and then enjoyed himself with some excellent pop work only to find his mate George Harrison not only easing out his vocals on many tracks, but also still refusing to include “Like a Ship” on the Wilburys album, while putting in silly nonsense like New blue moon and Wilbury Twist.

It was enough to make any self-respecting artist weep.

But Bob Dylan didn’t weep (as far as I know)– for he had the perfect alternative, the Never Ending, and so it carried on carrying on. Yes there were a couple of new albums, but they were not of his compositions, they were very much his choice of music throughout.

So the Wilburys got some of the darkness of the previous year out of Bob’s soul, but he felt no ownership of the album, never mentioned it, never played any of the songs – and that is a real shame, because “Where were you last night” would be a great song to use on stage.

And thus began the gap years, in which writing was occasional but performance was regular.

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 who teach English literature. If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a subject line saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with approaching 6000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site. You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture. Not every index is complete but I do my best.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page. I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information. Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bob Dylan: Keats West

Posted on July 13, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Larry Fyffe

In the song “Key West (Philosopher Pirate)”, Bob Dylan pirates the ‘negative capability’ philosophy of John Keats, written on the wall. In the poem ‘Ode On A Grecian Urn’, Keats looks upon a painting of a desirable women frozen in time; she’s on an urn that carries the ashes of the dead; on sensuous earth, however, like summer turns to winter, the warmth of youthful beauty fades away:

Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve
She cannot fade, though thou has not thy bliss
Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair
(John Keats: Ode On A Grecian Urn)

In the song lyrics below, Key West, in the southern climes seemingly betwixt heaven and earth, is a place of permanent sunshine where aging people go to live out their lives:

Key West is the place to be
If you are looking for immortality
Key West is paradise divine
Key West is fine and fair
Key West is on the horizon line
(Bob Dylan: Key West)

Key West always remains the same like the flat painting on Keats’ urn:

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid spring adieu
And, happy melodies, wearied
Forever piping forever anew
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever panting, and for ever young
(John Keats: Ode To A Grecian Urn)

Quite happy in security retirees be; of the Grecian urn, the poet writes;

When old age this generation waste
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
(John Keats: Ode On A Grecian Urn)

When growing up there’s something that doth not love the thought of a retaining wall that encloses the permanent:

I'm searching for love, for inspiration
On that private radio station
Coming out of Luxembourg and Budapest
Radio signal clear as can be
I'm so in love that I can hardly see
Down on the flatlands, way down in Key West
(Bob Dylan: Key West)

Struggling with forces both ‘dark’ and ‘light’ is what growing up is all about; wandering Odysseus and Aeneas we all be before we settle down. So says another of Bob Dylan’s favorite poets, much influenced by the philosophy of John Keats:

On desperate seas long wont to roam
The hyacinth hair, thy classic face have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome
(Edgar Allan Poe: To Helen)

So says Bob:

Such is life, such is happiness
Hibiscus flowers grow everywhere here
If you wear one, put it behind your ear
Down on the bottom, way down in Key West
((Bob Dylan: Key West)

The smaller western bougainvillea flower looks similar to the hibiscus flower that symbolizes the Hindu Mother Goddess who has a bloody, raging side to her that’s tamed by her husband, the God of Time and Change; at him, she sticks out her tongue:

I know all the Hindu rituals
People tell me I'm truly blessed
Bougainvillea blooming in the summer, in the spring
Winter here is an unknown thing
Down in the flatlands, way down in Key West
(Bob Dylan: Key West)

Apparently, all is not quite as bright as it’s made out to be, hidden in the darkness there:

Key West is under the sun, under the radar, under the gun
You stay to the left, and then you lean to the right
Feel the sunlight on your skin, and the healing virtues of the wind
Key West, Key West is the land of light
(Bob Dylan: Key West)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

The Mississippi-series, part 9 – Abandon all hope

Posted on July 12, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Jochen Markhorst

Like the earlier compositions such as “Desolation Row” and “Where Are You Tonight?”, “Mississippi” can’t really be dealt with in one article. Too grand, too majestic, too monumental. And, of course, such an extraordinary masterpiece deserves more than one paltry article. As the master says (not about “Mississippi”, but about bluegrass, in the New York Times interview of June 2020): Its’s mysterious and deep rooted and you almost have to be born playing it. […] It’s harmonic and meditative, but it’s out for blood.

IX Abandon all hope

Walkin’ through the leaves, falling from the trees
Feelin’ like a stranger nobody sees
So many things that we never will undo
I know you’re sorry, I’m sorry too

The opening line of this quatrain is deceptive. At first sight, the setting looks like a clichéd film scene. A melancholy protagonist, strolling in an autumnal forest over the rustling leaf. It is only at second glance one is struck by this atypical falling.

The narrator does not walk through fallen leaves, fallen from the trees, but through leaves, falling from the trees. Participium praesens, a present participle: the leaves are falling, while the protagonist walks through them – the protagonist who does feel like an invisible stranger here… suddenly this is very reminiscent of Dante.

“Canto III” from Dante’s Inferno is probably one of the best known. It is the song that tells how Dante and Virgil arrive at the Gates of Hell, at the cheerful welcome sign Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’intrate – “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” – the closing words which will be re-used by Dylan in 2020 for “Crossing The Rubicon” (I painted my wagon, abandoned all hope and I crossed the Rubicon), just as further verses seem inspired by that same excerpt from the Divina Commedia:

You won’t find any happiness here
‪No happiness or joy

Hell’s vestibule already is an ordeal to Dante. And here are still only the souls of those who have been neither good nor bad – but their screams, the “languages divers, orribili favelle, horrible words” and the “words of agony” frighten Dante. They have to make their way through though, to the “the dismal shore of the Acheron”, the muddy, black, bitter River of Suffering, where ferryman Charon will sail them to the other side, to the underworld.

Dante’s description of Charon, especially Charon’s eyes, suggests that Dylan has browsed the Inferno more than once and more than fleetingly. The first time the ferryman is described is in this song, in verse 82-99. The introduction ends with the remarks that the skipper has “wheels of fire around the eyes”, the title of one of Dylan’s Basement songs from 1967.

The second time is ten lines down:

The dæmon, with eyes like burning coal,
- Charon – enrols them, for the passage bound
And with his oar goads on each lingering soul

“Eyes like burning coal”, as Wordsworth translates con occhi di bragia seems to echo in “Tangled Up In Blue”:

Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal

Probably one of the most discussed verses in Dylan’s oeuvre, but on which a kind of consensus has gradually emerged. The obvious candidates for this “Italian poet from the thirteenth century” are the fourteenth-century poets Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante, and the scales tip towards to Dante (although in ’78 Dylan clouded the waters by answering when asked: “Plutarch. Was that his name?”). However, the ease with which Dylan, in live performances, changes the reference in question to Baudelaire or to Jeremiah does give ground to the theory that the bard has no particular poet in mind at all, but in this verse line, as is often the case, chooses the sound.

Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy, then seems to provide decor, imagery and colour for this quatrain in “Mississippi”. In Chronicles, Dylan in any case parades his memory that he had the book in his hands:

“Sometimes I’d open up a book and see a handwritten note scribbled in the front, like in Machiavelli’s The Prince, there was written, “The spirit of the hustler.” “The cosmopolitan man” was written on the title page in Dante’s Inferno.”

This plays in one of his lodgings, with “Ray and Chloe”, in the time before Dylan recorded his first LP, so around 1960. It seems rather unlikely that the autobiographer Dylan remembers handwritten scribbles in other people’s books more than forty years later, but well alright. In this passage Dylan sums up a whole zip of antique and less antique writers, refers to works that do not exist and remembers fantasised titles – apparently Dylan is not so much striving for academic correctness, but still does feel a need to demonstrate that he is not entirely uneducated.

Anyway – Inferno. After that depressing vestibule Dante and Virgil approach the bank of the Acheron. Charon sees that Dante is still alive and therefore doesn’t want to take him with him, but is overruled by Virgil, who seems to have some authority, down here. Meanwhile, it gets busier and busier on the bank: the souls of the damned, who have to be taken to the other side.

As in the autumn-time the leaves fall off,
First one and then another, till the branch
Unto the earth surrenders all its spoils;
In similar wise the evil seed of Adam
Throw themselves from that margin one by one,
At signals, as a bird unto its lure.

And thus, Dante is walking through the leaves, falling from the trees, through the wandering souls who can’t see him, to Charon’s ferry. He’s a stranger here, being the only one with a good soul, according to Virgil, among all those souls who never will undo their failed lives. Dante’s sorry. And they are sorry too.

Previously in this series

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part X: Eyesight To The Blind

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Tioga Pass: another lost song. Can you write the music?

Posted on July 12, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

Tioga Pass is a song that was seemingly recorded at Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood, on 16 June 1987 and according to the only note we have concerning the song, it was written by Robert Hunter and Bob Dylan.

The recording list for the session reads…

1. You Can't Judge A Book By Looking At The Cover
2. Tioga Pass
3. Ugliest Girl In The World
4. Making Believe
5. Rank Strangers To Me
6. Silvio

The musicians involved in the session were Mike Baird (drums), Nathan East (bass), Bob Dylan, with Madelyn Quebec and Carol Dennis (backup vocals). Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir & Brent Mydland also provided additional vocals.

Tracks 3, 5 and 6 were subsequently released on “Down in the Groove” but we have nothing online to show that Tioga Pass was actually recorded – or at least not actually recorded and kept. It may well have been recorded and deleted, or lost, or simply not finished, although such events have not normally resulted in a song just disappearing.

So, unless someone comes up with a copy of the recording from that day, we’ll take it that there is no version available of the music, and therefore this song needs new music to go with Bob’s lyrics.

And that gives us a chance to add another song to the Bob Dylan Showcase, our collection of songs re-worked by readers of Untold Dylan, or (as in this case) songs where we have Dylan’s lyrics but no music. There is a list of such songs at the end of this piece, but first, for anyone who wants to have a go, here are the lyrics you will be working with.

And do remember you will be credited as having written the music to a Dylan song, if you do send in a piece. The only requirement is that you have to write and then record original music.

Needle's on empty
and here I'm stuck
Four in the morning
and just my luck
Listen to the radio
waiting for the sun
Can't flag a ride
until daylight comes

Four in the morning
and out of gas
Mile and a half
from Tioga Pass

Tuned to a station
I've never heard
while moonlight glimmers
on Dead Man's Curve
Glory in the morning
and God bless you
for playing that song
when another would do

Four in the morning
and out of gas
Mile and a half
from Tioga Pass

Ain't quite rock
although it moves
It sure ain't country
and it's not the blues
They don't say nothing
when it gets to the end
Just keep playing it
over again

Four in the morning
and out of gas
Mile and a half
from Tioga Pass

It isn't pop
and it isn't soul
Nothing like fifties
rock and roll
It isn't folk
Not especially jazz
Got something special
nothing else has

Four in the morning
and out of gas
Mile and a half
from Tioga Pass

The sun comes up
about six o'clock
The station drifts
to some pre-fab rock
Although they played it
all night long
I never did learn
the name of that song

Now to help you, if you don’t know that part of the United States, Tioga Pass sits almost 10,000 feet (3000 m.) above sea level in the Sierra Nevada, and State Route 120 goes through it leading to Yosemite National Park.

It is the highest highway pass in California and in the Sierra Nevada. Wiki tells us that “This pass, like many other passes in the Sierra Nevada, has a gradual approach from the west and drops off to the east dramatically, losing more than 3,000 feet (910 m) by the time the road reaches Route 395.”

They also tell us that The Pass is named after the Tioga River, and “tioga” is an Iroquois and Mohawk term meaning “where it forks”.

It appears that in the winter (October to May) the road is often closed due to snow, occasionally remaining closed until July when the snow has been particularly heavy. So a pretty silly place to run out of gas (petrol).

That then is the challenge – to write the music and send in a recording. You will then be entered onto our list of 600+ Dylan compositions recorded on this site. And judging by the way things have been going, you might find other websites then quoting the song as a Dylan composition, with you as the composer. People do seem to accept that our list is not only accurate but also comprehensive. So fame at last!

And just to show you what has happened before, here are some of the recordings that we have completed between us.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Why does Bob Dylan like “The Roving Gambler?”

Posted on July 11, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

It is often stated that The Roving Gambler, a song which Bob has sung many times in concert, is a American folksong that originates in the first decade of the 20th century. It has a wide of number of names beside “Roaming Gambler” – but all closely related, such as “The Gambler”, “Gambling Man.”

However there is a 19th English folk song “The Journeyman” or “The Roving Journeyman”, which exists in the Bodleian Library and which dates from sometime between 1818 and 1838.

The similarities are too great to be dismissed in my opinion. Here’s one of Bob’s versions of the American approach.

https://youtu.be/tqKxq3oBf4k

Bob is noted as having played it for the first time on 1 May 1960 at the home of Karen Wallace in St Paul, with the last performance being at Newport RI on 3 August 2002.

Here are the classic lyrics – although obviously they do vary from place to place and over time.

I am a rovin' gambler, I've gambled all around
Wherever I meet with a deck of cards
I lay my money down
(I Lay my money down, lay my money down.)

I gambled up in Washington, gambled over in Spain
I'm on my way to Frisco town
To knock down my last game
(knock down my last game; knock down my last game)

I had not been in 'Frisco, many more days than three
I fell in love with a pretty little girl
And she fell in love with me
(Fell in love with me, fell in love with me.)

She took me in her parlor, she cooled me with a fan
She whispered low in her mama's ear
"I love this gamblin' man."
("Love this gamelin' man." "Love this gamblin' man.")

"Daughter, Oh! dear daughter, how could you treat me so?
And leave your dear old mother
And with a gambler go?"
(With a gambler go? with a gambler go?)

"Mother, Oh dear mother, I'll tell you if I can
If you ever see my face again
I'll be with the gamblin' man"
(be with the gamblin' man" be with the gamblin' man)

https://youtu.be/SD82d33GOA0

The earliest trace of it in America came with “The Gamboling Man” in “Delaney’s Song Book No. 23” around 1900 and was republished, although without the repetitions, in Carl Sandburg’s “American Song Bag” in New York in 1927.

Sandburg suggests this is a song performed by the minstrel shows and says, rather inaccurately “while gamblers may gambol and gambolers may gamble, the English version carries no deck of cards.”

By the second world war the song had become one of the roving soldier

I am a roving soldier,
I rove from town to town,
And when I see a table
So willingly I sit down.

There is even a Guerrilla version

I am a roving guerrilla,
I rove from town to town,
And whenever I spy a pretty little girl
So willingly I get down
So willingly I get down.

So we have one answer to why Bob Dylan likes it – it is a long lived song that has turned up in many places. And it is unusual with the drawn out final line and the harmony opportunities that offers the performers. The change of tempo is not unique to this song, but it is unusual, and seems to date back to some of the early performances.

And whatever else Bob does to the tune, that essential pause in the final line of each has to stay there.

https://youtu.be/Jq93pGzBsr4

Why does Dylan like –

This series contains reviews of the songs of other writers that Dylan admits he loves… along (where possible) with examples of Dylan performing the songs, in contrast with the originals.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Bob Dylan: The Black Rider

Posted on July 10, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Larry Fyffe

Much like the writings of the GrecoRoman mythologists, and of the Abrahamics, Zoroastra says the Almighty is a good force that some individuals choose to ignore. Mani instead says black and dark forces struggle for dominance over individuals. Swedenborg says the white forces have won, but most individuals on earth haven’t received the news yet. In his poetry, William Blake says at this particular time the black forces of society dominate most individual’s earthly existence. In his, Percy Shelley says it’s time that individuals side with the good forces. In his poems, John Keats says all of this makes him a sad individual. In his, Robert Frost says, as an individualist, he’s rather hesitant as to which path to take.

Into the song pot below, Bob Dylan throws pieces of the aforementioned writers to see what comes out after it’s all boiled up.

From the Holy Bible, Bob tosses in a balance-carrier who rides the back of a black horse:

And when he had opened the third seal ....
And I beheld, and lo a black horse
And he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand
(Revelations 7:5)

Black forces, at least for the time being, carry more weight:

Black Rider,  black rider, you've been living too hard
Been up all night, have to be on your guard
(Bob Dylan: Black Rider)

Doth taste a lot like Blake:

And priests in black gowns, were making their rounds
And binding with briars, my joys and desires
(William Blake: The Garden Of Love)

The cook puts a bit more Bible into the broth:

Because strait is the gate
And narrow is the way
Which leadeth unto life
And few there be that find it
(St. Matthew 7:14)

Seasons the soup:

The path that you're taking, too narrow to walk
Every step of the way, another stumbling block
(Bob Dylan: Black Rider)

Dylan drops in a cube of poetry to cool things down:

The road that you're on, same road that you know
Just not the same as it was a minute ago
(Bob Dylan: Black Rider)

Plops in Frost:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in the woods, and I
I took the one less travelled by
And that has made all the difference
(Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken)

Adds in Priapus who’s pinched from a bag of black-humoured Greco-Roman mythology.
Aphrodite’s son Priapus is cursed by Hera, the wife of Zeus, to bear a big permanent erection except when needed; like the time that he loses hardness because of the braying of a donkey. Hera is angry at the foamy sex goddess because Paris judged her more beautiful than she:

The size of your cock will get you know where
I'll suffer in silence, hold it right there

At such times, it’s convenient to claim that one’s high moral principles be the cause of the deflation:

Maybe I'll take the high moral ground
Some enchanted evening, I'll sing you a song
Black Rider,  black rider, you've been on the job too long
(Bob Dylan: Black Rider)

Like this song for instance:

Some enchanted evening, someone may be laughing
You may here her laughing across a crowded room
And night after night, as strange as it seems
The sound of her laughter will sing in your dreams
(Frank Sinatra: Some Enchanted Evening ~ Rogers/Hammerstein)

In the Bible, Alohlah and Aholibah are depicted as whores who ‘sleep’ with Assyrians and Babylonians – or at least the guys there who have penises as large as those on donkeys:

For she doted upon their paramours whose flesh is the flesh of asses...
(Ezekiel 23: 20)

So it is said of Sinatra’s appendage. Likewise, Christian lore has it that Satan (who charms Eve) has a large snake-like phallus.

‘Black Rider, Black Rider’ is a real boner.

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments

Play Lady Play: A Simple Twist of Fate

Posted on July 10, 2020 by TonyAttwood

Music selected by Aaron Galbraith, commentary by Tony Attwood

Having written over half a dozen of these Play Lady Play articles I am getting to understand my own preferences for interpretations of Dylan’s music. And what it comes down to is simply this: that the performers recognise that they are handling a work of art by the greatest songwriter of the era, and either the greatest or second greatest popular songwriter of all time (the debate there being between Irving Berlin and Bob Dylan).

In doing this I want the artist to be give us her or his own interpretation, but also show respect to the original and the genius who composed it.

To use a Dylan song to show off one’s own virtuoso abilities is not a crime – providing that the performance also enhances our understanding of the song. If the song is used for self-aggrandisement, well it does nothing for me for it fails to recognise the integrity of the work itself, and its composer.

Embellishments are fine, but for me they have to add to the music not be a platform for the performer to shout LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME. Thus by way of example, no one can ever accuse Jack White of not embellishing the songs he works on, but he always manages to do it in keeping with the work and enhances it. And he does this by having an innate understanding of the music he is handling.

The ever dependable Judy Collins can do it too, by going in the opposite direction, stripping the song down to the basics, and then letting us hear and feel what the “Simple Twist of Fate” that is the heart of the song, actually does to the individual. The pain and the joy of random events, so perfectly portrayed. This is a perfect way to start our quest which is going to go to one or two rather strange places. (I hope you are prepared.)

Moving on, if anyone has an automatic understanding of Dylan it ought to be Joan Baez, with that extraordinary voice, and her long association with Bob.

Here she uses the harmonies that she offers us, very cautiously, and so they have a much greater impact. But also the orchestration is exquisite – kept perfectly under control but adding so much to the rock band.

I only have two complaints, both related to repetition. First the lead guitarist; having found that opening riff, delivers it about 20 times in the course of the piece, and really, we get the hang of it after a couple of renditions. Two at the start and two in the middle would have done me. The repeat we want, need and expect, is of the title phrase. No other repetition is required.

The other is that verse that Joan speaks in a mock Dylan voice. Maybe slightly amusing the first you hear it, but like the guitar riff, it is just boring if one plays the song several times. And really that’s the point. Dylan songs are meant to be played and played as we extract an ever deeper meaning from within. That’s why the greatest of recordings can be listened to across the years. And I’d happily listen to this again, if it weren’t for that twiddly guitar riff and knowing the silly spoken verse is about to come my way.

With Diana Krall, our next lady with the simple twist, we have another one of those frustrating situations where different videos seem to work on different continents. And really this is a general point; if any video doesn’t play where you are, do a Google search, and you might well find one that does work in your country. Aaron and I are (self-evidently) only checking these out for the USA and UK.

Here’s the link Aaron provided which is not working in the UK. And below is the recording I’ve heard…

This is an emotion-tugging beauty – if you listen to it and feel nothing, well, ok, maybe this isn’t the the song for you.

Dylan can deliver political messages, simple observations of life, religious treaties, humour, insights into the very depths of the human condition and emotional messages… and that’s hardly started the list of what he can do, and many of his songs can be treated in so many different ways because of the depth of the writing – as becomes evident here.

This performance pulls at my emotions more than I expected. I know what the song is, and in writing this I am listening to the songs in the order Aaron presented them, not in an order of my choice, but at this moment I am wondering if I don’t need a break in order to come back to this later.

But no, I’ve given myself a deadline, and I must push on. But really, after Diana Krall’s performance I am thinking I might need a break. Not yet time for the coffee however, so I move on.

And the point then of course is, in choosing to go on, am I going to be able to appreciate further manipulations of my emotions. And in this regard Kristin Lomholt’s performance takes me aback by its totally unexpected opening.

It is certainly a way of getting attention, but then so is the way she deals with the melody. And this is not me complaining about divas showing off their range – there is none of that. The lady plays with the melody, but in a way that is totally acceptable.

Personally I don’t feel the wordless sung interludes give me anything new – somehow I feel the continuity of the lyrics through the song are part of what makes the song work. Fate keeps coming along and taking over, no matter much you try and keep it at bay, it is inexorable.

And at that moment with the chorus singing its wordless part once more the lady loses me – but that’s not her fault. And if I now write “Wyrd bið ful āræd,” it is unlikely that you will have the slightest notion what I am saying. It is Norse for “Fate is inexorable.”

Now you may well be seeing if there is a psychiatrist handy in my part of England given that I have meandered into an ancient tongue, but there is a point here. These songs, at their most powerful, should trigger not just emotions, but also associations so that one’s mind is invited to drift, to explore, to consider… That is what good music should always do. It doesn’t matter that I travel to “Wyrd bið ful āræd,” and no one else has a clue what I mean. The point is that great music opens the door to journeys like this, and great performers realise that and make further journeys possible. Time to move on…

Concrete Blonde certainly offer us a different set of journeys with their guitar opening and the lady’s deeper voice, and Concrete Blond do take us somewhere completely new, but that is only half the point.

The personal issue is whether or not I want to go there, and here the answer for me is “in part” The point is that the verses that are half sung and half shouted really don’t do it for me. I get the feeling from the song that the singer is in despair in terms of what fate does. But I have never had the feeling that there is anger in the phrase “blame it on a simple twist of fate,” so it doesn’t work for me.

What I don’t know, and Aaron, maybe you’d like to tell all of us, whether the order that you provide the songs in is carefully selected by your good self, or whether it is random. After that concrete pain, I’d like to think you are giving me a chance to come back down to earth in a relatively gentle way.

But actually what happens to me here is that I rather wish I’d not listened to Sarah Jarosz’ version with that wonderful double bass accompaniment straight after Concrete.

If you don’t know the work of Sarah Jarosz you really should go exploring. The New York Times said of her that she is “widely regarded as one of acoustic music’s most promising young talents: a singer-songwriter and mandolin and banjo prodigy with the taste and poise to strike that rare balance of commercial and critical success.”

So now, clear your head of all other thoughts, reset the recording above and listen again, and just think, could anyone else have created that?

Maybe the best thing is to continue through this little set of reviews, and then make a diary note to come back to this track tomorrow. This lady really is something else.

What I can say is that if you just jump forward into the track of Barb Jungr, then it is best not to do it while undertaking heavy lifting.

For we are now somewhere very different, not least because this version totally removes the rhythm and takes us towards a modern jazz that was delivered by Dave Brubeck in the 1960s.

But that comment is in reality a reflection on my ignorance – I had a bit of background knowledge on this but it was lost deep in my past memories. If you would like to know more about what is going on in the next example, then after the video of “Twist of Fate” I have added a second video (sorry Aaron I know it is your department) in which Barb Jungr explains a little of what she is up to, and then performs “Blind Willie McTell” – which I think is a much more approachable performance. In fact I would go so far as particularly to recommend you do listen to Blind Willie, although maybe not to interrupt Aaron’s selection here.

Here’s the second vid with the explanations and Blind Willie

So, enough of my diversions, back to Aaron’s selection, with Dave’s True Story, a much more relaxing approach; the sort of version that reminds me of what I thought of the song when I first heard it 45 years ago. (Oh my it really was 45 years ago. What happened?)

This is a beautiful relaxing version that really does make me think of the past, remembering if I can when I first heard the song, where I was, what I was doing, what I hoped for in my life, and what actually happened. Somehow I find myself thinking, did I get it right? Did I do the right things? Have I lived a good life? Have I behaved like a decent person should? As one approaches later life such questions seem important although impossible to answer, and rather painful to ask. But perhaps not so pointless as they might seem.

And so we come to the end of the journey with Stacy Sullivan

It is as if Aaron knew I was going to be sinking into some sort of morbid reverie and wanted to jerk me back to today.

And I think we are not doing Stacy Sullivan justice by having her at the end of the review. This isn’t a shockingly different piece but the lady and her band do more than justice to this wonderful song. If you are ever minded to return to this little adventure, maybe it would be an idea to work backwards next time, in order to appreciate the new meanings she put into this song.

I think I’ll make a note in the diary to play it again tomorrow, rather than rush straight back to the earlier songs.

I must say I am drained having listened to each song and written each little review. My emotions have been pulled thither and yon as they used to say (at least in England they used to say that), I am stretched and exhausted, battered and needing a strong coffee.

Thankfully it is now after 10am, and by my acupuncturist’s rules I am now allowed my second (of three) cups of the day.

And I am also grateful Aaron left it at this point, for in his final note he added,

“As you can see it’s a very popular song to cover, there were many many other versions I could have chosen… KT Tunstall does a great live version, Aimee Mann covered it during the lockdown Dylanfest last week (maybe we can do a look at lockdown covers…I’ve seen many of them), a Dutch singer Stevie Ann sang it on a Dutch TV show amongst many others, but the ones I selected above seem to be trying something different with the track, unlike , say KT Tunstall’s version, which whilst fantastic is more of a “straight” cover.”

Aaron, my dear chap, I’m so glad you stopped where you did. There is only so much emotional heart wrenching a poor reviewer can take.

Play Lady Play: some earlier editions

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Mississippi-series, part 8: Pretty Maids All In A Row

Posted on July 9, 2020 by TonyAttwood

The Mississippi-series, part 8

by Jochen Markhorst

Like earlier “Desolation Row” and “Where Are You Tonight?”, “Mississippi” can’t really be dealt with in one article. Too grand, too majestic, too monumental. And, of course, such an extraordinary masterpiece deserves more than one paltry article. As the master says (not about “Mississippi”, but about bluegrass, in the New York Times interview of June 2020): Its’s mysterious and deep rooted and you almost have to be born playing it. […] It’s harmonic and meditative, but it’s out for blood.

VIII Pretty Maids All In A Row

Well, the devil’s in the alley, mule’s in the stall
Say anything you wanna, I have heard it all
I was thinkin’ ’bout the things that Rosie said
I was dreaming I was sleepin’ in Rosie’s bed

“I didn’t really have to grapple much. It’s the kind of thing where you pile up stream-of-consciousness verses and then leave it alone and come pull things out.” That’s what Dylan says in response to “I Contain Multitudes” in the 12 June 2020 New York Times interview.

It is a pleasant, worth reading interview with a grand old man reflecting on his own work with attractive modesty and a strange mix of wonder plus resignation. We were already familiar with the tenor of his self-analysis; in earlier interviews Dylan often tells us that he has no idea where those songs come from. But by now he is almost eighty and chooses his words more soberly than ever – and at the same time with a kind of self-evident acceptance of the magic behind them. He calls his creative phase “trance writing”, he doesn’t plan his songs, songs come “out of the blue, out of thin air”, and:

“The songs seem to know themselves and they know that I can sing them, vocally and rhythmically. They kind of write themselves and count on me to sing them.”

Beautifully phrased, with a charming touch of mysticism – but meanwhile the old bard really could add the proviso that the songs do not come entirely “out of the blue” or “out of thin air”. That the “songs seem to know themselves” has a rather earthy explanation: large parts of his songs already exist. For decades, usually.

So, in this verse “devil in the alley” comes from Dorsey Dixon, and most other words don’t come falling from the sky either, but from other people’s songs.

“Mule’s in the stall” Dylan borrows – consciously or unconsciously – from an old acquaintance, from Howlin’ Wolf, from “Evil (Is Goin’ On)”:

Well, long way from home and
Can't sleep at all
You know another mule
Is kickin' in your stall

Written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Howlin’ Wolf as early as 1954, but in ’69 he scored his last hit with a re-recording of the song. It’s a cool swinging Chicago blues from which Dylan will also lend the sound and stomp, for songs like “Lonesome Day Blues” and “Cry A While”, for example.

The “blue” out of which I was thinkin’ ’bout the things that Rosie said seems to fall is somewhat more unlikely, at least until 2020, when Dylan lists his long list of request numbers in part 4 of “Murder Most Foul”. Apart from usual suspects like “The Long, Lonesome Road”, John Lee Hooker, “Mystery Train” and “I’d Rather Go Blind”, the narrator requests DJ Wolfman Jack to play surprising, undylanesque songs like Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust” and Beethoven, and in between, among those surprising requests is equally striking: “Play Don Henley – play Glen Frey”.

Interviewer Douglas Brinkley did notice it too, and in that New York Times article he enquires:

Your mention of Don Henley and Glenn Frey on “Murder Most Foul“ came off as a bit of a surprise to me. What Eagles songs do you enjoy the most?
“New Kid in Town,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” “Pretty Maids All in a Row.” That could be one of the best songs ever.

Every artist in the world will be particularly flattered when one of his songs is awarded by Bob Dylan as “one of the best songs ever”, but it’s a bit sad for Joe Walsh that Dylan seems to think it’s a Henley and Frey song – this is the only song from Hotel California that was written by Walsh (although he also gets a co-credit for the guitar lick of “Life In The Fast Lane”). As a consolation: the list of songs that the Nobel Prize winner calls “one of the best songs ever” is already a few pages long.

Still, a bit mysterious Dylan’s praise is; the bard undoubtedly belongs to a very small minority of music lovers who will regard “Pretty Maids All In A Row” so highly – indeed, few people will find it even the album’s best song. Objectively, if that is possible at all, songs like “Hotel California” or, say, “The Last Resort” are just better songs.

Anyway, it seems to have animated Dylan to follow the men’s solo careers as well, and the otherwise rather insignificant “I Got Love” of Glen Frey’s solo album The Allnighter (1984) apparently kept wavering in the thin air:

Jumped on the freeway with this song in my head
I started thinkin' 'bout the things we said
I said I'm sorry; She said I'm sorry too;
You know I can't be happy 'less I'm happy with you.

…from which both that thinkin’ about the things we said and I said I’m sorry; she said I’m sorry too seem to descend into “Mississippi”. Surprising, yet in line with other unlikely sources for Dylan’s production – such as a Japanese gangster epic, obscure nineteenth-century poets and a 1961 Time magazine.

The closing lines of this quatrain, in which a certain “Rosie” is sung, more or less bring the song “home”- after all, the refrain line of the poem originates from the song recorded by Lomax, from “Rosie”.

In the same 2020 New York Times interview, Dylan reveals how he writes “most of my recent songs”, yet again in response to “I Contain Multitudes”. Not only the qualification trance writing stands out, but also Dylan’s own analysis of the trigger for those stream-of-consciousness verses:

“In that particular song, the last few verses came first. So that’s where the song was going all along. Obviously, the catalyst for the song is the title line. It’s one of those where you write it on instinct. Kind of in a trance state.”

This is about a song he (presumably) writes in 2020. But it seems to apply one-on-one to a song he wrote a quarter of a century earlier, to “Mississippi”. Just like Dylan uses the lines with the Walt Whitman quote as a starting point for “I Contain Multitudes”, the obvious starting point here is Lomax’ Only one thing I did wrong / Stayed in Mississippi a day too long – and then the stream-of-consciousness starts to flow.

“Rosie” bubbling up halfway is, all in all, not that surprising anymore.

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part IX: Abandon all hope

==============

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

1989: the menace emerges

Posted on July 9, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

In this series I am looking at the themes of the song lyrics written by Dylan each year and noting how they change, year by year.

In the years leading up to 1989 I summarised the articles through these titles:

1984: Back to the old ways (again)
1985: Bob Dylan slips back into negativity
1986: The year Dylan slowly turned himself all around
1987/8: Possibly the greatest trilogy of compositions in Dylan’s career

The “old ways” of 1984 were love and lost love, but as the titles above suggest, the return to the song themes that have occupied Dylan more than any others did not give him a long term satisfaction, for in 1985 the negativity was there with songs primarily of lost love (and no love song counterbalance) sadness, chaos, and ultimately the statement that life is a mess. I don’t know if there is a more negative year in Dylan’s recordings but I can’t immediately think of one.

1986 started out with negative themes such as being unfaithful, lost love and saying goodbye, but then along came Robert Hunter and we got two love songs and a song about turning one’s life around. It looked a lot more positive.

My view is that this allowed Bob to write what I have called the greatest trilogy of compositions in Dylan’s career:

From there on we got a mixed series of songs as Dylan found himself seemingly unable to hold onto the intensity of those three titles, and drifted into themes of life being tough, sex, strange events and lost love. But to be fair he was distracted by the agreement to work with the Wilburys.

So where could Dylan turn next?

In his Christian years Dylan saw the Devil as the menace, threatening to overthrow the world of Jesus, threatening your soul and your civilisation. As least that menace is known. Here it is just out there. There is darkness and menace, which has no form.

Looked at in this way it is not surprising that Dylan sought to find a way out of his difficulties by touring, although I introduce this theme with some trepidation. For at the opening of his unique and brilliant series on the Never Ending Tour, which I feel honoured to be publishing on this site, Mike Johnson quotes Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, a Persian poet from the Thirteenth Century who wrote, “Study me as much as you like, you will never know me. For I differ a hundred ways from what you see me to be … I have chosen to dwell in a place you can’t see.”

Now in that first article Mike wrote “The misleading popular press would have it that Dylan was ‘in a sad place’ in 1987, in the months leading up to the tour. We are led to believe that he was ‘lost’ and ‘in search of directions.’ Maybe so, but this is not reflected the performances of that year, which are full of power and vigour.”

Far be it from me to agree with the popular press – indeed the other blog that I oversee (Untold Arsenal) spends much of its time exposing the perfidious nature of the popular press, but this time, I think they got it right. And it is interesting (for me at least) that I got to this conclusion completely independently of anyone else’s historical comments, simply by following the thematic content of Dylan’s songs, in this series of articles, giving each song a simple category in relation to the lyrics.

In short, without thinking about where this was taking me, I found that the topics Dylan covered song by song, reflected what the media of the time were saying.

And indeed my first article on the subject of 1989, written in 2017, when I began the preliminaries for this whole project of analysing the subject matter of each song in a way that allowed the movement of Dylan’s thinking to be considered in a more straightforward manner, was called 1989: Bob Dylan stalked by the darkness

But now I am wanting to add another point: that in coming to this year, Dylan had set out his manifesto in that magnificent trilogy:

That is the backdrop. Mike’s three articles on this year of the tour are

Early on Mike quotes these lines as he opens the first 1989 review

‘If I just turn my back
while you silently die
what good
am I?’

And as we now come to look at the songwriting, that I think is worth holding in mind. Here is the list of songs written in 1989.

Born in Time (Lost love)
God Knows (We can get through)
Disease of Conceit (Fooling ourselves)
What was it you wanted (The old certainties are gone)
Broken Days / Everything is Broken (The old certainties are gone)
Ring them Bells (Times are changing)
Series of Dreams (Dreaming, thinking, wondering)
Most of the Time (Sadness)
TV Talking Song (TV is rubbish)
Where teardrops fall (Lost love)
Shooting Star and see Shooting Star and Hendrix (Lost love, the world falling apart).
Man in a Long Black Coat (the menace emerges)

If you have been with me through this long series of articles on the subject matter of Dylan’s songs year by year, you will have noticed that I have introduced some new subject summaries. I have tried really hard not to do this, because I have been trying to compare one year with another.

If there is a central theme here it is that the world is falling apart and we are fooling ourselves. In 1979 there was no doubt as Dylan wrote 19 songs all about his new faith; the only year of multiple compositions in which every single one was on the same subject.

The following year he wrote Making a liar out of me which if you are a regular reader you will know (because I hammer the point over and over and over again) I regard both as a work of genius and as an utterly pivotal moment in the way Bob Dylan’s thinking was developing.

Now ten years on Dylan is lost. He starts out with a standard theme of lost love (Born in Time, before telling us God Knows but then says we are fooling ourselves (Disease of Conceit

Then we have three songs which tell us that everything is changing, a meander through his dreams, a reflection on sadness itself and the appalling of television (and we may recall that Bob’s hero Elvis Presley was reportedly notorious for smashing up televisions, a couple of diversions into the old favourite theme of lost love, and then concluding with Man in a Long Black Coat which I can only summarise as “the menace emerges”.

This is not just the world gone wrong, this is something much deeper. This song owes a lot to the Scottish song “The Daemon Lover” in which a devil-like lover appears and convinces a woman to leave her husband and child – a typical devilish activity.

The menace can of course be the devil, it can be one’s own inner dark nature, it can be anything nasty. But whatever it is, it is frightening.

And yes I know Dylan related “Man in a long black coat” to “I walk the line” in Chronicles, and maybe he was indeed thinking of “I walk the line” in writing the black coat, but really the songs have nothing in common at all. “I walk the line” is a promise to be faithful. The Coat is all about evil.

These last two songs are highly disturbing songs of moving on and the world and the singer’s psyche are both falling apart. This was not a positive way to end the year.

There's smoke on the water it's been there since June
Tree trunks uprooted beneath the high crescent moon
Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumbling force
Somebody is out there beating on a dead horse

How dark would you like it to get?

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

NET 1992 – Heading for the Promised Land Part 1

Posted on July 8, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Mike Johnson (kiwipoet)

Watch out, Lester
Take it, Lou
Join the monks
The C.I.O
Tell 'em all that Tiny Montgomery says hello

Part 1 – The Promised Land in sight.

Going from 1991 to 1992 is a bit like going from the desert to the Promised Land. We find a cornucopia of riches. At least at first sight. We have a lot to look forward to in the next few posts.

Dylan expanded the band by adding multi-guitarist Bucky Baxter and having two drummers, Charlie Quintana and Winton Watson. That duo lasted from April until September when Quintana left the band. With the slide guitar and dobro (Hawaiian guitar), Baxter would soften the sound of the band, but also add a richer, ‘orchestral’ effect which won’t come fully into play until 1994/5.

Dylan’s voice hasn’t improved much, if at all, but the band is on fire. I could hardly credit that the jazz guitarist that comes racing out in some of these tracks is the same John Jackson who blundered along with Dylan in 1991. This jazzy turn sees the band kicking along in a way we’ve never heard before. It certainly gives a boost to the great apocalyptic ‘All along the Watchtower’.

Within that jazzy framework, Dylan’s harmonica too becomes more adventurous, more open and free. No other year quite captures that emergent spirit, the sense of joyful innovation. (Readers of my Master Harpist Series will recognise this track from Part 1 of that series)

Watchtower

Same goes for Dylan’s great seventies epic ‘Tangled up in Blue’.This broken, fragmentary narrative, as the singer faces his painful, confused and confusing past, gets full epic treatment here. At nearly eleven minutes, with a medium tempo beat, this is the first in a long line of epic performances of this song. But Dylan’s interest here is not so much in story telling, as he drops out the third verse anyway, but in musical exploration – Dylan taking long guitar and harp breaks.

Tangled up in Blue

At this stage the guitar breaks are quite tentative (they will fully come into their own in 1993) compared to the confident, high flying harmonica. Baroque musical extensions work okay with songs like ‘Watchtower’ and ‘Tangled,’ which have an inherently Baroque reach, but what about the more minimalist songs?

‘I and I’ started life as a sweet/bitter little ballad on Infidels (1984) and became a loud, thumping crowd pleaser during the Tom Petty years. It resurfaces here as an eight minute epic with its own apocalyptic subtext to the fore. Dylan scratches away at the lyric as best he can with that sandpaper voice, showing his voice no mercy ‘in creation where one’s nature neither honours nor forgives’. It turns into a powerful vocal performance, scratch and all.

The bulk of the performance, however, is taken up with Dylan and John Jackson working with, and sometimes against, the textures Bucky Baxter is creating with those long, drawn out notes. This collaboration won’t fully pay off until the following year for this song. But it’s Dylan’s musical development, in particular developing his own unique approach to the guitar, that is his main focus here. More Baroque developments to come.

I and I

Dylan might have stopped writing topical protest songs in the mid sixties, but I have argued that he extended the range of his social critique with so-called attack songs like ‘Just like a Rolling Stone’, ‘Ramona’, and ‘Just Like a Woman’ to include living blindly and in bad faith – those ‘unlived meaningless lives’ (False Prophet).

But he also continued to write politically, and one of his most political songs is ‘Union Sundown’, also from Infidels, a song attacking the loss of US productive capacity. An early insight into the pitfalls of globalisation

When it costs too much to build it at home
You just build it cheaper someplace else

But it aroused the antagonism of Dylan’s more left wing audience, as it seems to blame the greedy unions and government regulations for America’s decline.

I can see a time coming when even your home garden
is gonna be against the law

However, these sentiments are balanced with a deeper dig into what’s going on politically. The last verse is as succinct and sharp as anything Dylan’s written in terms of direct social commentary. The rhythms wouldn’t fit, but the sentiment could have come from ‘It’s All Right Ma’ back in 1964.

Democracy don't rule the world
You better get that in your head
This world is ruled by violence
But I guess that's better left unsaid
From Broadway to the Milky Way
That's a lot of territory indeed
And a man's gonna do what he has to do
When he's got a hungry mouth to feed

The song has only rarely been performed. This is the only recording of it that I have, although others may exist. But is this ‘Union Sundown’ at all? I can’t match any of the words except the chorus, at least those words I can make out. Is this another off the cuff performance, or has Dylan rewritten the song? I’d love to see a transcript of this, although I don’t have the ear or the patience to do it. The song rocks along and the band is pretty tight, but Dylan’s vocal delivery gets messy. I feel like I’m back in 1991, with a shambles just around the corner.

Union Sundown

‘Cat’s in the Well’ from Under the Red Sky (1991) is another very political song, but the politics of Under the Red Sky are very different from Infidels. ‘Unbelievable’, off the latter album, delivers swift judgment on what might have happened to the Promised Land.

Once it was a land of milk and honey
now they say it’s a land of money
who’d ever thought, they could make that stick
it’s unbelievable, you can get this rich this quick.

‘Cat’s in the Well’ puts the critique on a different level by using animals from fables. A menacing air is created at the beginning of the song.

Cat’s in the well and the wolf is looking down
he got his big bushy tail dragging all over the ground

A cat in a well of course is a desperate creature. That same desperation lies behind our polite facades.

The cat's in the well
and the servant is at the door.
The drinks are ready
and the dogs are going to war.

Dylan’s outrage at the state of the world is no less than it was, back in the early sixties, in his protest day.

The cat's in the well and grief is showing its face
The world's being slaughtered and it's such a bloody disgrace.

Dylan was often to use this song as a rocker to close gigs, and it was often rushed through or turned into a guitar fest, but this is a pretty clean performance.

Cat’s in the Well

While on the subject of Under the Red Sky and Dylan’s ongoing political commentary, we find a little song called ‘2 by 2’. In their eagerness to dismiss the album, and write off ‘2 by 2’ as song writing by numbers, the commentators miss once more the engagement with social issues of these songs.

How many paths did they try and fail?
How many of their brothers and sisters lingered in jail?
How much poison did they inhale?
How many black cats crossed their trail?

It has a catchy melody and beat, but the song never quite came over, and Dylan rarely performed it. In this performance he misses out the chorus I’ve quoted in favour of repeating the last chorus twice, which is somewhat more generalised in terms of social critique.

How many tomorrows have they given away?
How many compared to yesterday?
How many more without any reward?
How many more can they afford?

Listen out for Bucky Baxter’s nice slide guitar work, and an arresting ending to the song. No spoilers!

2 by 2

We can’t leave Under the Red Sky without that much despised song ‘Wiggle Wiggle.’ I offered some defence for that song when looking at 1991 (See NET 1991 Part One), suggesting that it was a deliberate and provocative attack on human sexuality, and as such a powerful song. So powerful it got everybody offended and up in arms. They came to see ‘Blowing in the Wind’ and got ‘Wiggle Wiggle’. Quite an effective way to destroy your legend.

Here it is, with the lyrics restored. There’s some pretty fancy guitar work here by John Jackson. This jazzy extension seems to be what interests the musicians. The audience seem to get it, and have a good time. ‘Wiggle you can raise the dead!’ Oh Lordy.

Wiggle Wiggle

Well, I’m going to wiggle right out of here and prepare the next post, which will check in on how the Oh Mercy songs are developing, plus some other goodies.

Be well

Kia Ora

The index to all the articles covering the Never Ending Tour from 1987 onwards can be found here.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Song to Bonny: another unfinished Dylan set of lyrics now set to music

Posted on July 7, 2020 by TonyAttwood

The idea of the Bob Dylan Showcase is twofold. One part of it allows anyone who has recorded a Dylan song and who is a reader of our site to submit the recording and we’ll put it up.

The other surrounds the issue of a number of Dylan songs for which we have the lyrics and not any music.

Now I don’t know whether when we first stumbled on this project of writing the music to Dylan’s songs it attracted several talented writers along, and this put everyone else off, or whether people just got bored. But one way or another, the entries have declined. As a result we really have had to wait for the music to “Song to Bonny” to emerge, but now we have it.

And thus it is formally classified as “Song to Bonny” by Bob Dylan/Paul Robert Thomas.

Here is the music

Song To Bonny

And the lyrics

My Mother raised me tenderly
I was her pride and joy
She never meant for me to be
No wanderin’ homeless boy

I’m writing a song to a girl I once knew
It wasn’t so long but it seems so long ago
This ain’t no love song, none of its kind
It’s a song of remembrance of a girl in my mind

Hey Bonny I’m singing to you now
This song I’m singing is the best I know how
The songbirds are singing their voices do ring
And I’ll think of you as long as they sing

Hey Bonny Beecher I think that you know
What I am doing and where I must go
Can’t give you no ring of diamond or gold
But I’ll think about you wherever I go

Springtime’s a comin’ and the grass will turn green
The flowers’ll bloom and the leaves on the trees
Will all turn in color and all seem to shade
The wild Mississippi where you sit and wait

Where you sit and wait

Hey hey Bonny I wrote you a song
Cause I don’t know if I’ll see you again
I want you to know whatever I do
I’ll always remember that I once was with you

Remember me baby I’s good to you one time
I’m a wandering boy and you’re in my wandering mind

Spring Time's a comin’ and the grass’ll turn green
The flowers will bloom and the leaves on the trees
Will all turn in colors and all seems to shade
The wild Mississippi where you sit and wait

Where you sit and wait

Bob Dylan/Paul Robert Thomas

P.S. All of the songs from this Dylan project can be checked out on my website at https://www.paullyrics.com/album/dylan-found/

Here are some other entries into the Bob Dylan Showcase. If you want to join in, please write to Tony@schools.co.uk

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Bob Dylan And Frankenstein (Part II)

Posted on July 7, 2020 by TonyAttwood

Bob Dylan And Frankenstein (Part II)

This article continues from Bob Dylan and Frankenstein

by Larry Fyffe

Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan is rather consistent in the themes that he expresses though his often dark-humoured song lyrics – consistent yes, yet very innovative at the same. For instance, Dylan turns two central stories from the Holy Bible into a Gothic Romantic musical masterpiece – the Almighty creates a perfect, beautiful Satan who then rebels against his authoritarian Creator:

For thou hast said in thine heart
"I will ascend into Heaven,
I will exalt the throne above the stars of God
I will sit on the mount....
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
I will be like the Most High"
(Isaiah 14:13,14)

The Almighty then creates Mankind in His own image, and, sure enough, look what happens:

And the Serpent said unto the woman
"Ye shall not surely die
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof
Then your eyes shall be opened
And ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" ......
And a tree to be desired to make one wise
She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat
And gave also unto to her husband with her, and he did eat
(Genesis 3: 4,5,6)

God’s not happy with his authority being challenged by these upstarts, and, to show who’s the boss, He throws Satan, Eve, and Adam out in the streets, so to speak.

Satan, he’s his own boss, and he ain’t gonna stand for it, ain’t gonna take it anymore:

"So farewell hope, and, with hope, farewell fear
Farewell remorse! All good to me is lost
Evil be thou my good"
(John Milton: Paradise Lost, Book IV)

A creator of a novel revises the story a bit, makes it darker – therein, God-like Dr. Frankenstein rejects his own creation:

"I, the miserable and the abandoned ....kicked, and trampled on
Even now my blood boils at the recollection of the injustice
Evil thenceforth became my good"
(Mary Shelley: Frankenstein Or The Modern Prometheus)

The singer/singer takes on the persona of Mary’s creature in the lyrics below:

You trampled on me as you passed
Left the coldest kiss upon my brow
All my doubts and fears have gone at last
I've nothing more to tell you now
(Bob Dylan: Tell Old Bill)

Victor Frankenstein’s side of the story is later related by Bob Dylan to his listeners/readers; Doctor Victor wants everyone to stay forever young:

All through the summer, into January
I've been visiting morgues, and monasteries
Looking for the necessary body parts
Limbs and livers, and brains and hearts
I'll bring someone to life, is what I wanna do
I wanna create my own version of you .....
One strike of lightning is all that I need
And a blast of electricity that runs at top speed
Shimmy your ribs, I'll stick in the knife
Gonna jump-start my creation to life
I wanna bring someone to life, turn back the years
Do it with laughter, and do it with tears

The melancholy ghost of John Keats haunts the song – a young boy, beloved by Apollo, accidently spears his pet deer; the son of Zeus, the God of Thunder, turns the boy into a cypress tree so that the boy can weep forever:

Is there light at the end of the tunnel, can you tell me please?
Stand over here by the cypress tree
(Bob Dylan: My Version Of You)

Brilliant!

Untold Dylan: The YouTube channel what you’ll find there

What Rolling Stone had to say about Untold Dylan and Tell ol Bill

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Play lady play: the strange ones, the eccentric, and the beautiful

Posted on July 6, 2020 by TonyAttwood

Research by Aaron Galbraith, Text by Tony Attwood

In this series of articles, Aaron casts his net across the range of lady signers who perform Dylan songs, and offers Tony a number of video links with the instruction, “review these”.

This time Aaron wrote,

“The first four are pretty “out there” in terms of arrangements and the last four are edging towards the far reaches of Dylan’s discography… the last, in particular I hesitated to include but then I though what the hey…this is Untold Dylan after all and I’m pretty certain not many will know that this is a Dylan co-write and even less who would know that someone actually covered it!

“I’m sure some of these you are going to hate! But maybe some you will love, who knows! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for these! Enjoy!”

And now, if you don’t want to read Tony’s chit chat comments you can just listen to the music on the Untold Dylan: The YouTube channel

—————–

And Tony answers…

What is the point of singing Dylan like Dylan? Or indeed of having the same accompaniment as Dylan has chosen? After all, it has already been done. By Dylan.

So I fully applaud each and every attempt to take Dylan song into another dimension. The one thing I wish I was party to is the discussions by each band and vocalist into exactly what they are going to do.

Take Diva De Lei with “Senor” – where did they start in working on this arrangement? The vocal, the accompaniment, or the introduction of the backing chorus? What is so amazing is that the song starts at such a pitch of intensity it is hard to imagine it can get much higher.

But oh my, it most certainly does. I love it.

And so moving on, is there any way of following that?

This is Patti LaBelle with “Forever Young” at Live Aid.

Now if you have been following this series, you may recall my criticisms concerning the way some lady singers use the songs to show off their vocal ranges in a way that seems to have little relationship with the song itself.

This is just my problem, and I find it again here as the meaning of the song vanishes in a sea of vocal acrobatics. By the three minute mark we could be listening to any song; the meaning has gone, the lights have gone out, the door has been shut, the audience has gone home, the planet has left its orbit, the sun has dimmed…

Obviously not for the audience here. It’s my failing that I just don’t get it. And I do love the song.

Angela Aki – Knockin On Heavens Door

Now I don’t have such problems with foreign languages – I don’t need to hear the lyrics in English, and indeed the sound of the lyrics in a foreign tongue that I can’t speak raise all sorts of possibilities.

Here we get the occasional line in English, but that’s neither here nor there. What is utterly exquisite is the piano playing, the change in emphasis, and the later introduction behind the piano of the band, who know exactly where they should be – behind this magnificent lead musician.

I even love the extension of the title line in the grand fortissimo section around the three minute marker.

And what a beautiful combination is her voice and piano performance; my goodness this lady really does have it all, and she uses it all to fulfil the meaning of the song. Now she is a performer I would travel to see.

MB14 & Tamara – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

Where do we go next?

To a totally different arrangement and a different understanding of the song. And it is good indeed to hear this street band who are phenomenally resourceful in their use of resources.

I never once get tired of the singer’s voice, nor the way the band use their resources. I found myself wondering if the lady singer could actually perform in any voice other than this. But just as I was wondering, we get to the harmonies that conclude the piece. Oh that is clever. That is really good.

Are they really a street band, or was that just an act for the video? Probably, but hey, it was a good act.

The Omagh Community Youth Choir – Love Rescue Me

This is one of those videos which seems to have a copyright problem in different countries, so here are two approaches – hopefully one will work where you are.

One version

https://youtu.be/5xNmhhB3fjw

The alternative is here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YcLlURCLIU

School and community choirs are not what we are normally about but this should be an exception because of where the choir is based and what the community had been through. The point was, they clearly got everything out of making this recording, and surely that is what a community choir is all about.

And the sound is beautiful.

Lily Kershaw – Wagon Wheel

One of the problems with trying to write a review of each of these songs is that there are going to be occasional Dylan songs performed that I don’t care for, and others I really do hold in my heart. Not to mention performers I like, and others that are not my first choice.

Here we have personal choices in both zones – one of my favourite Dylan pieces, and Lily Kershaw does it for me.

Now of course one of the absolute must-not-dos is to quote oneself in reviews, but well, Untold is about breaking rules, so this is what I said in my original review

“He knocks out a few lines and makes up a few more plus the accompaniment and melody on the spot, he does a very hard to understand rough recording, and then they don’t use the song in the film. Except it gets picked up years later and becomes a monumental hit.”

And yes I still think that but somehow this version never takes off in the way that Old Crowe makes it work. Why is that? The harmonies in the Old Crowe version for one thing. The combination of violin and banjo for another. And then the harmonies again which change here and there as the piece continue. And it is one of my favourite videos too, but let’s not dwell on that.

There’s nothing wrong with Lily’s version, it is just that one either has to do something very different or a lot more with a Dylan song to make a big mark, or outshine earlier versions, and I don’t think she does either here.

Maria Muldaur & Mavis Staples – Well, Well, Well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orr03NB0iVA

Well, well, well, is another song I gave a rave review to and again I’m struggling to keep my interest. This is a clever and well thought through treatment of the song, but this doesn’t do anything for me, other than leaving me thinking it is clever. Come the end I don’t want to play it again (which when I do is surely is the mark of a great rendition).

If you haven’t heard the original click on the review link, skip forward through the co-composer’s chit chat and give yourself a treat.

Silvia Braga – Vomit Express

Aaron’s note to me says, “Apologies for presenting that last one and for making you listen to it..maybe it will make you appreciate the original a little bit more now!” The original is available on Untold’s earlier review (which in case you need them, contains the lyrics).

These two versions are completely different from each other, but my reaction is, “why bother?” It wasn’t so much that I didn’t like the original, as I didn’t and still don’t see the point of the song. If it were not for the fact it was written by Bob and Alan, would anyone remember this? Nice tenor sax though.

But I really didn’t want to end of this little piece on a negative. So instead I went back to what I, in my strange little world, in a village listed in the Domesday book, tucked away in the Northamptonshire countryside in middle England, find to be a really moving performance of a beautiful song…

Angela Aki – Knockin On Heavens Door

Aaron, thank you, I really enjoyed this selection.

And to you, dear reader and listener, having got this far, thank you. I hope you enjoyed it too.

tony

You can find the selections from all the previous editions of Play Lady Play on the Untold Dylan: The YouTube channel what you’ll find there

Play Lady Play: earlier editions

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The Mississippi series VII Dorsey Dixon

Posted on July 6, 2020 by TonyAttwood

The Mississippi series

by Jochen Markhorst

VII Dorsey Dixon

Rowland Sherman is the photographer who will later take the famous picture of Dylan used for Greatest Hits. “With that blue light, with the white halo,” as Sherman says, adding:

“And it won a Grammy Award! I didn’t think much of it, but now it turns out that that shot is one of the icons of the ’60s. Quite proud of it, but at the time I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”

That picture was taken in Washington in 1965, but Sherman has known Dylan for a long time. He’s there, 28 July 1963 at the Newport Folk Festival, when the scruffy vagabond is catapulted by Joan Baez and becomes the new king of folk music. That’s how the photographer sees it, anyway:

“There was a crowd of maybe 60 or 100 people. And then Joan Baez sat in with him, and all of a sudden the crowd was two or three hundred people. It was all his stuff, and she was singing the harmonies to them. Fabulous stuff. The crowd got bigger and bigger, and everyone was enthralled. It was because if Baez is singing with this guy, he must have something.”

And at the end of the weekend, when Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul & Mary, The Freedom Singers and Joan Baez form his background choir on “Blowin’ In The Wind”, it is evident: Dylan is the star, “he was untouchable”.

Dylan’s presence is also fairly prominent in the 32-page program booklet. One and a half pages with an ode-like contribution he wrote about folk artist, harmonica player and music critic Tony “Little Sun” Glover (“- for Dave Glover”), the lyrics of “Blowin’ In The Wind”, and so on. Yet Dylan is not on the record that will be released six months later, Old Time Music At Newport (Recorded Live At The Newport Folk Festival 1963) – a strange blunder from record label Vanguard, which still does have complete, officially unreleased, recordings of all the Dylan appearances that weekend.

An interesting record it is nevertheless – if only because it reveals a few sources of Dylan’s later repertoire. The young Dylan (he’s 22 by then) kept his ears and eyes open for three days, visited the workshops and attended the performances, and that record was probably on his turntable too.

The LP opens with four songs by Doc Watson, the man from whom Dylan learned “Naomi Wise”, and “Lonesome Road Blues”, “Freight Train Blues” and “Lone Pilgrim”, “Handsome Molly” and “Little Maggie”, the songs, in short, which lay the foundation of his oeuvre and which he still has on a pedestal today.

The same goes for the artist and the repertoire of the next artist on that Newport record: Clarence Ashley. Another admired musician who Dylan meets and hears playing in the Village, and here Ashley performs his version of “Little Sadie”, the version that a few years later, on Self Portrait (1970), seems to be the template for Dylan’s recording.

Similar aha-moments delivers Side 2, with the legend Dock Boggs. Boggs, whose “Danville Girl” in the 80s via the detour “New Danville Girl” will lead to “Brownsville Girl”, here plays his classic “Sugar Baby”, the namesake of the brilliant finale of “Love And Theft” (2001).

And in between, between Dock Boggs and Clarence ‘Tom’ Ashley, opening Side 2, the misunderstood Dorsey Dixon shines.

The invitation to perform at Newport is a late, meagre recognition of the forgotten Dorsey Dixon’s music historical importance. Born in 1897 in Darlington, South Carolina, Dorsey has worked in the local textile factory since he was twelve, as do his father and his six siblings. Sister Nancy has been a spinster since she was eight, and brother Howard has been on the loom since his tenth birthday.

Dorsey and Howard are musical, they perform and make their own songs about their lives in the factory, the miserable living conditions and the exploitation by the manufacturers. Locally known, popular at demonstrations and trade union activities, but they don’t make money with it. At the age of forty, Dorsey still works in a textile factory, now fifty miles away, in East Rockingham.

In 1936 a gruesome car accident happens near the factory, in which two fellow locals are killed. Dorsey sees the car wreck, the blood and the shrapnel. He writes a song about it, “Wreck On The Highway” (though he originally calls the song “I Didn’t Hear Nobody Pray”). The song penetrates the canon quite smoothly:

Who did you say it was brother?
Who was it fell by the way?
When whiskey and blood run together
Did you hear anyone pray?

I didn't hear nobody pray, dear brother
I didn't hear nobody pray
I heard the crash on the highway
But, I didn't hear nobody pray

But it won’t make the Dixons rich either. Howard and Dorsey are allowed to record sixty songs for record company Victor, but they don’t have a clue, of course. A&R guy Eli Oberstein sells the copyrights of all of them. Country hero Roy Acuff hits the jackpot with “Wreck On The Highway” and scores a big hit (the ungrammatical double denial in the original title is considered too rustic). Unscrupulously and speciously, Acuff puts his name under the song, and only years later, when Dixon finds out he did miss out on quite a lot of money, he sends in a lawyer. In 1946 he gets the copyrights back, an unknown percentage of “future royalties” plus $1,700 – a pittance, of course.

It takes until the end of the fifties – Dorsey is already in his sixties – when some recognition comes up. His songs are discovered by folkies, in 1961 he is given the opportunity to record an album (Babies In The Mill – the title song is, obviously, about the disgraceful practices of child labour in American textile factories, in the first half of the twentieth century) and Pete Seeger introduces him at his first major performance, at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963.

Dylan’s in the audience and pays close attention. Dorsey (brother Howard died in 1961) opens with his bitterly comical “Intoxicated Rat”, which is on the repertoire of Doc Watson, Cisco Houston and The New Lost City Ramblers, and – unlikely enough – even on Brook Benton’s.

Then Dixon plays his big hit, which he now calls “Wreck On The Highway” too, and finally he plays his “first blues” (as he says himself), “Weave Room Blues” which he wrote more than thirty years ago, in 1931. In the thirties that song was on the repertoire of every trade union activity around the textile factories, as well as in the variant “Cotton Mill Blues”, but no one knows it was written by Dorsey Dixon. Pete Seeger sings it, The New Lost City Ramblers record it in 1961 for their hit album Vol. 3, but even in the standard work American Folk Songs Of Protest by the highly educated John Greenway (1953), in which the song is extensively discussed, Dorsey’s name is not mentioned.

But his work will stand the test of time. Dylan does his bit and takes that beautiful image devil’s in your alley to the twenty-first century, to “Mississippi”:

I've got the blues, I've got the blues,
I've got them awful weave-room blues;
I got the blues, the weave-room blues.

Harness eyes are breaking with the doubles coming through,
Devil's in your alley and he's coming after you,
Our hearts are aching, well, let's take a little booze;
For we're simply dying with them weave-room blues.

Newport, and the recognition by greats like Seeger, Cisco Houston and The New Lost City Ramblers, comes too late for Dixon. He’s half-blind, old, has a few heart attacks in ’64, has to move in with his son in Florida and dies in 1968.

Thus, he again misses out on a shipload of money four years later, when Roy Acuff’s version of “Wreck On The Highway” is released on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s platinum hit record Will The Circle Be Unbroken. On which – finally – the song is not attributed to Roy Acuff anymore. But erroneously, to add insult to injury, to a “Dorothy” Dixon.

The devil was in the alley again, probably.

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part VIII: Pretty Maids All In A Row

=====

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

==========

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dylan’s lost 1966 album: time to put it back together

Posted on July 5, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Aaron Galbraith

In the Deluxe edition of the Cutting Edge box set, the book states that Dylan could have put out another album after Blonde On Blonde using the remaining tracks from the 1965-1966 sessions, if he had been so inclined. So, spurred on by the success of Tony’s “Dylan 1980” album, I thought I’d have a go at compiling it!

Now this does not mean that we are going to put out endless invented albums – the main point about these “invented” albums is that they have a logic – “1980” took all the songs of that year because the songs mark a transformation in Dylan’s thinking, while “Sheep In Wolves Clothing” is the album Dylan could have created that year, instead of the one we actually got.

You can hear both albums plus the tracks from the Play Lady Play series on our new YouTube site. If you want to create your own Dylan album for us to publish, the best bet is to sketch out the idea first and send it to Tony@schools.co.uk, before you start putting all the videos together and writing about each song.

But now, back to the Cutting Edge. My first port of call was the “Dylan songs of the 1950s and 60s” section of this site, this gave me the links to listen back to all the songs from those years, which helped to reacquaint myself with the tracks when compiling my album.

My criteria for inclusion was twofold.

1) There has to be a version by Dylan available (so no “Love Is A Four Letter Word”, unfortunately)

2) There has to be a complete (or almost complete) take available (so no “Jet Pilot”).

So, here is the track list I came up with for the mythical lost Dylan album from 1966.

Side 1.

Positively 4th Street (3:54)
Farewell, Angelina (5:27)
Sittin’ On A Barbed Wire Fence (3:54)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (4:04)
She’s Your Lover Now (6:10)

Side 2.

Tell Me Momma (5:10)
If You Gotta Go (Go Now) (2:56)
Long Distance Operator (3:38)
I Wanna Be Your Lover (3:27)
I’ll Keep It With Mine (3:39)

If you squint hard at all of this it could be telling the story of a lost love, the sorrow, the anger and then acceptance of the situation on side 1. Then the moving on with your life and finding someone new on side 2. If you squint real hard!

Now what to call this collection? Dylan is not against using a song title as an album title, although he has only done it 8 times in his career, plus 3 times he has used a partial song title, Nashville Skyline, Slow Train Coming and Hard Rain. Only one time, I think, he has used a line in a song to name the album (Knocked Out Loaded). So that means that less than a third of the time a song has named the album.

As I don’t have access to Dylan’s brain at this time for an original title, I thought I would use a line from a song, just this once. I tried to encapsulate the journey of a love affair using a line or two from the available songs.

Here are my suggestions for a title:

A Fistful Of Tacks
The Bells Of The Crown
Bulldog Bite
The Felony Room
Long Distance

So now what I would like you to do is design a sleeve for this album using one of the titles I came up or, indeed use one of your own. Send it in to Tony and he will publish it on this here site.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 who teach English literature. 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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Why does Dylan like Tampa Red?

Posted on July 5, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood and Aaron Galbraith

During 1978 Bob Dylan performed “She’s Love Crazy” – a Tampa Red song from 1941. In all Dylan sang it 48 times – he obviously liked it. He also dipped into “Love her with a feeling”.

Tampa Red was born Hudson Woodbridge in 1903, and was later known as Hudson Whittaker after his parents died during his childhood. He died in 1981, and was one of the great Chicago blues men.

His first step towards fame came when accompanying Ma Rainey, the lady mentioned in Tombstone Blues, and in 1928 he started recording with Georgia Tom (Thomas Dorsey) particularly with the Hokum Boys. Hokum was a form of blues that had sexually explicit lyrics and occasional rhythmic changes.

Here’s the Tampa Red Hokum Jug Band

Tampa Red then became known for a bottleneck style and was later known as The Man with the Gold Guitar.

This recording has examples of his solo guitar playing

https://youtu.be/g-5M–sc5lY

He was often recorded playing single-string runs – one of the first performers to do so.

“It hurts me too” was one of his best known songs…

And here is “She’s Love Crazy” which Dylan performed

https://youtu.be/uW1oNg51vHo

Tampa Red created a number of blues songs which became a staple part of the blues genre.

Bob Dylan performed the song in 1978 – at a time when Tampa Red was still with us – he passed away in 1981.

https://youtu.be/vjfo45qWOY8

Interestingly Dylan played about with the song on the tour, changing both the speed and the key.

https://youtu.be/JXRjPc3euEQ

As for Dylan’s tributes to him, perhaps it was an awareness of Tampa Red’s last years that caused Bob to pay an extra tribute to him.

Tampa Red’s wife died in 1953 and it is reported that after that he took heavily to drink, making his final recordings in 1960. He died destitute in Chicago at the age of 77 in March 1981.

Why does Dylan like (the series)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 who teach English literature. 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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

But what is complete is our index to all the 611 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page. I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information. Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Untold Dylan: The YouTube channel

Posted on July 4, 2020 by TonyAttwood

Words by Tony Attwood

Hard work and technical knowledge by Aaron Galbraith

It is often suggested that I am still stuck in the 1950s, playing Dylan records on a trusty record player at 33 and a third revs per minute, and that Untold Dylan is written on parchment with a quill pen, my trusty associates then typing the texts up beore handing them over to more modern folk who eventually see to things and get my words of wisdom before the contemporary world by placing these musings upon the Internet.

Well yes, up to a point. But fortunately some around me are of a more modern inclination, and as such have now taken Untold Dylan further forward with a You Tube channel.

I must admit I am not quite sure what this is but I am told that if you take a peek via the link below you will see wonders upon wonders.

We have for example six Play Lady Play playlists taken from the articles from that series, meaning you can play the list in sequence while reading the article. There is a list of the articles below to help out.

We also have a full play list for our invented album “Sheep in Wolves’ Clothing” including

Track 1 Twist and Shout
Track 2: Just when I needed you most
Track 3: Willie and the Hand Jive
Track 4: Important words
Track 5: Uranium Rock (Rock ’em dead)
Track 6: Lucky old Sun
Track 7: Got Love If You Want It
Track 8: Treasure of Love
Track 9: Sidewalks Fences and Walls
Track 10: Let my people go.
CD Bonus Tracks: Thank God, Old Five And Dimers (Like Me)
Album Cover 1
Album Cover 2

And (and this is the bit I really love) my own invented album (“Dylan 1980”) now exists as a YouTube album. You can follow that extravaganza via these links.

Bob says to Tony, “Make me an album”
Make me an album part 2
The hopes and fears and dreams of the discontented

Untold Dylan: The Youtube channel

And seriously, a million thanks to Aaron for getting the channel going and setting out the selections.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bob Dylan And Faith (Part VIII): Nietzsche

Posted on July 4, 2020 by TonyAttwood

Bob Dylan and Faith

===================

Bob Dylan And Faith (Part VII): Nietzsche

by Larry Fyffe

Some examiners of the song lyrics of Bob Dylan claim that in the song ‘Cry A While’ , the line “A nasty, dirty, double-crossing, back-stabbing phony” refers to Anglo/Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith, who in his scramble to keep out of debt, pens ‘hack’ works that appeal to the religious outlook of the Anglican Establishment, ie, ‘The Ballad Of Edwin And Angelina’), akin to the sentiments expressed in the writings of Robert Southey (who comes along later in history); tales in which the good and bad get their just deserts as God preordains they will – all’s well that end’s well.

However, the ‘light-tragedy’ of William Blake is a personal mythology with no happy ending; therein, the time is out of joint – rational science sees to it that objectively-driven material production triumphs over that which is lovingly produced. According to the symbolic poet, the industrial Tiger eats the caring Lamb; in the Land of Diestic Enlightenment, the imagination of the creative artist is chained up; sexual energy is driven underground; there is no escape from a ‘dark’ life of drudgery.

Christ is crucified; Satan wins:

The virgin started from her seat with a shriek
Fled back unhindered till she came into the vales of Har
(William Blake: Book of Thel)

Deconstructed, Blakean mythology’s still rather paternalistic – much like the viewpoint of orthodox religion (and those of the NeoChristianity of Emanuel Swedenborg) that Blake supposedly rebels against; he wants to have his cake, and eat it too.

An irony not lost in the song lyrics below; time is short, baby; forget St. Paul, ask the Rose of Sharon – she knows that experiencing sexual relationships after the innocence of youth is what makes a gal wise to the ways of the world.

To wit:

Counterfeit philosophies have polluted all of your thoughts
Karl Marx has got you by the throat, 
       Henry Kissinger's still got you wrapped up in knots ....
Well, the Man on a cross, and He's been crucified
You know who He is, and you know why He died
When you gonna wake up, when you gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up, strengthen the things that remain?
(Bob Dylan: When You Gonna Wake Up)

Seems that the new boss is quite like the old boss – Eve gets the blame for the human alienation in the New Babylon as she does for the troubles in the Old Babylon of the Holy Bible.

What happened to the lusty Abel? Where is the demon lover Lilith when you need her?

Poetic philosopher Frederick Nietzsche dreams that he was amongst the ones who put the earthy Dionysian god to death – the ‘god’ who needs not to wait for a heavenly ‘afterlife’ to find spiritual happiness.

Nietzsche is not altogether dead:

Preacher was talking, there's a sermon he gave
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved
You can not depend on it to be your guide
When it is you who must be satisfied
It ain't easy to swallow, it sticks in your throat
She went with the man in the long black coat
(Bob Dylan: The Man In The Long Black Coat)

In the song lyrics below, the narrator thereof dreams that he kills St. Augustine, a convert to Christianity, who turns away from the Persian religious founder Mani, the prophet of forces ‘dark’ and ‘light’; the saint develops the concepts of ‘original sin’ and of the timeless Jesus:

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive with fiery breath
And I dreamed I was amongst the ones
That put him out to death
(Bob Dylan: I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine)

https://youtu.be/9shcE0VYeN4

Concludes the orderly Apollonian songwriter, and musician:

I'm just like Anne Frank, like Indiana Jones
And them British bad boys, the Rolling Stones
I go right to the edge, I go right to the end
I go where where all things lost are made good again
I sing the songs of experience like William Blake
I have no apologies to make
(Bob Dylan: I Contain Multitudes)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 who teach English literature. 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 7000 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

NET 1991 part 3: King of the Unsteady

Posted on July 3, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Mike Johnson (Kiwipoet)

By listening to the performances, we are starting to get a feel for that difficult and contentious year, 1991. Not quite the train wreck that the commentators claim, the year comes across to me more like a year of on-stage rehearsals, with Dylan trying out new arrangements and new musicians in front of audiences. This attempt to make old songs new again would not fully pay off until later years. Here we see them in their raw state, and the results are more gritty than pretty.

There is something of a deconstructive urge at work that I detected in the 1988 performances. The results can sound quite harsh and uncompromising. The tendency to flatten the melodic line with his scratchy voice, and so leach much of the drama from the songs, is evident in this performance of his 1966 epic ‘Visions of Johanna’. Lacking the soaring spookiness of his 1966 live performances, or the midnight sinuousness of the album version, this 1991 performance lacks atmosphere, despite some energetic acoustic guitar. And, at least to my mind, the up tempo versions of the song fail to capture it in all its glory. He rattles through it well enough, but often those incomparable lyrics get blurred or rushed over. Verses get dropped out, and although he works the song up to a strong ending, the ultimate result is less than electrifying.

Visions of Johanna

We get a better result with ‘Simple Twist of Fate’. He keeps the tempo slow and takes his time with the lyrics. The vocal works okay, with some interesting lyrical variations, but there is some dissonant guitar work from Dylan that puts us on edge. A trenchant harp break helps give the song some push, but the overall effect is of a sound that hasn’t quite jelled. And I’m not sure about that ‘trick ending’ as Dylan describes it to the audience at the end of the song. It sounds to me as if he didn’t quite know when and where to end it.

Simple Twist of Fate

That other classic from Blood on the Tracks, ‘Shelter from the Storm’ does not fare so well, although the vocal is not rushed and there’s some nice jazzy harp. The real issue is with the overall sound and the general messiness of it. And we have to finally ask if Dylan is playing in the same key as everybody else. His tendency to play under the note, and to give even these semi-acoustic performances a punk like sound, makes for uneasy listening.

It seems that whatever the key of the song, Dylan always plays in the key of D – that is, the key of Dylan. The presence of Dylan as Mr Guitar Man is only just beginning to assert itself, and will become an increasing factor in the following years. A movement is taking place from Dylan as purely rhythm guitar, chord keeper, to Dylan the lead or assistant lead guitar. The results, particularly in 1991, are not easy on the ear.

Shelter from the Storm

On the other hand, the other guitarist, I assume it’s John Johnson, doesn’t help much either, with some odd tuning to his own guitar. Whoever it is, the overall effect is scrappy.

You notice some difference when Dylan is not playing the guitar, as on this rough and ready but serviceable performance of ‘Under the Red Sky’. Dylan is on the electric piano, although not obtrusively, and although we have that scratchy voice to deal with, the performance carries us along okay. We are reminded once more of how good this droll song is.

Under the Red Sky.

Dylan’s 1984 ‘Man of Peace’ gets a nice nineties chuggy beat (where have I heard that beat before?) and works well with Dylan on piano once more. It’s a foot-tapper, but doesn’t really take off. You can hear Dylan trying hard with that voice, but again, the strain is evident. The song doesn’t have such a great reputation, but I think it sums up well his post Christian doubt.

Man of Peace

‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ is one of Dylan’s most famous songs, and he has never let it drift too far from his setlist. This semi-acoustic version builds well, Dylan again on electric piano, with a lovely, free flowing break. Again, however, I’m less impressed with the guitar work. The vocal is up front, and while that same strain is evident, we can hear Dylan reaching for a new vocal line and not falling back on old tried and true formulations. It’s not my favourite version, but it has a certain raw authenticity to it. It struggles rather than soars, but that fits the song too.

Knocking on Heavens Door

Then, out of these dusty corners there rolls another gem, Dylan’s gospel classic from 1980, ‘I Believe in You’. The pure, bluesy, opening harp break would alone justify its inclusion here, and once more I wonder where this song was hiding when I did my Master Harpist series. And while Dylan’s washed-out voice doesn’t have the richness of the 1980 Toronto performances, he takes to the song with a will, and all goes well until he flubs the lyrics, mixes the lines, and can’t seem to recover the momentum of the song. For all that, however, it’s a spirited performance well worth the listen.

I Believe in You

‘Just like a Woman’ has never been my favourite Dylan song, and this not my favourite performance of it. Nevertheless it is a sustained performance, with an intensification of the vocal towards the end. The tender vulnerability of the album version is lost, however, and the music meanders on for a few choruses after the verses to little effect. Just marking time, it seems to me.

Just like a Woman

We can, however, quite safely kick our shoes off and do a little soft-shoe shuffle to ‘I’ll be your Baby Tonight’. It all seems to come together. Dylan sings with plenty of verve and imagination. The band seems to settle in too. You sense Dylan and the band are having the kind of good time the song promises as they chug along. It’s about as laid back as Dylan gets. The jazzy harp sets it up nicely at the beginning, and finishes it off nicely at the end. Only towards the end of the song do we hear Dylan’s dissonant Stratocaster messing with our heads. This is another from the summer tour.

I’ll be your Baby Tonight

‘Senor’ is another regular to Dylan’s set list. It’s a great vocal, but he misses out the crucial last verse and the song chugs along for another two minutes without much happening. The sense of oppression this song can build up, and the drama of it, are largely lost here, not so much because of Dylan’s vocal but because the looser chuggier beat doesn’t suit the song, which Dylan will later learn how to build into a crescendo.

Senor

Songs like ‘Senor’ and ‘Visions of Johanna’ are mood songs – as is ‘Man in the Long Black Coat’. But while the former two songs lost much of their atmosphere, ‘Man in the Long Black Coat’ must be one of the strongest performances of the year. Despite the tendency to flatten the melody somewhat, Dylan delivers a pungent, emotional performance, his voice once again seeking new ways through the melodic line. This performance has none of the polished grandeur of the 1995 Prague performance (see Master Harpist 1), but, in keeping with the year, it has a harsh, raw power.

Man in the Long Black Coat

That brings to an end our tour of Dylan’s 1991 performances, and what a difficult and puzzling year it is to come to grips with. Not quite the train wreck of reputation, but things weren’t right much of the time with the Undesirables. The band never really jelled. Painful when you compare it to the precision machine Dylan now has, evident on Tempest and Rough and Rowdy Ways. The overall sound was often discordant and sharp, especially when Dylan began to test his Mr Guitar Man fingers.

And there was a certain amount of deliberate jettisoning of the legend, and the image of the legend. Dylan’s approach to the vocals was spirited, but he often elided words or forgot them, or left off verses. And there were unrehearsed and inconclusive endings to some of the songs. Messy endings.

Yet there was a spirit of innovation in the air. Dylan playing electric piano. Dylan playing increasingly jazzy harp breaks, sounding thin and mercurial. Dylan stretching his often strained voice in new directions, seeking new ways of resonating with the songs.

All this shemozzle would start to pay off in 1992. There was nowhere left to go but up.

Kia Ora, and see you next time.

You might also like to note…

Dylan and T.S Elliot meeting in the Captain’s Tower

And… Mike’s previous megaseries for Untold Dylan: Bob Dylan Master Harpist contains six articles which between them offer the most comprehensive guide to Dylan’s harmonica techniques ever assembled.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 who teach English literature. 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 5500 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Mississippi-series, part 6

Posted on July 3, 2020 by TonyAttwood

The Mississippi series

by Jochen Markhorst

As the master says (not about “Mississippi”, but about bluegrass, in the New York Times interview of June 2020): Its’s mysterious and deep rooted and you almost have to be born playing it. […] It’s harmonic and meditative, but it’s out for blood.

VI Charades

All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime
Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long

Ineradicable, and sometimes tiring, are the many, many Dylan admirers and exegeses who persistently try to interpret Dylan songs biographically. It leads to puzzling with facts and names from the man’s life, to often rather embarrassing “analyses” that try to prove that one you “actually” is Dylan’s wife Sara, another her “actually” Joan Baez, and a baby in a third song “actually” Edie Sedgwick, or something like that.

In doing so, the puzzlers trivialise – unintentionally, we may hope – Dylan’s poetry, downgrading it to petty settlements, childishly encrypted diary entries and small-minded gossip. Inappropriate, and unworthy of a great artist. Of course; private impressions and personal observations do whirl down into Dylan’s work, as with any true artist. You can’t describe a train journey poetically if you’ve never been on a train, you can’t describe jealousy poetically if you’ve never experienced this particular emotion, and you must have been confronted at least once with leopard fur and women’s hats to be able to use it effectively as an accessory in lyrics. And more than that it is not – “These are images which are just in there and have got to come out,” as the writer says in the SongTalk interview with Paul Zollo, 1991.

Dylan himself declares since the 60’s, following Rimbaud, that je est un autre, that the self in his songs is not the same as the writer of the song. As the then only sixteen year old Rimbaud writes in the same Lettre du Voyant: “La chanson est si peu souvent l’oeuvre, c’est-à-dire la pensée chantée et comprise du chanteur – the song is so rarely the work or the sung thought of the singer himself.”

The statement is beautifully illustrated by a witness statement, by Malcom Burn, musician and recording engineer of Oh Mercy, in the fascinating Tell Tale Signs Special interview series in Uncut:

“Nothing on the record took a lot of takes really. The only thing we took a lot of time getting – and this is another interesting thing about is approach – is like, if he was fixing a vocal part. Y’know if he wanted to punch in just a part of a song again. It was never about whether it was in tune or out of tune or anything like that. It would be – let’s say he’s singing a replacement line – he’d sing it and you’d try to mix it into the original track, he’d listen to it and he’d say, “Ah, nah, nah, nah. That’s not the guy.” And I’d say, “The guy?” And he’d say, “Yeah. It’s not the same guy.”

“It’s not the guy,” it’s not the person whose character the performer Dylan takes on for this particular song. Burn learns a lot from it, he says. It’s not so very important whether a verse sounds a little out of tune, or not quite in time, that doesn’t interest Dylan in the least – the personality, “the guy” has to be right. It is, in short, acting; je est un autre.

So the man who, in these verses of “Mississippi”, says that he has such great powers of expression and such sublime thoughts, is not Dylan himself. Any doubt about this is definitively dispelled by Elton John, in his disconcerting, very witty and shameless autobiography Me (2019):

“Simon and Garfunkel had dinner one night, then played charades. At least, they tried to play charades. They were terrible at it. The best thing I can say about them is that they were better than Bob Dylan. He couldn’t get the hang of the ‘how many syllables?’ thing at all. He couldn’t do ‘sounds like’ either, come to think of it. One of the best lyricists in the world, the greatest man of letters in the history of rock music, and he can’t seem to tell you whether a word’s got one syllable or two syllables or what it rhymes with! He was so hopeless, I started throwing oranges at him.”

Now, Elton’s memories aren’t necessarily very reliable. This is at a time when Sir Elton Hercules John is a renowned bulk consumer of liquor and drugs, and the orange scene has to be told to him the next morning by others, to his own horror, but the core of the story, Dylan’s clumsiness at a game of Charades, must be true.

And meanwhile Elton of course recognizes the greatness of Dylan’s lyrics. He surely recognizes the tenor of these verses, of

All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime
Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme.

After all, the Rocketman himself has had a Dylan song on the shelf for years, for which he just can’t find the right je-ne-sais-quoi:

“There are words that Bernie’s written that I’ve never managed to come up with music for. He wrote a great lyric called ‘The Day That Bobby Went Electric’, about hearing Dylan sing ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ for the first time, and I just couldn’t get a tune I thought was right; I tried four or five times.”

Probably early 1980, for the 21 At 33 album. The leaked demo is quite nice by the way, but is not about “Subterranean Homesick Blues”. Elton’s regular lyricist Bernie Taupin closes in the last verse:

The day that Bobby went electric
I was struggling through my teens
And when he plugged in up at Newport
I was caught up in a dream

… so that must have been “Maggie’s Farm”.

As far as the content of these “Mississippi” lines is concerned, the message is not too earth-shattering, obviously. “There are no words to describe your beauty” is actually a rather corny compliment. And the easy way out for the failing poet, who, after all, is paid to find the words to describe beauty, feelings, emotion at all. Sarah Vaughan’s “Words Can’t Describe”, “I Don’t Know How To Say I Love You” by The Superlatives, Sinatra’s “How Deep Is The Ocean?”… it is of all times and apparently even the biggest guns do have the odd off-day – and then turn need into a virtue, creating from the search for the right words a masterpiece that thematises exactly that very speechlessness. Shakespeare, of course (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”), Goethe’s Werther, Rimbaud (“ne sachant m’expliquer sans paroles païennes, je voudrais me taire – unaware how to express myself without pagan words, I’d rather be mute”)… and Dylan, of course.

In an uninspired past, the bard has sought refuge in that escape route. In “Never Say Goodbye” for example:

You’re beautiful beyond words
You’re beautiful to me

As well, in a sad variant, in the mean “Ballad In Plain D” (“The words to say I’m sorry, I haven’t found yet”) – but there it is still more beautifully, poetically phrased than in “Never Say Goodbye”. And again, in the twenty-first century, Dylan does find another poetically successful way of saying that he doesn’t know what to say: I’m searching for phrases to sing your praises (“Soon After Midnight”, 2012).

And the same paradoxical achievement comes from the guy from “Mississippi”, thanks to screenwriter Dylan: he finds great words to say he can’t find words.

To be continued. Next up: Mississippi part VII: Dorsey Dixon

Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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 who teach English literature. 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 5500 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

1990: The re-birth of protest, before the end of all songs

Bob Dylan: Keats West

The Mississippi-series, part 9 – Abandon all hope

Tioga Pass: another lost song. Can you write the music?

Why does Bob Dylan like “The Roving Gambler?”

Bob Dylan: The Black Rider

Play Lady Play: A Simple Twist of Fate

The Mississippi-series, part 8: Pretty Maids All In A Row

1989: the menace emerges

NET 1992 – Heading for the Promised Land Part 1

Song to Bonny: another unfinished Dylan set of lyrics now set to music

Bob Dylan And Frankenstein (Part II)

Play lady play: the strange ones, the eccentric, and the beautiful

The Mississippi series VII Dorsey Dixon

Dylan’s lost 1966 album: time to put it back together

Why does Dylan like Tampa Red?

Untold Dylan: The YouTube channel

Bob Dylan And Faith (Part VIII): Nietzsche

NET 1991 part 3: King of the Unsteady

The Mississippi-series, part 6

Blogroll

Meta

Recent Posts

Archives

Indexes and reference pages

Recent articles