• To Be Alone With You (1969) part 1: The country music station plays soft
• To Be Alone With You (1969) part 2: That boy’s good
• To Be Alone With You (1969): III  Shadow Kingdom

by Jochen Markhorst

IV         Beware of his promise

Frankie Valli likes to act and does it quite well. Mostly mafioso types (Miami Vice, Witness To The Mob, The Sopranos), but his music career always comes first. “They made all the changes for me and rescheduled shooting because they knew I was on tour a lot,” he says in the interview with SongFacts (July 2014), “… and I knew I had to be killed off. Either that or I’d have to quit my touring business.” That role in The Sopranos (as Rusty Millio, “The Mayor of Munchkinville”) is memorable and provides yet another boost to Valli’s already impressive, nearly sixty-year career.

When the interviewer asks him about the secret behind the success of that endless string of hits (Valli has scored 39 Billboard Top 40 hits with and without the Four Seasons, seven of them No. 1 and eleven Top 10 hits), Valli has a simple and rather Dylanesque explanation: you got to change, you got to go to new places. And great songs. “You need to have great songs. It always boils down to the same thing.”

That is indeed a special talent of Valli and his comrades: recognising a great song. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”, “December, 1963”, “Beggin'”, “Working My Way Back To You”… great songs, evergreens by now, whose potential was first recognised by The Four Seasons. It doesn’t always work out, Valli tells us. Their recording of Boz Scaggs’ “We’re All Alone”, for example, was rejected by the record company and six months later Rita Coolidge scored her worldwide hit with it. And Valli himself was very fond of “The Night”, which was not promoted, did not become a hit, but – through mysterious ways – somehow reached the Top 10 in the UK three years later.

Part of the song’s success is undoubtedly due to its northern soul vibe, and to the trend of English DJs seeking to popularise forgotten and overlooked records. Sometimes with overwhelming success; “Tainted Love” is an obscure B-side to a totally flopped single from 1965 (“My Bad Boy’s Comin’ Home”, by Gloria Jones), and is after its success in the English clubs in ’76 recorded again by the enchanting Gloria (produced by her life partner Marc Bolan, by the way). Again fails to chart, but is noticed by the wardrobe boy, Marc Almond, the colourful bird of paradise who elevates the song to a world hit in 1981 with his Soft Cell. Almond too, at least twice, has that enviable talent for unleashing hidden hit potential. In Soft Cell’s repertoire, “Tainted Love” replaces Almond’s initial first choice, “The Night” (which Soft Cell still will record in 2003) – which, incidentally, would probably have been a hit as well, if it hadn’t been for “Tainted Love”.

https://youtu.be/OJKe2j9Wjh4

The appeal of both “Tainted Love” and “The Night” to Almond can be felt. It is the same appeal that Dylan feels and, especially in the twenty-first century, displays in songs like “Scarlet Town”, “Make You Feel My Love” and “Soon After Midnight”: songs that only reveal a sinister, dark undercurrent on second listen. Which sometimes remains entirely under the surface, even. “Make You Feel My Love”, in particular, is generally understood to be a tender declaration of love, but on second listen really does seem more like a threatening letter from a persistent stalker. “The Night” is even more oppressive;

Beware of his promise
Believe what I say
Before the night is ending 
Be sure of what you're saying

… words of a seemingly benevolent comrade, who warns a naïve lass about the imposter who has taken her in. Strangely enough, however, the first person narrator then lists a whole series of actions that are actually only sweet and nice;

Cause he paints a pretty picture 
And he tells you that he needs you 
And he covers you with roses 
And he always keeps you dreaming

… and it goes on like this. Actions of an infatuated, well-meaning lover, in any case. What the lady should be wary of is completely unclear. Even more eyebrow-raising is the “warning” four lines later:

If he always keeps you dreaming 
You won't have a lonely hour 
If the day could last forever 
You might like your ivory tower

“You might like your ivory tower”? That is the same, anomalous use of the term “ivory tower” as in Dylan’s revised “To Be Alone With You” from 2021:

To be alone with you, even for just an hour
In a castle high, in an ivory tower
Some people don’t get it, they just don’t have a clue
They wouldn’t know what it’s like to be alone with you

… an ivory tower as an image of an idyllic, romantic love nest. Without the usual negative connotations of “lack of concern”, “unaware of wordly affairs”, “isolated”. The connotations, in any case, as we know them from dozens of songs. From Porter Wagoner’s “Ivory Tower”, for instance (Don’t lock yourself in your ivory tower don’t keep our souls far apart), from Wanda Jackson’s “Fallin'” (I thought that love could never touch me / And then my ivory tower toppled) and from the most beautiful of all, Van Morrison’s “Ivory Tower” from 1986:

When you come down from your Ivory Tower
You will see how it really must be
When you come down from your Ivory Tower
You will see how it really must be
To be like me, to see like me
To feel like me

… a lyric with a strong “Positively 4th Street” vibe, as it were. But then again: Dylan rewrites his “To Be Alone With You” into a brooding, murderous thriller – a sinister protagonist who wants to lure his victim to a castle high with an ivory tower does contribute to the gothic, nineteenth-century shadowy kingdom-setting that Dylan is so fond of, in his late work.

To be continued. Next up: To Be Alone With You part 5

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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:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967
• Mississippi: Bob Dylan’s midlife masterpiece
• Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
• John Wesley Harding: Bob Dylan meets Kafka in Nashville
• Tombstone Blues b/w Jet Pilot: Dylan’s lookin’ for the fuse
• Street-Legal: Bob Dylan’s unpolished gem from 1978

——————-

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.

by Tony Attwood

A list of the past articles in this series is published at the end of the article.

This is a very odd situation and I hadn’t appreciated this until now – there was seemingly a cover version of the song before Dylan released his single.  This seemingly came out in October 1965, two months before Dylan’s version was released.

And of course I have to include the Hendrix version, which sounds of course like no one else.  But really doesn’t make any extra sense of what we have here in terms of the lyrics, or the extraordinarily odd chord sequence.  I had hoped Hendrix could have made more of that because even now, all these decades later, it just sounds… odd.

Wilko Johnson (of Dr Feelgood) and Roger Daltry had a decent bash which I much prefer to Hendrix – and I think they make much more sense of the music than Dylan ever did.

That extra musical twist at the end and start of each verse really helps.  So does the brass – if it is brass, and not an organ playing with a mouthorgan.  Oh dear my ears are getting too old.

Les Frandkin’s version makes minimal changes but he really does get a different feel out of the music – which really is an art in itself.  Who else would have thought of singing this singing this song in harmonies on every other line.  That is a really clever idea, and unlike most clever ideas it really works.  I just wish they had thought of an alternative to the cymbal hit between each verse.

In fact I haven’t really wanted to listen to this song in years, but this version changes my mind.  It just shows what can be done with good musicians and a lot of imagination – I do hope you play that record to the end.

Just one more

I had hopes for this recording at the start but really it didn’t get developed, and became more akin to the original as it progressed.   But the vocalist does a good job reinterpreting the lyrics.

So I didn’t find anyone taking the song somewhere completely different.  But a nice little diversion from the tedious of reality.  Although perhaps not as good as going for a six mile walk across some rather exciting countryside with a good friend.

But still, can’t win them all.

The series so far…

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell
• Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
• Dylan Cover of the Day 15: An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
• Dylan Cover of the Day 16: Blowin in the wind as never before
• Dylan Cover of the Day 17: Bob Dylan’s Dream
• Dylan Cover of the Day 18: You will not believe this… 115th Dream revisited
• Dylan cover of the day 19: Boots of Spanish leather
• Dylan cover of the day 20: Born in Time
• Dylan cover of the day 21: Buckets of Rain

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.

• Part 1: Dylan Released and Unreleased
• Dylan Released and Unreleased: 2 – The usual, Pretty Boy, People get ready.
• Dylan Released and Unreleased: 3 – Hard to Handle the full one hour video
• Dylan Released and Unreleased 4: from the nursery to looking back

This series involves Aaron looking back to recordings of Dylan songs from unusual formats or situations, and then, having dug them out, handing over to Tony to write a commentary.  Tony has no say in what is chosen, Aaron has no say in what Tony writers.

This time it is the musical, “Girl From the North Country.”

Aaron: Did you ever get a chance to hear any of the cast recordings from the play? I thought these would be right up your street! I got goose bumps listening to some of these…I hope the links work for you! Here’s just some of the performances. I think I need to pick up the cast album. I think you might get a kick out of these.

Tony: A spot of introduction, just in case anyone missed it all.  The advertisements proclaim it as “THE DOUBLE OLIVIER AWARD-WINNING WEST END AND BROADWAY SMASH-HIT RETURNS TO THE UK AS PART OF A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL TOUR.”   (Theatre people like to write in capitals.  I keep telling them it is not an effective way of grabbing attention, but they just won’t listen!)

“Celebrated playwright Conor McPherson (The Weir, The Seafarer) boldly reimagines the legendary songs of Bob Dylan, like you’ve never heard them before, in GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY. A heart-breaking and universal story about family and love, hailed by the Observer as the ‘NO.1 THEATRE SHOW OF THE YEAR’.”

It is interesting that I come to listening to these while I am also running the daily “Dylan Cover of the Day” series, which takes in not just full bloodied studio recordings but also lesser known bands.  What we have here are top rated classical musicians and musical performers working on arrangements of Dylan.

So of course what we also have is emotionally gripping, perfectly realised virtuoso performances and singing of the very highest order.   And indeed listening to this reminds of us just how much one can do with a song of the highest quality.  Nothing sounds overplayed, no matter how many flourishes the vocalist inserts.  Also the simplest of arrangements for the orchestra can still have an utterly overwhelming effect.

Indeed listening to the work of the greatest arrangers is a perfect reminder of just what is possible – with every single detail of the overall sound considered, worked, rehearsed, reworked… What is so interesting here is the simplicity of the piano accompaniment – all the fascinating musical twists come from the vocalists and a tiny amount of percussion.

This is what you get from years and years and years of training and rehearsing, no moving on because it doesn’t work, no “it will all right on the night”, but a ceaseless drive for perfection.

With each performance I fear I am going to repeat myself in terms of just what you can get with the greatest musicians and director, and time to rehearse.  Whoever, before hearing this version of Duquesne Whistle, could have imagined it could sound like this, and take on this new set of meanings?

Well, obviously some people could, but certainly not me, and not in a million years.  And I do like the theatrical arrangements enormously.

I’m in serious danger of just repeating myself – I’m used to listening to so many covers, not just through “Cover of the Day” but also selecting the covers for the Dylanvinci code series, but really, thoroughly enjoyable as those recordings are, they are nowhere near the musical standard or standard of innovation of what we have here.

I was also wondering – if I had never heard “I want you” and then heard this performance in isolation would I have thought, “that must have been written by Dylan”.   I think not.   Maybe there is something in the lyrics and the music that is essentially Dylan, but no, I really don’t think I would have guessed.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2bDdOoTOiMA

All I could try and say I suppose is that I am still, even at my advanced age, a better dancer than they are in the video above… but of course these professionals are actually sublime dancers, putting on a style of dancing to make themselves look like regular folk on a night out, just for the performance.  That’s why I only lasted four years in the London theatre – I really wasn’t up to it.  Although my dancing was ok.

Which is probably why I am in such awe of not just these actors, but also of the arrangers, director, and producer.  I know how far below their standards I was – and I thought myself pretty good at the time.

These arrangements and performances are brilliant.  How could anyone improve on this (although I know someone will).

——————-

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.

There’s a list of the covers so far dealt with in the series, at the end of this article.

The next song that turned up a cover in my alphabetical search is “Brownsville Girl” but I only know of one cover and I really don’t care for it, so I’m missing that out (you can of course go for a search yourself if you’ve nothing else to do) and instead next is “Buckets of Rain” of which there are multiple covers.

I’ve written before about the need to find something new to say in relation to the song, while keeping some sort of reference to the original.  Sometimes the newness dominates sometimes the reference to the original is there with just a touch of variance.  Like meeting an old friend who has a new haircut, but of course still the same friend beneath.

That’s what I find with Francesco Garolfi of whom I know nothing, except I do know enough art to know he’s not Francesco Gandolfi.  If you know something of the artist who made this delightful recording, do write in.  [Additional note added later: in fact Francesco Garolfi saw the piece and has subsequently dropped me a line personally.  I am utterly knocked out by that.]

Large numbers of musicians – all far more accomplished than I – have had a go with this song, but it seems to be incredibly difficult to retain the essence of the song and yet add meaningful and successful variations.

The Orton and Ward recording shows an utterly sublime understanding of the song by the two vocalists but the balance of the recording of the guitar damages the result.  But just to hear what can be done with the song by two singers who understand what it is about, it is worth hearing.

And curiously it is another live recording that I found approached some sort of understanding of what the song is all about.

How strange – how can something so difficult be so hard to take to perfection.  I suppose the issue is, do you feel this as a jolly little piece or something far deeper.  In many of the recordings that I have heard it seems as if the musicians haven’t actually read the lyrics

Buckets of rain
Buckets of tears...

I've seen pretty people disappear like smoke

I am not too sure about how the lyrics work in the Jimmy LaFave version, but at least I get the feeling that he has read the lyrics, and thought about them.

But Karen Almquist seems to understand, and has the talent to put that idea across.  It seems a good place to stop – when I listen to this I believe her, I feel like she has been there and knows what it means to be in love and know the pain when that love is not requited.

Life is sad
Life is a bust
All ya can do is do what you must
You do what you must do and ya do it well
I'll do it for you
Honey baby, can't you tell?

It took me a while, but I knew someone had to get it right, and finally, I got there. 

If you are particularly interested in covers, you’ll find an index of the covers used in the Dylavinci Code series thus far at the end of the latest article in that series.   And again at the end of the last edition of the Beautiful Obscurity series.  Not to mention 220 selected covers (gathered from suggestions from Untold Dylan readers).  With that lot, and the selection below, you’ll be here all night.  And tomorrow.

The series so far…

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell
• Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
• Dylan Cover of the Day 15: An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
• Dylan Cover of the Day 16: Blowin in the wind as never before
• Dylan Cover of the Day 17: Bob Dylan’s Dream
• Dylan Cover of the Day 18: You will not believe this… 115th Dream revisited
• Dylan cover of the day 19: Boots of Spanish leather
• Dylan cover of the day 20: Born in Time

——————-

Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day, sometimes more, sometimes less.  It contains over 2500 articles and over 10,000 comments from readers.  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.

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members which you might find quite jolly.

Links to past episodes and to all the cover versions used within this series are both given at the end of the article.

by Larry Fyffe

Clear as a bell, the breaking of the Dylavinci Code reveals that Christ, while brushing the dusty ashes off His nose, is not at all fond of Maggie Magdalene’s father who’s had an affair with Mother Mary.

Cyrus Magdala puts his cigar out in the face of his “stepson” just for kicks.

In the song lyrics below, Bob Dylan, transfigured as Jesus, let’s it be known that He does not like His daddy-o “stepfather” very much.

Pieced together from fragments in the Holy Grail, the authentic goblet stored in the Untold Archives Department:

You mistreat me, baby
I can't see no reason why
You know that I'd kill for you
And that I'm not afraid to die
But you treat me like a stepchild
Oh no, am I your stepchild
(Bob Dylan: Stepchild)

Jesus gets His own back by running off with His “half-sister” Maggie Magdalene.

Note that Jesus says He’s “not afraid to die”, suggesting either that He can’t be killed or that He’s an escape artist.

Ominous sounding is the rather ambiguous, perhaps hyperbolic, line “You know I’d kill for you”.

More to the point, an elongated ‘murder ballad” may be blowing in the wind.  Could be that Christ’s already had a Libyan die on the cross in His place.

The only thing we know sure about the narrator is that his name’s not Bob Dylan, and he’s now protecting his child, given birth to by Magdalene.

Jesus could even be the Devil, a man who says He comes in peace while wearing a long, but oddly colourful black coat, the dark angel responsible for humankind becoming mortal:

He looked into her eyes when she stopped him to ask
If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask
Somebody said from the Bible he'd quote
There was dust on the man in the long black coat
(Bob Dylan: Man In The Long Black Coat)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Utah, daughter Sophia Sarah tells her daddy that God is not a unit composed of three parts, but there exists three separate Gods – besides Jesus Christ, there’s the Hobogod, and she’s the Holy Ghost.

No wonder Dylan as Jesus gets a headache:

Well,  early in the morning
To late at night
I got a poison headache
But I feel alright
I'm pledging my time to you
Hoping you'll come through too
(Bob Dylan: Pledging My Time)

The story goes on and on, round and round in circles – just like the mysterious-travelling Hobogod.

Fragments pasted back together tell us that  originally the song  quoted below is entitled “Stuck Inside Of Utah With The Memphis Egyptian Blues Again”:

And the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block
I'd ask him what the matter is
But I know he don't talk
(Bob Dylan: Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again)

Cover versions in this series

• Abandoned Love – Sean Keane
• Ahab The Arab -Ray Stevens
• Angelina -Bob Dylan
• Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream -John Bull And The Bandits
• Changing Of The Guards -Whitley & Lang
• Changing Of The Guards -Gaslight Anthem
• Crossing The Rubicon -Bob Dylan
• Drifter’s Escape -George Thorogood/Destroyers
• Duquesne Whistle -Benmont Tench
• False Prophet -Bob Dylan
• Going to Acapulco – Calexico
• Goodbye Jimmy Reed -Bob Dylan
• Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar -Elkie Brooks 
• Handy Dandy -Bob Dylan
• High Water – Joan Osborne
• Highway 61 Revisited -Ross Scrivener
• Highway 61 Revisited – Ben Sidran
• I Contain Multitudes -Emma Swift
• I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine – John Doe
• Idiot Wind -Gerard Quintana
• Idiot Wind -The Coal Porters
• I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight -Robert Palmer
• Isis – Julie Corbalis
• Isis -White Stripes
• Just Like A Woman -Old Crow Medicine Show
• Little Maggie – Bob Dylan
• Lord Protect My Child -Susan Tedeshi
• Maggie’s Farm -Chicken Diamond
• Maggie’s Farm -The Specials
• Maggie’s Farm – Zero Prophet
• Maggie’s Farm – Jimmy Vivino And The Black Italians
• Mary And The Soldier – Bob Dylan
• Memphis Blues – HC Handy
• My Own Version Of You -Bob Dylan
• Not Dark Yet: Lucinda Williams
• Oh Sister – Stanilsaw Sojka
• Precious Angel – The Weather Station
• Pretty Mary -Bob Dylan/Band
• Ring Them Bells -Muscle And Bone
• Ring Them Bells – McCrary Sisters
• Rocky Racoon -Charlie Parr
• Romance In Durango – Julie Felix
• Romance In Durango -Gerard Quintana
• Romance In Durango – Starry Eyed and Laughing
• Scarlet Town -Bob Dylan
• Seeing The Real You At Last -Bettye Lavette
• Simple Twist of Fate – Emma Swift
• Sign On The Window -Al Turk
• Sign On the Window – Sarah Jarosz
• Slow Train – Clas Yngstrom
• Stuck inside Of Mobile – North Mississippi Alstars
• Summer Days -Brothers Lazaroff
• Talking World War III Blues -Toni Vescoli
• Tears of Rage – Odissed
• Things have changed – String Swing
• Time Passes Slowly: Judy Collins
• Times they are a changing – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• Tin Angel – Bob Dylan
• Visions Of Johanna – Stephen Inglis
• Wedding Song – Maria Muldaur

——————-

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.

A list of the previous articles in this series is given below.

By Tony Attwood

The most famous cover of “Born in Time” is Eric Clapton’s, and for me the quality of that recording is overshadowed by what I, in my normal pompous manner, consider to be the ludicrous commentary on Wikipedia about this song.  I’ve just checked and it is still there.

I remember on reading it some time back that it seems to miss the entire essence of the song, and instead reduces it to points of detail about who did what.  But then maybe Wiki would argue that facts are what they are about, not musical appreciation.

Now I’m sure many people, who by chance have stumbled on my ramblings, will consider that I do much the same, although at the moment I am immune to their comments being buoyed up by a comment from Michael Lowe who (having discovered a piece of mine from around nine years ago) simply wrote “What a brilliant review”.  Nothing else, just that. That’s enough to keep me running the site for another six months at least.

Bob Dylan generally doesn’t seem at all troubled by criticism, no matter how ill-informed, and no matter how lacking in musical knowledge the critic is.  Indeed the essence of my criticisms of Heylin in my reviews of Dylan’s songs is that he doesn’t seem to have a clue about the music, and yet sets himself up as the great analyst and reviewer.

Anyway such are my thoughts for the day as I plod my merry way through the cover versions of Dylan, in alphabetical order (excluding of course those for which there are no covers which are available on the internet.  I could have put up blank pages for those, but that seemed a little too arty for this site).

And I guess I’d better start with Mr Clapton…

It is, I think, the use of the snare drum throughout that gives this version its unique feel, although the way Clapton handles the second section (“Just when I thought…”) as a set of short phrases with a chorus added, that again singles out this version.   Personally, I find the percussion gets a little waring, and that is always the problem with a song where an idea is set up at the start and the producer says, “hey that sounds good” so it is left there, no matter what.  But maybe it is just me, and no one else really minds.

“Too gooey” I think more or less sums it up for me, but I know billions of people (or at least a few who I know) rave over it.

It is interesting (for me if no one else) that when one artist has covered a song and inserted an element in the instrumentation, and which is continued all the way through, other cover artists feel the need to do the same. Not with the same idea, but with something that runs all the way through.   Indigenous does it with reverb – do it once, do it again, do it again, and, well, you get the idea.

In fact it seems to me that everyone feels the need to over-orchestrate this song, and yet it is so beautiful and delicate in reality this is the last thing it needs, for it already has everything you could ever need.  Whoever might have thought (in the version below) that suddenly we needed an accordion and a moment from a backing chorus?  Oh dear, I have become a grumpy old man.  Beware dear reader, that is what happens…  (And as for that backing chorus repeating three words every now and then…. argh!!!!)

So thank goodness for Meg Hutchinson – and indeed I’ve featured this recording before in an article.  This is how it should sound – utter elegant simplicity.  And it needs that because that is what the lyrics are all about.  OK the producer loses her/his nerve halfway through with some twiddly bits of backing which are both meaningless musically, and utterly unnecessary, but at least toward the end, we return to something closer to the opening which is so utterly gorgeous – until those horrible twiddles come in after the singing has stopped.

What makes it so difficult to let an artist with a voice as beautiful and commanding as Meg Hutchinson just deliver a song which is also beautiful and commanding?  Not being a record producer I don’t know.  So if anyone is in touch with Ms Hutchinson, drop her a note asking for a release of this song minus twiddly bits.  I’d buy it, even if no one else would.

The series so far…

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell
• Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
• Dylan Cover of the Day 15: An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
• Dylan Cover of the Day 16: Blowin in the wind as never before
• Dylan Cover of the Day 17: Bob Dylan’s Dream
• Dylan Cover of the Day 18: You will not believe this… 115th Dream revisited
• Dylan cover of the day 19: Boots of Spanish leather

• To Be Alone With You (1969) part 1: The country music station plays soft
• To Be Alone With You (1969) part 2: That boy’s good

by Jochen Markhorst

III         Shadow Kingdom

“His playing would rip your head off,” says John Fogerty in his autobiography, very Dylanesque, about bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs. Fogerty, like Dylan in Chronicles, has in his own memoir Fortunate Son (2015) a sympathetic tendency to swoon in often poetic, though sometimes alienating superlatives over musicians he admires. With great overlap, by the way. Hank Williams (“Your Cheatin’ Heart just slayed me”), Link Wray, Charley Patton, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard… well, Fogerty, of course, has also exhaustively demonstrated his deep-rooted love of country and bluegrass (most notably on his solo debut, the 1973 country tribute record The Blue Ridge Rangers).

Anyway, Earl Scruggs. Dylan’s awe is visible, in the documentary shot in 1970, Earl Scruggs – His Family and Friends. The soundtrack of the same name (released 2005) features five Dylan songs. Three that Earl performs with Joan Baez (“Love Is Just A Four Letter Word”, “It Ain’t Me, Babe” with Baez’s witty Dylan imitation, and “I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine”), one with The Byrds (“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”, of course) and one with Dylan himself: “Nashville Skyline Rag”. In the documentary, we see another song played by the two legends together (the age-old classic “East Virginia Blues”), but not the two songs played by Scruggs, his sons Randy and Gary, and Dylan: “Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance” and… “To Be Alone With You”. The mono recordings of these are finally heard on disc 3 of The Bootleg Series 15 – Travelin’ Thru, 1967-1969 (2019).

https://youtu.be/crG4ZDRLVYE

The session takes place on 17 May 1970, half a year after the Rolling Stone interview in which Dylan dreams about Jerry Lee Lewis adding the song to his repertoire. Apparently, Dylan has given up hope, and now suspects that he can do Earl Scruggs a favour with it. But he is not an inspired salesman. We hear Dylan’s hesitant beginning, he seems to be looking for the melody, then he starts in the middle of the song, on the second line of the second verse (“At the close of day”), sings that second verse twice, and the rest of the song is not very steady either – he changes lines, forgets words and makes up other, hardly impressive words on the spot. It is, all in all, justifiable that documentary maker David Hoffman left this fragment on the cutting floor.

For the time being, it is the last time Dylan will concern himself with “To Be Alone With You”. The song disappears into a drawer and is only retrieved twenty years later: its live debut is 15 October 1989 in Pennsylvania. As an opener even. Dylan seems to be in a conservative country mood these days. “Man In The Long Black Coat” is also performed for the first time this week, the setlist includes songs like the Civil War ballad “Two Soldiers”, “Precious Memories”, “Lakes Of Pontchartrain” and “Barbara Allen”… but “To Be Alone With You” has become a solid, energetic Jerry Lee Lewis-like rocker. And he seems pleased with it. The song remains on the set list, always as the opener, and is also taken to Europe the following year; Dylan opens his concerts in Paris and London with “To Be Alone With You” as well. The song becomes a mainstay of the Never Ending Tour; apart from 1997 it is on the setlist every year, and, until its temporary retirement in 2005, is eventually performed 123 times.

This time the song seems to have been discarded for good. In the fourteen years from 2006 until the covid emergency stop in 2019, Dylan performs more than 1200 times, and “To Be Alone With You” remains in the drawer. But then it’s 2021, Dylan rejoices fans with the online “concert” Shadow Kingdom and surprises them with wonderful interpretations, beautiful performances and, above all, the resurrection of a fully restored “To Be Alone With You”.

https://youtu.be/9XG9bRMb0x8

To Be Alone With You (Shadow Kingdom): https://youtu.be/9XG9bRMb0x8

The rock ‘n’ roll is gone. Actually, so is the country. The accordion gives the song a Tex-Mex flavour, Dylan’s recitation tends towards vaudeville, the band towards pop, but above all: almost every line of the lyrics has been changed.

Text changes in themselves are not too remarkable with Dylan, but such a radical and complete text revision is – we only know it from a handful of songs from the bard’s immense oeuvre. “Down Along The Cove”, “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking”, a few songs of which he later (largely) returns to the original lyrics (“Tangled Up In Blue”, “Simple Twist Of Fate”)… there are not many more.

Dylan is a few times asked about these frequent and sometimes radical changes of lyrics. In the fascinating interview for SongTalk (with Paul Zollo, April ’91) he kind of shrugs his shoulders:

“They’re songs. They’re not written in stone. They’re on plastic. Somebody told me that Tennyson often wanted to rewrite his poems once he saw them in print.”

… and similar vagueness (“The original lyrics weren’t fair to me because they just didn’t feel right at the time,” regarding “Tangled Up In Blue”). Fascinating it is nevertheless – if only because it offers a glimpse into the creative mind of a Nobel Prize-winning poet.

The original first verse, like the rest of the lyrics, is not too titanic – written on plastic, indeed:

To be alone with you
Just you and me
Now won’t you tell me true
Ain’t that the way it oughta be?
To hold each other tight
The whole night through
Ev’rything is always right
When I’m alone with you

Okay, the rhyme scheme (abab-caca) is quite unusual, but the content is a saltless accumulation of clichés. Maybe that’s what triggers Dylan to change it fifty years later to:

To be alone with you, just you and I
Under the moon, ’neath the star-spangled sky
I know you’re alive, and I am too
My one desire is to be alone with you

Which is a bit puzzling. At first glance, the changes are hardly spectacular. In Lyrics and other official publications, the stanzas are indeed formatted as eight-line stanzas, but during the rewriting session Dylan apparently structured it the way he sings it: four lines, quatrains, and the simplest rhyme scheme (aabb). Perhaps the poet has indeed searched for a Verlaine-like mosaic of rhyme and assonance; you in line 1 assonant with moon in line 2; sky in line 2 with I in line 3; alive in line 3 with desire in line 4… too consistent to be coincidental, in any case. However, this melodious artifice is abandoned right from verse two – the poet has either already grown tired of it, or this steady pattern of assonances indeed was accidental.

In terms of content, again at first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much going on either; at most, one wonders why Dylan took the trouble to replace one cliché with another. Under the moon, my one desire, the star spangled sky… all as clichéd as the whole night through and hold each other tight. But then there is that one line, that one splinter that makes the listener look up: “I know you’re alive, and I am too”. A line that would rip your head off.

To be continued. Next up: To Be Alone With You part 4: Beware of his promise

——————

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:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967
• Mississippi: Bob Dylan’s midlife masterpiece
• Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
• John Wesley Harding: Bob Dylan meets Kafka in Nashville
• Tombstone Blues b/w Jet Pilot: Dylan’s lookin’ for the fuse
• Street-Legal: Bob Dylan’s unpolished gem from 1978

——————-

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.

By Tony Attwood

I am, rather obviously, working through Dylan songs in alphabetical order, looking for unusual and intriguing cover versions which give me enjoyment in themselves and/or insight into the original.  And, rather than this being a presentation of cover versions that I already know and like, I am also trying to find something new – or at least something new for me.  Occasionally an old favourite slips in, but not too often.

The first reworking I came across was completely unexpected.   Spanish boots of Spanish leather begins at 4’20” in the recording below, and if you by chance or decision play this video from the start, and then think “absolutely not for me” I would still urge you to jump to 4’20” – I’ve just played it four times, and really love it.  Utterly haunting.

Speaking of foreign tongues, (which we weren’t) we have considered Dylan in Frisian before – De kweade boadskipper (The wicked messenger), and one that at the time wasn’t freely available but is now – The  Drifters Escape.  You might care to venture therein.

Anyway, back to Spanish Leather.  Or rather Learen Spaanske skuon by Reina Rodina

The point is of course that since we all know the lyrics by heart, it doesn’t matter if the song is sung in another language – and venturing into these non-English versions tends (I feel) to give me ever greater insights into the potential of each song.  Now that may sound like a pretentious load of old cobblers to you, and maybe it is, but I do often find these non-English versions leave me feeling the song in a new way, as well as being very pleasing.

In fact there is something about hearing a song one knows so well, without the lyrics in English, because it forces an extra focus on the music – in this case the beautiful singing voice of Ernst Jansz with his exquisite guitar work.

But of course, there are millions (well, quite a few) versions in English.  Far too many beautiful ones to list here, so the recordings chosen may well miss out a range of jewels – and surely that tells us a lot about the magnitude of the achievement of some of these songs.

This version is by Tow’rs

The lines

Oh, the same thing I would want today
I would want again tomorrow

are among the most beautiful and poignant love lyrics I have ever heard.

So, it turns out there is a vast number of covers of this song, and many of them are beautifully presented and exquisitely executed.

Here are two more which travel in completely different directions

This final version is from the unlikely named The Airborne Toxic Event and this wins my prize for the biggest surprise that I got in working through some of the many versions I’ve listened to this afternoon.

The harmonies between the male and female voices are utterly unexpected as is the changing accompaniment and the glorious instrumental break.  The simplicity with which the two voices deliver the last sung verse, followed by the instrumental coda is perfection for my ears.

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell
• Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
• Dylan Cover of the Day 15: An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
• Dylan Cover of the Day 16: Blowin in the wind as never before
• Dylan Cover of the Day 17: Bob Dylan’s Dream
• Bob Dylan Cover of the Day 18: You will not believe this… 115th Dream revisited

——————-

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 – but please do note, all writers are volunteers; we don’t have the funds to pay.  But 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 – which is rather nice.

by Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

• Part 1: Dylan Released and Unreleased
• Dylan Released and Unreleased: 2 – The usual, Pretty Boy, People get ready.
• Dylan Released and Unreleased: 3 – Hard to Handle the full one hour video

Aaron: I’m enjoying putting this series together. It’s fun presenting rare and one off tracks officially released on various albums for fans to enjoy.

This time let’s look at three more performances from some various artists’ releases and soundtracks.

First up is This Old Man from 1991’s Walt Disney Records For Our Children charity album

Tony: I’m not sure if I have heard this before; certainly I can’t recall hearing.   And I have to admit I was rather fearful of what was going to emerge.   But Bob does it perfectly, exactly as the children like it – with the certainty of what is coming next.   And the pictures that rotate with the song really are interesting – whoever put that collection together was having great fun.   Especially at the moment where we get the pope and two later the president.   Really enjoyable all round.

Aaron: From 1994’s Natural Born Killers soundtrack come “You Belong To Me”. For the actual CD someone made the boneheaded decision to add snippets of dialogue from the movie over the end of Bob’s song. I found a version online without the dialogue (I’m so used to hearing the CD version that it was a bit of a shock to hear without it!)

Tony: What a mellow feeling – and what a weird coincidence – which I am going to divert into (if you find this boring, just flip on – there is another song below).

See the market place in old Algiers
Send me photographs and souvenirs
Just remember when a dream appears
You belong to me

Not Dylan’s most memorable lines, but ones that have a certain resonance with me, because I lived in Algiers for a year in earlier times – much earlier times in fact.  And although it was a remarkable experience, it is not a time that I particularly think about or discuss with anyone – and I’m not sure it had a really deep impact on the way I developed.  Although being a member of a minority group (a European mistaken by one and all as a French guy in a country only recently having thrown off the yolk of “l’algérie c’est la France”) was at the time a really strange experience.

So suddenly I was jerked back to those much earlier days, and that was really strange.  And that’s the thing about Bob – he can take me to most unexpected places.

Aaron: Next, from the Feeling Minnesota soundtrack is Bob’s version of Ring Of Fire.

Tony:  Oh this is strange – I’m still sitting in a cafe in Algiers and suddenly we’re with Ring of Fire.   And strange because I had forgotten how much slower Bob performed this than on the famous Johnny Cash recording.

Indeed I’m finding it hard to adjust and think whether this really works, and whether I just like it because it is so different from the Cash version.   There is something very clever about playing it this slowly; it makes the falling into the ring of fire completely different – as I see it in my mind the fall into the ring of fire is slow, inevitable, but not frightening… something he is doing willingly; moving on to the new world

Whereas with the Cash version no images are created in my mind at all. It just is a song with a set of words with no hint of a literal meaning.

My apologies to fans of Mr Cash, but having heard Bob’s version, this famous version just sounds crass.  There’s no power in the lyrics at all.

Ah…. Bob at his most brilliant.   Thanks for this Aaron.   Yet again I owe you for another revelation.

——————-

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 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 – but please do note, all writers are volunteers; we don’t have the funds to pay.  But 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 which by and large works a lot more smoothly than this site, mostly because it is not edited by Tony.

By Tony Attwood

When I started this little series I had no idea where it would go – just that I had a feeling that some artists had really done a few interesting things with Dylan songs.

But Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream – a cover version?  Really?  Well, yes, and not just one, but actually three.  Or at least three that appealed to me as I was meandering through the archives and websites.

Asobi Seksu are first: they existed for about ten years in the early part of this century.  At first in sketching this note I wrote, “It’s not something I am going to come back to that much in the future, but it really took me by surprise and I enjoyed the listen.”  But that’s wrong.  Haven’t finished the article and listened to the two pieces that follow, I do want to come back to this – and indeed listening to it for a second time, I find more in it than I thought…

Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band do something closer to the original, but with a few nice variations.

https://youtu.be/Ke8uZIvPa7w

And then Tito Schipa Jr.

In 1970 he created the Italian rock opera Orfeo 9, which then became a movie, and an album.  And ten years later, a rock adaptation of Donizetti’s opera Don Pasquale.

The Dylan connection came in 1988 with the release of Dylaniato, with the songs performed in Italian and the Romanesco dialect.  Tito Schipa has since translated Dylan’s complete works as well as working as an actor, writer for broadcast media and theatre director.

Previously on Dylan Cover of the Day.

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell
• Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
• Dylan Cover of the Day 15: An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
• Dylan Cover of the Day 16: Blowin in the wind as never before
• Dylan Cover of the Day 17: Bob Dylan’s Dream

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 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 – but please do note, all writers are volunteers; we don’t have the funds to pay.  But 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 which by and large works a lot more smoothly than this site, mostly because it is not edited by Tony.

• Never Ending Tour, 2002, part 1, Seattle Showdown   
• and Part 2  Tickling the Ivories

By Mike Johnson

Because Dylan put aside the guitar and took up the keyboards at Seattle on 4^th October, some commentators have suggested that prior to that concert Dylan had been running out of steam, that the NET was flagging, and that the movement begun ten years before in 1991 had played itself out. According to this view, Dylan took to the keyboards in a desperate effort to revitalize his performances.

There’s no evidence for this. While Dylan’s voice was clearly thickening up (compare his voice now to what it was in, say 1999, and you can hear the difference), there was no lack of power and passion, nor innovation. The great innovation of him taking up the keyboards in October might have overshadowed his achievements earlier in the year; a natural attention to those last two months of 2002 might have kept us from appreciating how good Dylan was in the rest of the year and seeing how his shift to the keyboards might be the outcome of a fervent pushing of the boundaries rather than flagging energy.

We are lucky to have a wonderful recording of a top-notch concert in Manchester on 9^th May. You can find bad recordings of good Dylan concerts, and good recordings of bad concerts, but an excellent soundboard recording of a concert with Dylan obviously on fire, is a chancy and comparatively rare thing. The Manchester concert is one of those.

Remember, the first song Dylan played at the Seattle concert was an acoustic version of the rock gospel ‘Solid Rock.’ He kicks off the Manchester concert with an acoustic performance of ‘Maggie’s Farm’ (popularly known as the song that Dylan used to first hit his folkie audience with his raucous electric sound at the Newport Folk festival in 1965), and follows that up with an acoustic performance of ‘Senor’, never before performed acoustically as far as I know.  Here’s ‘Senor.’

Senor (A)

The ever-versatile Larry Campbell is playing a cittern (pictured above), described as a ‘plucked stringed musical instrument that was popular in the 16th–18th century. It had a shallow, pear-shaped body with an asymmetrical neck that was thicker under the treble strings.’

Let’s leave the Manchester concert for a moment and hear another ‘Senor’, this time electric but with Larry, I believe, on violin, capturing for a moment the spirit of the Rolling Thunder Tour of 1975/76. A heavier but equally powerful performance from Dylan. (No date for this one, but it’s from the Summer Tour)

Senor (B)

Before we get any older, let’s slip back to the Manchester concert, the acoustic ‘Maggie’s Farm,’ and have a quick listen to that. Larry’s on the mandolin (what can’t he play?) and Dylan’s voice is right to the fore. Not quite as wild and anarchic as in 1965 but, although sounding minimal without those electric guitars, still a hard driving foot-tapper.

Maggie’s farm

And how long has it been, I wonder, since we have heard an acoustic ‘Forever Young’? As with ‘Senor’ and ‘Maggie’s Farm’, getting rid of the electric guitars strips the song back to its basics. There might be a bit too much upsinging on this one, but it’s a vibrant, heartfelt performance nonetheless. The band sound wonderful on the chorus. This is not from Manchester, and again sorry it’s undated.

Forever Young

Also undated, but from the Summer Tour, is this acoustic ‘Man in the Long Black Coat.’ I haven’t heard such a powerful performance of the song since the famous 1995 Prague concert. Again, it wasn’t written as an acoustic song, and has always been given an epic, electric treatment. Yet, it perfectly suits the half-singing, half-talking style Dylan was experimenting with in 2002. This drama of a girl falling into the clutches of evil has not been told with such a sense of astonishment and outrage.

Man in the long black coat

Dylan has been singing  ‘I Don’t Believe  You’ live since it was written in 1964, but it has never sounded like this. He has replaced the slower, more ponderous tempos he has been using with a foot-tapping beat to drive the song, adding a bit of harp to the opening bars. You can argue that it’s not the scream of pain we heard with the fully electric performances of 1966, and that the vocal is a bit rushed, but it gets the message across okay. Although it’s electric it has that minimal feel that marks Dylan’s sound in 2002. Another undated one from the Summer Tour.

I don’t believe you

Further evidence of Dylan’s innovating drive in 2002 is the reappearance of ‘In the Summer Time’ from Shot of Love (1981), not performed since 1981. That album and subsequent 1981 performances, wonderful as they are, don’t strike me the way this one does.

The opening verse suggests a mystical encounter, and has been interpreted as Dylan’s meeting with Jesus:

‘I was in your presence for an hour or so
Or was it a day?
I truly don't know
Where the sun never set, where the trees hung low
By that soft and shining sea’

But by the last verse it’s starting to sound a bit like a love song, with echoes of ‘Let’s Keep it Between Us.’ Yes,  Dylan may want us to think of Jesus, but I can’t help speculating (and it is pure speculation) that the religious sentiments of some of these gospel songs have got mixed up with Dylan’s love affair, and marriage in 1981, with backup singer Carolyn Dennis.

‘Strangers, they meddled in our affairs
Poverty and shame were theirs
But all that suffering was not to be compared
With the glory that is to be
And I'm still carrying the gift you gave
It's a part of me now, it's been cherished and saved
It'll go with me unto the grave
And into eternity.’

There is general agreement that this is not one of Dylan’s strongest songs, but this is probably the strongest performance of this song that you will hear, notwithstanding Dylan’s performance peak of 1981. (2^nd Nov)

In the Summertime

Now let’s slip back to the Manchester concert for a top-quality performance of ‘Blind Willie McTell’, possibly a ‘best ever’ performance, at least it’s a best ever recording. Since introducing this song to the NET in 1997, it has become a regular on his setlists, and, at this stage not changed around much – that would come later. This vision of a corrupt America has never sounded more convincing. I think Larry’s on the cittern again here, and Mr Guitar Man has never sounded better.

 Blind Willie McTell

At Manchester, Dylan sang four songs from Love and Theft, still barely a year old, and while we have heard how Dylan handled these songs after shifting to the piano, it is interesting to compare those performances with these. You might like to go to the previous two posts for a comparison, and to catch my introductions to those songs.  (Seattle Showdown  and Tickling the Ivories).

First up is ‘Moonlight,’ number 6 on the Manchester setlist. It features Tony Garnier on the double bass, and is paced a little slower than the album version. It’s gentle, minimal, and Dylan sings with a delicious sense of the irony, and perhaps hidden menace, inherent in these ‘sugar coated rhymes,’ a phrase from ‘Bye and Bye’ that perfectly suits ‘Moonlight’ too.

‘Well, I’m preaching peace and harmony
The blessings of tranquility
But I know when the time is right to strike’

Moonlight

Next up, and number 8 on the Manchester setlist, is ‘Lonesome Day Blues’, one of the 12 bar blues on the album. I don’t think Dylan did a piano version of this song in 2002. I find the force and clarity of this performance has the edge on the 2001 performances, but that could be owing to the superior recording. This song keeps referencing the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the classics. (see NET, 2001, Part 6: More power, wealth, knowledge and salvation)

‘Well, they're doing the double shuffle, throwing sand on the floor
They're doing the double shuffle, they're throwing sand on the floor
When I left my longtime darling, she was standing in the door’

The ‘double shuffle’ is described in the dictionary as: ‘a clog dance characterized by fast syncopated taps of the feet,’ or ‘a dance in which a person makes shuffling movements twice with each foot alternately.’  This dance movement is generally dated to the rave scene in the 1980s/90s, thought to have originated in Melbourne, but I think Dylan was probably referencing a much earlier use of the term from an 1883 song called ‘Sambo’s Double Shuffle’ published by Phil B Perry. That harks back to the era in which they would throw sand on the dance floor to make the floors less slippery.

Clearly Dylan is digging deep into musical history for the imagery in this song, and others on Love and Theft. It makes me wonder just which war Dylan is referring to when he sings ‘Well, my pa he died and left me, my brother got killed in the war.’ Could be WW1, could even be the Civil War; perhaps it’s just whatever war you have in your mind. Dylan excels at this kind of open-ended imagery.

Lonesome Day Blues

‘Summer Days’ might be the jazziest song on Love and Theft.  Coming in at number 13 on the Manchester setlist, it features some outstanding double bass (stand up bass) from Tony Garnier once again. ‘Summer Days’ is a celebratory song, although it sings of an era that is ‘gone.’ We find similar open-ended imagery here when he sings:

‘Everybody get ready to lift up your glasses and sing
Well, I'm standin' on the table, I'm proposing a toast to the king…’

What king? Maybe Elvis. Maybe those early Roman kings; whatever king you have in your mind.

If you want to practice your ‘double shuffle’ this is the song, and this is the performance, an outstanding one by any standards. And if you can’t do the double shuffle just do any old soft shoe shuffle you like, but take time to listen to how wonderfully guitarist Charlie Sexton, adept of the ‘new wave,’ rides this old one:

Summer Days

Last up from Love and Theft, and number 19 on the Manchester setlist, is ‘Honest with Me,’ a much darker song than ‘Summer Days.’ The lyrics are wide ranging, but despite an element of jokiness, the sentiment takes us back to the gloomier days of Time Out of Mind and the spectre of despair:

‘Well, I'm stranded in the city that never sleeps
Some of these women they just give me the creeps
I'm avoidin' the south side, the best I can
These memories I got they can strangle a man’

The riff on which the song is built is sharply repetitive, which may put some listeners off. I think it best to flow with the lyrics rather than let the riff take over. That sharpness is there for a purpose, to jolt us over and over, to throw us into that city that never sleeps and make sure that we never sleep.

Honest with Me

That’s it for me today, I gotta run, but see you next around with more sounds from 2002 soon.

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), and 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 – but please do note, all writers are volunteers; we don’t have the funds to pay.  But 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 which by and large works a lot more smoothly than the site, mostly because it is not edited by Tony.

by Tony Attwood

OK this is Untold Dylan, which means there are going to be mistakes.  I don’t do them on purpose; they creep in when I am not looking and change what I have written, even infecting the perfect articles of my pals who have never made an error in their lives.

So, to be clear, this is number seventeen in this series no matter what else I’ve said to the contrary elsewhere.

What I didn’t realise when I started this idea of doing a Dylan Cover of the Day every afternoon, as an extra contribution to the site, was how personal this was going to get – although looking back, I should have realised.   However, you don’t have to read the text.  It’s the music that matters.

Betty and the Baby Boomers’ version comes from 2016 – it is not a radically different version as some are in this series, but it is just so stunningly beautiful and elegant, I really felt the need to lead with this.  I know every word by heart of course, and can play the piece on piano or guitar with my eyes closed (which many who have heard me perform claim makes a considerable improvement to the performance) but still despite the familiarity, the desperate sadness of the concept behind the song comes through.  “I wish I wish…” oh yes, how I wish.

Brian Ferry is going to put emotion into every word – hell, he can even put emotion into semicolons.  But the intro of a harmonica at the start along with the clippity clop sounds are both alarming – and yet then Brian comes in, and on my, I’m off again.

I’m forever reminded of Brian’s comment when asked what he would say to Dylan if the two ever met.  His response was that he would probably say, “I hope you don’t mind.”

Monica Grabin

There is a note on Monica’s webpage which says she is “teaching the story of America through its songs.”   What a stunningly beautiful and important thing to do.  Wow, I wish I’d thought of that in the UK.

What interests me is how this fairly simple song, which is of course in essence all that this is, still resonates so strongly.  As you’ll know, I’m sure, it is a 19th folk ballad normally known as “Lord Franklin.”

I suppose for me it was perhaps the first song I heard as a teenager which enabled me to think about getting older.  And now here I am, “older”, and thinking back on the life that I have had.

So in this way the renditions are very personal – but they still need the beauty of the performance to create these feelings.   The guitar playing is elegantly simple, like clothes that are nothing special but can still be utterly perfect on the right person.   Guitar and voice together are, indeed, perfection.

Riddarna kring runda bordet: Björn Afzelius

And finally something different – both by the fact that it uses a light rock beat, and is not in English.    Björn Svante Afzelius died tragically young in 1999, and I heard of him through his being an advocate of socialism, via my friends in Sweden at the time.  According to wiki he wrote about 150 songs and sold over two-and-a-half million albums.

Well now, I’ve written more than 150 songs, and not sold a single album.  I think he wins.

Previously on Dylan Cover of the Day.  (Caution, this list might contain errors).

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell
• Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
• Dylan Cover of the Day 15: An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
• Dylan Cover of the Day 16: Blowin in the wind as never 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).

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 – but please do note, all writers are volunteers; we don’t have the funds to pay.  But 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 which by and large works a lot more smoothly than the site, mostly because it is not edited by Tony.

Publishers’ apology: due to a significant lack of coffee, the wrong episode was put up earlier today.  This is (or at least might be) the right episode

By Larry Fyffe

Links to all the previous articles in the series are given at the end along with  the list of cover versions from those articles… 

Cracking the Dylavinci Code, demonstates that, by taking on the persona of Jesus, the singer/songwriter/musician essentially writes the Third Testament to the Holy Bible.

Jesus therein contains multitudes; all mixed up in confusion.

Christ is the son of Roman soldier Panther and Mother Mary,  she’s  married to carpenter Joseph.

Mother Mary also has a child by Cyrus of Magdala who’s  married to Eucharis – the child’s name, Mary Magdalene.

Jesus marries Mary Magdalene, akin to a legitimate half-sister. This incestuous relationship produces daughter Sophia.

Cyrus and Eucharis are the parents of Martha and Lazarus; their two offspring akin to a step-sister and step-brother of Jesus.

Had Jesus married Martha instead, there’d be a weaker blood  connection in any offspring produced. But trouble still for sure.

So it’s clear that Saint Jerome gets it all wrong. There is no ‘original sin’ because of disobedience to God since in order to obey the command to be fruitful and multiply, Adam and Eve  have to commit incest with their offspring.

Everlasting guilt comes out to play with them because they obey God’s command.

Adam can’t get pregnant so he’s got no choice in the matter – he presses on in the higher calling of the Lord, God given Adam the Devil’s reign.

The singer/songwriter puts on the mask of Adam in the song lyrics quoted beneath:

Oh what dear daughter beneath the sun
Would treat a father so
To wait upon him hand and foot
And always tell him 'no'
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Why must I always be the thief
(Bob Dylan: Tears Of Rage ~ Dylan/Manuel)

Incest’s a problem for the  authorities. As we have seen, they are out to ‘get’ Jesus and Magdalene in order to put an end to any strong blood-line-contender that would surely undermine the ‘rock’ that holds up the authority of the organized Church, that ‘rock’ being Saint Peter:

Aim well my little one
We may not make it through the night

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

As the Code unravels, Christ (He’s a little confused I remember well) locks Magdalene inside the Sphinx, and hides out in Utah with their daughter.

There’s trouble ahead; trouble behind.

As she grows up, daughter Sophia, who’s got her mother’s eyes, and drinks champagne, becomes a prophet for a religion in Utah that proclaims Christ is coming soon to a theatre in Salt Lake City.

All Jesus wants is a few crumbs, and a place to hide.

Nevertheless, the singer/songwriter, well dressed in the colourful cloak of Jesus, is determined to be a good daddy to Mother Mary’s granddaughter.

As proclaimed in the song lyrics below:

Come fathers and mothers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize what you don't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
(Bob Dylan: The Times They Are A--Changing)

Cover versions in this series

• Abandoned Love – Sean Keane
• Ahab The Arab -Ray Stevens
• Angelina -Bob Dylan
• Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream -John Bull And The Bandits
• Changing Of The Guards -Whitley & Lang
• Changing Of The Guards -Gaslight Anthem
• Crossing The Rubicon -Bob Dylan
• Drifter’s Escape -George Thorogood/Destroyers
• Duquesne Whistle -Benmont Tench
• False Prophet -Bob Dylan
• Going to Acapulco – Calexico
• Goodbye Jimmy Reed -Bob Dylan
• Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar -Elkie Brooks 
• Handy Dandy -Bob Dylan
• High Water – Joan Osborne
• Highway 61 Revisited -Ross Scrivener
• Highway 61 Revisited – Ben Sidran
• I Contain Multitudes -Emma Swift
• I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine – John Doe
• Idiot Wind -Gerard Quintana
• Idiot Wind -The Coal Porters
• I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight -Robert Palmer
• Isis – Julie Corbalis
• Isis -White Stripes
• Just Like A Woman -Old Crow Medicine Show
• Little Maggie – Bob Dylan
• Lord Protect My Child -Susan Tedeshi
• Maggie’s Farm -Chicken Diamond
• Maggie’s Farm -The Specials
• Maggie’s Farm – Zero Prophet
• Maggie’s Farm – Jimmy Vivino And The Black Italians
• Mary And The Soldier – Bob Dylan
• Memphis Blues – HC Handy
• My Own Version Of You -Bob Dylan
• Not Dark Yet: Lucinda Williams
• Oh Sister – Stanilsaw Sojka
• Precious Angel – The Weather Station
• Pretty Mary -Bob Dylan/Band
• Ring Them Bells -Muscle And Bone
• Ring Them Bells – McCrary Sisters
• Rocky Racoon -Charlie Parr
• Romance In Durango – Julie Felix
• Romance In Durango -Gerard Quintana
• Scarlet Town -Bob Dylan
• Seeing The Real You At Last -Bettye Lavette
• Simple Twist of Fate – Emma Swift
• Sign On The Window -Al Turk
• Sign On the Window – Sarah Jarosz
• Slow Train – Clas Yngstrom
• Stuck inside Of Mobile – North Mississippi Alstars
• Summer Days -Brothers Lazaroff
• Talking World War III Blues -Toni Vescoli
• Things have changed – String Swing
• Time Passes Slowly: Judy Collins
• Tin Angel – Bob Dylan
• Visions Of Johanna – Stephen Inglis
• Wedding Song – Maria Muldaur

And the previous episodes.

• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code Part 1
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part II)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part III)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part IV)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part V)
• Bob  Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part VI)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part VII)
• Bob Dylan And the Dylanvinci Code Part VIII
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part IX)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part X)
• Bob Dylan And The DylanvincI Code (Part XI)
• Bob Dylan and The DylanvincI Code (Part XII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XIII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylanvinci Code (Part XIV) 
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XV)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XVI) 
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XVII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XVIII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XIX)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XX)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXI)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXIII)
• Bob Dylan And the Dylavinci Code (Part XXIV)

Previously in this series…

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell
• Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
• An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”

By Tony Attwood

Now it gets tough.  When I started writing this piece I couldn’t think of any cover version of “Blowin in the wind” that really stood out for me.  And then searching around for cover versions that I might not know I found over 500 available.  Which may seem like quite a few but that’s the iceberg on the tip of… or whatever the phrase is.  There’s thousands of the things out there.

And worse (and this is of course just my opinion) most of them add absolutely nothing to the original.  OK they might add strings or a female chorus, so in that sense they add, but in terms of the feeling one can get from the piece, or the depth of understanding, or the emotional experience… no there is nothing new.

But I started this series, and it would be ludicrous not to have a cover of Blowin’ so I started with the original from the Chad Mitchell Trio recorded in 1962.

So that’s how it was first seen – humming backing and plinky plink banjo, with strict tempo and standard, but perfectly executed harmonies.   Yes that is how it used to be.

Now when we did a previous venture into Dylan covers, featuring those kindly submitted by Untold Dylan readers, we did have one that I remembered, and playing it again it still sounds good…   I haven’t gone back to this for several years, but it really is refreshing and gives me new faith in musical arrangers.

So what I decided to do, in the absence of anything in my memory that made me say, “This is the greatest cover” was to pick out a few unusual versions of the song from modern times.  Or at leat from the 21st century.

2003 delivered the String Quartet Tribute – which changed the key from the major to minor, which is interesting in itself.  But then it suffers from the fact that the song is strophic (which is to say verse, verse, verse) and chordally based, so you end up with the chug chug chug effect of the chords, from which we are not released until the third verse.

2008 brought a guitar version of Pierre Van Dormael – by no means the first instrumental edition, but one that stands out for me because of the space it allows for us to appreciate the simple but highly effective representation of the chords without playing any.

2010 saw the song travel much further, and really you only have play a few seconds to know this is beyond any previous edge imagined for the song in times past.  But I would beg you to stay with it at least for 30 seconds just to appreciate what is going on.   This is one of the renditions that really does something for me – it honestly gives me insights into what there is in the piece which I never had before.

Moving forward a little more to 2013, as you’ll see from the cover of the album below this is a solo guitar.   Even if by now you are getting a bit bored with all the oddities please do give this a chance – once again it takes us on a journey not imagined when Dylan wrote the original, but still one worth travelling.

And now 2018, which is what this whole meander has built up to – if a meander can ever be said to build up.   This is a vocal version that really gives me something additional.  The Mayries offer something so plaintive that I wonder how I could ever not have understood that this is how this song deserves to be played.

and to show that it is not a one off here are the ladies playing It ain’t me babe.

And because the whole of my country is gripped by the combination of a new outbreak of the pandemic and thoughts about Christmas I thought I would add this.

This ability to re-arrange and deliver performances of such simple elegance and beauty is a rare talent indeed.   This of course isn’t Dylan – it’s a Joni Mitchell song, and I got here by chance.   But that’s really what this is all about.   Just having an after-lunch meander.

What else does one say during a pandemic?  “I wish I had a river I could skate away on,” feels about right.

• To Be Alone With You (1969) part 1: The country music station plays soft

by Jochen Markhorst

II          That boy’s good

“Have you written any songs lately for any other artists to do, specifically for that artist? Or any of your old songs,” asks Jann Wenner during the Rolling Stone interview, November 1969.

“I wrote To Be Alone With You – that’s on Nashville Skyline – I wrote it for Jerry Lee Lewis. [Laughter] He was down there when we were listening to the playbacks, and he came in. He was recording an album next door. He listened to it… I think we sent him a dub. Peggy Day – I kind of had the Mills Brothers in mind when I did that one. [Laughter]”

Wenner adds “laughter” twice, apparently to indicate that both Dylan and his interviewer find the idea of Dylan writing something for Jerry Lee Lewis or something for the Mills Bothers a rather funny joke. Implying, of course, how absurd that would be. However, increased insight suggests that Wenner is either embellishing the written account of the interview with invented atmospheric descriptions after the fact, or that Wenner completely misjudges Dylan’s sincerity. The latter is more likely. It is more likely that Wenner is laughing in order to signal that he is sharp enough to recognise that Dylan is throwing a sarcastic side-swipe at Jerry Lee Lewis, and that Dylan is laughing along out of discomfort.

It seems to have escaped Wenner’s attention which corner Jerry Lee Lewis is in now, in 1969. The Killer has long since left Sun Records, has taken a different turn and in Nashville is fully immersing himself in pure, hardcore country. The album he records “next door” is the beautiful She Still Comes Around, an album filled with honky-tonk and tears-in-your-beer ballads like Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again”, like “Louisiana Man” and the title track with the brilliant full title “She Still Comes Around (To Love What’s Left of Me)”, which reaches the second spot on the country singles chart. And will later be played by fan Keith Richards, by the way, on a curious 1977 bootleg on which Keef accompanies himself surprisingly skilfully on piano;

https://youtu.be/i3QP05bApnA

The Killer’s love of country is as deep and intrinsic as Dylan’s. Before this record, Jerry Lee had already scored with his comeback album Another Place, Another Time, which earned him two Top 5 singles and even won the heart of country god George Jones. And after She Still Comes Around, the one he records while Dylan is recording Nashville Skyline next door, Jerry Lee stays in Nashville, for the time being. Still in this same year of 1969, he will release Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 1 and Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 2, albums that totally live up to their titles. “Oh, Lonesome Me”, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”, “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight”, “Jackson”, “Cold, Cold Heart”, “He’ll Have To Go”… they’re all on there, the landmarks of country, the songs that, one way or another, have all trickled into Dylan’s oeuvre.

In short, it is not at all absurd or laughable to go along with Dylan’s idea that “To Be Alone With You” would fit perfectly on the album The Killer is recording next door. But alas, apparently Lewis is not impressed. Or, more likely, he thinks the song’s content doesn’t fit in among all those tearjerkers on She Still Comes Around – after all, Dylan’s lyrics are rather cute and cloudless. Incidentally, Dylan’s anecdote seems to be contradicted by the stories surrounding “Rita May”, the first Dylan song Jerry Lee will record.

Ten years later, in 1979, The Killer enthusiastically returns to his rockabilly roots for another comeback album (Jerry Lee Lewis, with the hit “Rockin’ My Life Away”). Producer Bones Howe has Dylan under his skin. Apart from being from Minnesota too, Howe’s impressive career (Elvis, Mamas & Papas, Tom Waits) started with Dylan; his breakthrough as a producer is the 1965 hit he produced for The Turtles, Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe”. So, obviously, Bones has warm feelings for Bob Dylan. For Jerry Lee’s comeback, he proposes a bare-bones band (including Elvis’ guitarist James Burton), and takes care of a strong tracklist. Charlie Rich’s “Who Will The Next Fool Be”, for example, and Arthur Alexander’s “Every Day I Have To Cry”. And he nominates Dylan’s throwaway “Rita May” already at the first recording session, “a simple fifties rock thing” according to co-author Jacques Levy.

The song is a product of Dylan’s collaboration with Levy, the experiment that would lead to the world successes “Hurricane” and Desire (1976). Lewis slams “Rita May” on the tape with gusto and full commitment, and it’s only when he’s listening back that he remembers to ask producer Howe: “Say, who wrote this?” “Bob Dylan,” Howe replies, grinning, for he is sure that Lewis will be mighty surprised. But The Killer doesn’t seem to recognise the name at all. “That boy’s good,” Jerry Lee Lewis says, “I’ll do anything by him.”

This is January 1979, a little less than ten years after Jerry Lee, according to Dylan, has been listening to playbacks of “To Be Alone With You” with him, in the control room of Columbia Studio in Nashville. It doesn’t seem very likely that Dylan would make this up, in the interview with Wenner conducted eight months after that alleged meeting. More likely, The Killer has already forgotten that February 1969 interlude ten years later. Or, even more likely, that the name “Dylan” meant as little to him then as it does today, in January 1979. Anyway, Lewis’ highly quotable “I’ll do anything by him” is therefore pertinently incorrect – he was handed “To Be Alone With You” on a silver platter at the time, but he left the song uncommented on the studio floor.

Much later again, 35 years after that first Dylan cover to be precise, yet another skilful producer with Dylan roots takes care of yet another Jerry Lee Lewis comeback album. In 2014, Daniel Lanois produces Rock & Roll Time, a kind of return to the 1950s, to Sun Records. Like his predecessor Bones Howe, Lanois cleans out the studio and restricts himself to a basic rock ‘n’ roll band to accompany Jerry Lee (featuring Dylan drummer Jim Keltner), and like his predecessor Bones Howe, Lanois also nominates a Dylan throwaway from the 70s, which – history repeats itself – is picked up enthusiastically and wholeheartedly: Jerry Lewis Lee’s cover of Dylan’s “Stepchild” is exciting, heavy and swampy. And underlines once again that The Killer should have accepted Dylan’s “To Be Alone With You”. That boy is really good.

To be continued. Next up: To Be Alone With You part 3: Shadow Kingdom

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:

• Blood on the Tracks: Dylan’s Masterpiece in Blue
• Blonde On Blonde: Bob Dylan’s mercurial masterpiece
• Where Are You Tonight? Bob Dylan’s hushed-up classic from 1978
• Desolation Row: Bob Dylan’s poetic letter from 1965
• Basement Tapes: Bob Dylan’s Summer of 1967
• Mississippi: Bob Dylan’s midlife masterpiece
• Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
• John Wesley Harding: Bob Dylan meets Kafka in Nashville
• Tombstone Blues b/w Jet Pilot: Dylan’s lookin’ for the fuse
• Street-Legal: Bob Dylan’s unpolished gem from 1978

By Tony Attwood

I can’t understand why there are so few cover versions of Black Diamond Bay around… although judging by the few that I have found this afternoon one reason might be that it’s a difficult song to perform.  The renditions are ok, but nothing really shines out.

However there is one cover version that really, really ought to be better known and that is Jacques Levy’s own version with Jacques on piano.  I have a feeling that this is the only recording available of him playing the song.

In fact I know that at one stage I had an email from a close relative of Jacques Levy, thanking me for digging this out, as he didn’t have a copy, and indeed didn’t even know of its existence.

Listen to the piano – it really is adventurous and reflects the fun of the lyrics.

And yes I know Mr Levy was co-composer, so it’s not really a 100% cover but this is so much fun I don’t really mind.  I value this recording so much – not just because it is fun, but also because I really do think it is a great co-composition.

Meanwhile – if you are thinking of going to listen for any other versions of the song, unless I’ve missed something, I wouldn’t bother.  The few that are out there, are ok, but really don’t say anything new, nor are they particularly entertaining.

According to the official site, Bob only performed it once in public – that in 1976 – but really listen to the piano and just think of the fun one can have with this.  Ok it’s Levy and not Dylan, but still it is hilarious, original, excellently constructed, and well, just so enjoyable.

Previously in this series…

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell
• Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

• Part 1: Dylan Released and Unreleased
• Dylan Released and Unreleased: 2 – The usual, Pretty Boy, People get ready.

Aaron: If you’ve never seen Dylan’s 1986 VHS concert movie Hard To Handle you could do worse than find an hour in your day and settle down with Bob, Tom and the Heartbreaker boys and enjoy the whole thing here:

Aaron: But if you don’t have an hour let me and Tony present you with a 3 track highlight reel.

The show kicks off with a song for Bob’s “hero”, In The Garden.

Tony: In terms of the music this is one of the most extraordinary compositions by Dylan – I can’t think of anything that sounds like this.  Taking a musical phrase and then repeating it a tone higher is unusual enough.  But then to do it again is amazing.

And most amazing of all is that it works brilliantly.  And in case you are a musician and this means something to you, just look at this (source Eyolf Østrem)

          B                   F#               G#m      G+
When they came for Him in the garden, did they know?
          Cm                  G+               Eb       F
When they came for Him in the garden, did they know?
         G               C/g                  G7               C/g
Did they know He was the Son of God, did they know that He was Lord?
         G                 C/g           G7                 C/g
Did they hear when He told Peter, "Peter, put up your sword"?
          A                   D/a              A7      D/a
When they came for Him in the garden, did they know?
          B                   E/b              B7      E/b
When they came for Him in the garden, did they know?

F#   B/f#    F#

It really is an extraordinary piece of writing, and delivered with absolute conviction – and really unusually for Dylan out of the six lines of lyrics, four of them are identical – which shows just how much the song relies on the music.  When you think of this, it is the absolute reversal of normal Dylan, where we get musical lines repeated but the lyrics change.   A one-off oddity, but no less powerful for that.

Aaron: The acoustic section of the show contains an extraordinary version of It’s Alright Ma

Tony: Again an incredibly powerful performance and the only thing that puts me off this version is the delivery of the lyrics at the start – but fortunately Dylan does move the melody on (or maybe I should say, recovers the melody).  However, this is a trivial comment in the face of an incredibly dramatic version of the song delivered so fast that I felt utterly blown away.  And I love the way he suddenly puts in pauses in the lines – there seems no reason, it just happens.  Maybe he just runs out of breath.

I really don’t think there is another performance like this – no hold on, having written that I am sure there is.  It is just that I don’t have a good enough memory to transport myself away from this performance back to another one. I just want to enjoy this.   It is amazing.

Aaron: I could have picked any track from the rest but I’ll finish off with I’ll Remember You

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mww_Q9h2eTY

Tony: This is something of a rarity in my view, as Bob really looks as if he is meaning the lyrics while performing – normally I feel that the music takes him over rather than him thinking of the lyrics.  But not this time.

OK I am now going to settle down and watch the whole production.  Thank Aaron, certainly not for the first time, I am totally indebted to you for what you have come up with.

Aaron: As one of very few home movies released by Bob over the years it’s a damn shame they never upgraded the vhs to DVD or Blu-Ray but at least we have the YouTube version to enjoy whenever you want!

By Tony Attwood

The list of previous episodes is to be found at the end of the article.

Of course that comment in the title that “it’s more fun than you might recall” is just my opinion, but it is a fact that I never really thought much of “Black Crow Blues” when first released on “Another Side”.  It sounded to me like a quickly written filler for the album.

But obviously, what do I know?  That comment is probably more a reflection on what I would have done, and besides maybe it is an important art work and the piano has to sound like that.   Anyway, it’s not an issue that has bothered me that much and I’m not sure too many other people have written in pointing out the artistic merits of the piece.

If you haven’t got a copy of Another Side, and you want to remind yourself of just what the original was like, it is of course on Spotify, but beware, the other songs of the same title on Spotify are not Dylan’s Black Crows.

But if you ain’t got Spotify or can’t be arsed to search,  you could go to this link and scroll down to the word “Description” and there it is – you can play it to your heart’s content.

And there is a second Dylan version here… and I much prefer this….

So, now we are all up to speed, what about the covers? I hear you demand.

There are actually very few (in fact just one that is playable) which is why I have been taking up your time with Dylanistic versions.  But now we have been through it all, here’s the only cover version I know.

Now that performance really can get me listening to the old 12 bar blues again.

Per Frost don’t seem to have a website per se (at least the old one that I know about appears to have vanished into the stratosphere) but they do have a Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/perchrfrost/

And I’m going to point out one other performance of their’s which I really do like.  It is gentle, simple, and it really does work.

It’s from the album “Per Frost” made in 1990 and you can read about it here.

So there we are, another Dylan Cover of the Day.  The series really does seem to have legs!  If you have been, thank you for reading.  And listening.

Previously in this series…

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell

by Larry Fyffe

Links to all the previous articles in the series are given at the end.   And here is the list of cover versions from those articles… after which is today’s episode

• Abandoned Love – Sean Keane
• Ahab The Arab -Ray Stevens
• Angelina -Bob Dylan
• Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream -John Bull And The Bandits
• Changing Of The Guards -Whitley & Lang
• Changing Of The Guards -Gaslight Anthem
• Crossing The Rubicon -Bob Dylan
• Drifter’s Escape -George Thorogood/Destroyers
• Duquesne Whistle -Benmont Tench
• False Prophet -Bob Dylan
• Going to Acapulco – Calexico
• Goodbye Jimmy Reed -Bob Dylan
• Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar -Elkie Brooks 
• Handy Dandy -Bob Dylan
• High Water – Joan Osborne
• Highway 61 Revisited -Ross Scrivener
• I Contain Multitudes -Emma Swift
• I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine – John Doe
• Idiot Wind -Gerard Quintana
• Idiot Wind -The Coal Porters
• I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight -Robert Palmer
• Isis – Julie Corbalis
• Isis -White Stripes
• Just Like A Woman -Old Crow Medicine Show
• Little Maggie – Bob Dylan
• Lord Protect My Child -Susan Tedeshi
• Maggie’s Farm -Chicken Diamond
• Maggie’s Farm -The Specials
• Maggie’s Farm – Zero Prophet
• Maggie’s Farm – Jimmy Vivino And The Black Italians
• Mary And The Soldier – Bob Dylan
• Memphis Blues – HC Handy
• My Own Version Of You -Bob Dylan
• Not Dark Yet: Lucinda Williams
• Oh Sister – Stanilsaw Sojka
• Precious Angel – The Weather Station
• Pretty Mary -Bob Dylan/Band
• Ring Them Bells -Muscle And Bone
• Ring Them Bells – McCrary Sisters
• Rocky Racoon -Charlie Parr
• Romance In Durango – Julie Felix
• Romance In Durango -Gerard Quintana
• Scarlet Town -Bob Dylan
• Seeing The Real You At Last -Bettye Lavette
• Simple Twist of Fate – Emma Swift
• Sign On The Window -Al Turk
• Sign On the Window – Sarah Jarosz
• Slow Train – Clas Yngstrom
• Stuck inside Of Mobile – North Mississippi Alstars
• Summer Days -Brothers Lazaroff
• Talking World War III Blues -Toni Vescoli
• Things have changed – String Swing
• Time Passes Slowly: Judy Collins
• Tin Angel – Bob Dylan
• Visions Of Johanna – Stephen Inglis
• Wedding Song – Maria Muldaur

By Larry Fyffe

Jesus, personified by singer/songwriter Bob Dylan as the narrator in the following song, runs away with His daughter, and travels all the way to Utah.

The original lyrics are pieced together from fragments found in the Holy Grail, now stored in the Archives Department of the Dylan Untold Corporation.

No wonder sad-eyed Jesus decides to drift over the Atlantic Ocean with blanketed Sophia Sarah wrapped up in His arms.

As evidenced in the following pieced-together song lyrics:

God said, "Christ, kill me your daughter"
Jesus say, "Man, you can't mean slaughter'er?"
God say, "No"; Jesus say, "What?"
God say, "You can do want you want, son
But the next time you see me coming, you better run"
(Bob Dylan: Highway LXI Revisited)

It’s quite obvious for those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear, that clues to the solution of the Dylavinci Code are spread throughout many of the songs by Bob Dylan, whether old, new, or reworked, wherein the narrator thereof often takes on the persona of Jesus Christ.

Or the lyrics reference John the Baptist, as Kees de Graaf points out.

The Baptist calls Christ the sacrificial "Lamb of God":
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him
And saith, "Behold the Lamb of God
Which taketh away the sin of the world"
(John 1: 29)

Jesus rebels; decides to save his daughter Sophia from such a fate, evidenced by the lines below:

I don't complain, what I need is control
To gain the whole world, and give up my soul
I ain't going to hell for anybody
Not for father, not for mother
Not for sister, not for brother
No way
(Bob Dylan: Ain't Going To Hell For Anybody)

No way, Jose.

Not for father Roman soldier Panther; nor for mother Saint Mary; nor for sister Mary Magdalene; and certainly not for brother Lazarus.

Index to past episodes

• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code Part 1
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part II)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part III)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part IV)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part V)
• Bob  Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part VI)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part VII)
• Bob Dylan And the Dylanvinci Code Part VIII
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part IX)
• Bob Dylan And The DylavincI Code (Part X)
• Bob Dylan And The DylanvincI Code (Part XI)
• Bob Dylan and The DylanvincI Code (Part XII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XIII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylanvinci Code (Part XIV) 
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XV)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XVI) 
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XVII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XVIII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XIX)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XX)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXI)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXII)
• Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXIII)

By Tony Attwood

The list of previous episodes is to be found at the end of the article.

If you have been paying attention you’ll know by now that the cover versions I am choosing are the ones that offer something new to the understanding of the song, or simply offer a different level of entertainment.

So I listen for different accompaniments, a new style of vocal delivery, that sort of thing.  And yes for Blind Willie, Chrissie Hynde certainly delivers.   And it’s not just her vocal delivery, it is the accompaniment which evolves during the course of the performance.

Magnificent.

And then of course as you listen to the second cover that one has to be different not just from Dylan’s version but also the previous cover.   This second one took me by surprise at the start because I had enjoyed Chrissie Hynde’s reworking of the song so much.   But Patterson Hood and Jay Gonzalez don’t disappoint because although they have the same sort of vision as the version above they go elsewhere – and that’s really what I want.

The integrity of the song remains but the notion of what we have within the song changes.   This is exquisite.

There are a number of other versions that base their interpretation on the slowing down of the song just about as far as it can go, but I’ll end today with one that give us a bit of speed and beat.

Of course it all depends on your taste and why you are listening.  I explore these for the fun of hearing where the original piece takes different musicians and producers.  I can only hope you find a reason for listening – and perhaps even returning to the series tomorrow.

This final version I stumbled on by chance and it was a refreshing moment after the dedication within the two songs above.  I don’t know if the end is meant to be like that – but still, up to that point, it’s fun.

Previously in this series…

• Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
• Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
• Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing