This made for TV movie was recorded in 1963 at Westinghouse TV Studio and starred The Brothers Four, Barbara Dane, The Staples Singers and Bob Dylan.
The promotional poster is pretty cool too!
Unfortunately this has never been made available on DVD as far as I know (officially that is).
The complete set list is shown below. Fortunately the three Dylan performances are available on YouTube along with a couple of other tracks.
Introduction / Rock Island Line
Blowin’ In The Wind
Song Of The Ox Drivers
The Tenderfoot
Sit Down Servant
Payday At Coal Creek
Man Of Constant Sorrow
Wish I Was In Bowling Green
Famine Song
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out
Backwater Blues
Pastures Of Plenty
Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Great Day
Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
Finale / This Land Is Your Land
Here is the introduction along with Rock Island Line, totally worth a watch just for Bob’s introductory walk past!
Tony: I love seeing TV productions from this era for the way that they were trying to adapt the traditions of the theatre and live musical performances into what TV could do. It really is quite fascinating to see how in some of these TV productions great performers were manipulated into being dummies and puppets forced to mime their recordings, or act in a way that the TV station owners thought was appropriate.
Actually I should have said much earlier in this series, I’m amazed at how you are finding all of these Aaron.
Blowin’ In The Wind
A Man Of Constant Sorrow.This was included in the No Direction Home movie and accompanying Bootleg Series 8.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pvaoqqbxhc
Tony: “I know something you don’t know”. Now that is quite a thought. Could the whole of Dylan’s songwriting be referenced to that? The commentaries here are really interesting.
And Bob’s voice is in particularly fine fettle here.
The Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Tony: Ah… I wanted to see the banjo player as well. Where is he or she? (Incidentally, Bob’s not putting on any sort of show is he – except for the walk-off at the end.)
Aaron: Let’s round things off with the finale of This Land Is Your Land.
“And a couple of problems…” No mention of racism and gun violence then. I wonder what Bob thought of all this in 1963. For by the time this TV programme was recorded Bob had already written “Oxford Town”, “Hollis Brown”, and “Hard Rain”.
But still a great bit of archive material Aaron. Thanks for finding it.
Next on our list should be Floater, but there is only one interesting and/or exciting cover of this, and Jochen got there before me. You’ll find the video in his article, and I do recommend it.
The same is true with the next song on the alphabetical list: Foot of Pride. But since in the original article I didn’t include the actual video (just the sound track) here it is again:
For me this version just captures the lyrics totally (even if Lou didn’t know the lyrics, and was reading them from a screen).
Next is Forever Young – which of course is a complete contrast. It is one of those songs that has over one hundred cover versions by recognised performers, so what we choose is a matter of personal opinion. And as ever I am looking for something different and yet artistically valid. By which I mean the emphasis is on artistic integrity rather than a producer saying, “I don’t know guys, it’s not working, can we put a bit of echo in?” or words to that effect.
Cathal Gavin almost gets there, until suddenly someone adds a bizarre percussive sound with echo on the off beats. It is a great shame because otherwise it is a brilliant rendition of the song.
There are some decent instrumental versions around too showing a huge range of imagination in the way the music is handled.
Lisa Viggiano does a funny pause at one place which I don’t think works, but overall the interpretation is very interesting, varying each element of the music that can be changed without destroying the integrity of the song. Interesting ending too. I had to double check that I’d not cut the piece off
But in the end I reach the conclusion that the song is, no matter how hard one tries, always just out of reach. I’ve listened to a couple of dozen versions in writing this piece and yet I still can’t find what I am looking for.
Gentle, soft, with vocal harmonies. And try shutting the percussion up, just for a change. Is that too much to ask? Seemingly yes – unless I just happened to miss it among all the covers out there.
Gon’ walk down that dirt road until my eyes begin to bleed
Gon’ walk down that dirt road until my eyes begin to bleed
’Til there’s nothing left to see,
’til the chains have been shattered and I’ve been freed
Apart from the very thin link some eccentrics try to see in “Paperback Writer”’s based on a novel by a man named Lear, The Beatles only once encounter King Lear, and that really is just a happy accident. In the chaotic final phase of “I Am The Walrus”, we hear, with some difficulty, a dialogue from Act 4, Scene 5:
“If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body and give the letters which thou find’st about me to Edmund, Earl of Gloucester: seek him out upon the English party. O, untimely death! Death!”
“I know thee well: a serviceable villain, as duteous to the vices of thy mistress as badness would desire.”
“What, is he dead?”
“Sit you down, father: rest you.”
… and not “Paul is dead”, which is, by the way, one of the weakest arguments that the conspiracy clowns put forward as “proof” of McCartney’s death on 9 November 1966. By now we know for sure that there is no deep, hidden meaning behind the King Lear fragment. Studio engineer Geoff Emerick revealed that he and Lennon added some random radio chatter to the mix – and coincidentally, Emerick says, there was an integral King Lear broadcast on the BBC. Lennon confirms this in the famous radio interview with New York DJ Dennis Elsas, September 1974, and also reveals that he didn’t even have a clue what it was:
“I just heard a radio in the room that was tuned to some BBC channel all the time. We did about, oh I don’t know, half a dozen mixes and I just used whatever was coming through at the time. I never knew it was King Lear until somebody told me, years later. ’Cause I could hardly make out what he was saying.”
To what extent Dylan consciously incorporates his admiration for King Lear, or for Shakespeare at all, into his oeuvre is debatable. Associations are more common than in Beatles songs, in any case. From the Basement songs “Tears Of Rage” and “This Wheel’s On Fire”, lines to King Lear can be drawn, coincidentally or not, in the same scene Lear uses the expression handy dandy, the name of the protagonist of Dylan’s nursery rhyme “Handy Dandy”, coincidentally or not, and “time out of mind” is a Romeo And Juliet quote, coincidentally or not. And this third verse of “Dirt Road Blues” is, coincidentally or not, very similar to the dramatic low point in the dismantling of the poor Earl of Gloucester from King Lear. Gloucester, who after having his eyes gouged out, with bleeding eye sockets asks his son to lead him to a cliff so that he will find freedom in a leap to his death.
Coincidence probably, but still, it is a remarkable and gruesome image, bleeding eyes. Usually used to freak out the audience, in horror films and films with supernatural stuff. And occasionally poetically – as at the end of Alfredson’s magisterial 2011 adaptation of Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. When, from a distance, Jim Prideaux shoots his close friend the traitor Bill Haydon in the head with a small calibre bullet just below the eye, a single drop of blood runs like a tear down the cheek of the dying Haydon – mirroring the one single tear running down the cheek of assassin Prideaux.
In the art of song, the image is less common. Alright, since the rise of trash metal and gothic punk, of bands with names like Anthrax and Primal Scream, eyes start to bleed a bit more often, but there the image seems to be derived from, and have the same function as in horror movies; to gross out the listener. “Tears of blood” or similar word combinations to express the horror of bleeding eyes are actually rarely used in the art of song, and, moreover, hardly unambiguous. Like in Sandy Denny’s somewhat pathetic “Here In Silence”;
Morning leaves a bed of echoes,
Tears of blood in weeping meadows,
Can you see me, can you hear me,
Can you leave me here in silence?
… and even when the grandmaster John Prine uses the image (in “The Hobo Song”, 1978), he balances dangerously close to the edge of unbearable sentimentality. No, actually only the 1931 Mississippi Sheiks song “I’ve Got Blood In My Eyes For You” expresses approximately what Dylan also seems to want to express here;
I was out this mo'nin, feelin' blue
I said-a, 'Good-lookin' girl can I make love with you?'
Hey-hey-hey, babe
I've got blood in my eyes for you
Dylan’s admiration for the Mississippi Sheiks is unquestioned. He records their “The World Is Going Wrong”, “Sitting On Top The World” and “I’ve Got Blood in My Eyes For You”, the DJ Dylan plays them three times on Theme Time Radio Hour, and in the liner notes to World Gone Wrong he is clear enough:
“BLOOD IN MY EYES is one of two songs done by the Mississippi Sheiks, a little known de facto group whom in their former glory must’ve been something to behold. rebellion against routine seems to be their strong theme. all their songs are raw in the bone & are faultlessly made for these modern times (the New Dark Ages) nothing effete about the Mississippi Sheiks.”
“I’ve Got Blood In My Eyes For You” is a heart-breaking song about a despondent, lonely john who in his misery tries to buy an emotional bond with a hooker but is rejected. The chorus line I’ve got blood in my eyes for you here seems to express either something like “extreme desire”, “consuming yearning” or “extreme disappointment”. Not a one-to-one congruence with Dylan’s use of bleeding eyes, but at least in the same quadrant of the emotional colour scale; utter despair caused by love suffering. In “Dirt Road Blues”, however, Gon’ walk down that dirt road until my eyes begin to bleed and its continuation have the somewhat uncomfortable connotation that the protagonist doesn’t want to see something or someone anymore. The postscript, after all, reveals that “blindness” will set him free, has the unsettling implication that the narrator is unbearably haunted by images of her in his mind’s eye.
On a side note: in hindsight, it is a pity that Lennon and Geoff Emerick did not turn on the radio one minute earlier:
“The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles”
Now, that would have given the Paul-is-dead-conspiracists a field day.
To be continued. Next up: Dirt Road Blues part 5
——–
Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books, in English, Dutch and German, are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
I’ve been working my way through Dylan songs in alphabetical order, but have come into territory where either we have songs with no covers, or nothing that I think is worthy of a mention, or we’ve already been through all the covers before (Every Grain of Sand for example), and there’s not much to add.
But moving on at full speed I eventually got to Farewell Angelina and here I have found a couple of things I would really like to draw to draw your attention to… starting with Adjö, Angelina by Mikael Wiehe and Ebba Forsberg in Swedish.
As I have commented before on versions in a language one doesn’t speak, more than anything it forces one to contemplate what the musical arranger has done and how the performers are responding. I do hope you have the time to listen.
Back to English and this by an unknown artist. We’ve had it on the site before, and it is superb in my view. Exquisitely rendered guitar accompaniment and a voice that works so well with the accompaniment.
Perhaps one of the oddest things I have seen since I last went on the internet is the discussion that follows has people getting rather angry denouncing this recording because it is not Bob Dylan performing, and calling others idiots for thinking it is. Perhaps by way of extension of that we ought to be blaming Bob for writing the song and thus generating the arguments in the first place. Perhaps everytime I make a mistake in something I write I should blame Nikola Tesla.
But I must throw this in too. For me this recording, and indeed the others I am choosing to highlight in this little piece is absolutely a reassertion of the fact that there are people out there with a real sense of adventure and creativity.
So moving on, whoever would have thought of changing the beat, the melody and the chord structure and still got something out of it that is such absolute fun.
Well I suppose someone called Daisy Mayhem. And when the occasional vocal harmonies come in as well, oh, what can I say? This next piece is such fun, so uplifting, so utterly enjoyable, it just brings a big smile to my face, and an uplift in my heart. I do hope you can find the time to play this all the way through.
I want to play in this band!
Actually, apart from the fact I don’t think they are recruiting old men at the moment, they are a New England band and if you want to know more about them, here is their web site. Normally at moments like this everyone says, “Oh I’ve known about them of years,” and “You mean you’ve only just discovered them – where have you been living Tony?” to which I reply truthfully, “Northamptonshire”, and since even more people in England don’t know where that is (confusing it with Northumberland as like as not) we tend to leave it at that.
Daisy Mayhem is a cartoon character (well, you probably knew that, but I had to look it up – obviously I come from the wrong cultural background).
The point here is that with a lot of Dylan’s music, someone with a really good musical ability and instinct will be able to play in every sense of the word. I beg you to play that version above and just sit back and enjoy it.
And because they have given me such pleasure today, I am going to offer a couple of other tracks from them.
The narrator in the following song lyrics just can’t comprehend why his fiery lust for a gal is not returned in kind:
When you are near
It's just as plain as it can be
I'm wild about you, gal
You ought to be a fool about me
(Bob Dylan: Spirit On The Water)
Likewise, so the situation is in the song lyrics below:
But Lord knows I'm a-wild about you, black gal
I'm just as crazy as I can be
Lord, Lord, I'm wild about you, black gal
You ought to be a fool about me
(Sonny Boy Williamson: Black Gal Blues)
In the next song lyrics, the narrator heads out after a relationship’s gone bad:
Might take a train, I might take a plane
But if I have to walk
I'll be going to Chicago just the same
I'm going to Chicago on the Western Road
(Bob Dylan: Western Road)
In the following song lyrics, the narrator can’t wait to be off to a place where he’s sure there are lots of opportunities to meet “crazy little women”:
Well, I might take a train, I might take a plane
But if I have to walk
I'm going just the same
Going to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come
(Wilbert Harrison: Kansas City ~ Stoller/Leiber)
In the recording below the music begins at about 1′ 10″
In the lyrics beneath, cold floodwaters are a-rising where ‘hot wet’ women ought to be a-waiting the singer:
Big Joe Turner looking East and West
From the dark room of his mind
He made it to Kansas City
Twelfth Street and Vine
Nothing standing there
(Bob Dylan: High Water)
The bluesman’s songs include lines such as:
I'm like a one-eyed cat peeping in a seafood store
(Big Joe Turner: Shake, Rattle, And Roll ~ Calhoun)
Musta justa been a bit of bad luck. There’s gotta be a better place to meet easier woman than the place the narrator below is at now:
Gonna be standing on the corner
Twelfth Street and Vine
With my Kansas City baby
And a bottle of Kansas City wine
(Wilbert Harrison: Kansas City ~ Stoller/Lieber)
A philosophical explanation is needed to explain the present sorrowful state of male/female relationships.
In the following song, the watery female, the “spirit on the water”, corresponds to the fiery male “standing on the corner” of the concrete sidewalk in Kansas City:
She messes up big time, hovers above the waves; fails to bring the balancing spirit of her male companion down with her from the mysterious rings of Swedenborg’s heavenly planes.
As a consequence of her emotionally wrought behaviour, land-bound humans lose the chance to bind back together in the divine bridal chamber of the sea.
Nevermore will that be.
A spectre similar to that of Edgar Allan Poe’s lost Lenore appears:
Spirit on the water
Darkness on the face of the deep
I keep thinking about you baby
I can hardly sleep
(Bob Dylan: Spirit On The Water)
And another:
Bertha Mason shook it, broke it
Then she hung it on a wall
Says, "You'll dance with whom they tell you to
Or you don't dance at all"
It's tough out there
(Bob Dylan: High Water)
Bertha’s a locked-up, mad woman from Charlotte Bronte’s novel “Jane Eyre”.
The Joker has the last laugh:
She could not leave her number, but I know who
placed the call
'Cause my uncle took the message, and he wrote
it on the wall
(Chuck Berry: Memphis, Tennessee)
——
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
In 1999 and 2000 we saw Dylan bring to the stage traditional songs, the kind of antique music we hear on Love and Theft. In 2002, he again does a lot of cover versions, although this time, while some of the old songs get a hearing, he leans towards contemporary songs or songs written by contemporaries as a tribute to some artists he clearly admires. Towards the end of the year he was playing up to three cover songs per concert.
Some of these are family songs like Neil Young’s ‘Old Man.’ It has a catchy melody and strong lyrics and is instantly recognisable to Dylan’s audience. It was inevitable that Dylan and Young should cross paths over the years, and be together on stage a few times. ‘Old Man’ is Neil Young’s anthem, and Dylan doesn’t mess with the song, that is, attempt to Dylanise it, but plays it straight, just as Neil Young might have played it. This one’s from 30th Oct, Saint Paul.
Old Man
It is not surprising that Dylan would want to cover a song by those ‘British bad boys,’ the Rolling Stones. Of course, Dylan doesn’t prance about on stage like Mike Jagger, but he sure knows how to belt out a rock song, and ‘Brown Sugar’ is the quintessential rock song. The Stones might not be as famous as Dylan for the element of protest or social comment in their songs, but ‘Brown Sugar’ comes close:
‘Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
Sold in the market down in New Orleans
Skydog slaver know he's doin' all right
Hear him whip the women, just around midnight’
Again he plays it straight, with all the sass and flourish it needs. Jagger and Richards did write some great dancing songs. It came out in 1971 but it sounds very sixties to me. This is also from Saint Paul.
Brown Sugar
Dylan’s relationship with The Beatles, given his avowed friendship with George Harrison and his rivalry with John Lennon, was more contentious. Dylan does a lovely spoken introduction to ‘Something’ in which he expresses his affection for Harrison. Of course, it is a Harrison song, and this performance is a loving tribute indeed. And Charlie Sexton has captured Harrison’s guitar perfectly. Uncanny, how close it sounds to Harrison. The song has a similar sentiment to Dylan’s ‘Something There Is About You’ from Planet Waves, 1974.
This is from ‘Something.’
‘Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don't want to leave her now
You know I believe and how’
And this is from ‘Something There Is About You.’
‘Somethin' there is about you
That strikes the match in me
Is it the way your body moves
Or is it the way your hair blows free?’
This performance is from 30th Nov, New York.
Something
By far the most substantial tribute however is to the song writer Warren Zevon, who being born in 1947 was a few years younger than Dylan, but died of cancer in 2003. His illness was known in 2002, and Dylan expressed his appreciation of Zevon publicly by singing three of his songs, sometimes two at one concert. Many who had never heard of Zevon were introduced to him by these performances.
He does Dylanise Zevon’s ‘Mutineer,’ just in his phrasing, and turns up with a particularly compelling version. Indeed, the song has a mysteriousness to it worthy of Dylan, and what a marvellous tribute this is to the dying songwriter. This one’s from the groundbreaking Seattle concert (Oct 4).
Mutineer.
‘Accidentally like a Martyr’ has a very Dylan like title. Interestingly, while written in 1978 it contains the phrase ‘time out of mind,’ reminding us that the phrase refers to ‘a time in the past that was so long ago that people have no knowledge or memory of it.’ (Google)
‘The days slide by
Should have done, should have done, we all sigh
Never thought I'd ever be so lonely
After such a long, long time
Time out of mind’
This is another one from the Seattle concert, and is a fine vocal performance. Critic and Bobcat Andrew Muir, who attended the Seattle concert, describes his response this way: “Accidentally Like A Martyr” hit me like the proverbial large railway vehicle moving at high speed. The vocals conveyed an astonishing depth of feeling and insight and an immense gravity. You couldn’t fail to understand immediately that this song was of import.
Interpretations of the song vary, but fate seems to play a big role in love and religion. You might stumble upon martyrdom as you might stumble upon anything.
Accidentally like a Martyr
As far as I know, Dylan played Zevon’s ‘Boom Boom Mancini’ only once, and that was at the Seatle concert. There is a good background to this song by Tony Attwood. The song deals with the relentless nature of boxing, and is about Boxer Mancini whose Korean opponent, Duk Koo Kim, died after fighting him. Dylan condemns boxing in ‘Who Killed Davy Moore,’ an early Dylan song, but lionises the boxer Rubin Carter in ‘Hurricane’ in 1976.
Zevon comes to this Dylan like conclusion:
‘They made hypocrite judgements after the fact
But the name of the game is be hit and hit back’
The song starts with a threatening beat, much like ‘Serve Somebody,’ and develops into a fine rocker.
Boom, boom Mancini
Bruce Hornsby’s, ‘The End of Innocence’ is another contemporary song (1989), which Dylan has sung before, but which gets a particularly clear, sharp and loving performance in 2002. The song has an anti war theme, and seems to attack Ronald Reagan, ‘this tired old man we elected king.’
This performance is from St Paul (30th Oct)
End of Innocence
With Neil Young, Warren Zevon, Jagger/Richards, George Harrison and Bruce Hornsby in the line up for Dylan’s tributes in 2002, it’s unsurprising that we should find Van Morrison, the Irish songwriter among their number. ‘Carrying a Torch’ is one of Morrison’s effusive, mystical ballads. Both Dylan and Morrison understand the ecstatic roots of rock music, which they use to express a spiritual vision of the world. This one’s from New York (13th Nov), a quiet and understated performance.
Carrying a Torch
These are Dylan’s tributes to his contemporaries, but the older songs he loves have not entirely gone. ‘Duncan and Brady’ is a traditional murder ballad originally recorded by Wilmer Watts and his Lonely Eagles in 1929, but covered by many other performers. Despite its subject matter it’s a brisk, upbeat song. Dylan uses it to kick off the Aspen concert (1st Sept). Interestingly, an alternative title of the song is ‘You’ve Been On The Job Too Long,’ the line Dylan uses to finish ‘Black Rider’ from Rough and Rowdy Ways.
Duncan and Brady
‘Searching for a Soldier’s Grave’ is another old favourite of Dylan’s. Written by Jim Anglin, Hank Williams considered it “one of the purdyest songs I reckon anybody ever wrote.” (https://dylanchords.info/00_misc/searching_for_a_soldiers_grave.htm) Others have been less kind. It has a patriotic tinge to it, and the lyrics are far from subtle, but this is a sweet, downright purdy performance from the Seattle concert. Dylan keeps it low and quiet, not letting it get too raucous in the choruses.
Searching for a Soldier’s Grave
Finally, we come to that humble little song ‘This World Can’t Stand Long,’ also by Jim Anglin. It’s both simple and yet profound, a little ditty that somehow says it all. When Dylan sings ‘things are breakin up out there,’ in ‘High Water’ we can hear the echo of Anglin’s understated little ballad first recorded in 1947, full of post war melancholy. This performance is from Aspen (1st Sept).
This world can’t stand long.
That’s it for 2002, bringing us not just to the end of another year on the road for Dylan but a whole era, spanning ten years from 1991/2, ebbing and building to these four superlative years from 1999 to 2002. From October 2002, a new movement begins, a new and harder road opens, a road that will take us to some strange places.
As an augury of changes and difficulties to come, not only did Dylan lay down his guitar in 2002, but at the end of the year guitarist Charlie Sexton leaves the band and would not rejoin it again until 2009. It is generally agreed that Sexton is the best NET guitarist Dylan ever had, and his sharp, whiplash sound would be sorely missed. Sexton and the versatile Campbell, along with bassist Garnier, put together a powerhouse of a band that became a formidable force in rock music. At their best there’s nothing to match them.
In 2003, Sexton would be replaced by Billy Burnette. In his book on the NET, ‘One More Night,’ Andrew Muir comments: ‘Billy Burnette is not remembered fondly by most Dylan fans. However…you cannot help but wonder if this is fair judgement.’ Burnette only lasted until 18th April 2003 and was then replaced by Freddie Koella who was replaced by Stu Kimball in 2004. How they fared we will see in coming posts, but this turnover of guitarists points to a rocky road ahead.
In the meantime, stay safe. Listening to Bob Dylan is a tried and tested method of staying sane in these plague years. That’s because of his indomitable spirit.
Kia Ora
——
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
It is Christmas Day in the UK – the biggest holiday of the year. And so I thought I would do something different. I wasn’t sure what but then Jochen and I were having one of our occasional email exchanges (we live in different countries as I have mentioned before) and he reminded me that he had already reminded me that I should be mentioned Chris Smither’s covers. (People reminding me that I have already been reminded is becoming quite a part of my life these days).
And so rather than drop Chris Smither’s songs into the articles in A Dylan Cover A Day, I thought I’d do this terrific musician the honour of a special for himself – which he most certainly deserves. If you want to know about this extraordinary performer there is a Wiki page on him of course, and of course he has his own website
https://youtu.be/gHPXGD6SRS8
So what is he doing? Well, most obviously he’s using open tuning on the guitar, which I am not sure Bob does very much if at all (forgive me I’ve never checked – I just can’t recall where Bob does this. Do tell if you’ve spotted it). If you are not familiar with the way guitarists like to get more out of their guitar, there is a standard set up for the tuning of guitar strings (E A D G B E – going from the lowest to the highest) but there is nothing to stop anyone changing the tuning.
The most popular alternative tunings gives a chord of D or G when the open strings are played, but others are possible. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that if one then plays some of the chord fingerings from the standard tuning, while the guitar is tuned in an alternative way, all sorts of interesting and unusual chords emerge. It is an approach that has inspired many a performer looking for a way of giving the guitar a new sound, and of playing some chords one has not used before.
And if that did not move you enough try this
Already you should have a feel for what this musician is doing – and I really have not heard this sort of approach to Dylan before. OK maybe there are others out there, but I live in rural Northamptonshire, and the local folk are still discussing the notion of introducing this new fangled postal service idea to the area, so news from elsewhere is a little slow.
This third example of his work again works in the same way – it is one that Jochen particularly reminded me of this morning, and indeed it is one that was used to illustrate a point in one of Larry’s articles, as well as in Jochen’s article “It takes a lot to laugh it takes “Chris Smither to make me cry”
Now there may be Dylan songs performed by Chris Smither but I haven’t found any yet. However I have now diverted onto Spotify, and if you have a Spotify account do type in Chris Smither’s name and start playing. From the very first track on the page dedicated to his music “Leave the light on” your life is likely to be changed – believe me it really is.
But in case you haven’t got a Spotify account here’s some more…
Chris clearly has his own style, but he retains the essence of Bob’s music and then merges the two so we get a new insight into each song. Here all the atmosphere is created by the opening tuning and the constant pulse which I imagine is a foot tap.
His changes to the music itself are not profound – it is the sound that is different and which gives us different insights…
He does occasionally venture elsewhere but after listening to all the songs above, and quite a few more in the Spotify collection, I wasn’t really for this…
I think I’m going to have to come back to this later to try and take it in fully. But I think first I am going to play “What was it you wanted” again. I do hope Bob has heard this. And maybe sent Chris a postcard of appreciation.
Anyway, there it is. There is also a lot more of Chris Smither on Second Hand Songs although no more Dylan covers. And if you have worked your way through those records above, I hope you have enjoyed something therein.
What with it being Christmas I’m visiting my children and grandchildren just now, so the timing of posting articles maybe slightly out for a couple of days (it depends if my grandchildren will allow me onto the internet while I’m visiting… “Oh Granddad I’m on line and you’re slowing the connection down” says the five year old) but one way or another I’ll be back soon.
Happy Christmas everyone, whether you celebrate Christmas or not. And thank you for reading Untold Dylan. Without you, it wouldn’t mean a thing.
If you have been following this little series you may have noticed that I have meandered somewhat, moving out of the strict alphabetical order occasionally, to go back to songs I missed, and then mistakenly written a review of a song’s covers already covered.
The next one on my list was Drifter’s Escape, but I’ve already done an article on that before thinking of this series – so I’ve listed that piece above, and updated a link or two that had gone missing within the article.
All of which meandering brings me to Duquesne Whistle – which is fortunate because there is one and only one cover version that needs to be played. For it is so, so good, no one surely could ever take this song any further. And why would they even try?
Just sit back and enjoy the sheer fun, liveliness and pleasure that this song in this interpretation is.
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Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
Gon’ walk down that dirt road, ’til someone lets me ride
Gon’ walk down that dirt road, ’til someone lets me ride
If I can’t find my baby, I’m gonna run away and hide
For a quarter of a century, the Dutch author Arnon Grunberg has been bivouacking at and around the top of the literary Olympus in the Low Lands, and translations of his novels are read all over the world thanks to rave reviews in The New York Times, Le Figaro, the L.A. Times and the Frankfurter Allgemeine, among others. His output cannot be categorised; like Dylan, Grunberg jumps from one genre to another.
One of his greatest successes is the 2006 psychological thriller Tirza, a novel that reveals a soul connection to the spiritual father of songs like “Cold Irons Bound”, “Soon After Midnight” and the 2021 rewrite of “To Be Alone With You”. Lyrics with a brooding, lugubrious undercurrent that only comes to the surface at second glance.
In Tirza, we meet a somewhat dull, middle-class single father who idolises his youngest daughter in an almost unhealthy way. The farewell approaches; Tirza has finished her final exams and is on the threshold of an independent life. Before university life swallows her up, she and her boyfriend go on an adventurous holiday to Africa. Dad Jörgen brings them to the airport and then she is gone. And stays gone – there is no sign nor word from Tirza anymore, and the father, growing desperate and already instinctively suspicious of the boyfriend, decides to travel after her, decides to go look for her. He trudges over the dirt roads of Namibia, he can’t find his baby, and gradually he takes the reader with him in his intention to stay here, never to return to Amsterdam, to run away and hide. In the meantime, he found a kind of surrogate daughter, nine-year-old Kaisa, and when he tells her his life story, the bomb hits; Jörgen tells Kaisa that months ago he killed his own daughter and her boyfriend, on the way to the airport.
It is a mind-boggling plot twist that hits with the force of a grenade and makes the reader scroll back. Similar to mindfuck films like The Sixth Sense and Shutter Island: the plot twist forces the viewer to re-contextualise the entire story up until that point. What did we miss, could we have seen this coming? And yes, the foreshadowing of the surprising catastrophe is usually hidden in small, unobtrusive hints that, at first sight, are at most a tiny bit unsettling.
Something like that, such a small, unobtrusive hint, seems to be hidden in this closing line of the first verse of “Dirt Road Blues”. Up to and including “If I can’t find my baby”, nothing is out of the ordinary; still a classic dirt road blues, a lament of a poor, lovesick sod. But then: “I’m gonna run away and hide.” That, in twelve words, is the bewildering plottwist of Tirza – the protagonist who despairs of not being able to find his baby, and is then overcome by a run-and-hide urge. An urge that can only be explained by a preceding outrage, of course – either the protagonist is threatened and flees danger, or the protagonist has committed an atrocity and must now run-and-hide to avoid the consequences.
The second stanza does not clarify anything, but it does perpetuate the unease:
I been pacing around the room hoping maybe she’d come back
Pacing ’round the room hoping maybe she’d come back
Well, I been praying for salvation laying ’round
in a one-room country shack
… although it is a flashback, it is not a clarifying flash-back – the plot is still ambiguous. The narrator takes the listener back to a moment after the breaking point, to a moment when despair has already begun. And chooses reassuringly “ordinary” idiom to describe his despair, idiom as we know it from dozens of songs, from songs like Mel Tormé’s “Comin’ Home Baby”;
I'm pressin' on, baby, now
And pacing up and down the floor
Oh, hear me holler, and hear me roar
Say you'll be with me
Gonna be with you ever more
I'm comin' home
… and from Muddy Waters’ “All Aboard” (“I’m hopin’ and tusslin’ she’d come back”), or George Jones’s monumental “He Stopped Loving Her Today” (“He still loved her through it all / Hoping she’d come back again”), or The Everly Brothers’ “Chained To A Memory”;
I get up in the morning
I'm pacing the floor
Like I'm expecting you to walk in the door
I keep forgetting I won't see you anymore
Guess I'm doomed to be chained to a memory
… and dozens of other songs from Dylan’s personal jukebox in which pained protagonists are pacing around and are consumed by the desire that she’d come back. Just like the ending of this verse, laying ’round in a one-room country shack, does not raise any eyebrows; that too is a setting we know from plenty of blues songs, again a setting the conditioned listener has long associated with heartache and love affliction of an unhappy first-person chronicler. In Dylan’s case, it probably got under his skin via Johnny Cash’s version of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Georgia On A Fast Train”, or via Willie Nelson (who plays the song again at Farm Aid 2013) – although neither of these can match the raw charm of Billy Joe’s 1973 original;
It’s more likely, however, that the walking music encyclopaedia has a flopped single by Johnny “Guitar” Watson from 1958 in his record case: “Gangster Of Love b/w One Room Country Shack”, produced and accompanied by the man who is held in such high esteem by Dylan, Bumps Blackwell. Presumably, Dylan was initially struck – again – by the sound, which is indeed close to the Time Out Of Mind sound. And is this décor an accidental by-catch;
I'm sittin' here, thousand miles from nowhere
In this one room country little shack
And my only worldly possession
Is this raggedy old cotton sack
On the other hand: given the subcutaneous suspense, the insinuated horror and the choice of scenery, it cannot be ruled out that Dylan was inspired by Louisiana Red’s signature song “Sweet Blood Call”, the lurid monologue of a psychopathic bad man, with the repulsive opening line “I have a hard time missing you baby, with my pistol in your mouth” and with, in the third verse, the scenery that Dylan will choose for his “Dirt Road Blues”:
I see your eyes are rollin'
Must mean your love for me has come back
Must mean you're satisfied again
With our little wooden country shack
I have a hard time missing you baby, with my pistol in your mouth
You may be thinking about going north woman, but your brains are staying south
Not inconceivable, a line from “Sweet Blood Call” to Dylan’s “Dirt Road Blues”, and not only because of that in itself meagre similarity in scenery. Roughly since Time Out Of Mind, Dylan has developed a growing fascination for what, for the sake of convenience, can be called murder-suggesting ballads; ominous narratives surrounding sinister protagonists and macabre incidents, which are mainly diffusely, implicitly evoked – Dylan is not yet as explicit as in “Sweet Blood Call” or as in comparable bloody folk and blues songs (“Knoxville Girl”, “Delia’s Gone”, “Crow Jane”). Here, it remains with that disturbing suggestion I have been praying for salvation; words that suggest the narrator is seeking deliverance from sin and its consequences.
But he apparently does not receive that salvation, in that remote one-room country shack. He is standing in the doorway, and then decides to go down the dirt road, decides to run and hide…
To be continued. Next up: Dirt Road Blues part 4
Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books, in English, Dutch and German, are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
Now this is a problematic song and a half. “Dignity” (the song) does something that I can’t for the moment, associate with any other popular song. It’s core is the pragmatisation of the concept – turning the notion of “dignity” which is perceived but which cannot be touched, and is quite difficult to describe, into a reality. No wonder Bob was unsure of what he had got and took so long to release it.
It was recorded in the spring of 1989 but not released until the end of 1994, ironically on one of the Greatest Hits albums. How very Dylan.
It is a difficult song to grasp at first and I think a difficult song to cover. Indeed listening to a range of covers in preparation for this little piece, I’ve been interested to listen to the eminent recording artists who have had a bash, and really failed to deliver anything worthy of the song.
But as ever I’ve found (and indeed already knew) a handful that are worth a listen if you have a spare 15 minutes or so.
The Low Anthem’s version really is worth trying – but please don’t just judge it by the opening lines – it grows in a way that I doubt that Bob could ever have imagined. I find this beautiful, and it gives me a new set of insights into the meaning of the lyrics – which still puzzle me just as they did when the song was first released.
And because I like contrasts here is a real big contrast with Denny Freeman enjoying himself no end exploring the music only. I am not sure this really works in full, because the chord sequence and melody are so distinctive that Mr Freeman finds it hard to get away from them… but as a bit of light listening it’s nice, and very much a piece to take away the blues.
Last one for the day – and taking exactly the same beat and time as Denny Freeman, but now forcing me to focus on the sound, since I don’t speak the language. And Francesco de gregori dignità (“Il Principe dei cantautori”) (“The Prince of the singer-songwriters”) knows how to keep the original and then vary from time to time, which is why at this time, this is my favourite cover of the song.
And my lack of Italian helps me once again appreciate what a masterpiece of sound this is in a way that I can’t do if it is all just an instrumental. I need the words, even when I can’t understand them at all.
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
“Soundstage : The World of John Hammond” was broadcast on December 6, 1975 and lasted almost 3 hours! Tributes were made to Hammond from all the many and varied artists whose careers he had touched including Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, and others.
Highlights of the show included a performance from Benny Goodman and for the first time on television in over 6 years, Bob Dylan.
I found an article from The NY Times archives discussing the show from 1975 which makes for interesting reading:
“the main attraction, of course, the reason Channel 13 is running the segment twice tomorrow, is Bob Dylan, accompanied by two men (drums and bass guitar) and a woman (violin).
“Displaying his well‐established genius for tapping the most fashionable of politicalsocial causes, the millionaire chronicler of modern folk opens with “Hurricane,” his version of the Rubin Carter story, a story now being played out in the courts and prisons. Mr. Carter, the former boxer (“It’s my work, and I do it for pay”) is Mr. Dylan’s idealized hero. His villains, needless to say, are all those “criminals in coats and ties.” Also, needless to say, all, the coats and ties in the “Soundstage” audience applaud lustily.
“Mr. Dylan’s other numbers are “Oh, Sister” and “Simple Twist of Fate,” both performed a bit sullenly but attractively. While not generating the sheer excitement of the Benny Goodman group’s appearance, the Dylan set provides an effective, oddly lyrical, close for these two exceptional instalments of “Soundstage.””
Here are Bob’s performances
Hurricane – the single had been released by this time but the album was not released until January 1976.
Tony:Watching what Bob does before he starts playing I think he is actually suddenly deciding to change the key at the very last moment. He couldn’t be could he?
Whether that is me just trying too hard to understand the moving of the capo and changing the harmonica – or whether it is all a sleight of hand (or indeed maybe they had been warming up prior to the film starting and Bob had forgotten to remove the capo) I’m not sure. Interesting see the look the violinist gives him at one point as if to say, “If that’s what you do, I’m not playing for you again.”
But whatever was going on, this is a brilliant performance and a half.
Oh Sister
Tony: Ah the old “she knows who she is” line – not one of Bob’s, but the song fits perfectly well with the quartet approach of guitar/harmonica, violin, bass and percussion.
And contradicting my thought about the sudden change of key – these are beautiful renditions.
Simple Twist Of Fate
Aaron: This isn’t on YouTube but it is on Dylan’s official Facebook page, so hopefully if you click this link it should take you there!
Tony:This is indeed a superb collection and one that I didn’t know about. (My excuse is being British, I had no chance to watch this, as it was never shown in the UK.) It is a beautiful song, but the move into declamation rather than singing at certain points removes some of the beauty in my view.
And dare I say it, I think the format of the quartet’s accompaniment isn’t varied enough to carry us through a whole series of songs. At first, it is incredibly attractive, but by this third song I am starting to think, well yes, I can see how this song will go when played by the quartet – so is there anything else they can put into the arrangement?
But the answer is no. The accompanying instruments are all playing the same way on each song – and if there is a problem with this performance, then that’s the problem. There’s no musical variation, so we are left enjoying the songs we now know so well.
Of course, they were much newer when this was recorded, so the impact then would have been very different. And I am at this moment influenced by having started my little “Dylan cover a day” series on this site, which focuses on what interests me – the way the songs can be varied and changed. Perhaps if I were not writing that each day, I’d appreciate the undoubted beauty of these arrangements more.
Aaron: As a bonus, I did a bit of detective work and found the missing track from the article in this series on Quest (Girl From The North Country) on YouTube. This was track 4 on the program. Here it is…
Tony:Ah you took me by surprise there Aaron. I wasn’t ready for the jump – but it does give some emphasis to my point above. Now, after a lifetime of Dylan, we appreciate how he has changed his style and approach to songwriting and performance. That was a bit of serendipity.
But when we hear a complete concert not just performed with the same instrumentation (they normally are) but with the same style of performance, that makes it a bit less Bob, somehow. But still these are exquisite performances and arrangements; maybe I’m just demanding too much these ays.
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
If it were just the shouting it would be nothing, but the vocal harmonies, the slight intermissioins and the guitar solo make it.
Of course we all know the lyrics so well, so an instrumental version is welcome – if nothing else but to find out what exists beneath the lyrical lines we already know so well.
There is a note on Vitamin String Quartet’s wiki article which says, “This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject’s impact on popular culture, providing citations to reliable, secondary sources, rather than simply listing appearances. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.”
What utter tripe. Turning anything to do with Vitamin String Quartet into something other than unrelated references to popular culture is to deny what VSQ is about.
The final choice of the day is something that really surprises me. It is one of two Dylan tracks on the album Les Sauterelles which was apparently released within a year of Desolation Row coming out. I am surprised that anyone had the audacity to do this so early on. Hats off to them, in that case, because they must have been one of the influences that said to other artists, really you can try anything you like with Dylan – just to see what happens.
Les Sauterelles played between 1962 and 1971 and then were reformed at the end of the 1980s. Toni Vescoli has been with the band from the start.
But in the end I still feel the essence of the song needs a certain level of simplicity. So I leave you with Songdog. It’s far from perfect in my view, but it takes me back to the original, and then adds a certain something. Of course I know the words by heart, but somehow I find a little more here than I have thought of before.
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
John Milton and John Bunyan be Puritans, and believe faith in God, not good works, is the key to salvation.
In the poetic lyrics below, blindness is a burden that the writer just has to learn to live with:
... Thousands at his bidding speed
And post over land and ocean without rest
They also serve him best who only stand and wait
(John Milton: On His Blindness)
Likewise, so too, in regards to the burden of being locked up:
And stand by him, too, when bound in irons....
(John Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress, chapter VII)
In the song lyrics below, the Puritan creed is questioned; not only that, questioned is the choice left by the Almighty to stand beside Satan instead.
Which side are you on?
Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody
(Bob Dylan: Gotta Serve Somebody)
Expressed rather sarcastically in the song lyrics beneath:
Temptation's not an easy thing, Adam given the devil reign
Because he sinned, I got no choice, it run in my vein
(Bob Dylan: Pressing On)
In the following lines, an experiment is undertaken – men from a number of different religions, including Catholic and Protestant, are locked up together in a cage:
When I came back to note results ….not a specimen left alive. These Reasonable Animals had a disagreement on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court
(Mark Twain: Letters From Earth)
The above satire sourced for the following song lyrics that reference a performer known to have suffered due to the colour of his skin; not merely because of consuming some forbidden food or drink, or wearing certain kinds of makeup, or wearing particular types of clothes:
I live on a street named after a saint
Women in the churches wear powder and paint
Where the Jews and the Catholics, and the Muslims
all come to pray
I can tell a Proddie from a mile away
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Reed indeed
Give me that old-time religion, it's just what I need
(Bob Dylan: Goodbye Jimmy Reed)
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Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
As presented in the Old Testament below, the Hebrews manage to keep hold of their faith in spite of their suffering:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me
Why art thou so far from helping me
And from the words of my roaring?”
(Psalm 22:1)
God warns His creations that He bluffs some of the time, but not all the time.
Jesus, as He hangs dying on the cross, loses faith in a loving Father figure.
An irony not lost on the following song lyrics in which God does come to Ishmael’s rescue at the last second:
Ah, God said, “Kill me a son”
Abe said, “You must be putting me on”
God said “No”; Abe say, “What?”
God say, “You can do what you want, Abe
But the next time you see me coming, you better run”
(Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited)
Nor is their a loving father in the song lyrics quoted beneath:
Moving on through the Dylan songs in alphabetical order I was not especially surprised to find the paucity of covers of Day of the Locusts, which is a very personal song, but I was interested and slightly taken aback by the lack of versions of “Dead Man Dead Man”, which musically I feel has a lot of potential.
However, it’s not for me to tell artists what they ought to be putting out to the great wide public, so on we go and “Dear Landlord” turns up more. Including an offer from Diva de Lai (Dylan at the opera). At first, I thought it might just be an operatic voice with vibrato cashing in on the song, but no it is much more than this. I love the harmonies later and the male chorus which also appears later. Great fun.
I have no idea how long Thea Gilmore and her colleagues actually took to work out the arrangements for the John Wesley Harding album, but the great thing about it is that each arrangement really does start from a different position, each related to the essence of the song. It would have been so easy to take a style (which is after all what Bob did for all the songs apart from the last two extra tracks, seemingly thrown in to make it long enough to be an album), but they resisted. I get the feeling each and every song was considered in depth, the new arrangement always starting from scratch.
Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker in their own versions of the song have given it a regular rock n roll beat and although musically it is possible, I just don’t think it works for the essence of the lyrics. So I move on finally to…
… Joan Baez… I really don’t feel this bouncy rhythm works. Ms Baez is easily adept enough to fit the lyrics and variations of the melody to this, but the rhythm behind her makes no sense in the context of her singing, nor in the context of lyrics. Indeed you can hear the pianist getting rather desperate to fill in his/her part around it all. Artistically it is the equivalent of taking a famous picture and saying “Ok let’s turn it upside and add a load of paint sploshes around the edges; that might work.”
It’s not Ms Baez fault – she’s not the producer, although she might have had the power to say, “let’s not put that one out”. In that context, the picture of her (below) is just about right.
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
Gon’ walk down that dirt road, ’til someone lets me ride
Gon’ walk down that dirt road, ’til someone lets me ride
If I can’t find my baby, I’m gonna run away and hide
They do walkabout, the poor protagonists of Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind. “I’m walking through streets that are dead” is the opening line of the album (“Love Sick”), “Standing In The Doorway”, the song after “Dirt Road Blues” starts with I’m walking through the summer nights, then comes “Million Miles” and “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven”, in which the I-person has to walk through the middle of nowhere, to wade through high muddy water and is just going down the road feeling bad, and like this, it goes on. In “Not Dark Yet” he follows the river, he is twenty miles out of town in Cold Irons Bound, he goes to the end of the earth To Make You Feel My Love and the album’s closing track is a restless wanderer again, with his heart in the Highlands.
Already after one verse “Dirt Road Blues” seems to be a similar lament as the lamentations of the other lamenters on this album; scourged by heartbreak, abandoned by the woman he can’t live without. Not that those first few words are that explicit – but after about seventy years of blues tradition, it’s an educated guess; most of us have been conditioned to the point that walking down the dirt road can only mean: that poor sucker just lost the love of his life. A Pavlovian association that can be traced all the way back to Tommy Johnson, presumably.
“Sing in me, O Muse, and through me tell the story.” The Odyssey quote with which Dylan concludes his Nobel Prize lecture is also the opening of the brilliant 2000 Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou. Dylan publicly expresses his great admiration for the film, which has a lot to do with George Clooney, but even more with the soundtrack. And with the wildly colourful script of course, which playfully, unobtrusively and extremely imaginatively incorporates hints and nods to classic films, Homer, American history and music. Like the role for Tommy Johnson:
HITCHHIKER: Thank you fuh the lif’, suh. M’names Tommy. Tommy Johnson. Delmar is genuinely friendly:
DELMAR: How ya doin’, Tommy. I haven’t seen a house in miles. What’re you doin’ out in the middle of nowhere? Tommy is matter-of-fact:
TOMMY: I had to be at that crossroads las’ midnight to sell mah soul to the devil.
Indeed, of the legendary blues Founding Father the story was spread that he owed his exceptional guitar skills to a deal with the devil on the crossroads, a story that somehow got transferred to Robert Johnson. In the film, the Soggy Bottom Boys take him to the studio, where, with Tommy as guitarist, they record an irresistible version of “Man Of Constant Sorrow”, the song that is also somewhere in Dylan’s personal Top 40.
Dylan got to know Tommy Johnson’s work as early as 1960 in Minnesota, he tells in Chronicles (“where I first heard Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Charlie Patton and Tommy Johnson”), and as a DJ in Theme Time Radio Hour, he dwells on him more extensively:
“Along with Son House and Charley Patton, no one was more important to the development of Delta Blues than Tommy Johnson. And long before the stories about Robert Johnson, selling his soul at the crossroads, those same stories were told about Tommy Johnson. His live performances, where he would play guitar behind his neck, while hollering the blues at full volume, are legendary. Unfortunately, his addiction to alcohol was so pronounced, that he was often seen drinking sterno and even shoe polish, strained through white bread, when whiskey wasn’t available.”
… introducing “Cool Drink Of Water Blues”, episode 23, Water. Dylan recalls the bizarre-appearing fact that Tommy even drank sterno and shoe polish to satisfy his alcohol addiction, but it does seem to be a true story; several sources report this disturbing biographical fact – not least Tommy Johnson himself:
Cryin', canned heat, mama
Sho', Lord, killin' me
Take alcorub to
Take these canned heat blues
… the opening couplet of “Canned Heat Blues” from 1928, in which Tommy complains that rubbing alcohol, the at least as poisonous isopropyl, is supposed to save him from the canned heat blues, from the sickly desire for that thoroughly toxic burning paste Sterno. Repulsive, but who knows – maybe it contributed to the emergence of immortal pillars of the blues, to monuments such as “Big Road Blues” that via Floyd Jones’s “Dark Road” from 1951 eventually evolved into “On The Road Again”.
“On The Road Again” (1968) is one of the biggest hits for the Californian blues rock band Canned Heat, the band that already honours Tommy Johnson in its choice of band name. And with this hit, the band contributes to the continuity of that image, of the image that walking down the road evokes;
Well, I'm so tired of crying
But I'm out on the road again
I'm on the road again
I ain't got no woman
Just to call my special friend
… the image of the pitiful, love sick dupe. The image carved in 1928 by Tommy Johnson’s “Big Road Blues”;
Cryin', ain't goin' down this
Big road by myself
A-don't ya hear me talkin', pretty mama?
Lord, ain't goin' down this
Big road by myself
But from that other monument, the song that DJ Dylan plays in the twenty-first century, “Cool Drink Of Water Blues”, we hear echoes in Dylan’s “Dirt Road Blues” as well; the simple blues lick that carries the song is a sped-up copy of Tommy Johnson’s lick. Another song that reverberates for decades, by the way; Howlin’ Wolf’s 1956 hit “I Asked For Water” is Wolf’s take on the same song.
… which the DJ knew all along, of course:
“Cool Drink Of Water Blues” was amped up in the fifties and became one of the great Chicago blues tracks when it was recorded by one of his biggest admirers, Howlin’ Wolf, under the name “I Asked For Water, She Brought Me Gasoline”
Not an easy-going girl either, that one. “That’s the troublingest woman, that I ever saw,” as Howlin’ Wolf says. Sooner rather than later, that boy shall go down the road too. But: by car, this time.
To be continued. Next up: Dirt Road Blues part 3
Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books, in English, Dutch and German, are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
I have loved Dark Eyes from the first moment I heard it and am always sad about the fact Bob’s hardly ever played it on tour. It is a delicate beautiful song of sadness and world weariness. A work of musical and poetic art.
And yet the first cover I am going to present may well have you switching off within the first minute. But if so skip to around 1 minute 30 seconds, and let it roll. It is Jewels and Binoculars’ instrumental version, and if you like what they do just leave the video running.
If you would like to know more about Jewels and Bioculars there is an interesting review here. But I know this is not everyone’s cup of whatnot, so moving on…
By and large I restrict myself to recordings that are on the internet but I must make an exception of The Proper Way with Carrie Myers, who have produced what is the most disturbing version of this song not only that I have heard, but that I can imagine. You can listen to it on Spotify or Amazon, but perhaps not if you are already feeling down. If it gets too much, do listen just to the last minute. It takes the essence of the song, screws it up and the straightens it out again and totally expresses the whole notion of Dark Eyes in music.
Back on the internet Nathan Salsburg and Joan Shelley do it straight but with their own instrumentation experimentations.
But if a gentle harmonic expression which recognises the sadness but doesn’t take it inside you, leaving you free just to consider it from afar, then Dawn Landes and Bonny Prince Billy offered that. It’s beautiful, and I need this to recover from listening to the earlier ventures. The harmonies are quite different, and to be cherished.
And of course I am going to finish with Judy Collins, simply because she knows how to do it so perfectly. And sometimes I don’t want to be challenged in my simple existence sitting here looking at my garden with the bare trees of winter and my windmill, still today as there is no wind. This is where I sit every day and turn out my thoughts on the computer. Today, because we are in the week approaching Christmas, no one phones and demands writing to be completed. At such time Judy does me just fine.
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
Playing For Change is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. Its primary focus is to record and film musicians performing in their natural environments and combine their talents and cultural power in innovative videos we call Songs Around The World.
Several big names have been involved over the years (Robbie & Ringo, Keith Richards, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Peter Gabriel etc) and as you can imagine Dylan covers pop up regularly. Here are some I’ve come across for your listening pleasure, let’s see what Tony thinks of these! I’ll put these in order of my favorites – leaving the best to last (in my opinion!)
If the videos don’t work in your country you can listen/watch them all on their website above.
Times They Are A-Changin’
Tony: You’ve probably had enough of me saying that the song is not a call to arms, not a statement saying, “rise up and change the world” but rather that times change – that is what happens. But that fact still seems to be ignored, and the song is presented as a call to arms.
I find the pauses before certain words a bit artificial – we all know the lyrics so I’m not sure of the musical validity. But the instrumental verse really is fun with its delayed echo, and after that yes, it’s quite moving. However, the central point of this song now is that we have heard it over and over and we know that yes times they changed, and we got Trump and the Taliban and global warming. That rather spoils the message for me.
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Tony: Now this is more up my street, simply because the arrangement allows the musicians to say something new through the song. It’s a beautiful presentation because it is totally natural and unforced and there is that extra lilt to the rhythm via the unseen percussionist. In fact I wonder, did they add the drums after the recording to give it more of that lilt? Or was there nowhere on the set for the percussionist to sit? And did the producer of the video think we wouldn’t notice?
But I’m glad she or he is there, because that is what really makes this bounce along – they are all such superb musicians it gives that little bit of pulse behind their elegant harmonies.
Jokerman
Tony: We’ve looked at some of these before, and I’ve not cheated by going back to see what I said last time around. But whatever I said before, I utterly love this. The presentation of the video is sublime, and so is the music. Perhaps this is my favourite “Jokerman” of all time – every word needs to be heard and appreciated, while the guitar playing is so understated but utterly right throughout, even as it builds in the latter part of the performance.
Additionally, it really makes sense of the “wo-oh-oh” line. Oh this is gorgeous.
All Along The Watchtower
Tony: The settings they have arranged are extraordinary, and in this song more than any of the other recordings. What I think one needs to do is to listen to this twice – once just hearing the performance without looking at the video.
“Watchtower” has been performed by so many people that it is very hard to think of what to do with the song – after all there is only one musical line repeated over and over. And yet it still holds our attention.
The one thing I’ve found with friends I’ve debated this song with is that we have to work to remind ourselves of the magic of those vocal lines. To remind us that this is a song that ends
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl
That is part of the magic – we are left not with a resolution but a feeling that this is just the start… indeed I am rather surprised no one (that I know about) has written the song of what happens next. I think one could almost make a novel out of it.
Not a Dylan song I particularly care about, and when this ramble through Dylan songs (which rather obviously is being undertaken in alphabetical order) got to Country Pie I suspected this was going to be another song I’d miss out on.
But as ever I didn’t simply trust to my rapidly declining powers of memory, and so went a-looking, and to my surprise found a couple of covers that are quite jolly and fun and add something to the original – in my view.
Charlie Daniels from 2014 gives it that bit of fun and nonsense that the song seems to need. Charlie passed away just over a year ago at the ripe age (for a musician with multiple hits) of 83. Incidentally, he co-wrote “It Hurts Me” for Elvis Presley. Now there’s a thing.
The other is a singularly chaotic Fairport Convention version…
I knew a few members of the band in the very early days – they of course won’t remember me, but it means I always have a soft spot for them.
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
Said by some art historians that Leonardo da Vinci replaces the bad-boy Apostle John with Mary Magdalene in the painting “The Last Supper”.
Christ’s bond with her is much stronger than the relationships He has with His male companions.
Close examination of the Dylavinci Code demonstrates that indeed Christ has a long-term relationship with Mary, but, hold on to your seatbelts, it’s a bumpy ride.
Turns out Maggie has multiple personalities, and Jesus manages to kick out only seven of them.
For example, she easily changes from ‘Spanish Mary” to “French Marie”, and then back again.
As the song lyrics beneath reveal, Jesus is in France to meet up with pregnant Mary; He runs into a bit of trouble, and, lo and behold, something strange happens:
They threw me in the alley
When up comes this girl from France
Who invited me to her house
I went, but she had a friend
Who knocked me out
And robbed my boots
And I was on the street again
(Bob Dylan: 115th Dream)
Mary’s ‘half-siblings’ Martha and Lazarus are living with her in France, and are a bit surprised that Jesus is caught off guard because of a similar incident that happened in America.
Indicated in the following song lyrics:
Shakespeare's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking to some French girl
Who says she knows me well
(Bob Dylan: Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again)
Magdalene’s schizophrenia explains in part why Jesus bounds her up “undead” in the Sphinx – to protect their child, and to save Himself from any of her unsavory personalities.
Vivien, first wife of TS Eliot, suffers a similar fate, dies in a mental hospital.
The singer/songwriter as “Jesus, the Thief” could be playing that role again, cohabiting with his grown-up daughter for a time in some Gothic Usher Castle in order to strengthen the right of family members to the hold the keys to the pearly gates through their blood line.
Or Dylan as “Jesus, the Joker”, could just be pulling a fast one on everybody.
In the verse beneath, Jesus and Mary gaily ride up to the Magdala Castle on the Sea of Galilee while the wind laughs it’s clouds off:
Outside in the distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
The wind began to howl
(Bob Dylan: All Along The Watchtower)
As Jesus is always telling Mary, “He who laughs last, laughs loudest”.
The trouble with this song is that although it isn’t a 12 bar blues it feels as if it ought to be created as one, and that thought has obviously sunk into the minds of many of the artists covering the song. As a result, a lot of the covers sound pretty much the same.
But although The Derek Trucks Band don’t turn it into a ballad they do keep a lot of the obvious feel of the piece, while at the same time do that magical thing of taking us somewhere else.
And then rather unexpectedly at around 3 minutes 30 seconds they create a coda which feels absolutely part of the song, and yet at the same time gives us new insights, new feelings, new emotions, and above all a new sense of catastrophe, which contrasts with many other recording in which the only catastrophe is that the cover version was made at all.
But of course, really this is a blues song, and Jimmy LaFave (pictured at the top of this article) gave us a fair old working through of the song in this style tinged with some solid rock and roll. He really was a sublime performer who incidentally championed the work of Woodie Guthrie. Jimmy died tragically of cancer in his early 60s, never missing a gig.
I can think of no talent more deserving than a place among this daily look at Dylan covers. Utterly stunning.
