Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (1963) Part II: Love Fades

Posted on September 24, 2020 by TonyAttwood

 

This article continues from Don’t think twice, Part I: Time Passes

by Jochen Markhorst

In Holland, the annual election of the Top 2000 is quite a thing.  In the first week of December, millions of votes are cast by Dutch people who want to see and hear their all-time most beautiful song in the list, and from Boxing Day to midnight New Year’s Eve, the top two thousand elected songs are played and counted down 24/7, non-stop, on Radio 2. Ascending, of course, to the number 1, which almost always is “Bohemian Rhapsody”. In the twenty-first century, Freddy Mercury’s immortal chef-d’oeuvre reached the highest spot already seventeen times  – and in 2019 Queen is the band with the most mentions at all; with 37 songs in the Top 2000, Queen finally beats The Beatles on that front too, for the first time. Still, Pink Floyd is the only band with three songs in the Top 10.

The run-up to the list leads to family squabbles, heated discussions in the company canteen and the workplace (mostly about the merits of “Hotel California” and “Child In Time”), Facebook initiatives try to get that one song from a local hero into the “List of Lists”, interest groups are set up to push Nick Drake and lobby groups to promote songs of a certain Christian or political signature. Then, on 7 December, the registration closes, and things calm down again.

Fully united the country is then, from Boxing Day onwards. The Top 2000 is by far the best listened to radio program in the Netherlands, and the studio, in the middle of the country, receives thousands and thousands of visitors from all corners of the country, who often have to wait hours before they may enter for a one-hour-visit. Once inside, paradise is gained and the religion teacher sings along with “Highway To Hell”, the Hell’s Angel with Whitney Houston and the respectable housewife with “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.

Dylan is a mid-tier. On average there are about nine Dylan originals in the Top 2000, “Hurricane” always the highest, somewhere around spot 60, and in addition usually three or four covers (Hendrix’ “All Along The Watchtower” is the most popular, obviously, followed by usual suspects “Mr. Tambourine Man”, the Guns N’ Roses version of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and Adele).

The lowest ranked Dylan song has only been in it since 2018: “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” (no. 1850 in 2018 and at 1947 in 2019). From where this sudden revival of an almost sixty-year-old song comes, is unclear. Maybe because in the twenty-first century the song more often pops up in the voters’ subjective worlds. In the second decade of this century, Don’t Think Twice can be heard in the television series Mad Men and The Walking Dead, which are also successful in the Netherlands, in the period drama The Help, and in 2019 in the hit series This Is Us and in the crime film The Kitchen.

It is, of course, one of Dylan’s most beautiful love songs. The basis of the song seems autobiographical; the inspiration is quite likely a first relationship crisis, the end of the rose-tinted period with his first great love Suze Rotolo (the girl on the iconic cover of The Freewheelin’), who has just informed him that she will stay in Italy for a little while longer. The hurt, still very young Dylan tries to put into words a relation’s extinguishing, with controlled, mature melancholy, aloof and poetic.

Well, partially, he does achieve that goal. In the title and in the opening lines It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe / It don’t matter, anyhow he still is poetic and aloof. But the rest of the lyrics are mainly driven by hurt pride and heartbreak. It is not yet a flaming resentment, nor a vengeful venom, like later in “Just Like A Woman” or, even worse, in “Idiot Wind”, but the bitter reproaches (You could have done better but I don’t mind / You just kinda wasted my precious time and the somewhat vacuous I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul) on the one hand, and the tender despair on the other hand (Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say / To try and make me change my mind and stay) reveal how much the protagonist suffers. And the fact that he almost drowns in self-pity in the process is perhaps a little awkward, but still poignant.

After her return from Italy, Dylan and Rotolo do reunite (the cover photo was taken during this period), but Dylan seems to be stuck in the role of the abandoned, wounded lover. Moreover, Joan Baez is now in the picture. When an infatuated Baez introduces Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1963, it becomes clear to the rest of the world as well. Suze leaves the concert sobbing, a few days later she packs up her things and moves out of Dylan’s apartment on West 4th Street. At a concert later, Baez announces her version of “Don’t Think Twice” rather ruthlessly with the words about a love affair that has lasted too long, but otherwise she spends remarkably few words on this constellation. In her extensive, candid autobiography And A Voice To Sing With she tells enough about her love rival Sara Lowndes, the later Mrs Dylan, she talks at length about those days when she falls in love with Dylan, around the corner in that crummy hotel over Washington Square, but she doesn’t devote a single letter to the girl he is cheating on at that moment, to Suze, nor to the song she herself will sing often enough about it, Don’t Think Twice.

There are countless covers of the song. Peter, Paul & Mary are the first to score a big hit with it (no. 2 in the Billboard Charts, 1963). Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Melanie, Bryan Ferry and Mme Sarkozy Carla Bruni (who sings it in 2009 together with Hugues Aufray in the French translation “N’y Pense Plus, Tout Est Bien”) are just a few of the more famous artists who have it on their repertoire. On their Staring Down The Brilliant Dream (2010) the Indigo Girls are singing a beautiful version, after they also had the opportunity to sing it with Joan Baez. And on YouTube dozens of loving living room versions are to be found. Of serious looking, spectacled forty-somethings, of shy teenage girls with ukulele and shiny washed hair and of humourless, narcissistic twenty-somethings. The song can hardly be ruined; it remains a beautiful song in every rendition. Many covers approach the original and some surpass it – “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” seems to have a timeless, indestructible power.

The most beautiful cover is sung by Curtis Stigers on his CD You Inspire Me from 2003. Stigers is undoubtedly an artist after Dylan’s heart; a singing saxophonist with blues, rock and jazz in his blood. His first album already features a beautiful rendition of Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love And Understanding”, the song that had almost been on both Jakob Dylan’s repertoire and that of his father. In 2007, Elvis Costello occasionally performs on stage with his idol Dylan (to which we owe the unique, acoustic duet version of “Tears Of Rage”, St. Louis, 22 October 2017);

… but in his wonderful autobiography Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink Costello reveals that Dylan actually wanted to play “(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love And Understanding”. The two of them have been studying the song for a little while, “for a verse or two”, before Costello finally dares to say that he did not write this song at all.

Stigers, meanwhile, makes a few jazzy albums, explores country and pop, lets his hair grow long and scores a huge hit with the smooth earwig “I Wonder Why”, records with big guns like Clapton, Prince and Joe Cocker, and sings for the television series Sons Of Anarchy a bloodcurdling version of one of the songs from Dylan’s personal Bible, “John The Revelator”.

Stigers’ “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”, however, is from his jazz phase. Jazzy arrangements do work well with Dylan songs every now and then, but rarely as well as here. This version is carried by a reverbing, rolling organ. The drums whirl off-beat around it, the bass is dry and lazy and Stigers’ phrasing is true elocution art; all the pain and all the venom within the lyrics do come out perfectly in this super cooled version.

Beautiful trumpet solo, too.  You may be able to find it here, – certainly if you are in the USA and perhaps elsewhere if you are running a VPN – but otherwise we’re having a problem finding an online copy of this version of the song openly available in the UK  – and although the “You inspire me” album is on Spotify in the UK, curiously that one track is not currently playable.  If you find an alternative source do write in with the URL.  Meanwhile you can get it on Amazon if you don’t mind paying.

———–

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

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

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

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

 

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All directions at once: how Dylan’s lyrics empower those who wish to be empowered

Posted on September 23, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

This article revised and updated 25 September 2020

In my article A song is like a painting, you can’t see it all if you’re standing too close I attempted to make the point that sometimes detailed analyses of a song, (as with any other work of art), can lead us down false trails, primarily because the artist is not always delivering a clear message.  Instead the artist (and I use the word to include writers, visual artists, musicians etc etc) may be giving us a feeling or a sense of the world, rather than a “this is how it is” statement.

And I tried to explore this notion in relation to Dylan, remembering, as Jochen reminded us recently, “Donald Fagen [of Steely Dan, pictured above] repeatedly assures that the bard is the source of inspiration for their poetic and impenetrable texts. ‘No one in the pop medium had ever used that breadth of subject matter or surrealistic and dream language,’ he says in the Wall Street Journal (“Rock’s Reluctant Front Man”, July 8, 2011).”

Dylan, as we know, generally does not overtly explain each song, but he given us the occasional insight, as when he said to Bill Flanagan in 1986,

“A lot of times you’ll just hear things and you’ll know that these are the things that you want to put in your song. Whether you say them or not. They don’t have to be your particular thoughts. They just sound good, and somebody thinks them. Half my stuff falls along those lines. Somebody thinks them. I’m sure, when I’m singing something, that I’m not just singing it to sing it. I know that I’ve read it. Somebody’s said it. I’ve heard a voice say that. A song like Don’t Fall Apart On Me Tonight sort of falls into that category: I’ll take you to a mountaintop and build you a house out of stainless steel. That kind of stuff just passes by. A guy’s getting out of bed saying don’t talk to me; it’s leaving time. I didn’t originate those kinds of thoughts. I’ve felt them, but I didn’t originate them. They’re out there, so I just use them.”

I find that explanation very attractive.  For although just writing, “I’ve heard a voice say that,” as the explanation for the lyrics within a song, lacks a certain depth, there is a lot in that, as one thinks of the three levels that most songs exist within.  First there is the meaning of individual phrases, second there is the overall meaning of the song, and third the meaning of the music.

I’m not going to deal with that third case here, but to give the simplest of examples, most of us who are used to hearing western music hear a minor chord (for example D F A) as sad, while we hear a major chord (for example C E G) as either neutral or happy when it comes to emotions.  I’ll come back to this in another article anon.

In my series of articles on the themes in Dylan’s songwriting it is the overall message or theme of each song that I have been looking at.  It was an exercise that revealed to me (for the first time, despite a lifetime of listening to Dylan) just how his subject matter has changed across time, from the early days when he looked at many different themes (from love songs to protest for example) to the one year in which he wrote only on one theme – that of faith.

To see just how Dylan changed over the years we might consider the songs written in 1962 as an example.  Here they are listed in the order Dylan composed them (as far as we have that information) with my briefest of subject matter summaries thereafter.

Now of course you can argue about the subject matter of any of those songs, but I suspect many people tackling that list of 36 songs would come up with a variety of topics, generally along the same lines as mine.  There can be, for example, little doubt what “Joe Brown” or “Oxford Town” are about.  Nor indeed for the extraordinary “Ballad for a Friend”.

Looking at those brief summaries we might agree that maybe seven of them are traditional blues songs, six seem to be are lost love songs, five or six are protest, depending on how you define that term.  But what do you say about Baby I’m in the mood for you?  Love?  Lust?  Desire?  Humour?  You take your choice.

Thus in my articles looking at the subject matter of Dylan’s work I am not making any claim to the effect that this subject matter list is somehow correct or perfect.  Indeed although for some songs the subject matter is obvious, the attribution of subject matter of many others undoubtedly could be challenged, and indeed the whole process of classification is one of personal choice.   So I am not trying to be definitive; rather I am just trying to point out the diversity of Dylan’s work year by year, and how it changed over the years.

To leap forward 16 years, I called 1978 “Dylan’s troubled year” and ascribed the meaning of his songs that year as

  • Moving on: 4
  • Love: 3
  • Blues: 3
  • Lost love: 5
  • Death: 1
  • Be yourself: 1

Again you may differ if you do your own analysis, but whatever you came out with I can’t believe you are going to find much in that collection that is happy, jolly and bouncy.

On the other hand 1979, the year that follows, is called on this site After the anxiety, the certainty in which I have no doubt that all 19 songs were songs expressing religious faith.

As I worked through the 1980s trying to ascribe a theme to each song I found myself drawn more and more to the notion that the subject matter of the songs tell us a lot about how Bob is feeling.  It is perfectly clear from the songs that Bob had had his troubled year in 1978, and then gave himself over to his seemingly new found faith (“seemingly” because he had not written about it that much before) in 1979.

But this new revelation did not continue, and by the end of 1980 he had written the stunning, “Making a liar out of me,” which although not a rejection of Christianity, sounds to me like a stunning reprimand to those who try to use Bob and his music as a way of backing up their world views.

Thereafter the lyrics of Bob’s songs reveal that he slips into the gloom in his thinking, as I hope I might have reflected in the titles chosen for each year in the second half of the 1980s.

And to jump forward and explain by what I meant by “the menace”, the songs that year include Disease of Conceit, What was it you wanted?, Broken Days / Everything is Broken , Most of the Time, and Man in a Long Black Coat, to name but a few.  That is a lot of darkness!

Now I know that there are some who will argue, and argue indeed very coherently, that in essence most of Dylan’s songs are primarily about faith and religion.   I, rather obviously given the above, disagree – and there are two strands to my thinking here.

One is that if I wanted to convert you to a religion and wanted to do it by using such artistic talent as I have, I would write songs that are clearly about that religion, the benefits of being part of it (eternal salvation for example) and what might happen if one doesn’t believe (eternal damnation etc).   And indeed this is exactly what Dylan did for a year and half.

But if I was trying to convince you to follow my religion of choice, why would I write songs which take quite a large stretch of the imagination to be seen as religious songs?  Why be obscure when trying to convert?   Of course there is nothing wrong with obscurity – Bob is often at his best when being obscure (Johanna is a perfect example) – but if the message (rather than the subtle textures and hints) is the central point, surely obscurity is pointless.

Now I have to add that I have a small amount of experience in this.  Of course I am not comparing my work with any of the major talents in the world of the arts, or even the minor talents – I have spent my life writing books and articles in part because I couldn’t make any money out of my earlier careers of playing in a band, writing songs and working in the theatre.  And besides I quite enjoy writing books and articles.

But I know, with my own very, very, very minor talent as a songwriter, and slightly larger talent as a writer of articles and books, that phrases can come to one out of the blue, and can linger in the mind, sometimes without necessarily having any associated meaning and sometimes through having multiple meanings.

I have touched often before upon the phrase that Dylan borrowed from those who have gone before him, “Beyond here lies nothing,” and I must admit I rather wish he hadn’t used it, because I would have loved to have written a song, or a song cycle, or a novel using that phrase and exploring some of the meanings.  In fact if I was going to write a book about what Dylan wrote about after the 18 months of overtly religious songs, I would almost certainly have “Beyond here lies nothing” at least as the working title, while the text was being written.  It means something, I am sure of it.  I am just not sure what.

Of course I am drawn to the notion that Dylan uses phrases he happens to like, because he likes them, not because they have a meaning that fits into the song, because of my personal views.  Which in turn implies that I am not claiming that anything I happen to mention here is definitive.  My explanations and thoughts are simply references to how I see his work, not definitively how the work actually is, as measured by some universal set of standards to which I don’t have access.

This is exactly the same as the individual who sees Dylan’s songs as primarily religious in nature is offering his chosen explanation.  We interpret art through the filters of our own preferences, our learning and our experiences.  This is not a science with a definitive answer.

But it is helpful if we can find some evidence and some logic to support whatever theory we are putting forward – and in that regard what Bob has said about his own work counts as one layer of evidence.  Then again, the theme of each song as expressed in the lyrics is more evidence.  Also the way Dylan has moved through various different themes across the years is another set of evidence (in that if we find him writing about certain themes over and over again then we can take that those themes are very much on his mind at the time).

And this is interesting and useful for it turns out that going through all of Dylan’s songs and ascribing to them a brief statement of the subject matter gives us an insight into the beauty, elegance, power and longevity of Dylan’s work.  It comes from the fact that he uses words in a way that can portray different things to different people, while regularly shifting from subject to subject.  Indeed I don’t see how he could have achieved his staggering longevity and popularity as a songwriter if he had not moved through so many different subjects across the years.

Thus overall, what I am suggesting is that Dylan is able to create works that have multiple possible meanings in part because he has changed the subject matter and the perspective of his songs so regularly.  In my view, and as I hope to show in future articles, if Bob had restricted himself to one subject only (such as the truth of the Christian message) he would not have worked in such a variety of musical and lyrical styles because they simply don’t lend themselves the lyrics portraying faith.

What’s more, because of this variety Bob does not try to give us the answer to life, the universe and everything (to use Douglas Adams’ wonderful phrase) because as he moves from style to style he finds there is no  definitive answer.  At least there isn’t “most of the time”.

Now this doesn’t mean that every Dylan song is obscure.  “Day of the Locusts” has the giveaway line about the degree in it, so we can accept that it was about his getting his honorary doctorate.  And whether, “Don’t think twice” is about an actual relationship or just about breaking up a relationship doesn’t really matter too much – it is a song of leaving, and that is the point which we can all grasp straight away.  “Look out your window and I’ll be gone” is the giveaway, and besides songs of leaving are very common both in Dylan’s output and in the music that he obviously enjoys himself.

In fact the “look out your window” example is perfect for this discussion, because looking out your window to find that your lover has gone is exactly what you don’t do.  You look in the house.  The empty road outside says nothing until you’ve searched the house.  But we don’t ponder that because we are drawn into imagining that she is looking around the house saying, “Bob where are you?  Bob?  Bob!!!” and answer comes there none.  Then too late she looks outside.  None of that is said however.  We have “Look out your window and I’ll be gone” and the rest becomes understood.

“I’ll be gone” here is perfect in that it has the meaning, “I will have left long before you wake up and notice I am not there.”  And thinking on that, what do you know, we are back with “Beyond here lies nothing” again.   The empty road outside the house is not proof that he’s gone but rather is a symbol of the emptiness she will now feel.   It is a way of saying “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone,” but a much more powerful way of saying it.  It is a perfect use of language, and typical of the man who has written so many songs of moving on.

Thus Dylan picks up words, phrases and ideas, and re-uses them, quite often seemingly without too much thought.  He then leaves us to be creative in the way we interpret them.

This is the opposite of seeing Dylan’s songs as predominantly religious, or indeed predominantly anything else.   The religious interpretation suggests he is telling us (or indeed lecturing us) to see that “this is how it is”.  The alternative – I should say the opposite – approach of moving in every direction at once gives the job of interpretation to us.

And maybe that’s what I find so wonderful about Dylan: he gives me the power to interpret his work.  He doesn’t tell me how it is.  He hints, rather like a Turner paining.

Meanwhile elsewhere

There are details of some of our more recent articles listed on our home page.  You’ll also find, at the top of the page, and index to some of our series established over the years.

If you have an article or an idea for an article which could be published on Untold Dylan, please do write to Tony@schools.co.uk with the details – or indeed the article itself.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with getting on for 10,000 members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link    And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down

 

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Bob Dylan: Stuck In Halifax With The Tombstone Blues Again

Posted on September 22, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Larry Fyffe

Writes Les Fyffe in reference to Bob Dylan’s song entitled “Tempest” – a song about the sinking of the Titanic:

“I’ve heard a rumour that Dylan’s lyrics originally included the verse below but the song was already too long so he decided to leave it out. Never been substantiated though –

"And 149 lost souls whose names have long been forgotten
Were taken by fishing boats to Halifax pier
And laid beneath the snowflaked stones of McGrattan
Never to be held again by those who loved them dear"

MaGrattan operates a granite works in New Brunswick in the days of yore. There’s a bit of leg-pulling on the part of my identical twin brother, but the retired geologist co-authors a published article in the “Atlantic Geology” journal entitled:

“Investigation of Sheriff Stuart’s Black Granite Quarries In Charotte County, Southwestern New Brunswick, Canada: Implications For The Source Of The Titanic Headstones In Halifax, Nova Scotia”

(by Leslie R. Fyffe and William W. Gardiner).

In short the article  concludes that the black granite with the snowflake pattern, like that from coal trimmer J(oseph) Dawson’s headstone in a Halifax graveyard, strongly supports the contention that the granite comes from a particular quarry in Charlotte County NB, and not from the High Sheriff’s nearby. A photo of the Halifax headstone is included with the article.

That grave marker becomes famous because James Cameron in the movie “Titanic”, supposedly by coincidence, has actor Leonardo DiCaprio play an artist named Jack Dawson. In 3rd Class on board the Titanic, Dawson ends up sacrificing himself to save the lovely Rose whose mother wants her to marry wealthy passenger Cal whom Rose does not like.  Reminds one of Rosemary, the Jack Of Hearts, and Big Diamond Jim in Bob Dylan’s narrative song ‘Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts”.

Dylan writes the song entitled ‘Tempest’ about the sinking of the world’s ‘biggest metaphor’ based on the old Carter Family song, “The Titanic”:

The watchman was a-dreaming
Yes, dreaming a sad, sad dream
He dreamed the Titanic was sinking
Out on the deep blue sea

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

In Bob Dylan’s lyrics, Leonardo Dicaprio gets a nod from the singer/songwriter – apparently, not even Dylan can make ‘Rose’ (played by Kate Winslet) rhyme with ‘Leo’:

Leo said to Cleo
"I think I'm going mad"
But he lost his mind already
Whatever mind he had

(Bob Dylan: Tempest)

Quote from the movie:

Rose: "You're crazy"
Jack: "That's what everybody says...."

Unlike jealous and nasty Big Jim in Dylan’s  “Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts”, and the likewise Caledon in Cameron’s movie, a man of means gets depicted as a hero in the verse below:

Jim Dandy smiled
He never learned to swim
Saw the little crippled child
And he gave his seat to him

(Bob Dylan:Tempest)

Cameron gives Bob Dylan a nod as well:

Dawson (playing cards): "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose":

From the following song lyrics:

When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal
(Bob Dylan: Like A Rolling Stone)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

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Dylan’s official vids: Sweetheart, Clean Cut Kid, Jokerman, and Neil Young

Posted on September 21, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Aaron Galbraith (opening comments for each video) and Tony Attwood (replies)

Aaron: First up, it’s Sweetheart Like You, directed by Mark Robinson.

This is one of those videos we have had which appears to have regional restrictions.  Here’s a source that works in the UK

And this one works in the USA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpRKstHl7Y0

If neither work in your area of the world trying typing into the search engine “Bob Dylan – Sweetheart Like You official video” (without the inverted commas).

Aaron: Couple of things to note this time:

  1. Bob’s facial hair is very fluffy!
  2. His miming of the words is absolutely perfect. It’s almost like he is singing live.

Ok, so point one is a bit of a joke (although true!). Point two is interesting, this is really the first music video Bob ever made (Subterranean Homesick Blues excepted). Maybe he was taking it really seriously at this stage, maybe he enjoyed the process, maybe he thought he would have a hit? Who knows!

The lady playing guitar is also on point with her miming of the solo. Her name is Carla Olson and she went onto make a tremendous album in collaboration with Gene Clark, “So Rebellious A Lover”. As a thank you for appearing in his video Bob gifted her the (then) unreleased track “Clean Cut Kid”. She recorded it with her band The Textones and released it on their 1984 album Midnight Mission, a year before it appeared on Empire Burlesque.

So let’s have a mini episode of Play Lady Play and see what Tony thinks of the Textones early version of Clean Cut Kid (by the way, that’s Barry Goldberg on piano, for those following the Dylan as Session man series!)

Tony:  Clean Cut Kid is one of those songs that caused me to have a real bash against Clinton Heylin when I reviewed it, not because I disagree with his knowledge of the social sciences (which he attacks without evidence in his review) but rather because of his sheer and utter ignorance of the social sciences and what they have done to improve the human condition.   Hearing this again reminds me of the annoyance I felt at the time, and still do feel about people pontificating on subjects of which they know nothing.  And yes of course I do the same here, but I do at least make some attempt to admit the limits of my knowledge.

This is a good and bouncy version that seems to reflect the lyrics well, and that piano really does makes a good additional counterpoint to the overall pattern of the traditional rock band.   And it is an interesting song because its emphasis on the harm done to an individual by military service and war is much more in keeping with very early Dylan than latter day Dylan.

Dylan writing about the way individuals are manipulated by social settings and socio-economic  situations, has always seemed to me to be Dylan at his strongest as a message giver.    As I said in the review, “The message is awful, the music is bouncy and jolly.  Not a care in the world.  Just like the weapon manufacturers and the politicos who utilise them.”

Aaron: So, our second video of the day is this little promo for Jokerman, in which Bob invents the lyric video! This was directed by Larry Sloman and George Lois and is one of my favourite Dylan promos.

 

There are some really interesting images in this video, combined with the lyrics as they come up on the screen, sometimes to startling effect. I wish I had more knowledge on some of the art pieces on show, maybe someone can help us out in the comments below.

Images of Dylan through the years are shown along with the words:

Shedding off one more layer of skin,
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within

And then, shockingly, Hitler shows up to this line:

Manipulator of crowds, you're a dream twister

Brilliant, but shocking. I’m not sure who chose the images, if it was Dylan or the directors, or a mixture of all three, but for me they are spot on choices.

During the sections with Bob singing, again his miming is perfect and this time, tellingly he keeps his eyes closed whilst singing for almost the entire song. Only towards the end does he risk a peak, perhaps just to check that we’re still there with him.

Towards the end we see the Kennedys and Martin Luther King aligned with the line:

Only a matter of time 'til night comes steppin' in

And then Batman’s arch nemesis the Joker morphs into Ronald Reagan. Maybe a touch “on the nose” but it works for me.

I love this video, and song. Looking back at Tony’s review of the track from 12 years ago (!!Geez has the site being going that long!!) it would appear his opinion has somewhat different back to mine. I wonder if that opinion has changed any by now and if he will like the video as much as me?

Tony: Yes my opinion has changed quite a lot Aaron, both in the way that everyone’s opinion can change over time, but particularly because this was one of the earlier songs I reviewed.  Working my way through reviewing all 600+ songs by Dylan I’ve learned a lot more about Dylan through needing to make my own inner feeling overt in order to make the review intelligible.  But also the mere experience of writing the reviews has, I think, given me a much deeper understanding of Dylan.

When I get around to re-presenting all the reviews as a book, I think a lot of them will change just because of this deeper understanding of all the songs and what Dylan has been doing.  In a little way I have touched on this in the recent piece A song is like a painting, you can’t see it all if you’re standing too close which more clearly represents where I am now.

That’s not to say I expect anyone to take any notice of what I think; it is always a bonus when someone does.  But yes, my opinion on many songs is now very different from where it was 12 years ago.

Aaron: I do agree with Tony’s opinion expressed in previous entries that Dylan, and his label seem at a bit of a loss with how to approach music videos for his singles during the 80s.

Sixties contemporaries such as the two Pauls (McCartney & Simon) obviously still had the expectation of big hit singles well into the 80s and beyond (particularly Macca) and so had the backing of their labels, large budgets and their choice of off-screen creative talent, which meant they could produce amazing, inventive videos like Pipes Of Peace and The Boy In The Bubble, two of the most inventive and expensive videos ever made in their day. Someone like Neil Young who was in the same boat as Dylan when it came to an expectation of hit singles went the other way and made a string of endearingly goofy videos during the 80s, for track such as CSNY’s American Dream and his own Wonderin’ – from the same year as these two Dylan videos.

Tony: Oh this is sort of video I like.  Aaron – can’t we just do a series on goofy videos?

Aaron: Videos like this show what can be done on a relatively small budget and with your tongue planted squarely in your cheek. I’m not saying that Wonderin’ is a better song than Sweetheart Like You (obviously it’s not!), but if I was the video DJ at MTV in 1983 I know which one I would have on heavy rotation.

I still think that the Jokerman promo is brilliant!

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

 

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Dylan the sideman: Bromberg, Booker T, Priscilla Jones, David Blue

Posted on September 20, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

You might also enjoy, from this series:

Aaron: One of the great joys of this series of articles on Dylan’s session work for other artists is in reacquainting myself with some excellent works I’d completely forgotten about!

First up is one such track by David Bromberg called “Sammy’s Song”

This is from his debut album “David Bromberg” released on Columbia Records in 1972. The song is the closing track on the album.

Not only is the track itself tremendous, Bob’s harmonica piece is wonderful and complements the song beautifully. It’s a fantastic album, by the way, including a co-write with George Harrison called “The Holdup”.

Tony: It is a reminder of just how good Bob can be at stepping back.  The song does nothing for me; the subject matter is horrific, and it left me thinking, do I want to listen?  Actually no I don’t.  But of course I have to for this article and it turns out it is not just the subject matter, it is the repeating over and over of the chord sequence of a four bar phrase.  That can work, and Dylan has done it, but I don’t think this guy has it.

And at the end I wonder if Bob’s final harmonica accompaniment is more a sound of despair about how long the song is going on for, rather than for the plaintive and desperate nature of the lyrics.   But that’s not his fault – he didn’t write the song.

Aaron: Moving on to 1973, Bob contributes harmonica to two more tracks.

Booker T & Priscilla Jones “Crippled Creek” was released on the album “Chronicles” and as a single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXMvX5gYvQ4

The song was written by Donna Weiss, the song writer who also has a claim on Sweet Amerillo.

The second session that year was for Roger McGuinn on his self titled debut solo album. Not only does Bob contribute harmonica he also gets a name check in the lyric, along with John Lennon and Mick Jagger.

Tony: Ms Jones also co-wrote one of my all time favourite songs, “Bette Davis Eyes,” a song to which I have danced so many times – it allows an evolution of dance in multiple directions at once, and very few songs do that.  That is a masterpiece.  But this…  It really doesn’t work for me.

But hell, what do I know?  Booker T and Bob Dylan are involved and they are the masters.

Aaron: Moving on to the final selection today we have David Blue with “Who Love (If Not You Love)” from his 1975 album “Com’n Back For More”.

Tony: Blue was part of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour and appears in Renaldo And Clara (playing a pinball machine, talking about the Greenwich Village scene and Blowing in the Wind.  Apparently at the Fat Black Pussycat, Dylan asked told Blue to strum a chord sequence as Dylan wrote out lyrics for what was quickly to become “Blowin’ in the Wind.” His best known song is “Outlaw Man” which the Eagles released as a single and on the “Desperado” album.

He was also on the cover of Dylan’s The Basement Tapes, wearing a bowler hat crouching down next to Rick Danko alongside the other members of the Band and the circus freaks.

But David Blue is a bit of a mystery – as Rolling Stone says, “Bob Dylan befriended him, Joni Mitchell helped support him, and the Eagles covered one of his songs. So why did success elude the late singer-songwriter?”  They also described him as the sad eyed cowboy of the lowlands.  And tragically he died of a heart attack aged just 41.

Bob Dylan played harmonica on “Who Love (If Not You Love”).

But I would like to sneak in something else in memory of David Blue

The version of this really lovely song that is on the “David Blue” album is much harsher and “produced” (if you see what I mean).  This live recording from a radio studio captures the utter beauty and delicacy of the song.  A moment to treasure of a man who should have been much more widely recognised.  It brings tears…

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

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Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (1963) Part I: Time Passes

Posted on September 19, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Jochen Markhorst

It is a missed opportunity for IBM. They should of course have called their talking supercomputer HAL, the name of the talking computer from Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odessey (1968). Writer Arthur C. Clarke later stated, quite convincingly, that it was just a sheer coincidence, but to no avail: the fact that an alphabetical one-letter shift changes “HAL” into “IBM” (H becomes I, A becomes B, and M becomes L) is too good to be coincidental. Film fanatics and Dylanologists don’t differ that much – some of them really do have a tendency, or perhaps an urge, to see more than there actually is.

IBM, however, misses the opportunity for free publicity and brand awareness. Perhaps also because HAL is not that nice; after all, he kills almost the entire crew of Discovery One, including, in a cowardly manner, the three travelling scientists who spend the journey time frozen, in “cryonic sleep”, in their survival capsules.

It will eventually become “Watson”, which may be a second mistake. It is meant as an honourable naming after Thomas J. Watson the founder of IBM, but of course the whole world only thinks of Sherlock Holmes, of his sounding board John H. Watson. Not necessarily the association you want to evoke if you want to sell a supercomputer, since Watson is the permanently amazed, never understanding, in all respects average side-kick of the superior, human supercomputer Holmes.

Anyway, the commercial is funny. In 2015 the IBM marketing department manages to attract Bob Dylan for an amusing advertising film, in which Watson converses with the bard. Watson claims to have analysed all of Dylan’s songs.

“Your main themes are,” Watson concludes, “Time Passes and Love Fades.”

“That sounds about right,” Dylan answers amused.

Watson’s claim really is about right. IBM spokeswoman Laurie Freedman officially reports that the researchers have actually fed 320 of Dylan’s songs into Watson and his analysis has in fact distilled the themes mentioned. Watson’s ability to “personality analysis, tone analysis and keyword recognition” has helped to better understand the data. All right, not “all of Dylan’s  songs” (Dylan has written more than six hundred songs), but still more than half of them.

It doesn’t cost Watson any effort of course (by his own account he reads 800 million pages per second), but he could have saved himself some trouble: Watson would already have been there if he had confined himself to “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”.

Dylan writes “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” in 1962, records it in the autumn and 27 May 1963 it appears on the legendary LP The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. To put it mildly, the song is indebted to “Who’s Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I’m Gone)” from Dylan’s friend Paul Clayton, who in turn based it on a nineteenth-century “Negro song”, on “Who’s Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I’m Gone”, as well as quoting from the traditional “Scarlet Ribbons for Her Hair”.

Not only the melody, but also considerable fragments of text from Clayton’s 1959 song Dylan copies almost unchanged: It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, darlin’ and So I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road and You’re the one that made me travel on, for example.

Which is not considered plagiarism in those days – it is customary to polish up or cut up each other’s songs, or old folk and blues songs. However, it is not very honourable to claim copyright, which is what Dylan does. By the way, he effortlessly acknowledges his indebtedness:

“Paul was just an incredible songwriter and singer. He must have known a thousand songs. I learned Pay Day At Coal Creek and a bunch of other songs from him. We played on the same circuit and I traveled with him part of the time. When you’re listening to songs night after night, some of them rub off on you. Don’t Think Twice was a riff that Paul had. And so was Percy’s Song.”

(liner notes Biograph, 1985)

Twenty years earlier, in an interview with Helen McNamara for Toronto Telegram (3 February 1964, published in Gargoyle too), Dylan is similarly enthusiastic about Clayton, and confesses a mystical awe for his qualities as a folk musician:

“The only guy I know that can really do it is a guy I know named Paul Clayton, he’s the only guy I’ve ever heard or seen who can sing songs like this, because he’s a medium, he’s not trying to personalize it, he’s bringing it to you … Paul, he’s a trance.”

The admiration is mutual, and the openly homosexual Clayton may also be a bit charmed by the young Dylan, so it does not disrupt the friendship. Outside the courtroom, lawyers from the respective music publishers settle on a buy-off of any claims. Clayton receives a modest amount of money, and does not complain.

To Clayton, it hardly could be a sensitive issue, for that matter. He may be “an incredible songwriter”, but he is above all, just like Dylan, a thief of thoughts, a miner who digs up old melodies, ennobles them and records them (Clayton has released about twenty records). He does this digging at home in West Virginia, in the university library of Charlottesville. That’s where he found the template for his “Who’s Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I’m Gone)”; in an obscure booklet from 1923, the collection Eight Negro Songs. Editor Alfred J. Swan admires in the foreword the musicality and originality of those nineteenth century songs,

“the rich imagery, the racy humour, the naive pathos, and the simple, yet original philosophy of the modern negro’s mind,”

and also gives a crash course negro dialect, for he has transcribed the songs as faithfully as possible:

Who gon bring you chickens when I’m gawn? Aw! Ba-beh!
Who gon bring you chickens when I’m gawn?
Six mont’s in jail ain so long, Aw, dahlin
Hit’s wukkin on dat county farm.

Clayton turns those chickens into ribbons, and concocts some sentences around them. By the looks of it, he has browsed a few more pages; on page 36 “Dat Lonesome Road” is printed:

True love, true love, what hev I done
To mek you treat me so
You’ve made me walk dat lonesome road,
Like uh nuvvuh done befo’
Look down, look down dat lonesome road,
Hang down my head an’ cry

According to commentators, Clayton takes a few melodic things from another old West Virginia folk song, from “Call Me Old Black Dog”. An antique recording of that song by Dick Justice, 1929, does not illustrate this claim, though:

Anyway, Clayton is actually doing the same thing as Dylan is doing with Clayton’s Ribbons song – which is why indignation would be somewhat misplaced. Entirely in line, by the way, with the somewhat cynical quote attributed to Clayton:

“If you can’t perform, write; if you can’t write, rewrite; if you can’t rewrite, copyright; if you can’t copyright, sue.”

Paul Clayton dies 30 March 1967 in his New York apartment. He sits down in the bathtub and electrocutes himself by dropping his electric heater into the water. It is less than two years after Dylan’s electric attack on acoustic folk, after “Maggie’s Farm” at the Newport Folk Festival. Far-fetched perhaps, or even a bit disrespectful, but it almost seems as if the intelligent and sensitive Clayton, the standard-bearer of acoustic traditional folk music, has staged his suicide as a metaphor.

It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe, I’m on the dark side of the road.

To be continued. Next up: Don’t Think Twice – part II: Love Fades

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

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

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

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

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Bob Dylan: The Roving Gambler

Posted on September 19, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Larry Fyffe

Though the lyrics of songs by Bob Dylan do not saddle the the human race with such doctrines as ‘original sin’ imposed by the officials of some organized religions, his lyrics express a cynical view of the nature of humankind, a sorrowful view akin to the state  found in the Holy Bible where individuals are left abandoned and alone awaiting deliverance to a ‘Promised Land’ or else the return of a departed ‘Saviour’ to help them.

In many of Dylan’s source lyrics that pertain to the microlevel of individual existence, filled as they are with the trials and tribulations of love affairs, gambling, and death, so too is this sorrow reflected:

Down in the willow garden
Where me and my love did meet
Oh, there we sit a-courting
My love dropped off to sleep
I had a bottle of the burglar's wine
Which my true love did not know
And there I poisoned my own true love
Down under the banks below ....
My father always taught me
That money would set me free
If I'd murder that pretty little miss
Whose name is Rose Conley
(Grayson/Whitter: Rose Conley ~ traditional)

Happy endings few and far between:

Come around you roving gamblers, and a story I will tell
About the greatest gambler, and, you know, you should know him well
His name was Willie O'Conley, and he gambled all his life
He had twenty-seven children, yet he never had a wife
(Bob Dylan: Gambling Willie's Dead Man's Hand)

Also drawing a card from the deck of the following song:

He put the money in the pot
And passed the cards around
I saw him deal from the bottom of the deck
So I shot the gambler down
(Bob Dylan: The Roving Gambler ~ various/traditional)

https://youtu.be/SD82d33GOA0

Below, into the song (with the objective correlative of a “sallow” or “willow” tree) substituted be the word “flowery” by an Irish songster:

Down by the flowery garden
Where me and my true love did meet
I took her in my arms
And unto her gave kisses sweet
She bade me take love easy
Just as the leaves fall from the tree
But I, being young and foolish
With my one true love I did not agree
(Andy Irvine: You Rambling Boys Of Pleasure ~ traditional)

The song of yore is reworked by a modern Irish poet, and his words changed a wee bit by a songstress:

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet
She bade me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree
But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree
(Marianne Faithful: Down By The Salley Gardens ~ William Yeats)

More lyrics by the same poet, rendered by a songstress with a very slight change in the wording:

Through hollow lands, and hilly lands
I will find our where she has gone
And kiss her lips, and take her hands
And walk among long dappled grass
(July Collins: "Golden Apples Of The Sun" ~ William Yeats)

Reflected the above poem be in the following song lyrics:

You're gonna have to leave me now, I know
But I'll see you in the sky above
In the tall grass, in the one I love
You're gonna make me lonesome when you go
(Bob Dylan: You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You go)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

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A song is like a painting, you can’t see it all if you’re standing too close.

Posted on September 18, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

It was Dick Dale, “king of the surf guitar,” who said “every song is like a painting.”  It is not a massively famous quote any more than Dick Dale’s music is remembered worldwide, but it gives an indication of a way of looking at Dylan’s work that I think is sometimes ignored, but which can be rather helpful.

For it seems to me that although the examination of literature line by line, phrase by phrase, can be highly informative and indeed exceedingly interesting, it is not all there is in a song.   Most self-evidently there is the music as well.  The vocal and the accompaniment.  Put it together and you can get the overt meaning of the lyrics (“I love you” is one of the most commonly used phrase) plus an additional expression via the music, of the emotions which cannot be fully expressed by the lyrics.

To take one simple example, the phrase “Beyond here lies nothing,” can express despair, it can be a powerful version of “at the end of the line,” and it can also be something more, a looking out into the mists of the future.  It can even (and more literally) suggest looking into the blackness of space.  Or, it could be used the vision of the writer who has just created her/his ultimate masterpiece and knows nothing else could ever be half as good again.  Or there again a rumination on the collapse of a civilisation or a marriage, or… nothing at all.

Part of the problem, if we continue to examine that phrase and all it implies, is that we are not very good at examining “nothing” because in our real lives there is always something.  And after death, well, others retain memories of us, plus as far as I can see, most people seem to have some belief in a life thereafter.

To consider this further, we might recall that in the days of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire (an era lasting roughly 1000 years) there was plenty of maths.  They were very precise about this,  with a Roman legion not being a big bunch of fighting men, but a team of 6000 soldiers divided up into ten cohorts, with each cohort containing ten centuria.

All very exact, but rather interestingly all created without the concept of zero.  There is no “0” in Roman numerals.  Or put it another way, “no nothing”.   Which meant the response to the question, “If I had half a dozen bananas to sell in the market and I sold them, how many bananas do I have?” has to be “Yes there are no bananas.”

Now, to come back to reality, we can enjoy the notion, “Beyond this lies nothing” but it might take a bit of thinking about really to get into the concept.  And it is also a reasonable view to think that Bob Dylan came across the phrase in the ancient texts, thought, “there’s a lot in that phrase” and used it, just like that, without an immediate notion of where it might go.   Just as Jackson Pollock perhaps could not explain why he wanted to throw a sudden burst of pink across a canvas at a particular point in a particular way.  For each artist, it just seemed the right thing to do at this point.

But the option of introducing abstraction into art through the use of phrases, colours, patterns or images that have been used before, but without accepting their previous meanings, is not the only issue when considering the art of the poet or songwriter.  There is also the issue of, “is it true?”

Now most of us can readily accept  that when a novelist writes a story it can be totally a work of fiction, even when written in the first person.  And  we can accept that a modern artist might draw or paint an abstract piece of work or paint a picture of a person who does not exist.

For the viewer it might be a bit of a laugh to see the cube or the squiggle as representing something, but it quite probably isn’t what the painter had in mind, just as it can be fun to say that the person in the painting looks like my auntie Ethel, but that doesn’t actually mean the painter knew my late aunt.

And yet a similar disassociation between the lyrics of Bob Dylan and what Bob himself feels, believes or thinks, or what has actually happened to him, is something many who listen to his music seem to find a hard step to take.  And this for two reasons.  One, because on some occasions it most certainly does sound as if what he is singing is what he believes most passionately.  And two, because we might want him to believe what we believe.

It isn’t always like this in popular music of course.  When Elvis sang “Heartbreak Hotel” I don’t think too many people assumed he’d just lost his lover.  Nor indeed did those who thought a little further assume that the writers of the song had.  Indeed as Tommy Durden reported, he began writing the lyrics for “Heartbreak Hotel” when he was inspired by a Miami Herald story about a man who committed suicide, leaving a note that read “I walk a lonely street.”

But when Bob put “It ain’t me babe” on an LP, the hunt was on to find who the “babe” is or was.  When he sang “Masters of War” everyone believed he was against the arms race.  When he wrote 19 songs about Christianity and faith in 1979, and nothing else, everyone took it that he had converted to Christianity.  And earlier when he wrote “All along the watchtower,” likewise people looked for a meaning (mostly metaphorical, not many went looking for your actual watchtower).

Meaning is what we seek.  In fact I suspect there are some who have sought, and indeed found a meaning in “Drifter’s Escape”….

But really, for most of us, this is where it breaks down.  What is to be made of the lyrics of that song?  It is in essence meaningless.  There is no sequence, no sense, no relationship to reality, anymore than one finds such things in a lot of Kafka – whose work was clearly influencing Bob Dylan at the time.

Of course artists in all walks of art are drawn to subject matter that interests them or about which they feel they have something to say.   To put it at its most obvious, Picasso could not have constructed Guernica without feeling the pain and anger.  And maybe one might be able to argue that Bob could not have written “Positively 4th Street” without having someone specific in mind.  Likewise When He Returns could not have been written by a non-believer…. Or maybe I should say WOULD not have been written by a non-believer.  Because she or he would surely choose to write about something else.

And so I come back to the simple proposition made earlier: if the person characterised in “4th Street” had been placed in a short story, we would in all probability not be particularly trying to think who it was.  We’d have seen it as fiction, and a rather engaging fiction at that; a story of the way friendships can break apart.  OK maybe we might have dug away into the author’s past to work it out an origin, but still, we might have accepted it was not a literal representation of an individual.  It starts as one person, but through the artistic process becomes something else.

Now of course everyone who writes poetry or novels has the option of writing about real people or fictional characters.  The first seventeen of Shakespeare’s sonnets are addressed to a young man, with whom the poet has an intense romantic relationship.  By and large the writer is trying to convince the young man to marry and have beautiful children who will look just like their father.

The general assumption is that Shakespeare’s writing at this point is so intense, and there are so many beautiful sonnets here that the poet must have been writing to a specific person.  And yes there indeed are several hints and suggestions dotted around that this is so, such that some will write today that it is all perfectly obvious and agreed that Shakespeare was writing to… [fill in your choice of suspect].

Well, maybe.  Certainly writing this many sonnets along the same lines to an imaginary person would seem a little curious.  But without a clear statement of intent we can never be completely sure.  Besides, to write all that Shakespeare wrote, to have the success he had at the Curtain Theatre, and then tear down the whole theatre, ship it across the river and build the Globe where they had greater success and fame, and then to leave London and settle down in his home village once more, thereafter writing nothing of significance, seems to us today a little odd.  (Or unlikely, depending on your point of view).

Odd and unlikely because although we know some parts of Shakespeare’s life, such as why they moved theatres, so much is missing.  Shakespeare, very annoyingly, did not leave a detailed diary.  A bit like Bob Dylan not telling us what all his songs mean.

And please allow me to divert from my thesis for a moment.  Dylan’s work is often denigrated on the basis that he is a plagiarist – with many examples being given.  But I rarely, if ever, see those who complain of this, also note that Shakespeare was the same.  “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players,” is indeed one of the greatest metaphors of our language.  Others have used it since (Oscar Wilde: “The world is a stage, and the play is badly cast,” Allan Moore: “All the world’s a stage, and everything else is vaudeville.”)  But few condemn Shakespeare for nicking the line from the Greek playwright Juvenal in the second century, “All of Greece is a stage, and every Greek’s an actor.”   Shakespeare was a great plagiarist.  So what?

But back to my theme, and broadening out the issue somewhat, I am hoping after travelling with me this far you can see even greater difficulties within the debate.  If the writer confesses neither the details of what lies behind his or her writing, nor leaves notes on the source, we can never be quite certain – especially as there might not be any real person or events referred to at all.  There is, after all, nothing to stop one writing a love song to an imaginary person.  And indeed many have done it.  Just as there is nothing to stop one taking an image or idea from a previous writer and using it as one’s own.  Phrases can be copyrighted, but not ideas.

So let’s see how any of my thoughts before the diversion into taking ideas from previous wrtiers, apply to a (to take one song as an example) “Masters of War”.  On the surface it seems unlikely that Bob Dylan could have written that song without actually believing that it would be good if the creators of armaments did not continue their ghastly industry.   Just as surely he must have believed in the reality of the New Testament when writing 17 songs in one year on Christian themes.

Except even here the idea of the writer believing in what she or he writes breaks down.  Consider, for example, professional writers of horror fiction and science fiction.  Do they seriously believe all they are writing will come to pass?   I am most certainly not classifying myself as an author of particular merit – a jobbing writer seems a better description – but I can at least say that for my two published science fiction novels I most certainly didn’t believe they were portraying the future.  I was evolving an entertainment, nothing more.  And the few full time writers of such fiction I met at that time, were most certainly of that point of view.

So on this basis let’s just dip back for a moment to “Masters of War”.  Bob wrote that in 1963, the same year that he wrote “Times they are a changin'”  What both of these songs have in common is a sense of fatality.   Neither says we can rise up and do this or that and the world will be a better place.  Yes there is a reference to the death of the armaments manufacturers, but not because young people are going to kill them.  He simply says he will celebrate trusts that they and will be called to account in the afterlife.

I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

There’s a similar theme in Times they are a changin’

For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’

Dylan is telling us here that the songs are about the fact that things change, and everything moves on.  Yes there might be an element of hope for the downtrodden in each case – the masters of war will suffer eternal damnation, and the losers of  the past will get their rewards in the future.  But it is all quite vague and not too much is certain except that times do change and the future is not a repainting of the past with a few extra bright colours added for effect.

OK, so two songs like that might well be saying to us, that is what Dylan believed.  But I would argue that as with most writers, we do have to be fairly careful in our reading of the songs, because many people appear to have convinced themselves that these are revolutionary songs extolling the young to see off the old ways.  But a closer study of Bob’s work shows not only that Dylan has written many, many more love songs than he has written songs of the world changing, he has also written many more lost love songs than world changing songs, as well.

Finally, I’m going to add one final theme here, to try and make my point a little clearer.  Let’s take the theme of moving on.

In the same year as “Masters of War” and “Times they are a changin'” Bob Dylan wrote a series of twelve songs about moving on and leaving.

Does that mean that we have to believe that he was indeed “doing some hard travelling too” in the physical and geographical sense?   Maybe he was moving around a bit, but I don’t think that was the prime motivation here.  As I look back to 1963 and the 31 songs Dylan wrote in that year, I don’t hear this as an autobiography with lots of moving from place to place.  Rather a much easier explanation for what Dylan wrote about that year was that he was a storyteller exploring his art.

I doubt that many people take Dylan’s songs of moving on literally.  And so I find myself asking, if I am not going to take these songs of moving on literally, why should I take others literally?  But then if I am not taking them literally, why do I take the songs of 1979 literally and believe Bob was propagating a belief in Christianity?

Simply the answer is that just because Bob wrote only about faith in 1979, that doesn’t mean there was faith underpinning all his earlier and later works.  Just because he wrote about moving on a lot in 1963 it doesn’t mean that he had been moving on, or that he believed in moving on as a way of life, or that”moving on” underpins his whole life.  Yes of course there is a connection: we call it the “Never Ending Tour”.  But that is not exactly the same as the blues tradition found in “Hell Hound on My Trail”.

No, part of Bob’s genius, as with Shakespeare as it turns out, is surely his ability to move from subject to subject in such an engaging manner, on occasions perhaps actually believing in the truth of his subject matter, other times exploring fictional themes and ideas.  Just because he wrote about moving on, love, and lost love a lot, it doesn’t mean all the songs are on these topics.  Just because he wrote Christian songs for 18 months, that doesn’t mean Christianity is the underlying message in all his songs before or since.

So what I take from these early songs of moving on, is a set of images of the hobo jumping freight trains and moving on from town to town, and of lovers getting up because of the urge to move on because that’s what’s in their heart and soul.

But here’s the irony.  The hobo doesn’t change, but the world around the hobo does keep on changing.  The Christian faith that Bob espoused as the sole subject matter of his 1979/1980 songs clearly does not change (although it is modified along the way to fit with changes in thought about things like the equality of the sexes) but as the years come and go, Bob’s thoughts change, as do everyone’s.  The hobo can be heroic, but can also be tragic: remember for example Man on the street from 1961.  And so eventually the world gets totally out of joint.

Throughout I see Bob as observing and reporting his feelings – feelings which could later change.    As I said once before, he has spent a lot of his life leaving town in all directions at once.  (That’s my closest attempt at creating my own version of “Beyond here lies nothing”.  It’s not real, but it has a feeling about it that makes it worth using).

That is my starting point for understanding the compositions of Bob Dylan.  He has used multiple themes and ideas.  He was only telling us what to do very occasionally, and each time he did, he then moved on.  He has rarely told us about his life.  He has been writing songs in the style of, and with the approach of, composers who had gone before him, and then, being a masterful composer, has been adding new layers over the top.  His subject matter flows around him, he varies the themes as he goes.

Bob doesn’t tell us to rise up.  He doesn’t (any more) say “Worship the Almighty,” the “get up and move on”.   Rather he says, “here’s a picture I painted last week.”

To be continued…

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

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Bob’s live rarities: As I went out, Billy, Get out of Denver.

Posted on September 17, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood with track selections by Aaron Galbraith

What makes Bob pick one of his own songs, perform it just the once and then move on?   Sadly that is a rhetorical question – I have no idea of the answer, but I really wish I did.  I’d love to know how the idea comes up, and then having been executed well, is just set aside forever more.

John Wesley Harding was released at the end of 1967, and Bob waited five years before giving it an outing, and then that was that.

The venue was Toronto, at the Maple Leaf Gardens, and the date was 10 January 1974.

As you can hear it is performed with vigour and determination.  There is nothing here to suggest that Bob isn’t enjoying the performance, the singing is clear the lead guitar is perfectly suited to the performance, the crowd welcome the appearance of the song.

And that’s it.  Never again.

Here’s another unexpected piece: Billy, performed 22 March 2009 at Berns Club in Stockholm.

And again I am wondering, why here, why on this day, why not again?  It really is a little bit strange I find.

Perhaps less strange than “As I went out” because it is a bit of a plodding tune, and the accompaniment isn’t especially inspired, but it is an interesting and unusual 12 bar blues – certainly one of the most inventive 12 bar blues melodies that Bob has written.

But then, no one can out guess Bob.

Finally, a selection from Tony

This was performed in the State Theatre, Detroit, 16 March 2004 and is a song by Bob Seeger.  Here is the original

Bob Seger has sold more than 75 millions records worldwide, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.  He finally made his farewell tour in 2018/9.  Like Bob he is the great survivor at a time when so many around him faded.

Apart from the songs he recorded himself he also co-wrote (among many others) the Eagles’ number-one hit “Heartache Tonight”, and his recording of “Old Time Rock and Roll” was named one of the Songs of the Century in 2001.  Here it is (just in case you need reminding!)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

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.   Tony Attwood

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Dylan’s promotional videos: Must be Santa, Drummer Boy, Duquesne, the noir

Posted on September 16, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

Dylan’s promotional videos – the story so far

Aaron: For this episode I’d thought we’d continue on from where the last one left off and look at the next three directed by Nash Edgerton, who if you remember also directed  the Beyond Here Lies Nothing promo.

First up is this fun filled video for Must Be Santa.

This time he gets to work with Dylan, who for some reason wears a long grey wig under the obligatory Santa hat. There are some really fun moments for me, Dylan suddenly popping up from behind the bar with two bottles of whiskey, Dylan dancing(!!) and Edgerton shows his stuntman background with the rather raucous ending. It’s great fun and perfect for the song.

Tony: Errrrrrrrr…. I guess my sense of humour has gone down the drain.

Aaron:  In the interest of completeness there was also a neat little video for Little Drummer Boy, directed by Jeff Scher. I don’t have too much to say about this one except I liked it!

Tony: Now this I will go with.  Bob sings this in a meaningful way, and the video itself has a meaning within the context of the song.  That is not to say that I expect everything in life or indeed in art to have a meaning; indeed I’m currently struggling in writing an article which makes this point across many Dylan songs.  Meaning, I wish to argue, is not everything.   But when there isn’t meaning there needs to be something to make the song worth hearing, or the video worth watching.

This video has both; it is not something I’d go back to, but yes I enjoyed it, and I wouldn’t turn away from it if it came on again.

Aaron: The next Nash Edgerton video was for Dusquesne Whistle.

Aaron: This one borrows a lot from Spike Jonze’s short film How They Get There (we’ve added a link at the end of this piece). Except in this case the girl wants nothing to do with the guy, rightly so in this case, as he’s being a total creep! He probably thinks he is being romantic but his behavior is completely inappropriate, and he ultimately gets what’s coming to him in the end.

These scenes, which take place in the daytime are nicely juxtaposed with shots of Dylan and his posse strolling coolly through the city at night. When the two converge, Dylan and gang just step over the young fool’s beaten body on the sidewalk without a second look. It is as if Dylan is stepping over himself as a young man, with it’s optimism of youth and foolish notions of romance and moving forward as an older man with an acceptance of the past. Don’t Look Back indeed.

Tony: Arghhhhhhhhhhh.  I love this song, always have from the moment the album came out, and this video adds nothing.  In fact it detracts greatly for me, so I am beginning to wonder how other people see this.   The story has nothing to do with the song – ok that doesn’t matter, but it detracts from the music, as I watch it.

OK I am not expecting every video to be a literal exposition of the song, but when we have a song with the lines

I can hear a sweet voice gently calling
Must be the Mother of our Lord

what on earth does the video have to do with it?   The closest I have got is the link between the casual destruction of the 2011 multiple vortex tornado in the town and of the way the guys beat up the would-be lover.   Others have seen the Whistle as a warning about death and perhaps the impending final judgement.   Yet others go for the train service that used to run between New York Penn and Pittsburgh Penn Stations, which was named after the 18th century Fort Duquesne.

No, I didn’t find that video added anything for me.  In fact the reverse.  I need to play the song again without the video (probably several times) to get over it.

Aaron: The final video for today from Dylan is Dylan’s cover of The Night We Called It A Day.

Again directed by Nate Edgerton and by now I think we are beginning to get an idea on how this director works, highly stylized with a heavy emphasis on violence.

This time it’s a film noir pastiche, with Dylan involved in a love triangle with ex-Bond villain Robert Davi and a young female singer who is much, much, much too young for either of them. It’s pretty creepy actually.

She ends up murdering Davi. Dylan is an accomplice to the crime and then…well I’ll leave you to watch and see what happens at the end. I really like this video and for once Dylan’s acting is pretty good. The clip definitely brings new meaning to the lyrics

The moon went down stars were gone
But the sun didn't rise with the dawn
There wasn't a thing left to say
The night we called it a day

Tony: OK yes this is the best of the lot by far, and yes the video adds to the meaning of the song by giving it one interpretation.

But the whole experience has left me wondering what impact these videos have on the record sales or the popularity of the performer.  I’d love to hear more from people who like these videos and why they do.  It is, I guess, an art form (at least in the guise we see it here) which is completely beyond me.

But that is not always the case.  Aaron has mentioned Spike Jonze’s short film How They Get There, which I didn’t know, but have looked at, and yes I see this, understand it, get it.

This works for me, just as a lot of contemporary dance works for, but the videos here don’t.  Maybe I am just blind to the form.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

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.   Tony Attwood

 

 

 

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Bob Dylan: Shattering The Glass Of Mirrors

Posted on September 16, 2020 by TonyAttwood

 

By Larry Fyffe

A quick review. It’s a deep artistic well from which singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan draws, Jungian or deliberately, in a number of his song lyrics.

From a Romantic poem, darkly hopeful:

Column, tower, and dome, and spire
Shine like obelisks of fire
Pointing with inconstant motion
From the altar of dark ocean
To the sapphire-tinted skies
(Percy Shelley: Euganean Hills)

Echoed is the sentiment in the ominous song lyrics below:

There's a woman on my lap, and she's drinking champagne
Got white skin, got assassin's eyes
I'm looking up at sapphire-tinted skies
(Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed)

From a song in which there be sparks of hope in an otherwise dark world:

I saw, I saw the light from heaven
Shining all around
I saw the light come shining
I saw the light come down
(Bascom Lunsford: Dry Bones)

In death for sure if not before:

I saw my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
(Bob Dylan: I Shall Be Released)

From a poem featuring “Blake-light” tragedy; without darkness, there’d be no light:

It is right it should be so
Man was made for joy and woe
And when this we rightly know
Safely through the world we go
(William Blake: Auguries Of Innocence/Joy)

Below, a darker talking song that sinks much deeper into Gnostic gloom:

Millions of babies in pain
Millions of mothers in rain
Millions of brothers in woe
Millions of children no where to go
(September On Jessore Road ~ Ginsberg/Dylan)

From an over-the-top Romantic light opera/movie,”Rose-Marie”:

But if when you hear my love call ringing clear
And I hear you answering echo so clear
Then I know our love will become true
You will belong to me, and I'll belong to you
(Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald: Indian Love Call ~ Firml et. al.)

The sorrowful song lyrics quoted beneath express a longing for love unfulfilled:

Sadly I look out my window
Where I can see the raindrops fall
My heart is many thousand miles away
Where I can hear my true love call
(Bob Dylan: California Brown-Eyed Girl)

From a ‘film noir” movie:

"I'll have some rotten nights after I've sent you over
but that'll pass"
(Private detective Sam Spade: The Maltese Falcon)

Following be cynical song lyrics concerning relationships that turn sour:

Well I have had some rotten nights
Didn't think that they would pass
I'm just thankful and grateful
To be seeing the real you at last
(Bob Dylan: Seeing The Real You At Last)

Observed it is that Bob Dylan pays tribute to artists who shatter the glass of mirrors that reflect an illusion of the existence of a perfect world.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

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.   Tony Attwood

 

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Bob Dylan returns to the radio

Posted on September 15, 2020 by TonyAttwood

Research by Aaron, caught out by surprise by Tony

Tony: So there I was watching the clock and trying to finish off my piece, “The song is like a painting, you can’t see it all at once if you’re standing too close” when in comes an email from Aaron saying, “Have you seen the news?”

The article is in German but Aaron has translated it

Aaron’s tranlation: Bob Dylan is always good for a surprise. Not only did he finally release new songs with “Rough & Rowdy Ways”, now he’s reviving his radio show.   The new episode of his “Theme Time Radio Hour”, which was created during the lockdown, is even two hours long and his theme is “Whiskey”…

“The radio of Bob Dylan again is a huge surprise, but the time he takes us to the realm of “whiskey” for two hours is not surprising, because he has now launched his own bourbon brand, “Heaven’s Door”.

“Between 2006 and 2009, Bob Dylan produced 100 radio shows for Sirius XM. Each show had a special theme, and Bob Dylan proved not only to be an outstanding music connoisseur, with an exquisite record collection, but above all to be a great storyteller. Otherwise Bob Dylan is rather literal, rarely gives interviews and at his concerts he has not spoken to the audience for a long time.

“But as a radio DJ, Bob Dylan shows a very different facet of his personality. His “Never Ending World Tour” was interrupted by Corona and for the first time in many years he is not to be seen on the stages of the world.

“Then the “Nobel Prize winner” just makes radio again and has doubled his airtime. So the broadcast title “Theme Time Radio Hour” isn’t quite right anymore and Dylan isn’t sure who’s still listening to classical radio, but these two hours on the subject of “Whiskey” are a real radio highlight.

“Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour” is original and exclusive, September 24 between 11-01 p.m.”

Tony: Which of course leaves the question: on which station?

Someone please let us know.  In the USA for Aaron, and the UK for Tony.

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Highway 61 Revisited (1965) part V: The roving albino

Posted on September 15, 2020 by TonyAttwood

The story so far…

Highway 61 Revisited (1965) part V: The roving albino

by Jochen Markhorst

1          Foreverly

Now the rovin’ gambler he was very bored
He was tryin’ to create a next world war
He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor
He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before
But yes I think it can be very easily done
We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun
And have it on Highway 61

Billie Joe Armstrong, the foreman of Green Day, one of the most successful punk rock bands of the last thirty years, is not afraid to step out of his comfort zone. In 2013 he records Foreverly with Norah Jones, a re-make of The Everly Brothers’ second album.

Billie Joe follows The Everly Brothers also in terms of guts; in 1958, the brothers, in turn, were pleasantly indifferent to the iron laws of commercial success. The previous year The Everly Brothers (1957) was released, featuring the three singles that brought them to the absolute top: “This Girl Of Mine”, “Bye Bye Love” and especially “Wake Up Little Susie”, the crossover world hit that hits 1 in the country charts, the “Black Singles” R&B hit list and the Billboard Hot 100. The monster hits hereafter (“All I Have To Do Is Dream” and “Bird Dog”) will be included in 1959 on their first Greatest Hits LP, but in between Don and Phil merrily step off Success Road, right in the middle of their first peak; in December 1958 they release the charming Songs Our Daddy Taught Us.

The album is ahead of its time. Far ahead of its time. The Everly’s indeed sing the old songs they learned from their father Ike and produce a rootsy tribute to tradition and folklore – without too much exaggeration it could be celebrated as a first Americana album, avant la lettre.

Dylan will have appreciated the album. Woody Guthrie’s “Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet”, “Barbara Allen”, Charlie Monroe’s “Down In The Willow Garden”, “That Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine” by Gene Autry… songs and artists that Dylan has on a marble pedestal. And the opening song is the spark: “Roving Gambler”.

“Roving Gambler” was first recorded in 1927, by Kelly Harrell. Indirectly Dylan already refers to him in 1963, in that remarkable piece For Dave Glover, in the program booklet of the Newport Folk Festival. Remarkable, because Dylan here, like fifty years later in his MusiCare speech, reveals the sources of his songs, acknowledging them by name:

The folk songs showed me the way
They showed me that songs can say something human –
Without “Barbara Allen” there’d be no “Girl from the North Country” –
Without no “Lone Green Valley” there’d be no “Don Think Twice”-
Without no “Jesse James” there’d be no “Davy Moore” –
Without no “Twenty one Years” there’d be no “Walls a red wing”

… and just before that he shares:

I gotta sing “Hollis Brown” –
I can’t sing “John Johannah” cause it’s his story an his people’s story –
I gotta sing “With God On My side” cause it’s my story an my people’s story –
I can’t sing “The Girl I Left Behind” cause I know what it’s like to do it –
I gotta sing “Boots a Spanish Leather” cause I know what it’s like to live it

“John Johannah” is also a Kelly Harrell song Dylan already knows, again thanks to that famous Anthology Of American Folk Music from Harry Smith, the collection with Bascom Lamar Lunsford, “Down On Penny’s Farm” (the template for Dylan’s “Hard Times in New York City”), “John The Revelator” and “When That Great Ship Went Down” and “John Hardy” and all those other songs that have taught him the lingo, and that will echo through his oeuvre for the next sixty years.

Harrell can be found on Volume 1 twice. The second song from Side C is the song about the assassin of President Garfield in 1881, “Charles Guiteau” and will be played by broadcaster Dylan in Theme Time Radio Hour (episode 68, “President’s Day”). The last song of Side B is the song Dylan mentions in For Dave Glover, with the posed – and untrue – addition that he cannot sing that song “because it is his story and the story of his people”. Posed, because John Johannah’s story is a ten-a-penny story of a farm worker who is being exploited; a protagonist like Dylan will perform in “Maggie’s Farm”, and the kind of protagonist under whose skin Dylan has crawled dozens of times in 1963 (“Walkin’ Down The Line”, for example). Still, he never sings “John Johannah”, that much is true. He does steal the melody, though; he uses it for “Long Time Gone” (although the melody also resembles that other song he “can’t sing”; “The Girl I Left Behind”).

But Dylan will sing a third song by Harrell. A song he will sing longer even than any other song – apart from his own songs, of course. “Roving Gambler” has been on his repertoire since 1960 and returns with interruptions until 2002.

2          From El Paso up to Maine

This roving gambler, the gambler in the last verse of “Highway 61 Revisited”, wants to start a new world war out of sheer boredom, but still is better off than his namesake, who spends his days in jail after shooting a card opponent because I saw him deal from the bottom of the deck.

This path the jumpy mind of the rock poet does not follow. As is often the case, Dylan seems to be mainly triggered by topography. The original roving gambler does travel around: in the first verse he is still in Washington, but by the time we arrive at the fifth verse, the gambler has already come quite a way:

I left her in El Paso and I wound up in Maine
I met up with a gambling man
Got in a poker game

From Washington via El Paso to Maine, back and forth in fact – even if he takes the shortest route (which is not too likely), he is still nearly five thousand miles on his way to that table where he will draw his gun.

Dylan will visit El Paso more often (“She’s Your Lover Now”, “Wanted Man” and “Billy”), but here “Maine” seems to stir Dylan’s stream of consciousness.

In songs, Maine is mostly used like in “Roving Gambler”; as a topographical metaphor for “very far”. Like in “I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill” (From San Diego up to Maine) or in Belafonte’s “Farewell Jamaica” (Though I’ve been from Maine to Mexico), but it seems obvious that in the back of Dylan’s mind one of Sinatra’s signature songs plays: “The Lady Is A Tramp”, which opens with

I've wined and dined on Mulligan Stew
And never wished for Turkey
As I hitched and hiked and grifted too
From Maine to Albuquerque

A hint for this guess we find towards the end of Sinatra’s classic:

I go to Coney, the beach is divine
I go to ballgames, the bleachers are fine
I follow Winchell, and read every line
That's why the lady is a tramp

… “The Lady Is A Tramp” is probably the only song in Dylan’s baggage with that atypical word bleachers, which appears so alienating in the penultimate line of this last “Highway 61 Revisited” verse. Sinatra also sings I like a prizefight that isn’t a fake in the next verse, which is a link to Dylan’s half boxing reference in this same stanza, to he found a promoter.

Creative and wild, these supposed associations, but roving – tramp – Maine – bleachers is still a fairly straight line. More likely, in any case, than the content-driven interpretations of diligent analysts who cloak themselves in the alleged deeper intention behind he was trying to create a next world war – even in the twenty-first century, there are still plenty of Dylanologists who do recognise a “clear political undertone” herein, see it as an expression of apocalyptic fears, taking “world war” quite literally. Not necessarily nonsensical, but once again, the Nobel Prize speech words of the bard seem more apt than these over-serious analyses here:

I’ve written all kinds of things into my songs. And I’m not going to worry about it – what it all means. (…) But it sounds good. And you want your songs to sound good.

“We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun / And have it on Highway 61”… yup. Sounds good.

3          Complexion much too white

Although “Highway 61 Revisited” is one of the many, many highlights of the Golden Five Hundred Days, the days when Dylan is at a mercury peak and produces Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde (plus small masterpieces like “Farewell Angelina”, “Positively 4th Street” or “I’ll Keep It With Mine”, the songs rejected for those albums), it is still remarkable that Dylan doesn’t immediately recognise the special magic of the song. It does not appear on the set list of performances in the US, Canada and England in ’65, nor is it played during the world tour of ’66, and only at that Isle Of Wight concert, 31 August 1969, does it have its premiere.

Perhaps the persuasion of the men of The Band is needed. On Dylan’s return to the stages, together with The Band in 1974, the song is ignored for another month, but from the twenty-seventh concert, the evening concert in New York on 31 January, Dylan seems to have given in – the rest of the tour the song has a fixed place, somewhere at the end of the setlist. Apparently, Dylan is still not entirely convinced, though – it will take another ten years, until 1984, before he plays the song again. And it is not until 1987 that he is finally won over; since then it has been on the programme almost continuously. Today “Highway 61 Revisited” is even one of his most frequently played songs. On the list of the tireless Dylan watcher Olof Björner, the song is number three in 2020, with 2,032 performances.

The colleagues were already convinced a long time ago. Irresistible stomp, dazzling drive, brilliant, funny lyrics… the song is often and gladly covered.

The most famous is probably the one by the albino guitar god Johnny Winter, who records a splendid cover for his LP Second Winter (1969), and considers the song since, together with “Johnny B. Goode” of course, as one of his signature songs: until his death he continues to play it at almost every concert.

His last performance shall be in France, Quatorze Juilliet 2014. The fragile seventy-year-old Johnny has to stay seated, opens with a flaming “Johnny B. Goode”, plays a set of eleven classics and then returns for his last encore: Robert Johnson’s “Dust My Broom” and finally the very last song he will play in his life: “Highway 61 Revisited”.

He dies two days later in Zurich. Cause of death unknown, but presumably albino related – his complexion was much too white, after all.

 

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

 

 

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The last time Dylan played…. the complete “last time” video

Posted on September 14, 2020 by TonyAttwood

Video and listing by mr tabourine

Intro comments by Tony Attwood

mr tabourine has prepared this amazing video sequence, which I have to admit I have been playing since the moment he made it go live.

It is a sequence of the last performance of Dylan songs between 2012 and 2019, and it runs as a sequence in the order given below.  Over 80 songs across eight hours of continuous video, in each case the very last performance.

Of course we all want the virus to be beaten and for Bob to tour again, but we have to admit this might not happen.  So this is an incredibly valuable document, and I am so grateful first for mr tambourine creating it, and second for mr tabourine giving Untold Dylan the chance to publish it.

Reviews may follow – but for the moment I am just sitting here with my mouth open

All Dylan songs played for the very last time live (so far), from 2012-2019

  • 01. My Back Pages (Montreux, July 8 2012)
  • 02. Absolutely Sweet Marie (Lyon, July 18 2012)
  • 03. This Wheel’s On Fire (Carhaix, July 23 2012)
  • 04. Saving Grace (Johnstown, August 29 2012)
  • 05. This Dream Of You (Winnipeg, October 5 2012)
  • 06. Nettie Moore (Edmonton, October 9 2012)
  • 07. Hattie Carroll (Sacramento, October 20 2012)
  • 08. Hollis Brown (Sacramento, October 20 2012)
  • 09. Love Minus Zero (Broomfield, October 30 2012)
  • 10. John Brown (Broomfield, October 30 2012)
  • 11. Joey (Toronto, November 14 2012)
  • 12. Sugar Baby (Toronto, November 14 2012)
  • 13. Mississippi (Philadelphia, November 19 2012)
  • 14. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (Brooklyn, November 21 2012)
  • 15. Chimes Of Freedom (Brooklyn, November 21 2012)2013
  • 16. Shooting Star (Denver, July 31 2013) – second to last, the last recorded version in circulation. The very last was played the next day in Salt Lake City.
  • 17. It’s Alright, Ma (Stockholm, October 12 2013)
  • 18. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (Rome, November 6 2013)
  • 19. Queen Jane Approximately (Rome, November 6 2013)
  • 20. Every Grain Of Sand (Rome, November 6 2013)
  • 21. Man In The Long Black Coat (Rome, November 7 2013)
  • 22. Positively 4th Street (Rome, November 7 2013)
  • 23. Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (Rome, November 7 2013)
  • 24. When The Deal Goes Down (Rome, November 7 2013)
  • 25. Under The Red Sky (Rome, November 7 2013)
  • 26. Ain’t Talkin’ (Rome, November 7 2013)
  • 27. I Don’t Believe You (Rome, November 7 2013)
  • 28. Roll On John (London, November 26 2013)2014
  • 29. Huck’s Tune (Osaka, April 23 2014) – last recorded version circulating, the last one was exactly two months later in Athens, but not in circulation unfortunately
  • 30. Most Likely You Go Your Way (Stavern, July 11 2014)
  • 31. Million Miles/Cry A While (Stavern, July 11 2014) – Bob starts singing what would turn out to be the last performance of Million Miles to date, but then switched to the lyrics of Cry A While (even laughs when realizing what he’s done)
  • 32. Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Gothenburg, July 15 2014) – last singing version. The song would be played 6 or 7 more times in 2019 but as an instrumental closer. Bob’s official site doesn’t list those instrumentals as live performances of this song.
  • 33. Watching The River Flow (Gothenburg, July 15 2014)34. What Good Am I? (Hamilton, August 9 2014)2015
  • 35. Waitin’ For You (San Sebastian, July 11 2015)
  • 36. Forgetful Heart (San Sebastian, July 11 2015)
  • 37. ‘Til I Fell In Love With You (Albi, July 12 2015)
  • 38. Jolene (Saint-Malo-du-Bois, July 13 2015)
  • 39. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (Lorrach, July 16 2015)
  • 40. The Levee’s Gonna Break (Lorrach, July 16 2015)
  • 41. Shelter From The Storm (Lorrach, July 16 2015)
  • 42. Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum (Lorrach, July 16 2015)2016
  • 43. She Belongs To Me (Gilford, July 17 2016)
  • 44. Masters Of War (Indio, October 7 2016)
  • 45. Rainy Day Women #12 & #35 (Indio, October 14 2016)2017
  • 46. Standing In The Doorway (Stockholm, April 1 2017)
  • 47. To Ramona (Portchester, June 14 2017)
  • 48. Lonesome Day Blues (Dover, June 17 2017)
  • 49. Blind Willie McTell (Dover, June 17 2017)
  • 50. A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (Dover, June 17 2017)2018
  • 51. Spirit On The Water (Salamanca, March 24 2018) – last recorded version in circulation, played three more times on March 26, 27 and 28 in Madrid, but those are not in circulation
  • 52. Visions Of Johanna (Sydney, August 18 2018)
  • 53. Duquesne Whistle (Newcastle, August 22 2018)
  • 54. Desolation Row (Auckland, August 26 2018)
  • 55. Tangled Up In Blue (Christchurch, August 28, 2018)
  • 56. Summer Days (Christchurch, August 28, 2018)
  • 57. Workingman’s Blues #2 (Tucson, October 5, 2018)
  • 58. High Water (Tucson, October 5, 2018) – last circulating version, played two more times on October 7 and October 9, but neither of those are in circulation
  • 59. All Along The Watchtower (New York, November 29, 2018) – last2019
  • 60. Dignity (Fuengirola, May 4 2019)
  • 61. Cry A While (Roskilde, July 3 2019)
  • 62. Boots Of Spanish Leather (Braunschweig, July 6 2019)
  • 63. Don’t Think Twice (Mainz, July 7 2019)
  • 64. Scarlet Town (Stuttgart, July 10 2019)
  • 65. Like A Rolling Stone (Kilkenny, July 14 2019)
  • 66. Love Sick (Kilkenny, July 14 2019)
  • 67. Blowin’ In The Wind (Kilkenny, July 14 2019)
  • 68. Long And Wasted Years (Irvine, October 11 2019)
  • 69. Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ (St. Louis, October 22 2019) – last circulating version, played the final time the next night but not in circulation
  • 70. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (St. Louis, October 22 2019) – last circulating version, played the final time the next night but not in circulation December 8, 2019 Washington (last show currently that Bob performed)
  • 71. Things Have Changed
  • 72. It Ain’t Me, Babe
  • 73. Highway 61
  • 74. Simple Twist Of Fate
  • 75. Can’t Wait
  • 76. When I Paint My Masterpiece
  • 77. Honest With Me
  • 78. Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
  • 79. Make You Feel My Love
  • 80. Pay In Blood
  • 81. Lenny Bruce
  • 82. Early Roman Kings
  • 83. Girl Of The North Country
  • 84. Not Dark Yet
  • 85. Thunder On The Mountain
  • 86. Soon After Midnight
  • 87. Gotta Serve Somebody
  • 88. Thin Man
  • 89. It Takes A Lot To Laugh

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Highway 61 Revisited (1965) part IV: A smoke raised with the fume of sighs

Posted on September 13, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Jochen Markhorst

The story so far…

1          Open your ears; 9r”5j5&

But
O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag—
It’s so elegant
So
intelligent

(T.S. Eliot – The Waste Land)

In 2020 The Mekons still exist, the British-American crew from Leeds who initially created a furore as a hard, chaotic punk rock band, but has now explored just about every corner of the music world. Title plus cover of their 1979 debut album is still one of the witty highlights: The Quality Of Mercy Is Not Strnen. The cover photo, a monkey with a typewriter, clarifies the title: this chimp almost typed a Shakespeare quote (“The quality of mercy is not strained,” from The Merchant Of Venice).

The joke is, of course, based on the Infinite Monkey Theorem, which states – in variants – that an immortal monkey with infinite time one day will type the Collected Works of Shakespeare. Variants talk about a million monkeys and a million years, or an infinite number of monkeys and the typing of Hamlet, but Shakespeare is a constant in all these variants.

It’s a brilliant thesis to motivate students of the probability theory – strongly visual, humorous and fairly sharply defined (Hamlet has 30,577 words, about 130,000 letters). But solution and evidence are sobering. The odds are so small that it cannot be described in our language. If every proton in the universe from the Big Bang to the end of the universe were a typing monkey, billions more universes would be needed before we would have a 1 in a trillion chance of a flawless Hamlet.

That does not scare off. Throughout every decade, there are scientists who manage to free up a scholarship to experiment with the thesis. In 2002, students and lecturers at the University of Plymouth put six crested macaques to work for a month. The result is meagre: only five pages of text, mainly filled with the letter s. At most, the very last line is somewhat exciting still:

blbbbbnnfllmnnmjfgmnmmmassssssjjkbhnmnn 

Despite this disappointment, the work is published in a fine hard-cover edition with photographs of the authors: Notes Towards The Complete Works Of Shakespeare, by Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe & Rowan, Sulawesi Crested Macaques (Macaca nigra) from Paignton Zoo Environmental Park (UK).

More successful are automated simulation programmes. In August 2003 a virtual monkey in Scottsdale, Arizona, after billions and billions of “monkey years” produces nineteen letters from The Two Gentlemen Of Verona (“VALENTINE. Cease toIdor:eFLP0FRjWK78aXzVOwm)-‘;8.t”), other teams achieve similar successes with Richard II and Timon Of Athens, and the preliminary record is set on a website, The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator, with 24 letters from Henry IV: “RUMOUR. Open your ears; 9r”5j5&?OWTY Z0d” (likewise after billions of virtual monkey years).  

2          A cloud that’s dragonish

“Shakespeare-dropping” is a motif in Dylan’s oeuvre. Sometimes unveiled, such as Ophelia and Romeo in “Desolation Row”, Othello and Desdemona in “Po’ Boy” and Romeo and Juliet in “Floater”. Sometimes with a traceable quote, like in “Mississippi” (“Give me your hand and say you’ll be mine” from Measure For Measure) and Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” in “My Own Version Of You”, and occasionally with a loud and clear hello, like in “Stuck Inside Of Mobile” (“Shakespeare’s in the alley”). Examples from 1965 to 2020 – the bard from Stratford-upon-Avon has been receiving tips of the hat from the Hibbing bard for over fifty years.

Beyond that begins the grey zone, the zone in which the dozens of disputable Shakespeare references float around, text fragments that, depending on your tolerance limit, are eligible to apply for the “Shakespeare reference”-stamp.

In “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome” Dylan sings dragon clouds, Shakespeare’s Antony says in Antony And Cleopatra: “Sometimes we see a cloud that’s dragonish”. The Earl of Warwick in Henry VI says: “Where having nothing, nothing can he lose” – which could be celebrated by more fanatical reference seekers as the source for “Like A Rolling Stone” (when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose). The album title Time Out Of Mind might be a quote (Romeo And Juliet, Act I, sc. 4) and album title Tempest happens to be a Shakespeare title as well (all right, factually The Tempest).

Which brings us into the light grey zone: paraphrases and “inspirations’, again depending on your willingness or eagerness to see a paraphrase or a reference in it.

An exceptional suicide like to eat fire (from “Too Much Of Nothing”) can only be found once in all world literature (in Julius Caesar) and in the same Basement song, whose title echoes Much Ado About Nothing, we hear another unique expression (to abuse a king, only to be found in Shakespeare’s Pericles) plus some remarkable jargon like “oblivion”, “temper”, “mock” – words Dylan never uses elsewhere, but can be found in Shakespeare’s Collected Works by the dozen. And another Basement song (“Tears Of Rage”) offers similar possibilities of comparison with King Lear.

But by now we are leaving even the light grey zone, and we are approaching the Infinitely Typing Monkeys. After all, album titles such as Desire and Saved, for example, are also words that can be found in Shakespeare’s sonnets and tragedies – but can hardly be considered references.  Even an enthusiastic Dylan researcher like Professor Ricks would agree. But that same Professor Ricks is the leader of the faction of Dylanologists who enthusiastically promote unspectacular word correspondences and vaguely similar phrases to possible Shakespeare references – correspondences and similarities that would be classified by the scientists at the University of Plymouth under: “hits by the Infinitely Typing Monkey Dylan”.

A maverick then is the word combination twelfth + night from “Highway 61 Revisited”.

3          If music be the food of love, play on

Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night
Told the first father that things weren’t right
My complexion she said is much too white
He said come here and step into the light he says hmm you’re right
Let me tell the second mother this has been done
But the second mother was with the seventh son
And they were both out on Highway 61

Mick Fleetwood is not secretive, in his entertaining memoirs. One of Fleetwood Mac’s older albums is named after it (the underrated Then Play On, 1969 – “Oh Well” is on the American reissue) and he also calls his autobiography Play On; Now, Then And Fleetwood Mac (2014). Why, he explains right away in the first paragraph:

“Play on. Two words, no more, but they’ve said it all to me.

They’ve been, at different times, a simple direct order, a call to action, a mantra and a comforting concept that promised rebirth. I first read them in the most beautiful and romantic couplet in Twelfth Night, my favourite of Shakespeare’s works. I’ve never forgotten it; in fact I took it to heart

immediately because it spoke to me.”

He has signed with “Play On” half his life, has a tendency to encourage people around him with these very words and Then Play On “I still count as my favourite record”.

It’s a legacy of his youth; happy he was not, in the boarding schools in Gloucestershire, but thanks to this British part of his upbringing the young Fleetwood is affected by Duke Orsino’s monologue:

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!

… and at the same time, Mick’s declaration of love demonstrates the difference with Dylan’s use of Shakespeare: to Fleetwood, it is rhyme and reason.

Dylan of course knows the title of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy. And by now (1965) he knows the urge of many followers and journalists to dig for and find far-fetched allusions and produce insane interpretations of his lyrics. It’s the mid-sixties Dylan, so the subtlest tinge of maliciousness is enough to then play on: to liven up the quasi-Biblical enumeration of fifth daughter, first father and second mother with a twelfth night.

It’s a direct hit; among the reference seekers, this contextless Twelfth Night is still high up on the told-you-so-list, the list of references to prove how much Dylan has been influenced by Shakespeare. It’s not too convincing, though; the quotes and paraphrases never really transcend name-dropping, are mostly rhyme and never reason. Sure, Dylan’s admiration for Shakespeare is sincere and respectful, which he repeatedly confesses in interviews, such as in the Uncut interview, 2015:

“You travel the world, you go see different things. I like to see Shakespeare plays, so I’ll go — I mean, even if it’s in a different language. I don’t care, I just like Shakespeare, you know. I’ve seen Othello and Hamlet and Merchant of Venice over the years, and some versions are better than others. Way better. It’s like hearing a bad version of a song. But then somewhere else somebody has a great version.”

… but a demonstrable influence on the style of his lyrics, as the Beat Poets have, or a demonstrable artistic soul affinity, as with Kafka or Rimbaud, or even appropriations to poetically convey a story, as from Ovid or Junichi Saga – no. Dylan’s Shakespeare references are actually little more than glitter and gold dust. Like the otherwise empty twelfth night here. Which Dylan, unconsciously associating or consciously scattering glitter, amplifies some more with the subsequent, Shakespearian complexion. Shakespeare uses this word more than fifty times (three times in Twelfth Night, by the way). The only other time in his entire oeuvre that Dylan uses the word is in yet another Shakespeare reference, the one in “Floater” (2001):

Romeo, he said to Juliet, “You got a poor complexion.
It doesn’t give your appearance a very youthful touch!”
Juliet said back to Romeo, “Why don’t you just shove off
If it bothers you so much.”

… in which the use of the names Romeo and Juliet again has no function whatsoever – except as a Brechtian “V-Effekt” (Verfremdungseffekt, alienation effect) – the same function as Mack The Finger, God and Georgia Sam in “Highway 61 Revisited”.

In short, Dylan’s Shakespeare love is real, but is limited to shimmering on the surface. Or, as the Supreme Bard would say, “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs”. (Romeo And Juliet, Act I, sc. 1)

To be continued. Next up: Highway 61 Revisited – part V

 

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

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

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

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

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.   Tony Attwood

 

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Dylan the sideman: Jack Elliott, Geoff Muldaur and Neill Young (plus Carolyn Hester)

Posted on September 13, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

As ever, Aaron chooses the music and writes the introductions, and then sends his notes across the Atlantic where Tony tries to respond – but sometimes goes way off message.

Aaron: Just the two tracks in this episodes…

Tony: Sorry Aaron, I’ve subverted, as you’ll see.

Aaron: Tony, I was wondering if you’d like to provide some commentary around the tracks, particularly the Geoff Muldaur track with Bob on piano…to my untutored ear it sounds really different what Bob’s doing here, so I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on what’s going on!

The first track I’d like to present today is Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”. This was released in 1964 on the “Jack Elliott” album – for some reason it won’t pop up into a block image to click on – just click on the link.

https://youtu.be/8Wuz2Vyrv5Y

Bob appears under the wonderful name Tedham Porterhouse. He’s definitely playing harmonica but some reports state that he is also playing guitar. It’s a track Bob knows well even all these years later.

Here’s Bob playing it in 1961.

And again, just a year ago, in Kilkenny with Neil Young

Tony: This is where I can slip into research mode as in the “Rare performances” series.  Just in case anyone is interested.  This is a hymn written in the first decade of the last century with lyrics by Ada Habershon and music by the appropriately named Charles Gabriel – although many people attribute it to “traditional”.  Ramblin Jack brought it into the modern era.

Here’s the opening verse

There are loved ones in the glory
Whose dear forms you often miss.
When you close your earthly story,
Will you join them in their bliss?

Personally if Neil Young and Bob Dylan made an album out of reading the telephone directory (if you remember telephone directories that is) I’d buy it; I just love these two working together, even though most performances seem as if they’ve hardly rehearsed what they are going to do.

I’m not sure if either of the guys is the sideman – I guess we take this from the artists’ listings, but for me they perform as equals.  And I should add if you want to get a real insight into Neil Young you should take in Aaron’s excellent review “If it sounds like me” which has multiple Neil Young videos on it.

Aaron: The second track also comes from 1964. This time Bob is backing up Geoff Muldaur on the track “Downtown Blues”.

Bob is credited as Bob Landy and is playing some interesting piano. Over to Tony to explain what’s going on here!

Tony:  So Bob is playing right up in the treble end of the keyboard (the right hand side as you look at it).  It sounds as if there isn’t a microphone near the piano, and given that it is just the treble notes being played we can only hear it in the background – but what we can hear suggests Bob is using both hands in the upper register, and the piano ain’t be tuned for a while.

It’s a standard 12 bar blues, so any decent musician could join in straight away without a rehearsal, but what makes this even more interesting is that Bob on keyboard does get the bounce absolutely correct to make his part fit with everything else.  I’ve not heard this done before in this sort of track – although I’m sure others will have tried it.  It’s a good idea.

Aaron: I’d never heard of Geoff Muldaur until recently but he is much respected amongst fellow musicians. Richard Thompson said, “There are only 3 white blues singers – Geoff Muldaur is at least two of them”. Van Dyke Parks commented “Bob Dylan didn’t want to be Woody Guthrie. He wanted to be Geoff Muldaur. Geoff was the Big Man On Campus. He still is”..

And Bob said “Geoff’s the female Carolyn Hester”!

Tony: Well as you’ve introduced Geoff Muldaur and Carolyn Hester, here’s Geoff doing the piece as a solo – very interesting 90 seconds of him giving the background.  Such a down to earth guy.

Apart from Geoff being this sensational performer he is a great, great storyteller.  But even if you don’t want to hear the stories, please do listen to this utterly brilliant musician, who for reason I think we’ve not discussed before.

And I guess to explain Bob’s comment more fully I ought to offer this as well.  I still, after a lifetime of listening, never come to terms with Carolyn Hester’s voice.  It is not that it sends shivers down my spine, it turns me into shivers.  And reduces me to tears.

OK I’ve probably lost most of our audience Aaron, and I know I have wandered far from the topic, but I hope you found something here of interest.  What’s more if you leave this video running it takes us onto more Carolyn Hester.  As I finishing preparing my little comments, it is still running.  I don’t know how long it goes on for, but it is one hell of a find.

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Mama, You Been On My Mind, by a straightforward fan

Posted on September 12, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Jochen Markhorst

In his highly entertaining autobiography 31 Songs, Nick Hornby devotes Chapter 7 to the favourite from his teens: Rod Stewart. Rod Stewart, he argues almost apologetically, is the equivalent of Oasis in the early 1970s – you absolutely did not have to be ashamed of the man who recorded Every Picture Tells A Story and Smiler. The embarrassment comes later, with “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” and the endless line of Britt Ekland lookalikes and the straw hats and “Ole Ola”, the 1978 Scottish World Cup song. But before that, however, Hornby argues, the records with The Faces and Stewart’s subsequent first five solo records, before 1975, Rod is absolutely fine.

On those first solo albums Dylan is a common thread. Stewart records beautiful covers of “Only A Hobo” (on Gasoline Alley, 1970), “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” (Every Picture Tells A Story, 1971), “Mama You Been On Mind” (Never A Dull Moment, 1972) and “Girl From The North Country” (Smiler, 1974).

And as the best example thereof, Hornby chooses Stewart’s interpretation of “Mama, You Been On My Mind”. One of the points Hornby wants to make is: that version is more moving, elevates the original, “Stewart’s reverence seems to dignify it, invest it with an epical quality Dylan denies it.”. With this, Hornby builds a bridge to Chapter 8, about Dylan’s “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window”, in which he already confesses in the third line, slightly provocatively: “I’m not a Dylan fan”. But, as he nuances in the following paragraphs, he finds to his own surprise that he has more than 20 Dylan CDs (“In fact I own more recordings by Dylan than by any other artist”), he must admit that he has much more pointless Dylan knowledge available than he has of, say, Shakespeare and he cherishes, Like “anyone who likes music” the three mid-60s albums plus Blood On The Tracks and Hornby launches the very quotable hit “there’s a density and a gravity to a Dylan song that you can’t find anywhere else”.

But a fan, no.

In any case, Rod Stewart is a real, straightforward fan. The beauty of his (many) Dylan covers is debatable, but they are all respectful and loving (only his “Forever Young” is quite scandalous). Now, you don’t have to be an outspoken fan to fall for “Mama, You Been On My Mind”, obviously – even for those who don’t fancy Dylan all that much, this is a song of the outside category. It is sublime love lyric; indeed, one of those lyrics in which Dylan reaches that “density and gravity that can’t find anywhere else”. Dylan finds simple words to describe a complex amalgam of emotions that strike him through an everyday but profound experience of life: the end of love.

The listener, or the reader, is moved by the narrator, mainly by virtue of the elegance the poet manages to maintain from the first line to the last. Nowhere does the text become lachrymose, the I does not give in to sourness, ridicule or reproach, the pitfall of self-pity is fortunately avoided, as well as the usual clichés.

It doesn’t take anything at all to let the image of the loved one haunt him or her again. Not a particular smell, or a song on the radio, or a scene from a film – maybe it’s the weather or something like that, but suddenly I have to think of you again. Which already reveals heart-breaking vulnerability. The following verses then surprise by the unrecognizable maturity, the soft melancholy with which Dylan speaks to his ex-lover. Is this the same man who so bitterly dismisses this same lover in “Don’t Think Twice”, so viciously in “Ballad In Plain D”? This abandoned lover resigns and has a big heart, has achieved an inner peace allowing him to be tender and sensitive, this abandoned lover is at peace and is credible when he says it no longer torments him when she sleeps with someone else. This is no longer the vindictive genius we know from the other “Suze songs” – crawling all the deeper under your skin. The poet Dylan here has found the tone of Sinatra’s Sings For Only The Lonely and In The Wee Small Hours , of the very best the American Songbook has to offer – though this poet has an even better way with words than the Jerome Kerns, the Sammy Cahns and the Johnny Burkes.

How fragile that regained inner harmony is, the music reveals. The chord progression is already unconventional, but especially the stuttering tempo and the occasional slipping from four-quarter to three-quarter time illustrates: that wound has not healed completely yet, a small push seems enough to make the narrator lose his balance.

Perhaps this is an answer to the big question as to why Dylan rejects this grand masterpiece for Another Side Of (when that record could certainly have endured another climax, if only as an antidote for Plain D) and hardly ever plays it for eleven years – is it just too personal? Too close to home perhaps? He then donates it to Baez, who – of course, she is certainly no fool – gratefully accepts. And in the long run, we also owe it to her that the song eventually returns to Dylan’s set list: during the Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975. After that the ban has been broken and to the enthusiasm of the audience Dylan keeps on performing the song; since that tour over two hundred times.

Joan Baez is by no means the only one who greedily throws herself on this brilliant throwaway. The inevitable Judy Collins is next, also in 1965, and the long list of covers is still growing steadily. In the sixth decade after the song’s conception, half the Premier League (Johnny Cash, George Harrison, Jeff Buckley, to name but a few) has placed the song on a pedestal and the echelons underneath, right down to the YouTube living room videos, are not lagging behind. Thanks to the song’s exceptional class, the covers are almost always at least tolerable, often very pleasant and sometimes brilliant – the song has a similar indestructibility as “Not Dark Yet” and “To Ramona”.

There is one notable difference: this one time the ladies do not really succeed. Some singers solve the gender problem by, like Baez, changing “Mama” into “Daddy”, others choose “Baby, You’ve Been On Mind” (Linda Ronstadt, for example) and that alone is an impoverishment, as you lose the alliterating mama – my mind. Within the women’s competition Ronstadt’s version still scores high, but apparently there is something gender-specific about this song: in a (fictional) top 10 there really are only men.

Nick Hornby does have a point; Rod Stewart’s is great, partly thanks to a beautiful, melancholic arrangement and ditto instrumentation. The lamented Jeff Buckley surpasses the intensity of the original – like Dylan, he does it without an accompaniment band and can therefore fiddle with tempo and metre forms, which works very well with these lyrics in particular. On the other hand, the driving, pulsating drive that We Are Augustines, without drums, injects into the song is just as irresistible (on the Amnesty album Chimes Of Freedom, 2012). Particularly successful is the interpretation of one Kristian Bush, also on a tribute project (The Times They Are a Changin’: A Tribute to Bob Dylan Volume 2, 1994).

The winner is Jack Johnson’s utterly attractive contribution to the I’m Not There soundtrack (2007). Inspired by the cadence of the flood of words, Johnson lets Mama flow smoothly into a rap on the words of “Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie”; a brilliant, marvellous find.

From 1981, after five albums without Dylan cover, Rod Stewart returns to his old love at irregular intervals. On Tonight I’m Yours he sings “Just Like A Woman”, in 1995 “Sweetheart Like You” appears on Spanner In The Works, he records “The Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar”, in 2006 “If Not For You” and a gruesome “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” in ’97, but he never approaches the intensity and unpolished beauty of the early seventies. The low point is the smoothed, cotton-candy adaptation of “Forever Young”.

Some rehabilitation is achieved on The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998 (2009), a compilation of unreleased material and alternative versions. On side 4 an unknown version of “This Wheel’s On Fire” from 1992 surfaces, on which the hard rocking, unpolished and stomping Rod “Faces” Stewart suddenly shows his best Dylan side again.

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

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

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

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

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.   Tony Attwood

 

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Play lady play “Oh Mercy” (and some jazz)

Posted on September 12, 2020 by TonyAttwood

by Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

Just in case you’ve not encountered Play lady play before, it works like this.  Aaron in the USA selects recordings of Dylan songs by female performers, and sends them with a few notes to Tony in the UK, and as the track plays, Tony tries to write down his immediate feelings, usually on hearing the track for the very first time.  The idea is not to come up with a considered review but rather an immediate response to the songs.

Aaron: For this episode we’re going to look at female covers of tracks from Oh Mercy!

Here are the Carolina Chocolate Drops with their cover of Political World. They are an old time string band from Carolina and count among their members Rhiannon Giddens who was also a member of the New Basement Tapes Collective. Here she is on co-lead vocals on this track from The Chimes Of Freedom album (I really must get this CD at some point!)

We have a problem with the video – which works for Aaron in the USA but not for Tony in UK.   There doesn’t seem to be an alternative UK version, but the recording it is also available for free on Spotify.  It’s on disk four so scroll down.  You will need an account – but there is no registration cost, unless you want the all-singing Spotify.

Tony: Oh what a knock out.  This is a really tough song to realise because it is written on one chord.  So to cover for the lack of chordal movement what the band do is create a stunning movement, exciting accompaniment, gorgeous harmonies, and above all just such fun.

This album has an astonishing 76 tracks on it which makes it worth investigating but I don’t want to take anything away from the Chocolate Drops.  If by the end of the first verse you are not sold on this then my heart bleeds for you.  This is FUN.  And if this isn’t fun then I don’t know what is .

Aaron: Next… how about this version of Everything Is Broken by Louisa Rey from her 2009 album Turning Me Jazz

Tony: A challenging introduction into which Louisa Bey fits her vocals perfectly.  The accompaniment is evolving and moving all the time, and yet she is forcing us to hear the lyrics.

What I love here is that nothing is pushing me back to Dylan’s version of the song – Louisa Bey takes it as her own, and that feels absolutely right.

And then again there is simply the concept of doing this song as a modern jazz piece.  That is quite a leap, and yet it works perfectly.  And even when after around 2 minutes 15 she takes the excitement up, it still works, because the instrumentalists stick to their cause.  No one gets carried away.  This is where it is this is what we do.  It keeps going – which is exactly what these lyrics demand.

In the end we are certain, everything really is broken.  No doubt about it.

Aaron:  Now I’m going to include two versions of Ring Them Bells, just because I love the song, I love both versions…and because I can!

First up it’s Joan Baez and Mary Black from Baez’ excellent live album of the same name (get the 2 disc remastered version if you can!). I love the piano on this version.

Tony: I’m with you on the accompaniment Aaron.  This is terrific.  What makes it work is not only the virtuoso approach but the fact that pianist stays on task.  This is right, no one is getting carried away.  It rolls along beautifully.

Yes I still have the same old problem with Ms Baez’ excessive vibrato (or so it seems to me) but this really gorgeous.

Aaron: Then, next, one that I just stumbled on and I’d never heard before by Heart. We’ve not included them in the series before now, so why not! This is from their 1993 album Desire Walks On. I like it, and it’s completely different from any ones I’ve heard before.

Tony: Yep this is fine for me, but after such originality in all the pieces chosen so far in this selection, I am getting used to the unusual, the different, the challenging.

This is good, it works well, but it doesn’t take me to a new place, and the male vocal around 1 minute 45 seconds doesn’t give me a new dimension either

Truth is Aaron, in this series you have discovered such fantastic pieces I expect every song you present to us to be another work of amazing originality.  To me this is competent and perfectly playable, but in the end the vocalists are trying too hard.

Aaron: And now for something completely different. Man In The Long Black Coat by the Elmquist/Kallerdahl Kombo…

 

Tony: First thing if I heard this intro without being told what was coming up, I’d never guess.  Second thing, does that introduction have anything to do with the rest of  the song?  I fear not.

It’s a perfectly good and enjoyable modern jazz version of the song.  It doesn’t do much to me because this isn’t how I see (and by extension hear and feel) the man in the long black coat.   For me he’s always been more sinister, more threatening.  More scary than jazz.

And I suppose as we get to the improvised instrumental section I feel, “where is my man in the coat in all this?”   I think one needs to be much more committed to the modern jazz idiom than I am to appreciate this properly.  My failing, no one else’s.

Aaron: Last one today is a cover of Most Of The Time by Sophie Zelmani. There are a few covers of this but I’d never heard of this lady so thought I’d include it here, but you should also check out Bettye Lavette’s version (I’ve included her several times so though it only fair I skipped her for this one!)

Tony:  Now this does intrigue.  It is a tortuous song which I suspect gets inside the skin of everyone who has recently had a lover walk out.  I like it, but somehow I wanted a little more.   But somewhere around 2 minutes 45 seconds the accompaniment started to sound like Lou Reed doing “Take a walk on the wild side”.   Which of course it isn’t at all, but there’s a rhythm in there that is so strikingly like Lou Reed that it put me off.  Not because I don’t like Lou Reed, I most certainly do, but because this is not “Take a Walk”.

It disappears after a few moments, but then I had another problem – the band is taking it as far as they can go (before taking it back down) but the singer isn’t.

This is a super piece of music and there are some gorgeous moments here, but I just think the production is wrong.  But then, I’m not a musical producer, so that’s probably just me.  Yet when around 4’50” Take a Walk on the Wild Side rhythm comes back, I think, “well, what were you trying to do here guys?”

And answer came their none.

There is an index to the other entries in this series here.

And you will find the series on the Untold Dylan: The Youtube channel

 

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Bob Dlyan: “Booging” The Rhyme 

Posted on September 11, 2020 by TonyAttwood

 

By Larry Fyffe

Singer/song writer Bob Dylan messes with the song lyrics taken from other artists, and the rhymes therein.

In the traditional song lyrics below there’s the end rhyme ~ ‘man’/’can’

Oh, I don't like a railroad man
No, I don't like a railroad man
But the railroad man, they'll kill you when he can
And drink up your blood like wine
(Bascom Lunsford; I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground)

In the lyrics below, the end rhyme switches to ~ ‘wine’/’line’

Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line
She said that all the railway men
Just drink up your blood like wine
(Bob Dylan: Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again)

The following lyrics are by a country bluesman:

I'm gonna buy me a pony
Can pace, fox-trot, and run
Lord, when you see me coming, pretty mama
I be on Highway Sixty-one
(Fred McDowell: Highway 61 Blues)

End rhymes ~ ‘run’/’one’

Beneath, the rhyme gets twisted around to ~ 'pace'/'face':

I got a new pony, she knows how to fox-trot, lope, and pace
She got great big hind legs
And long black shaggy hair above her face
(Bob Dylan: New Pony)

Not twisted much the rhyme in the lines below ~ ‘run’/’one’/’done’:

God say, "You can do what you want, Abe, but
The next time you see me coming, you better run"
Well, Abe said, "Where do you want this killing done?"
God said, "Out on Highway Sixty-one"
(Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited)

And so it goes:

I've got the key the highway
Yes, I feel I'm bound to go
I'm gonna leave here running
Because walking is most too slow
(Bill Broonzy: Key To The Highway ~ Segar/Broonzy)

The end rhyme ~ 'go'/'slow'

Follows is the rhyme twist ~’go’/’know’

Well,  Georgia Sam, he had a bloody nose
Welfare department, they wouldn't give him no clothes
He asked poor Howard, "Where can I go?"
Howard said, "There's only one place I know"
(Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited)

Above there’s also the end rhyme ~ ‘nose’/clothes’; beneath ~ ‘goes’/’clothes’- penned by a
“dirty blues” singer:

He gets up every morning, and before he goes
Say he don't want me to put my head out of my front door
You know he's booging me, yes he's booging me
And I'm getting sick and tired the way he's booging me
He won't buy me no shoes, he won't buy me no clothes
(Lucille Bogan: My Man Is Boogan Me)

The same end rhyme ~’nose’/’clothes’ – is repeated in the satirical song below:

Then my neighbour, he blew his nose
Just as Papa yelled outside
"Mama wants you to come back in the house, and bring them clothes"
(Bob Dylan: Clothes Line Saga)

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

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.   Tony Attwood

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Bob’s rarities: Money Honey, More and More, Ragtime Annie

Posted on September 11, 2020 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

Since starting this series on the songs Bob has played only once, I have found that one of the sites I was using in finding these songs is, although very helpful indeed, not 100% accurate in terms of listing each performance, and so as I have already noted, I have thus far included at least one song that was performed more than once.   Apologies for that.

But what has happened is that I have started to find some terrific live performances of Bob of songs we don’t normally hear him perform (and often ones that I didn’t know), and then I find I have to cut it from this file, because he has played it twice.  Which is a drag.

And since the notion of “once only” was just a device anyway, I am changing this to Bob’s “rarities” file.  Mostly once-only performances but sometimes more than once, as you will see with one of these selections…

So, having put my heart and soul on the line (although not literally), here’s Bob and the band playing Money Honey which I think was performed just the once at Barton Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca NY on November 15 1999.

Money Honey

Written by Jesse Stone, it was recorded on 9 August 1953 and released the following month,  by Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters – this being the first recording for the Drifters.    McPhatter had worked with Billy Ward and the Dominoes, and “Money Honey” became an instant hit.

Rolling Stone has it as number 252 in its 500 greatest songs of all time.  It is said to have sold over two million copies across the next 15 years.

It is a dead simple tale of a man running out of cash and turning to his lady friend for help.    Here’s the original

More and more

This Savoy Hotel recording from 1965 got me interested in Dylan and this song

and then Bob performed it again with Van Morrison in New York on 16 January 1998… less successfully I think, but each to his own…

“More and More” was written by Merle Kilgore and recorded by Webb Pierce in 1954.  The song went to the top of the country charts to become the biggest hit Pierce ever had as it also moved into the pop music charts.

Just one more for today:

Ragtime Annie

https://youtu.be/xdK_4Xf1vyU

This was performed at the Metro, Chicago, IL, on 14 December 1997.

There are thousands of recordings of this song around, I’ve just chosen one that I particularly like

Also known as Raggedy Ann – this is a reel – which is to say a type of folk dance that originated in Scotland and came to America.  In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances which exists alongside the jig, waltz and the strathspey.  The reel is also found in Irish country dance music.

However it could well be that this reel didn’t come across the Atlantic as the first documentation of it comes from Texas, performed by Eck Robertson and Henry C. Gilliland in 1923.   Others quickly picked it up and it found its way into the Library of Congress collection.

However as with all these songs the source is also claimed by others, including John Johnson of West Virginia.   It is still very much a piece that one will hear where fiddlers play.

More anon…

Dylan’s once only file: the concert.   Aaron has created a Youtube file of the songs Bob has played once only and which we have reviewed.

Here are the individual sessions…

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

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

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

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

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.   Tony Attwood

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