Aaron:On January 20, 1968, three months after Guthrie’s death, Harold Leventhal produced A Musical Tribute To Woody Guthrie at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, starring, among others, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Jack Elliott, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, and Odetta.
Whilst most performed solo and acoustic, Dylan was accompanied by The Band. They performed 3 songs, all subsequently released on the souvenir album released in 1972.
I ain’t got no home
Tony: Some of these recordings leave me feeling that Bob just turned up with the guys and performed after one quick run through, but this is really thought through – most obviously with the repeat of the title line at the end of the verse.
Maybe the guys just how more time on this occasion, or maybe Bob felt that Woody Guthrie’s memory deserved the best he could deliver.
It is also a great re-interpretation of the song with no sense of irony in the lines about the working man being poor. It just how it was, and how it is.
Dear Mrs Roosevelt
Tony: I’m not by any means an expert on Woody Guthrie, only knowing his work through my interest in Dylan. And I must admit that this is not a song I knew until this moment. I’ve just had a quick look on line to find a recording of Guthrie performing it but I can’t. Even Spotify doesn’t have any other recordings.
It certainly is a beautifully constructed piece – I am sure the original wouldn’t have had all those key changes, but they work wonderfully. And of course this being Bob, he did all that work on finding the song and getting the rehearsals perfect, and then never played it again and never recorded it.
Please do write in if you know the story behind the song and its rescue.
The Grand Coulee Dam
Tony: At least this is a song I know! Although it is a really well-worked original arrangement. In fact that seems churlish – it is superb. Here’s the original
Aaron: As the show ended cries of “We Want Dylan” went up. Finally Pete Seeger came out and said, “Woody wants to say to you to take this music to the world, because if you do, maybe we won’t have any more fascists.”
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
Singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan drinks water from the historical wells of traditional folk songs, and from works of literature.
As previously pointed out, themes drawn from the poetry of preRomantic William Blake have a big influence on Bob Dylan:
I wander through each chartered street
Near where the chartered Thames does flow
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe
(William Blake: London)
As evident in the song lyrics below:
Oh, time is short, and the days are sweet
For all intended purposes
And passion rules the arrow that flies
A million faces at my feet
But all I see are dark eyes
(Bob Dylan: Dark Eyes)
Here’s a poem that counterbalances mankind’s scientific reasoning with visions from the artistic imagination:
Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau
Mock on, mock on, 'tis all in vain
You throw the sand against the wind
And the wind blows it back again
That is, scientific rationalism left to itself produces the dark “Satanic” mills of industrial capitalism that dismisses the human potential to establish a naturally balanced, everlasting light in Eden – for the benevolence of all earthly inhabitants:
To see the world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour
(William Blake: Auguries Of Innocence)
Motifs reflected in the song lyrics beneath:
I have gone from rags to riches
In the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer's dream
In the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face
(Bob Dylan: Every Grain Of Sand)
Below, lyrics by a British songster who takes his stage name from Blind Willie McTell:
So how can you tell me you're lonely
And say for you the sun don't shine
Let me take you by the hand
And lead you through the streets of London
Show you something to make you change your mind
Have you seen the old girl
Who walks the streets of London
Dirt in her hair
And her clothes in rags
(Ralph McTell: Streets Of London)
The song above echoes the sentiment expressed in the one following:
Oxford town, Oxford town
Everybody's got their heads bowed down
Sun don't shine above the ground
Ain't a-going down to Oxford town
He went down to Oxford town
Guns and clubs followed him down
All because his face is brown
(Bob Dylan: Oxford Town)
Engineering and artistic endeavour: Paul Thompson. Apologies: Tony Attwood
Because the main point of this article is a re-engineered version of a rehearsal of “Simple Twist of Fate” by Bob Dylan, here is the music first. Explanations follow…
Last year we published a version of Maybe Someday as you will have never heard it before, using the same technique. If you missed that article I would urge you to read it now, before going on.
But if you really don’t want to go back here’s the key sentence…
Paul: There’s a music editing program that’s been around for about a year called Spleeter. One can use it fairly easily to split a song into various instruments, such as vocals, drums, bass, and so on. I just used it on “Maybe Someday” (see article linked above) to remove the backing vocals through the instrumental break, as well as the end.
“I have to agree it sounds a lot better that way. I also lowered the drums and bass, since 1980s production tends to have too much of that.”
Paul then sent Untold Dylan another song that he had worked on in the same way, and because a) organisation and Tony don’t mix and b) Paul was far too polite to endlessly hassle about why his next piece had not appeared, the article gathered metaphorical dust. But finally, the article has re-emerged and here it is…
Paul wrote at the time, “Here’s another one I want to send you cos I think I significantly improved it with an edit. It’s from the sample 1984 tour rehearsal. The take broke down partway through and then restarted. I edited it to make one coherent version. Again, I had to change the speed of one of the versions to get them to match. Note how the lyrics are drastically different from the album version.”
And just in case you read on from the top, rather than play the music, here it is again…
I’m really sorry Paul. I’ll try and do better in the future. Tony.
The trouble with highly emotional, slow songs is that there is a temptation to go over the top with the expressiveness of the vocalist, as if to say, “you won’t understand these lyrics unless I show you what the emotion within them is”.
But this is nonsense, for as Bob showed in the version below it is completely unnecessary. By taking out the emotion from the performance and singing it in a dead straight way, it becomes much more powerful as this recording shows.
I’m not saying this is a perfect rendition of the song, but by adopting this approach Bob gets us to think about and feel the desperate sadness of the lyrics, in a way that is hidden when vocalists try and express the meaning as sound rather than letting the words and the simple melody speak for themselves.
The trouble is few producers would ever dare to allow a vocalist to take on this approach. So what can very decent performers they do with the song?
Jimmy LaFave takes it very gently with a beautiful and delicate instrumental opening. And although he puts in a fine and varied vocal, he manages to stop it going over the top. Thus he retains the original feel of Dylan, but with the melody restored rather than removed (as in the Dylan version above).
As a result, the rendition is beautiful indeed…
It is the ladies who seem drawn to this type of song, and Amy LaVere is to be congratulated by keeping the simplicity of the song. However the break up of the rhythm might seem necessary because they have made so much of that rhythm earlier, but it doesn’t actually help – that double beat near the end of the verse is grating.
Fried Green Tomatoes keep the accompaniment under control, which is really what is needed, and even the harmonies are kept within the context of the song, but the build-up with the female vocalist improvising lines over the music is ludicrous. You don’t need a shouted-out, “Oh yes I did” in a song like this. In fact it is the absolutely last thing we need.
Thea Gilmore however normally has a much deeper understanding of what Bob’s songs are actually about, and either she has an arranger utterly sympathetic to what fits her voice or else she is telling the arranger what to do. Either way it works very well indeed.
This really is how it should be done – even the harmonies in the middle 8 (“Didn’t I try”) which is the part where arrangers normally go over the top, are beautifully done.
Generally however the notion that “Keep it simple” is a valid concept when making a recording, is one that is lost on most producers.
———
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
Some of us turn off the lights and we live
In the moonlight shooting by
Some of us scare ourselves to death in the dark
To be where the angels fly
Pretty maids all in a row lined up
Outside my cabin door
I’ve never wanted any of ’em wanting me
’Cept the girl from the Red River shore
The song starts indeed a bit undylanesque, a bit pre-war. An opening with such an aphoristic, moralistic reflection is not uncommon with Heine or Brecht, from parables and Christian lyricism, and from antique ballads altogether, but so far Dylan deemed it too old-fashioned. True, the archaic, slightly edifying-sounding introduction “some of us…” has been used twice in his catalogue, but both times at the end of the song, in the classical way, to express an overarching, concluding moral in the final couplet. Both times also quite similar in content, by the way. Both in “Walls Of Red Wing” (Some of us’ll end up in St. Cloud Prison, and some of us’ll wind up to be lawyers and things) and in “George Jackson (Some of us are prisoners, the rest of us are guards) to proclaim the cynical message that all of us are either victims of the system or enforcers of the system.
For “Red River Shore”, Dylan moves the some of us-formula to the opening lines, but (fortunately) without a socio-critical undertone. It does foretell, though, a preachy, ethical morality; if the forthcoming lyrics turn out to be a ballad with a tragic life or love story, then we may expect some wise lesson – or so this aphoristic opening seems to promise. And then one as might be distilled from Oscar Wilde’s famous aphorism, from “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Semantically it is only a small step to Dylan’s “Some of us turn off the lights and we live in the moonlight shooting by”, and in terms of content it does seem to want to express approximately the same thing: we all are in the darkness, in the gutter, miserable, but comfort is to be found in beauty, something like that.
Wilde’s aphorism, by the way, has completely detached itself from its original meaning. The quote comes from his first big hit, from his first comedy of society, from Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), is spoken by Lord Darlington and in the context of the dialogue means something like “all men are immoral bastards, but some can hide that very well behind charm”. But freed from its context, the quote gains tremendously in poetic brilliance and depth, to be overshadowed perhaps only by that other perfect quote from Lady Windermere, “I can resist everything except temptation.”
A first problem, and perhaps a first explanation of Dylan’s apparent dissatisfaction with the song, is offered by these opening lines. Some of us turn off the lights and we live in the moonlight shooting by, as he seems to be singing, or Some of us turn off the lights and we lay up in the moonlight shooting by, as it says in the official Lyrics and on the website, is both semantically and poetically a bit weird – not to say just weak. “Moonlight shooting by”? All of us have the childhood memory of the night journey back home in the car, pleasantly warm and safe in the backseat, while the light of the street lamps shoots by. But the poet probably does not want to evoke this association. Nor, we may assume, anything like the Star Wars Stormtroopers shooting with light and missing all the time.
Comparably problematic is the next, equally aphoristic, metaphor: “Some of us scare ourselves to death in the dark / To be where the angels fly.” This time not only semantically and poetically, but now syntactically a confusing mess as well. “We frighten ourselves, and very much so, in order to dwell in a place where celestial beings flutter around”? – it is hard to understand this particular sequence of words in any other way. Well alright, through laborious detours and with acceptance of cheap symbolism, something like “we live a cramped life in ignorance, for fear of not being admitted to Heaven’s Kingdom,” or something like that could be extracted – but that would be a very pathetic moral to accompany the coming, sad lost-love lament about the Red River Girl.
No, it actually seems as if Dylan is seeking his 1965 form, his sound-over-meaning mode, as if Dylan tries to do “consciously what I used to do unconsciously,” as he says in 1978 Matt Damsker interview. And as he, in a variation, a few years after “Red River Shore” will repeat in the CBS “60 Minutes” special interview with Ed Bradley (2004):
BD: I don’t know how I got to write those songs.
EB: What do you mean you don’t know how?
BD: All those early songs were almost magically written. Ah… “Darkness at the break of noon, shadows even the silver spoon, a handmade blade, the child’s balloon…” Well, try to sit down and write something like that.
So, stylistically at most, this somewhat strange opening to “Red River Shore” is still Dylanesque in a way. We see a familiar stylistic feature, the surprising metaphor, the stylistic device that Dylan seems to use more consciously as the years go by. The poetic brilliance of a metaphor like to be where the angels fly may be debatable – and rigid Christian interpreters probably deny that it is meant metaphorically at all. And maybe a playful Dylan is only incorporating a playful nod to the Meat Puppets song played so smashingly by Nirvana in 1994 during the MTV Unplugged session, “Lakes Of Fire”;
Where do bad folks go when they die?
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
They go to the lake of fire and fry
Won't see them again 'till the fourth of July
I knew a lady who came from Duluth
Bit by a dog with a rabid tooth
She went to her grave just a little too soon
And flew away howling on the yellow moon
… but the flying angels metaphor is surprising anyway. With the same surprising power as the whole world got me pinned up against the fence in “‘Til I Fell In Love With You”, for example, or my soul has turned into steel in “Not Dark Yet”. Or, for that matter, shadowing a silver spoon. But without the relevance that the metaphors in these other Time Out Of Mind songs have. At least, a bridge to the following Pretty maids all in a row lined up outside my cabin door is completely opaque.
In June 2020, when Douglas Brinkley interviews Dylan for the New York Times and asks about the Eagles reference in “Murder Most Foul”, the pretty maids-verse retroactively takes on a different connotation;
Your mention of Don Henley and Glenn Frey on “Murder Most Foul” came off as a bit of a surprise to me. What Eagles songs do you enjoy the most?
“New Kid in Town,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” “Pretty Maids All in a Row.” That could be one of the best songs ever.
Until that remarkable outpouring in 2020, the verse seemed an unspectacular derivation – from the eighteenth-century nursery rhyme “Mary” perhaps;
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
… but a connection with Joe Walsh’s atypical contribution to Hotel California seemed a bit absurd. And still isn’t too obvious, really. Melancholy is a common denominator, but the line to “Red River Shore” is not much thicker than that. Which doesn’t matter to Walsh, of course. Two months after that New York Times interview, fellow composer Joe Vitale tells Rolling Stone what an impression Dylan’s words make:
“Coming from Bob Dylan, it doesn’t get any better than that. I called Joe immediately. And he goes, ‘I know what you’re calling about.’ I said, ‘This is so cool, Joe.’ He was excited, too. He thought that was really cool. I printed out that article and framed it.”
It was like, Joe means to say, to be where the angels fly.
To be continued. Next up Red River Shore part 4: I got a gal named Sue
———
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:
A sentimental and rapturous love song:
And in the centre just you and me dear
My heart beats like a hammer
My arms wound around you tight
And the stars fell on Alabama last night
(Patti Page: Stars Fell On Alabama ~ Parish/Perkins)
Below, with a line slightly reworked, the atmosphere turns dark:
Stars fell over Alabama, I saw each one
You're walking in a dream whoever you are
Chilled are the skies, keen as frost
The ground's frozen hard, and the morning is lost
(Bob Dylan: 'Cross The Green Mountain ~ 'Tell Tell Signs' rendition)
Beneath, we’re surrounded again by a vision of happiness:
All I do is dream of you
The whole night through
And with the dawn I still go on
And dream of you
You're every thought, you're every thing
You're every song I ever sing
(Patti Page: All I Do Is Dream Of You ~ Freed/Brown)
Downcast the mood once more:
From a cheerless room
In a curtain gloom
I saw a star from heaven fall
I turned and looked again, but it was gone
All I have, and all I know
Is this dream of you
(Bob Dylan: This Dream Of You)
Brightness returns:
Now we never will roam
From the streets of Laredo
Never want to lose the spell
For here we fell in love
(Patti Page: Streets Of Laredo ~ Evans/Livingston)
A sad song follows:
As I walk out in the streets of Laredo
I walk out in Laredo one day
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen
Wrapped in white linen, and as cold as the clay
(Joan Baez: The Streets Of Laredo ~ traditional)
Likewise, sad be the lyrics beneath with a line borrowed from above:
Now the emptiness is endless, as cold as the clay
You can always come back, but you can't come back
all the way
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long
(Bob Dylan: Mississippi)
PS from Tony: please leave the video running; there’s a second fine version of Mississippi in the video that follows.
————
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
Current setlist (current streak: 19 shows in a row)
Watching The River Flow
Most Likely You Go Your Way
I Contain Multitudes
False Prophet
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Black Rider
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
My Own Version Of You
Early Roman Kings
To Be Alone With You
Key West
Gotta Serve Somebody
I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You
Melancholy Mood
Mother Of Muses
Goodbye Jimmy Reed
Every Grain Of Sand
https://youtu.be/zqwupvRhEjk
If Bob plays the same setlist as he did at the end of the previous tour throughout all 28 shows, it’ll be the longest running same setlist streak on consecutive shows ever in his entire career.
That record would have been broken, in fact, if he played the same setlist for the first 18 shows of this tour.
My expectation would be that he will change it a few times over the course of 28 shows, minimally though.
I’ve been studying Bob’s setlist changes in the very static 2013-2021 period and I came up with a pattern that he seems to use. (Not joking, I wasted so much of my precious time trying to figure it out)
Based on that pattern, there are “expected” songs he might revisit. By expected, I mean “more likely” compared to all other songs from his catalogue and of all the songs he’s ever played live. So, based on that pattern, I’ll give you likely songs that, if he changed the setlist, he’d return to the set.
I’ll put them in a few categories. Category 0 is the most likely percentage. Everything below has a lesser percentage. Remember, this is not only for this tour, I’m speaking about the entire 2022 year. I’m sure more tours will be announced later during the year.
Category 0:
17 songs from the latest setlist on the 2021 Tour (see above)
Category A:
Love Sick, It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry, Soon After Midnight, Simple Twist Of Fate
Category B:
Queen Jane Approximately, Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, It’s All Over Now Baby Blue, Forever Young, Pledging My Time, The Wicked Messenger, Tombstone Blues, What Was It You Wanted
Category C:
Highway 61 Revisited, Honest With Me, Make You Feel My Love, Pay In Blood, Thunder On The Mountain, Tryin’ To Get To Heaven, It Ain’t Me Babe, Things Have Changed, Can’t Wait, Girl From The North Country, Ballad Of A Thin Man, Lenny Bruce, Not Dark Yet, Blowin’ In The Wind, Like A Rolling Stone, Scarlet Town, Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right, Cry A While, Beyond Here Lies Nothin’, Dignity, Boots Of Spanish Leather, Long And Wasted Years
Category D:
All or Nothing At All, She Belongs To Me, I’m A Fool To Want You, What’ll I Do, The Night We Called It A Day, How Deep Is The Ocean (How High Is The Sky), That Old Feeling, Rainy Day Women, Masters Of War, Waiting For You, Forgetful Heart, Where Are You, Shelter From The Storm, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, The Levee’s Gonna Break, ‘Til I Fell In Love With You, Jolene, Sad Songs And Waltzes, What Good Am I, Huck’s Tune, Blueberry Hill, Heartbeat, You’re Too Late, Key To The Highway, Million Miles
Category E:
Drifter’s Escape, Bye And Bye, Tell Me That It Isn’t True, Sing Me Back Home, I’ll Remember You, If Dogs Run Free, A-11, Hazel, Rumble, Ring Them Bells, London Calling, Blue Monday, Down In The Flood (Crash On The Levee), Folsom Prison Blues, I Want You, Million Dollar Bash, One Too Many Mornings, You Win Again
Bonus Category, Category F:
Tangled Up In Blue, Desolation Row, Duquesne Whistle, Autumn Leaves, All Along The Watchtower, Come Rain Or Come Shine, Once Upon A Time, Summer Days, High Water, Spirit On The Water, Full Moon And Empty Arms, It’s A Man’s World, Why Try To Change Me Now, Workingman’s Blues #2, Moon River, September Of My Years, Visions Of Johanna, Lonesome Day Blues, Blind Willie McTell, To Ramona, That Old Black Magic, Stormy Weather, I Could Have Told You, This Nearly Was Mine, Where Is The One, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Learning To Fly, That Lucky Old Sun, Standing In The Doorway
If any of these songs gets played in 2022, we shouldn’t be surprised.
We should only be surprised if Bob plays a song that’s not on this list. Trust me. I dedicated so much time into this!
I would also add another bonus category that contains: Crossing The Rubicon, Murder Most Foul. Just because they were released not long ago on the latest so far studio album.
With the additions of those two and all the songs I’ve mentioned: the appearance of any of them would not surprise me or shock me.
Sure, the live debuts of Rubicon and Murder Most Foul would be cool, and maybe one of the songs from the list if they contained a cool arrangement or performance…
Apart from the two Rowdy songs still not played, all of the rest are in the category of what I call “old news”. They wouldn’t surprise me that much. I would be surprised if Bob pulled out Jokerman or something… That would be shocking to me.
I’m not saying it won’t happen, but based on my detailed research, it doesn’t fit into the scheme and pattern of Bob’s static setlists phase that started in 2013, that many call “The Set”.
If a song like Jokerman or something similar gets played, you’ll know that Bob has finally got out of his comfort zone of 2013 onward.
The 2013-2021 period doesn’t attract many fans because it’s a “no risk, no reward” type of pattern established. That being said, here is Bob’s pattern since 2013:
When Bob is bringing back songs to the setlist, it’s under these conditions:
songs he played a year earlier – which is not a big surprise
songs he played 2-3 years prior. There’s been many examples.
Not many people know Jolene was played last in 2015. It was the lone performance after a 3 year gap, since 2012.
https://youtu.be/fgLUIee8sLU
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, before 2021, was played in 2015 a few times after a 3-year gap and it was brought back in an interesting place – Albi in France, which sounds like Bob was jokingly singing Albi Your Baby Tonight.
Make You Feel My Love became a setlist regular in 2016 after a 3-year gap since 2013.
Cry A While was played in 2018 and became a setlist regular for a while, it was played for the first time since 2015.
Workingman’s Blues #2 had two rare performances in 2018 which are the last ones to date, they were played for the first time since 2015.
Thunder On The Mountain returned to the set and became a setlist regular in 2017 after not being played since 2014.
Summer Days wasn’t played from 2014 to 2017 at all.
Visions Of Johanna, the last performance to date in 2018 and the only one of that year, was played for the first time since 2015.
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven became a setlist regular in 2017, it was played for the first time since 2014.
All Along The Watchtower was played in 2018 for the first time since 2015.
What Good Am I played in 2013 for the first time since 2010.
Lonesome Day Blues and Rainy Day Women played in 2016 for the first time since 2014.
To Ramona, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Blind Willie McTell played in 2017 for the first time since 2015.
Shelter From The Storm played in 2014 for the first time since 2012.
Like A Rolling Stone played in 2016 for the first time since 2013 and also played in 2018 for the first time since 2016.
Highway 61 Revisited played in 2016 for the first time since 2013.
Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ brought back in 2019 for the first time since 2017.
Songs he played four years prior. This has only a few examples.
It Ain’t Me Babe and Honest With Me became setlist regulars in 2017 on the same exact show, after both songs weren’t played since 2013.
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue played in 2016 for the first time since 2012.
Songs he played 6-7-8 years prior
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight was played for the first time in 2021 since 2015.
Watching The River Flow and Most Likely You Go Your Way were played in 2021 for the first time since 2014.
Not Dark Yet, Dignity and Can’t Wait played in 2019 for the first time since 2012.
Every Grain Of Sand played in 2021 for the first time since 2013.
Masters Of War played in 2016 for the first time since 2010.
Rare/unique examples:
5 year gaps
Only twice that I’m aware of – Girl From The North Country played in 2019 for the first time since 2014, same goes for Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, but it was played as an instrumental in 2019
11 year gap
Only one of that kind – Lenny Bruce played in 2019 for the first time since 2008, one of the more surprising returns since 2013.
Now a special segment: Returns of songs last played in 2005
Waiting For You returned in 2013, first performance since 2005
Standing In The Doorway returned in 2017, first performance since 2005
It Takes A Lot To Laugh It Takes A Train To Cry returned in 2018, first performance since 2005
To Be Alone With You returned in 2021, first performance since 2005
So, I see a pattern in 2-3 years apart, 6-7-8 years apart and songs last played in 2005. Most examples are there. You have rare examples of 4 years apart, 5 years apart and 11 years apart. If you don’t count Shadow Kingdom as a concert, which I don’t. But if you do, then you have rare examples of What Was It You Wanted being played for the first time since 1995 and Pledging My Time since 1999.
Most of the Shadow Kingdom songs though, fit into the pattern as well…
When I Paint My Masterpiece previously last played in 2019
It’s All Over Now Baby Blue previously last played in 2019
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues previously last played in 2019 as an instrumental and in 2014 as a singing performance
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight previously last played in 2015
Queen Jane Approximately previously last played in 2013
Watching The River Flow previously last played in 2014
Most Likely You Go Your Way previously last played in 2014.
Rare examples, along with What Was It You Wanted and Pledging My Time, include To Be Alone With You (since 2005), Tombstone Blues (since 2006), Wicked Messenger (since 2009) and Forever Young (since 2011).
The biggest surprise from the 2013-2021 is possibly Huck’s Tune debuted in 2014 and played 6 times that year and never again. A song by the way recorded in 2006 and released officially in 2008 on Tell Tale Signs, which fits into the 6-7-8 year gap, which is one of the patterns Bob has used quite a few times in this period.
Dylan has not gone deeper than 2005 when it comes to picking songs last played from certain years if you don’t count Shadow Kingdom as a concert, since “The Set” started in 2013. And it’s sad because you have some great songs last played before that.
2004 – If Not For You, Silvio
2003 – Jokerman, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Dear Landlord, Everything Is Broken, Born In Time
2002 – In The Summertime, In The Garden
2001 – Gates Of Eden
2000 – Man Of Peace
1999 – I And I
1998 – License To Kill
1993 – Emotionally Yours, Tight Connection To My Heart
1992 – Idiot Wind
Let’s now look at the 2006-2012 period, songs Bob rarely dusts off the shelf:
2006 – Down Along The Cove, Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You, New Morning, Never Gonna Be The Same Again, Tombstone Blues
2007 – Country Pie, You’re A Big Girl Now
2008 – Tomorrow Is A Long Time, Tears Of Rage
2009 – Maggie’s Farm (NET performance), Times They Are A-Changin’ (NET performance), Wicked Messenger
2010 – Just Like A Woman, Mr Tambourine Man, Lay Lady Lay
2011 – I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine, Forever Young, Cold Irons Bound
2012 – Mississippi, Joey, Sugar Baby, Chimes Of Freedom, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, Ballad Of Hollis Brown, Love Minus Zero No Limit, My Back Pages, Absolutely Sweet Marie, The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll, John Brown
So many songs out there.
The quoted text includes songs that would be shocking returns in 2022 and beyond probably. But mainly this is for 2022.
I expect at least three tours in 2022. So will Bob stick to the pattern only? Or will he start a new period yet again? Maybe an updated “Set”?
We’ll see…
I laid out the main information for you; I expect you to keep this information as a future guide!
If Bob returns to a song not played in a while, just check these lists of mine to see if you should be shocked or not. I hope you will be shocked…!
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Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
Some people don’t show emotions, some at the other extreme can be swamped by them. For most of us, it is not a choice, it is just how it happens to be. I’m at the far end of the second option. I do emotions big time.
And quite possibly never more so than this moment, for having lived my life as an only child, a week ago I was contacted by a gentleman three years older than myself telling me that he thought he was my brother. And indeed so it turns out to be. I can’t begin to describe the emotions. I have spent my life wishing I had a sibling; now I find he was there all the time. And he’s such a nice guy.
Now I am not going to go into all the details surrounding how I could have lived a long and active life and never known I had a brother, but I would say that the emotions I perceive in “I was young when I left home” ring a bell with me at this point. Except “ring a bell” is a woefully inadequate and misleading image. My story is not that described by Dylan in this song, but it involves a family breaking up, and me spending my entire life without ever knowing what happened. Thankfully in the end my brother took it upon himself to face the emotions and tracked me down.
And now, despite the fact that I have spent my life writing, and indeed still do spend my time writing, I find it completely impossible to describe the emotions on the discovery that through my entire life there has been a brother of mine living in the same country as me – and indeed for three years living, not 20 miles from where I lived – without me knowing.
Such thoughts have dominated my head for the past week or so, and welled up once more as a full emotional onslaught on listening to “I was young when I left home” for the first time in a few years. And I would stress this song today wasn’t planned and it wasn’t a choice. It is simply the next song in the alphabetical list of Dylan songs for which there are cover versions.
It’s a simple and beautiful song of regret; nothing to do with my life and this last week of a glorious turmoil of tears and smiles, but still a song of a family being torn apart.
And to my surprise, there are a few covers….
Big Thief is the name given on the video above, but the Wiki article on the band makes no mention of this track which appeared on the compilation album “Decoration Day”. There is a beautiful wistfulness about this version but I am not sure what the extraneous background sounds are about.
Marcus Mumford stays closer to Dylan, and as you would expect gives a performance of perfection, with every note carefully crafted and exquisitely executed. And miraculously he holds the emotion all the way through without it ever feeling too much.
And I think when I decided to be brave and tackle this song today I expected the Marcus Mumford version would be enough for me, but no, I can still find more emotion in the version from Antony + Bryce Dessner
The final version is refreshing in that it is not tearing my emotions apart, because it doesn’t sound to me that the singer feels the music as in the earlier versions above, and for once in my life I am grateful for this, as I need something to bring me back to myself.
And I am glad that by pure chance a song of a family being torn apart (although I must stress that although I have now learned that my family broke up, the events are not related to those Dylan describes) turns up now as the next “cover a day” that is there for me to write about. Had I got here one week earlier, I’d have written the review without any knowledge that my life was about to be turned inside out. Such a thing makes everything seem so much more real.
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Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
‘Popular culture usually comes to an end very quickly. It gets thrown into the grave. I wanted to do something that stood alongside Rembrandt’s paintings.’ (Bob Dylan, 2004, Los Angeles Times.
Dylan’s music stands at the crossroads of various influences. Blues and country music are obvious influences, as is folk. (Hard not to pick up the country reference with Dylan wearing a Stetson, as he did in 2004). But let’s not forget jazz.
The sound Bob Dylan produced onstage over the years 2003 – 2005 is quite distinctive from all other periods of the NET, and often leaned towards jazz, or has jazzy undertones. This is partly a natural consequence of Dylan moving from the guitar to the piano, and the style of Dylan piano playing, and partly the result of the jazzy turn Dylan took with “Love and Theft.” On that album blues and jazz sit quite comfortably together.
The big difference between Dylan’s guitar and piano playing during these years is that he picks the guitar, playing individual notes, while he tends to play chords on the piano. Only later, in 2012, when he returns to the piano after playing the organ from 2006, will he start playing individual notes and develop an entirely new way of playing the piano.
As I have written before, Dylan had no interest in playing lead piano during these three years. He was interested in a kind of retro musical texture, playing the piano like some barroom basher from the 1930s, using syncopation to drive his songs forward.
I would say the jazziest song Dylan wrote would be ‘Po Boy’ from “Love and Theft.” It swings. It has an unusual chord structure for a Dylan song, and is more sophisticated structurally than most Dylan songs. “I am not a melodist,’ Dylan says in that same Los Angeles Time article, but I might take issue with him there as he has written some exquisite melodies and ‘Po Boy’ is one of them. In that interview, he says that his songs are based on ‘old Protestant hymns and Carter Family songs or variations of the blues form.’ but that doesn’t describe ‘Po Boy.’ Both the lyrics and the melody of that song, with its humour and pathos, evoke the hobo years of the depression era with its Jim Crow laws. It’s a song of great subtly both lyrically and melodically. There’s nothing quite like it in Dylan’s entire canon.
We are lucky to have two very high-quality performances of the song in 2004, one from Rochester (13th Nov) and another from Binghampton (14th Nov)
This first one is from Rochester and has some fine harp work by the master. The harmonica is not thought of as jazz instrument, but Dylan turns it into one here. An irresistible performance.
NET, 2004, part 2 ins 1 Po Boy (A)
Workin' like on the mainline, workin' like the devil
The game is the same it's just up on a different level
Poor boy, dressed in black
Police at your back
That odd reference to ‘on a different level’ reminds me of these lyrics from ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.
Who just cleaned up all the food from the table,
And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level
Curious. I’m not sure what Dylan means in both examples, but the po boy of that song and Hattie Carroll are both from the same class and most probably race – ‘Po Boy’ could be about a poor white person, but I get the feeling it’s a black person he’s singing about, without being quite sure why I feel that way. Perhaps it’s the reference to ‘Georgia laws’ which most likely refers to Jim Crow laws.
As with ‘Floater’ from the same album, Dylan delights in creating an imaginary back story for the persona that sings the song.
My mother was a daughter of a wealthy farmer
My father was a traveling salesman, I never met him
When my mother died, my uncle took me in, he ran a funeral parlor
He did a lot of nice things for me and I won't forget him
This is complex. Either Dylan is creating a character who is telling us about the po boy, or he is switching to the first person, and this is the po boy himself speaking. Or it’s both at the same time. Very postmodern despite the 1930’s ambience.
This second recording is from Binghampton. Dylan is clearly relishing the song. The pace is a little slower but it swings just the same. Pity there’s no harp in this one.
Po Boy (B)
If ‘Po Boy’ was Dylan’s jazziest composition, ‘Floater’ is not far behind. The opening violin takes us back into the 1920’s in terms of the sound, the beginnings of jazz, while at the same time it’s a sophisticated song that draws together on all sorts of different levels. It’s the picture of a life lived at the same time as our po boy, but a different character; it’s a wry and wise song. Rembrandt? Hmm. Norman Rockwell? Both?
We have a beauty here from that famous Glasgow concert (See NET, 2004, Part 1). It swings too. It doesn’t get much better than this. The words ‘best ever’ are hovering around me looking for a sentence to land in (I guess they found one). This performance is a joy. Note how, on proper jazz style, the guitar takes a turn after the violin. Jazz evolved the tradition of each major instrumentalist taking a solo.
Floater
Swing, one of the varieties of jazz, evokes the big band era that reigned from 1935 to 1946 and according to Wikepedia “The name derived from its emphasis of the off–beat, or nominally weaker beat” and was popular in the dance halls. Think of Benny Goodman.
‘Bye and Bye’ is another 1920s style song that also has a swing to it. A wistful song with wide-ranging lyrics best sung with ‘a lover’s sigh.’ There is direct reference to swing in the song:
I'm paintin' the town
Swinging my partner around
That refers to the dance style of the era. It could get pretty fancy, with the woman being swung over the man’s shoulder. This is slower than most swing, with a lazier beat. A touch of despair in the lyrics:
Well the future for me
is already a thing of the past
Yes, I think I know how he feels.
We had some marvellous performances of this song dating back to 2001. This one’s from Toronto (20th March) and I think it can stand beside any of the previous performances.
Bye and Bye (A)
But we have another one here from Newcastle (22nd June), something of a rarity as Dylan seldom plays the harp on this song. In my Master Harpist series I likened the effect of this style of harmonica playing to a muted trumpet, and suggested, in regard to ‘Million Miles,’ that if you transcribed what Dylan is playing and then had it played on a muted trumpet, no one would think of Bob Dylan. The same applies here. Dylan toots away on his harp just as if it were a trumpet.
Bye and Bye (B)
If you slow swing right down you get the kind of slinky after midnight jazz that Dylan captures in ‘Million Miles.’ We heard a great version of this in 2003 (See NET 2003 part 1) but this one’s even better, mainly I think because it’s better recorded. This is a great mood piece in the melancholy vein with Dylan’s muted trumpet harp adding to the effect. This is jazz club music, to be played when people are danced out and ready to do a little crying in their cups over the impossibility of getting close to the one you really want to get close to.
This one’s from Toronto again.
Million Miles
The song needed to complete this set is Moonlight, which we could describe as a jazz ballad with a very antique feel to it. It wouldn’t have sounded out of place in the early 1920s or even earlier. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a good recording of this song for 2004, although I did find this one which, although not well recorded and a bit harsh on the ears, has several interesting features. First, he plays the harmonica on the song, which I haven’t heard before, and, perhaps more interestingly, he speeds it up, making it more jazzy than it has been up till now. (I can’t date this one exactly. I have it on a Bootleg album called Going to the Finest Schools, and information on that album has vanished from google, along with the album.)
Moonlight
You might be surprised that I have included ‘To Make You Feel My Love’ in this post on Dylan’s jazzy inclinations. ‘To Make You Feel My Love’ is a ballad in the great tradition of ballads that grew out of the jazz era and became known standards. I can imagine Ella Fitzgerald singing this song back in the 1050s, or Frank Sinatra. Here’s what All Music has to say about the genre:
‘During the golden age of the American popular song (around 1915-60), several dozen very talented composers wrote a countless number of flexible songs that were adopted (and often transformed) by creative jazz musicians and singers. Often originally written for Broadway shows and Hollywood films, many of these works (generally 32 bars in length) have been performed and recorded a seemingly infinite number of times, including “Body and Soul,” “Stardust,” and “All the Things You Are.”’
This one is from Cooperstown, NY. 13th August.
To make you feel my love
All of these songs in this post are from “Love and Theft”, except ‘Million Miles’ which is from Time Out of Mind, but the story of Dylan’s jazz connection doesn’t start there. It goes back to ‘When Dogs Run Free’ from the New Morning album (1970) and was a piss-take of the beat poets with their poetry and jazz thing, a piss-take of Dylan’s friend Allen Ginsberg and of cosmic, mystically soaked poetry. Yet, somehow, these later performances do not sound like such a piss-take, but underneath it all, he’s playing it for real. When he sings about being ‘in harmony with the cosmic sea’ you think maybe he might be. And ‘what will be will be.’ Didn’t Doris Day sing that first?
One way or another, it’s a lot of fun. This one’s from Washington, April 10.
When Dogs Run Free
I’m going to finish the post with a couple of rousing performances of Summer Days; a wonderful torrent of words. The genre here is jump jazz, described by Google as, ‘A sub-style of swing played by small bands in the late 1930s and 1940s that combined strong rhythms, riff tunes, blues, and pop songs. A precursor to rhythm and blues.’
Jump jazz differs from Rock and Roll in one vital respect: ‘Syncopation is almost synonymous with swing music. … White audiences at the time preferred jazz, swing, and standards. Jump blues differed from rock and roll mainly in the syncopated rhythm and instrumentation (rhythm guitar rather than horns).
This first one’s from Manchester (11th June).
Summer Days (A)
The second is from that marvellous Rochester concert. Better get jiving.
Summer days (B)
Wow! What a way to finish. See you soon with more exciting sounds from 2004.
Kia Ora
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Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day – sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
Articles are written by a variety of volunteers and you can read more about them here If you would like to write for Untold Dylan, do email with your idea or article to Tony@schools.co.uk. Our readership is rather large (many thanks to Rolling Stone for help in that regard). Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.
Bob Dylan has never been afraid to venture into every aspect of life, and for this of course he can as easily be praised for his willingness to confront the total reality of the everyday experience, as much as he can be criticised for giving voice to aspects of life that some people really don’t like – or at least really don’t want to know very much about.
Thus arises the analyses of Bob’s music in ways that can suit all tastes – just pick out the bits you like and ignore the bits that don’t fit.
‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’ takes us into a world in which a lady invites you up into her room. Many songwriters would skate over such situations, not because anything illegal is going on, but rather because the notion of an agency such as London Escorts isn’t mentioned very often in popular song.
Yet Bob from the very start turned the whole world of what we can and can’t say inside out. So we can now speak of “Sweet Melinda” and why not? Although it could be argued that by the time we get to “Key West” we really are going to places that no one else has ever been before in song.
Indeed trying to work out what Bob thinks is a good idea and what he doesn’t really can be incredibly difficult to work out.
For example, if you take the lines
Well, the Book of Leviticus and DeuteronomyThe law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers
what are we to make of that? Is Leviticus – the Book of Laws – really a book of laws, or is the law of the jungle something that can be followed? Or indeed are there really no rules at all except for your own rules? Be consistent to your own rules, and everything is fine… that sort of thing.
Indeed it is surely worth remembering that the Elvis song “One night with you” was originally called “One Night of Sin”.
What Bob has done has taken the fact that there really are no limits and offered the thought that everything is possible. Go where you like, do as you please.
Patti Page’s rendition of the following song is the romantic antithesis of “Romeo” George Sanders saying to Eve (Anne Baxter) in the movie starring Bette Davis – “you agree now completely you belong to me” (All About Eve):
Just remember til you're home again
You belong to me
(Patti Page: You Belong To Me ~ Price/King/Stewart)
In the song lyrics below, the sentiment expressed is anything but romantic:
And puts her hands in her back pockets
Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo
He's moaning, "You belong to me"
(Bob Dylan: Desolation Row)
In biblical lore, Adam’s first wife flees from Eden to escape her husband’s domination; he feels that she belongs to him like a piece of property.
Wife number one does not receive good press; she’s depicted as a screech owl, a night demon:
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet
With the wild beasts of the island
And the satyr shall cry to his fellow
The screech owl shall also rest there
And find for herself a place of rest
(Isaiah 34:14)
Her new abode sounds a lot like Hollywood in Los Angeles to where modern Lilith flies from Broadway in New York City:
This place ain't doing me any good
I'm in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood
Just for a second there, I thought I saw something move
Gonna take dancing lessons, do the jitterbug rag
Ain't no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag
(Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed)
Loyalty is the focus in the song lyrics beneath:
Hollywood's got movie stars, and movie czars
Cocktail bars, shiny cars, and a wonderful climate they say
But it hasn't got the handy subway trains
You seldom find a taxi when it rains
New York's my home sweet home
(Patti Page: New York's My Home Town ~ Jenkins)
https://youtu.be/Qwcgs7RE0G0
And best it be that loyalty is returned in kind:
I was dancing with my darling to the Tennessee Waltz
When an old friend I happened to see
Introduced her to my loved one, and while they were dancing
My friend stole my sweetheart from me
(Patti Page: The Tennessee Waltz ~ King/Stewart)
As the song above indicates, loyalty often isn’t returned
– satyrs await:
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)
Nevertheless, hope springs eternal:
Like the mountain laurel in the grove, dear
My love, dear, is ever green
Like the mountain laurel finds the grove, dear
I'll find you again
(Vaughn Monroe : The Mountain Laurel ~ C. Price)
That’s just how it goes:
Forty-eight hours later, the sun is breaking
Near broken chains, mountain laurel, and rolling rocks
She's begging to know what measures he will be taking
He's pulling her down, and she's clutching onto his long golden locks
(Bob Dylan: Changing Of The Guards)
Money doesn’t talk; it swears:
Laurel's playing for money
On your ribbon wide
(Bob Dylan: Patty's Gone To Laredo)
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Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
Aaron: The Band’s Rock of Ages live album was released in 1972. It was compiled from a series of shows from December 28 through December 31 1971.
In 2001 it was remastered and expanded with 10 new tracks including four recorded with Dylan as a special guest. You see Bob join the guys on stage after midnight on the last night – so what you get here is almost like a Dylan & The Band live EP from New Year’s Day 1972. A splendid time was had by all!
“Four nights from December 28 through 31 were recorded, and the balance of the recordings on the released album were derived from the final two nights. Their previous employer Bob Dylan made a surprise visit on the New Year’s Eve show, playing four songs with the group in the early morning hours of January 1, 1972.”
Tony: I do like this song, but somehow feel this is one of those moments when Bob said to the gang, “let’s play this” and off they go. As a result, and of course as always this is just my personal view, this live version loses some of the utter magic of the song. And just in case you might have forgotten how it went on the studio outtake, here it is…
I do love that recording. Bob at his best!
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Tony: On the other hand “When I paint” works really well in this recording, maybe because there’s no thought of doing a re-arrangement, and Bob’s voice is in full, vibrant form.
Also, this is a song that really can take the fulsome bashing-out treatment, which gives a really fun expansion to the notion of actually painting a masterpiece. There is also that great fun irony of not wanting to be there, but actually taking it all in…
The streets of Rome are filled with rubble
Ancient footprints are everywhere
You could almost think that you're seeing double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs
but then instead wanting to be back in the land of Coca Cola.
And I think that is often the point for me. Some songs work with a re-arranged live format for belting it out, and some don’t. Here the vigour and energy is part of the irony, and I think it works beautifully.
Don’t Ya Tell Henry
On the other hand….
The ragged entry of the vocals at the start again suggests there really wasn’t too much rehearsal going on here. And this is a bit of a bash, very much unrehearsed. And the biggest problem is that Bob doesn’t bring any extra nuance or new idea into the arrangement.
Overall I’m not sure what there is here to rescue the piece; a bit of a mess to my ears.
But that’s probably just me getting old.
Like A Rolling Stone
There have been so many thousands of versions of this song one always wonders what Bob can do with it next. There is a slight playing with the rhythm which is fun and the pianist endeavours to attempt to give us a few slight variations.
But I am sorry to say it feels slightly leaden. Does it give any new insight into the song? Does it take us somewhere new? Not really – it is a chance for the audience to shout “How does it feel” and be part of the party – which is great in itself – but not all parties benefit from being filmed or recorded.
I think that the reason that Dylan on tour has always been of such interest, and indeed why I’m delighted to be running the Never Ending Tour series on this site, is that among the touring events there are many, many glorious moments that it is fantastic to have recorded for posterity. But (and this is a very personal view) it doesn’t mean that everything done on the tours, or the sudden one night stands, is great. It would have been wonderful to be there, and that would be a memory to hold, but the performance is another performance.
So for me, “When I paint my masterpiece” is the stand out moment – and that recording I really do want to play again. So if you’ll excuse me, that is exactly what I will do now…
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
“The great thing about the really great songwriters, is that the great songs, the really magic ones, they play themselves. There’s very little question about what you’re supposed to do. I love that when it happens. And Bob has done that over the years to a great extent, with a great variety of musicians.”
That’s what Jim Keltner says when, in Uncut’s Tell Tale Signs Special (2008), he reminisces for the umpteenth time about one of his earliest recording sessions with Dylan, about “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” in 1973 (“I actually cried while we were recording it”). He tells it as an introduction to his story about recording “Red River Shore”: “And that particular song, it was one of those really beautiful Bob moments: a great song, and he sang it really beautifully.”
He is not the only session musician who is a fan, and who is disappointed that the song is not selected for Time Out Of Mind. Veteran keyboardist Jim Dickinson thinks it’s “the best thing we recorded”, and guitarist Duke Robillard is equally unequivocal: “I was mesmerised by it, completely blown away.”
Dickinson is the only one who seeks some kind of explanation as for why Dylan passes over the song for the album. He is familiar with the bard’s reputation (“Dylan is notorious for leaving off what appears to be the best one”) and through a casual remark from Dylan he understands that “Red River Shore” has been tried many times before (engineer Chris Shaw reveals that there are four versions):
“One of the things you really don’t want to hear on a record is boredom. And, while, certainly, no one was bored by playing with Bob Dylan, once they did fall into playing repetitious parts, I think that had that same effect on him.”
He does recognise it. Dickinson has worked with Alex Chilton, as a producer both for his solo album Like Flies on Sherbert (1979) and for the last record of the legendary Big Star, Third (1974): “After you did a song with Alex three or four times, he was past it.” And Keith Richards (Dickinson plays piano on “Wild Horses”) has the same short span, has the real fire only in the moment of creation; “Keith Richards said, that’s where the song comes alive, the first performance.” More detailed, and infectiously, he recounts his three-day recording experience with Sticky Fingers in an interview for ArtistHouseMusic, shortly before his death in 2009;
“But the thing that I learned… what we did was the same thing every day. Insert the artist. Hamburger production. Assembly line. Lines, patterns, forms… insert the artist. Play it till it’s right. I been on cut 132 with Aretha Franklin, I mean: play it till it’s right. That was the way I thought you made a record. And here’s The Rolling Stones. As they take literally the first cut they get through without a major mistake. Nobody says the words “should we do that again, can we do that better, why don’t you do this, why you don’t that…” those words were not spoken in three days. When they got to do a cut without a major mistake, Charlie Watts got up from the drums and, by God, it was over. And I’m sitting there and I’m thinking, well, this is certainly not the way we make records – who do you suppose is right here? I think maybe it’s them. So I learned spontaneity, the importance of capturing spontaneity.”
Dickinson asks Richards about it and Keef confirms that they really do it like this all the time. “We take the first performance, as we write the song. You know, you capture the moment of spontaneity and creation. The only problem is, when we go on the road I gotta learn all this stuff over.”
It might be an explanation. And Jim Dickinson is no nitwit, of course. He is the man Dylan describes in his Theme Time Radio Hour as that magical musical maestro from Memphis, “the kind of guy you could call to play piano, fix a tractor, or make red coleslaw from scratch.” And this magical musical maestro thinks “Red River Shore” is the best thing we recorded, calling the recording amazing and the song remarkable. Still, Jim’s guess as to why Dylan rejects “Red River Shore”, bored by playing repetitious parts, doesn’t seem entirely conclusive. Apart from those four versions of “Red River Shore”, Dylan also records a very long version of “Highlands”, three versions of “Can’t Wait” and three versions of “Mississippi”… Dylan’s patience and stamina don’t seem to be too bad these days.
Surely the music cannot be a problem either. The musical accompaniment of both versions we know (of Tell Tale Signs) is, as Dickinson also implies, beyond criticism. Well, obviously; Augie Meyers, Duke Robillard, Jim Keltner, Bob Dylan, Jim Dickinson, Bucky Baxter… in the studio there’s an A-team of musicians with a grand total of about 200 years of experience at Premier League level – these guys could have made a good song out of “Driftin’ Too Far From Shore” even on a bad day. The sound then, perhaps? Yes, the #2 on Disc 3 of Tell Tale Signs, the version with the even stronger Tex-Mex colour and Dylan’s voice “drier” and mixed a bit further back, does have a different sound, but the first version, on Disc 1, is not at all that far away from the sound of Time Out Of Mind.
The lyrics then. Maybe the master is still dissatisfied with the lyrics – kind of how he explained the rejection of “Blind Willie McTell” at the time; because the song was “not finished”. Possible. True, the lyrics do seem somewhat aimless. But on the other hand, it has more than enough gems to overcome something as debatable as “lack of direction”. The opening, for starters, has a classic, cast-iron poetic power;
Some of us turn off the lights and we live
In the moonlight shooting by
Some of us scare ourselves to death in the dark
To be where the angels fly
Pretty maids all in a row lined up
Outside my cabin door
I’ve never wanted any of ’em wanting me
’Cept the girl from the Red River shore
Already looks like one of the great songs, the really magic ones, the ones that play themselves.
To be continued. Next up Red River Shore part 3: Pretty angels all flying in a row
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:
While Shake Shake Mama was a fun rockabilly song that needed very little introduction, I Feel a Change Comin’ On, just by its title name alone, deserves some prying attention. For example, Is Dylan (and Hunter), with I Feel a Change Comin’ On, paying tribute to the legendary Rhythm and Blues artist, Sam Cooke?
Dylan performed Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem on March 28, 2004, where Cooke performed it in February 1963. Recall from an early Dylan session, Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come was in turn inspired by Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind
Another clue to the origins of the song, come in the second last verse:
“I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver
And I'm reading James Joyce
Some people they tell me
I've got the blood of the land in my voice”
What has “listening to Billy Joe Shaver” and “reading James Joyce” got to do with this song? Let’s ask Bob Dylan, in the unlikelihood that he can give us a definitive answer.
In fact, Douglas Brinkley does precisely that in an interview in the May 2009 edition of the Rolling Stone Magazine. Per Dylan:
“Waylon played me (Shaver’s) Ain’t No God in Mexico, and I don’t know, it was quite good. Shaver and David Allen Coe became my favorite guys in that (outlaw) genre. The verse came out of nowhere. No …You know something? Subliminally, I can’t say that is actually true. But I think it was more of a Celtic thing. Tying Billy Joe with James Joyce. I think subliminally or astrologically those two names just wanted to be combined.”
I don’t know about you, but I got to believe that Dylan is pulling Brinkley’s leg.
What I get from Dylan’s “explanation” is that the connection of the two names is more likely than not, about “Joyce” rhyming with “voice”. (Dylan sometimes prioritizes rhymes and music accommodations over meaningful lyrics)
Billy Joe Shaver is a hand-maimed Texas guitar picker who wrote many of Waylon Jennings best songs. Waylon Jennings was one of the Highwaymen who made “Outlaw” country music very popular. (The other three Highwaymen were Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson).
And the song that Dylan is referring to is one of Jennings most popular songs: Waylon Jennings, Ain’t No God In Mexico
The last two lines of the above-referred to verse, “Some people they tell me/ I’ve got the blood of the land in my voice” may be Dylan’s saying people are reading too much into his lyrics.
People are saying, “The blood of the land in my voice”, is like saying Dylan is a prophet, or the ‘voice of the generation’ and he is reading everyone the riot act. I suspect Dylan is mocking this notion.
So, given that, perhaps we should be careful about reading too much into this song. But what the heck, this is Dylan, and let’s have some fun.
Let’s start at the beginning with the following interesting verse:
“Well I’m looking the world over
Looking far off into the East
And I see my baby coming
She’s walking with the village priest
I feel a change coming on
And the last part of the day is already gone”
The first lines remind me of the lines in the refrain from I Shall Be Released:
“I see my light come shining/ From the West onto the East.”
DYLAN, (the song narrator as opposed to Dylan, the songwriter), in his wishful thinking and dream of finding eternal love, is a wanderer, searching the world over for his perfect soul mate, and lands in the mystical east.
After repeating the loneliness and abandoned love themes in so many songs, I wonder if DYLAN’s I can “see my baby coming” isn’t just wishful thinking, and perhaps a dream (Afterall, the second previous song on the album was This Dream of You).
Is Dylan raising up some controversy about his religious affiliations again with:
“She’s walking with the village priest”
Or once again, is Dylan just trying to fit a rhyming word with “east”? “Priest” could have just as easily been “beast”, which is what appears in the first google search of Dylan’s lyrics for this song.
I have another explanation for “priest”, which is likely a stretch, that comes in the last verse of the song. Bear with me.
The line, “I feel a change coming on” is repeated five times in the song. In the first verse, DYLAN could be talking about a positive change he is hopeful will come into his life, with a new love interest.
The next verse, in my mind confirms that DYLAN has not yet found his eternal love:
“We got so much in common
We strive for the same old ends
And I just can't wait
Wait for us to become friends
I feel a change comin' on
And the fourth part of the day's already gone”
The first two lines suggest the two bound lovers will have much in common. However, DYLAN is still waiting for this perhaps imaginary woman, to become friends with him.
Once again, DYLAN feels a change is coming but this time it is connected to a more developed last line, as “the fourth Part” which replaces “last part” (“of the day’s already gone).”
Maybe this is a deliberate clue as to the evolving meaning of “a change comin’ on”.
The next verse, to me, raises the clue that DYLAN knows his dream of finding his soul mate is whimsical:
“Well, life is for love
And they say that love is blind
If you wanna live easy
Baby, pack your clothes with mine
I feel a change comin' on
And the fourth part of the day's already gone”
Admitting “love is blind”, is acknowledging that loving someone makes you unable to see their faults. Which might mean this love will ultimately fail once his vision is regained and he can recognize her faults.
Is “a change comin’ on” evolving into something temporary or fleeting, as opposed to a permanent change?
In the next verse, maybe DYLAN is admitting to himself that his dream of finding his eternal love, is just a dream, that even if “realized”, will prove false:
“Well now what's the use in dreaming?
You got better things to do
Dreams never did work for me anyway
Even when they did come true”
In the next verse, DYLAN may be losing his mind, in his mind, as he imagines the lust and the desire for his loved one:
“You are as porous as ever
Baby, you can start a fire
I must be losing my mind
You're the object of my desire
I feel a change comin' on
And the fourth part of the day's already gone”
Maybe the “change comin’ on” is like his dream and is unlikely to ever happen.
Which brings us back to the second last verse, which we already reviewed about Billy Joe Shaver, Joyce, and people misinterpreting his songs.
My interpretation of the last verse, pulls everything together, “in my mind”:
“Everybody got all the money
Everybody got all the beautiful clothes
Everybody got all the flowers
I don't have one single rose
I feel a change comin' on
And the fourth part of the day's already gone”
With help from Seth Rogovoy and Margotin and Guesdon, “the fourth part of the day’s already gone”, may be a reference to the Hebrew Book of Ezra-Nehemiah.
From the Book of Ezra-Nehemiah (9:1-3): “The book of the law of the Lord their God was read for one-fourth of the day, and for another fourth they confessed and did obeisance to the Lord their God.”
Wikipiedia tells us that “The book tells how Nehemiah, around 400 BC, at the court of the king in Susa, is informed that Jerusalem is without walls, and resolves to restore them.
“The king appoints him as governor of Judah, and he travels to Jerusalem. There he rebuilds the walls, despite the opposition of Israel’s enemies, and reforms the community in conformity with the Law of Moses.
“Nehemiah sees that the Jewish nobles are oppressing the poor, and forces the cancellation of all debt and mortgages; while previous governors have been corrupt and oppressive, he has been righteous and just
“Nehemiah assembles the people and has Ezra read to them the law-book of Moses; Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites institute the Feast of Booths (ie Sukkah), in accordance with the Law.
“The Jews assemble in penance and prayer, recalling their past sins, God’s help to them, and his promise of the land. The priests, Levites and the Israelite people enter into a covenant, agreeing to separate themselves from the surrounding peoples and to keep the Law.
“Jerusalem is repopulated by the Jews living in the towns and villages of Judah and Benjamin. A list of priests and Levites who returned in the days of Cyrus (the first returnees from Babylon) is presented; Nehemiah, aided by Ezra, oversees the dedication of the walls and the rebuilt city.
“After 12 years, he finds that the Israelites have been backsliding and taking non-Jewish wives, and he stays in Jerusalem to enforce the Law.”
In other words, this cycle of repentance and sin continues, or as DYLAN says, “the fourth part of the day’s already gone” and this quarter day of repenting by the people of Israel, was ultimately meaningless.
In the last verse, the people or nobles with all the “money”, “beautiful clothes” and “all the flowers”, overlord the poor, who “don’t have one single rose.”
Back to the reference to his “baby” “walking with the village priest,” in the first verse, DYLAN or Dylan, a Jew, is flirting or dreaming of living outside his faith with a non-Jewess.
In the last lines of the song, do you believe that change is “blowin’ in the wind” or a change is coming on? Like the fickle People of Israel and humankind in general, does DYLAN really believe this dream of a better world, will come true?
Tony Attwood has some interesting observations about the music (co-written with Hunter):
“Musically it is all Dylan, I suspect, and it is one of those pieces he has enjoyed in more recent times where he makes the musical accompaniment complex whereas the melody itself actually sounds very simple. After all, he’d found all these funny chords, and he liked to use them”.
While Margotin and Guesdon describe the song as “an excellent slow rock song with an irresistible groove, provided by the talented George G. Receli and Tony Garnier. The accordion again brings a Cajun tone so important to Dylan. Mike Campbell performs two magnificent solos. Dylan plays organ and provides an excellent vocal performance with “the blood of the land in his voice” as he himself says in his lyrics.”
Bob Dylan – I Feel a Change Comin’ On (Official Audio)
Influenced by Edgar Allen Poe, many of the lyrics of singer/songwriter Bob Dylan demonstrate a dark-humoured interest in the macabre; certainly in painful loneliness.
She wears an Egyptian ring, it sparkles before she speaks
She's a hypnotist collector, you are a walking antique
(Bob Dylan: She Belongs To Me)
In the movie “All About Eve”, an aspiring young actress, Eve, conspires to take the place of an aging star played by Bette Davis.
Therein says a theatre critic to Eve:
"And you realize - you agree now completely
you belong to me"
“You Belong To Me” is sung by Bob Dylan for “Natural Born Killers”, a movie that satirizes the role the media takes on for monetary gain through the sensationalizing of mass murderers. In context of the macabre movie mentioned directly above, it’s no romantic song as it is elsewhere rendered by sweet baby Patti Page:
See the pyramids along the Nile
Watch the sunrise on a tropic Isle
Just remember, darling, all the while
You belong to me
(You Belong To Me ~ Price/King/Stewart)
In the psycho-horror movie “What Ever Happened To Baby Jane”, based on a story by Henry Farrell, Bette Davis plays an ageing vaudeville actress who’s upstaged by her younger sister with the arrival of talking movies.
The Davis film features a porcelain Baby Jane doll with a wide ribbon on her head.
Brings an association by at least some listeners to the following song lyrics:
And Laurel's playing for money
On your ribbon wide
(Bob Dylan: Patty's Gone To Laredo)
Songwriter/singer/musician Bob Dylan covers the song below (rendered by Page and others as well):
We three, we're all alone
Living in a memory
My echo, my shadow, and me
We three, we're not a crowd
We're not even company
(Patti Page: We Three ~ Robertson/Cogane/Mysels)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suYoM7rre1k
A sorrowful sentiment reworked in the song lyrics beneath:
Sign on the window says,"lonely"
Sign on the door says,"no company allowed"
Sign on the street says,"you don't own me"
Sign on the porch says ,"three's a crowd"
(Bob Dylan: Sign On The Window)
Take what you can from coincidence.
———-
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
A list of past episodes of this series is given at the end.
Sometimes with these covers I immediately know the cover version I want to offer as a highlight, sometimes I have to go through quite a few covers to find one that seems to me to offer further insights or additional entertainment or new emotions, or something else along those lines.
Today, with “I want you” I started looking / listening and immediately found a version that really intrigues me, interests me, and at times has me asking “Oh why on earth did they do that?”
This is Colton Ryan, Caitlin Houlahan from the stage show…
If you’ve seen the play you’ll know all about this version of course, and I do love what they have done but the extemporisation by the male voice really isn’t necessary in my view. They are creating a beautiful re-interpretation of the song and no extra emotion is needed. (I had this idea some years ago of a stage play which takes place in bar which has a notice up saying “No emotions” instead of “No smoking”, except I didn’t have any idea how to write it, once I had done the stage design).
Anway Bob hardly puts any emotion into the song when he sings it. It is in fact just a statement. The lyrics are enough.
There is incidentally a version from the original London cast of the show which I don’t think works nearly as well but you can find it on line.
And here’s another one I enjoy: Alice Jayne
Now we have song as a bouncy fun version with no hyper emotion. It is not that I am against emotion – it is just that the song and the fun they have with the accompaniment is enough. And indeed this version makes me listen to the lyrics, even though I guess I have known them for much of my life. The harmonica incidentally is great fun too.
It is in fact quite interesting that such different versions are available of such a simple song. Although with this one (Phosphorescent) I was waiting for something else to happen, but it didn’t. But then I am listening to the songs one after the other, which of course one would not normally do.
https://youtu.be/Ibi8kw8Tk24
The 50 years of Amnesty album has some wonderful recordings, and rarely lets us down, and this time they don’t either. I’m not quite sure about the percussion effect, but the way the middle 8 is changed really works for me – and so is the bare and open follow-up verse.
But the one I especially went looking for was the Old Crowe Medicine Show version, and although it is fun, it delivers less than I expected.
And because this is my blog, and when I write I am both writer and publisher, no one can tell me off for bending the rules or ceaselessly repeating myself, so I am going to sneak in for the 90000th time (or something like that) a mention of Old Crow’s version of Visions of Johanna.
This of course is going to turn up again when we get to V, if we ever get there, and I’ve highlighted it before, but I still love it so much. And to make it even worse there is no copy of the song on the internet from their album – just several live recordings which are nowhere near the same. But if you have Spotify you can find it and play it.
And you really should.
But let me return to my theme with a nice bit of fun – a gorgeous instrumental version…
Oh that is fun. What a nice way to finish before braving the traffic from the East Midlands to London in the snow.
———-
Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is currently published once or 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. Details of some of our past articles are also included on the home page.
We also have a Facebook site with over 14,000 members.
The Kingston Trio’s track record is staggering. Five number-one albums, four of them consecutive (in 1959 and 1960, the successive records At Large, Here We Go Again, Sold Out and String Along all reached the top position); fourteen Top 10 albums; three Grammy’s; in 22 of the 52 weeks of 1960, a Kingston Trio album was number one, and so on. As a result, the trio is considered mainstream and not appreciated in hardcore folk circles, among snobby college kids and other self-proclaimed purists, but Dylan has always remained a fan. In almost every interview in which he is asked about his musical idols, he mentions the men from San Francisco, among Odetta, Harry Belafonte and Woody Guthrie, and in his autobiography Chronicles he is unequivocal, with one small reservation, as well:
“I liked The Kingston Trio. Even though their style was polished and collegiate, I liked most of their stuff anyway. Songs like “Getaway John,” “Remember the Alamo,” “Long Black Rifle.”
… and further on Dylan is even rather exuberant in his admiration:
“Folk music, if nothing else, makes a believer out of you. I believed Dave Guard in The Kingston Trio, too. I believed that he would kill or already did kill poor Laura Foster. I believed that he’d kill someone else, too. I didn’t think he was playing around.”
Dylan names three song titles that can be found on Side 2 of the millionseller At Large (1959, fifteen weeks at #1), and poor Laura Foster is of course referring to the landslide 1958 “Tom Dooley”, the hit that pundits like Joan Baez, John Fogerty and Joni Mitchell say ignited the folk boom, the single that sold more than six million copies, and inspired envious peers The Four Preps to write the witty parody “More Money For You And Me”;
Hang down the Kingston Trio,
Hang 'em from a tall oak tree;
Eliminate the Kingston Trio;
More money for you and me.
Dylan remains loyal to the Kingston Trio even after they are finally eliminated. From 1965 onwards, the commercial success is over. Stay Awhile does not get any further than a 125th place in the summer, Somethin’ Else from November ’65 doesn’t even make it to the Billboard Top 150 LPs. But it reaches Dylan’s turntable anyhow, apparently. The Dylan cover “She Belongs To Me” is dismissed for the final tracklist, remaining an outtake, which is a shame – although it is, like more of the tracks, a rather frenetic attempt by the men to fit in with the times, and a particularly atypical recording for the Kingston Trio, it still has most definitely an antiquarian charm. And the song is still way better than the slightly bizarre Dylan parody that does pass selection, the wacky “Verandah Of Millium August”, a sort of psychedelic mutilation of “Tombstone Blues”, with presumably satirically intended, bad Dylan imitations in the lyrics such as
The yellow window's hanging on the bed across the wall
Well, always in the morning the yellowest of all
And the faces of the people in the window look so small
And the faces in the morning were the peoplest of all
Standing on the verandah of Millium August.
https://youtu.be/iVvx0CguTu4
… and Dylanesque rhymes like Victrola/crayola and someone else’s odour/secret decoder, Dyanesque meant images like a prisoner on a cemetery lane and Dylanesque meant idioms like kaleidoscope and renaissance wallpaper.
Dylan most likely has noted it with some bewilderment, but has in any case already been touched by the song that precedes that weird “Verandah Of Millium August”, by the opening track of Side 2, by “Red River Shore”.
The Kingston Trio’s “Red River Shore” is, apart from the martial drum rolls in the background, a real, old-fashioned Kingston Trio song; the charm of a nineteenth-century folk song, banjo, nice harmony vocals and no new-fangled antics like elsewhere on the LP. No tomfoolery like the funky organ, electric guitar and intrusive percussion in Mose Allison’s “Parchman Farm” (the opening and unlikely single choice), which by the way is spelled rather disrespectfully both on the single and the LP as Parchment; no hooliganism like the all-electric pop rocker “Runaway Song” or the shameless Byrds rip-off “Long Time Blues” – songs the overenthusiastic writer of the liner notes probably is thinking of when he writes: “In places it has a beat born in that jailhouse and baptized in the waters of the Mersey.”
But fortunately, “Red River Shore” is still old-school.
…a narrative ballad with an ancient melody, in a classical arrangement, with a Civil War colour and archaic language;
At the foot of yon mountain, where the big river flows,
there's a fond creation and a soft wind that blows.
There lives a fair maiden, she's the one I adore.
She's the one I will marry on the Red River shore.
… is the opening couplet, which right away explains the nineteenth-century colour; the Kingstons adapt the “Red River Shore” version as collected by the music historian John Lomax and recorded by The New Christy Minstrels (Cowboys And Indians, 1964), an adaptation of the time-honoured “New River Shore”, of which the oldest known version was indeed written down in 1864, during the Civil War.
In all versions we find the text fragment Dylan eagerly saves for reuse:
She wrote me a letter, she wrote it so kind
and in that letter these words you will find:
Come back to me, darling, you're the one I adore,
You're the one I will marry on the Red River shore.
… the words Dylan will transfer during these very same recording sessions in Miami, January 1997, to that other Great Masterpiece, to “Not Dark Yet”, also to the second verse:
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writing what was in her mind
“All these songs are connected. Don’t be fooled. I just opened up a different door in a different kind of way. It’s just different, saying the same thing,” as Dylan says in his brilliant MusiCares speech, February 2015.
For his own “Red River Shore”, Dylan radically changes the plot. The Kingston Trio tells of the woman who so badly wants to marry the protagonist, but her father forbids it. The narrator wants to elope with his fair maiden, but Dad sees through it and awaits him with a private army of 24. With his six-shooter, the hero tries to fight his way through (“six men were wounded and seven were down”), but then he has to give up: “I can’t fight an army of twenty and four / when I’m bound for my true love on the Red River shore.”
Which may seem a bit excessive, twenty-four enemies, but compared to his predecessor in the original 1864 version of “New River Shore”, he is still a pathetic sissy:
He raised for him an army
Of sixty and four
To fight her old father
On the New River shore.
He drew out his sword
And he waved it around
Till twenty and four
Lay dead on the ground
And the rest of the number
Lay bleeding in gore,
And he gained his own true love
On the New River shore.
Somethin’ else, indeed.
To be continued. Next up: Red River Shore part 2 – The importance of capturing spontaneity
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:
A list of previous articles in this series is given at the foot of this piece.
Time out of mind…
Released September 30, 1997
Photographers Daniel Lanois, Mark Seliger, Susie Q., K. Dalka
Art-director Geoff Gans
Geoff Gans
Since the late Nineties, nearly all of Dylan’s album and book packaging, archival reissues and tour graphics up until today have been the work of art director Geoff Gans.
And if you were a music fan in the Eighties, there’s a big chance you have at least one piece of music in your collection on which you can hear Geoff Gans.
R.E.M. was in L.A. in May 1987 to mix their Document album at Master Control in Burbank, when a benefit for Texas Record was organized in McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, on May 24.
There were two shows planned that evening: one at 8pm followed by a 10:30pm Show. As Peter Buck hadn’t arrived yet, Geoff Gans picked up an acoustic guitar to accompany Michael Stipe on a new song: ‘This One Goes Out’. Geoff was present as the art department boss at I.R.S. Records. Prior to establishing himself in graphics, he had played guitar with local bands in L.A.
Peter Buck arrived while Michael and Geoff were performing, and he took over for the rest of the show. So, it was the only song on which Gans participated. While Buck did play on the second version recorded later that evening, the version with Geoff was chosen to be released as the b-side of ‘The One I Love’, as the song was retitled later.
Later, Gans did the artwork for the R.EM. compilation Eponymous (1988), before he made the switch to Rhino Records, where he specialized in packaging high-end boxed sets and other luxury publications. That made him the perfect choice for Dylan first collection of drawings and sketches: the Drawn Blank book (November 1994).
Around that time Kim Gaucher was doing the art work for Dylan’s albums: Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume 3 (November 1994) and MTV Unplugged (May 1995). But as Time Out of Mind was Dylan’s first album with original material since Under the Red Sky in 1990, Geoff Gans was chosen to take care of the cover design.
For his first album assignment, Dylan gives him a blurry photo to work with. On the picture taken by Daniel Lanois, the producer of the album, the singer sits in the control room of a studio with an acoustic guitar in his hands. There’s someone that looks like a ghostly figure behind the console. The location is most probably the Criteria Recording Studios in Miami. What attracted Dylan in this image is probably that he looks like an old folk-blues guy sitting uncomfortably inside a fortress of technology.
Gans adds a brown band at the top, in which the title is saved in white letters, while the name of the singer is added in black letters. Nice detail is the drop “OUT” in the title.
On the back side of the sleeve, a portrait in color is used. It was made by Rolling Stone’s Chief Photographer Mark Seliger. In this function, he shot over 175 covers for the magazine, between 1992 and 2002.
As Bob is wearing exactly the same shirt as on the photograph ‘Bob Dylan with a Bicycle’ dated “ca. 1995”, it might be that the singer wasn’t available for a new shoot, as he had been in hospital at the time, with a life-threatening illness.
Three more photos are shown on the inner sleeves of the vinyl records. (The fourth side doesn’t have an illustration, just white song titles on a black background.) All these are black & white photographs. The first picture is full page, the other two are printed half page. One picture doesn’t have any persons involved, just instruments inside the studio.
But the other two show a seated Dylan. The full page one shows Bob sitting in front of a table, one hand resting on a walking stick. He is wearing a black suit and white shirt, in sharp contrast with the two men sitting at the other side of the table, who wear ordinary clothes. One is laughing and gives a thumbs up, while the other man looks rather angry. On the first pressings there were only three photographers credited, while later a fourth was added: K. Dalka. As there is no info to be found about this photographer, your guess is as good as mine.
On the last picture of Dylan (above) Bob is in a living room, sitting wide-legged next to a lamp. There’s a story that Gans faxed Dylan one of the photos for the album and Dylan preferred the fax to the actual photo. That’s probably this picture. It might be the one taken by Suzie Pullen, Bob’s longtime aide/assistant and dresser/stylist.
Mavis Staples once referred to her as “the girl that’s with him all the time”.
Beneath the photograph are the credits (musicians, studios, photographers…).
There’s one thing that every portrait used on Time Out of Mind have in common, and that is that Bob Dylan looks directly in the camera, as if to say: “Hey, I’m still here, you know.”
Footnote: On the booklet with the CD version, there’s an extra photo added. This color photo is also blurry and Bob looking straight in the lens again. The photographer is uncredited.
The articles from this series, in alphabetical order
Patti Page borrows the following song from the movie by the same name; makes a big hit out of it:
Hush, hush, sweet Charlotte
Charlotte, don't you cry
Hush, hush, sweet Charlotte
He'll love you till he dies
(Patti Page: Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte ~ De Vol/David)
In the movie “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte”, starring Bette Davis, Mariam connives with Dr. Drew to steal the southern belle’s estate by driving her insane; actually beheaded by his wife, Charlotte’s thought to have murdered John, the married man she fell in love with a long time ago.
The two culprits make it appear that Charoltte shoots Dr. Drew; his ‘body’ then thrown into a muddy swamp. He returns to the mansion, and haunts Charlotte. Now more mad than ever, Charlotte catches on to the evil plot, and shoves a large flowerpot down on their heads.
Take what you have gathered from coincidence – the Gothic movie above reminds one somewhat distantly of the fragmented narrative in the song lyrics quoted beneath:
Charotte's a harlot dresses in scarlet
Mary dresses in green ....
I'll drag his corpse through the mud
It's now or never
More than ever
When I first met you, I didn't think you would do
It's soon after midnight, and I don't want nobody but you
(Bob Dylan: Soon After Midnight)
The singer/songwriter/musician explains how he comes up with his musical works art:
I'll pick a number between a one and two
And I'll ask myself, "What would Caesar do?"
I'll bring someone back to life in more ways than one
Don't matter how long it takes
It'll be done when it's done
(Dylan: My Own Version Of You)
And what would King Solomon do?:
Take the foxes, the little foxes
That spoil the vines
For our vines have tender grapes
(Song Of Solomon 2:15)
In a movie, Regina (Bette Davis) says to her wealthy, but ill, husband (as she tries to fox money out of him):
"I hope you die! I hope you die soon!
I've been waiting for you to die!"
(Movie: The Little Foxes)
Her husband ends up dying of a heart attack while Regina looks on.
In the song below, the singer/songwriter turns his words against the master foxes of war:
And I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
(Bob Dylan: Masters Of War)
The singer/musician covers the following song:
See the pyramids along the Nile
Watch the sunrise from a tropic isle
Just remember, darling, all the while
You belong to me
(Patti Page: You Belong To Me ~ Price/King/Stewart)
Footnote about Untold Dylan
Untold Dylan was founded in 2008 and is run entirely by volunteers with the aim of publishing insights into Dylan’s work that have not been published elsewhere. We’re always open to ideas and suggestions on how the site can be developed, and welcome contributions from writers. Unfortunately, we don’t have the funds to pay for articles we use, but we do hope you’ll understand why that is. If you are interested in contributing please do write to Tony@schools.co.uk. If you are quoting something you’ve found on the site, please cite Untold Dylan (www.bob-dylan.org.uk).
We also have a vibrant and active Facebook page – just search Facebook for Untold Dylan.
“Listen to me; you are the best singing audience we’ve ever had. We play that song a thousand times and nobody could sing with it.” (Bob Dylan onstage, Glasgow, 24th June)
The problem with 2004 is that it lies in the shadow of 2003. In many respects it is an extension of 2003, or a repeat of it, often with the same arrangements and style as the earlier year built around Dylan’s keyboard playing. We have seen what an innovative year 2003 was, the arrangements and style forged in that year carrying Dylan through to 2005. In 2006, another major shakeup takes place as Dylan moves from the piano to the organ.
And yet when we look more closely at 2004, we find it is not a pale imitation of 2003. The arrangement may be the same, but the sound is often heavier and thumpier, with Dylan’s voice richer and throatier. He may have been riding on the energy of 2003, but some of the 2004 performances outshine those of the previous year.
Dylan’s relationship with his audiences has been as contentious as everything else that he does. He is accused of ignoring his audiences (because he refuses to butter them up with lots of ra-ra talk about how wonderful it is to be in that town etc), never speaking to them and so on. Dylan is famous for coming onstage, playing his songs and walking off without a (spoken) word or a smile. His grumpiness is also legendary. At one concert in 2003 he cleared the two front rows because of their disruptive behaviour. But this caricature of a boorish Dylan is far too simplistic. Dylan’s relationship with his audience is complex and nuanced. He can perform through the racket of a rowdy audience as if they weren’t there, but can also woo an audience and respond to a quieter, focused concentration with exquisite performances.
The Glasgow concert of 2004 (24th August) is famous in the history of the NET for the warm relationship between Dylan and his Scottish audience. Dylan is in good form, and soon has the audience eating out of his hand. Their enthusiasm is palpable This audience, eager to participate, starts to sing along. By the time they get to the fourth song, ‘Just Like A Woman,’ the audience takes over the chorus, and Dylan gives them the reins. They even sing in tune. After describing the venue, Barrowland Ballroom as a ‘sweaty, intimate vibrant setting,’ Bobcat Andre Muir tells the story:
“ ‘Just like a Woman’ saw the beginning of the main event of the night: the crowd trying to sing along with Bob. Dylan for once revelling in this but still trying to maintain control. Yet when the crowd roared out the title line, Dylan had no choice but to let them go, such was the volume they engendered. It seemed like a moveable wall of sound was bouncing all around you, from the stage and the singing crowd, careering off the ceiling and reverberating in one direction before being blasted back from another. To regain control of the song, Dylan followed a few beats behind, originally to try to throw the audience, but by the end of the song, just to maintain some kind of parity in the performing stakes. You could see him quite clearly chuckling on one of the choruses before grinning broadly as he allowed the audience to participate to the point they demanded.” (Muir, One More Night, p 328)
Here it is:
Just like a woman (A)
By way of comparison, let’s drop into the Washington concert earlier in the year (2nd April) and hear how the song sounds without the audience singalong. It’s another beautiful performance, the slow, lilting, contemplative tempo more evident, and while it’s rare for Dylan to play the harmonica in this song, he does so here, with a thin, muted solo, full of pathos. Done this way, the song is dominated by regret; it starts to sound like a love song – ‘Maybe I’ll go see her again…’.
Just like a woman (B)
Towards the end of the Glasgow concert, we get another attempt at audience participation with ‘Just Like A Rolling Stone.’ Muir describes the event this way:
‘Dylan’s voice was a blurred burr and yet powerful and compelling as it competed with a deafening crowd…Clearly loving the audience reaction and interaction Dylan was smiling and pointing as he belted out ‘No direction home’; the band was busting a gut to keep up with, and make as much noise as Dylan and the audience… Dylan was singing lines before and after he knew the crowd would be, it was like being present at an audio wrestling match. This is the kind of tussle that Dylan had a lifetime of experience of not only dealing with but triumphing in; but on this night he had to admit defeat. This he did graciously, laughingly and with obvious pleasure as the delirious crowd eventually drowned everything but themselves as they belted out the famous chorus.” (Muir p 329)
Here it is:
Just Like A rolling stone (A)
Glasgow, however, is not the only outstanding concert in 2004. While Glasgow is unmatched for audience participation, the Rochester concert (13th Nov) is arguably better both in terms of the recording and Dylan’s performance. I’m not sure what the magic is here, maybe the venue’s superior sound system, but whatever it is, this full-bodied recording is one of the best you’ll hear in Bootleg land, at least audience recordings – soundboard recordings can be superior as they cut back audience noise. But this Rochester sound is better than most soundboards even, for my ear.
Compare the Glasgow performance with this one from Rochester. There is no struggle for control here, and it turns into one of the most enthusiastic performances of the song on the NET.
Just like a rolling stone (B)
2004 was a big year for ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown,’ not heard of since 2001, but erupting into 2004, being played twenty-five times. It’s a gripping tale of how poverty can destroy a person, drive them to murder-suicide. It’s a masterpiece of narrative construction as each verse takes us deeper into this poor man’s stress and eventual madness, leading to the grisly denouement. The laconic last verse shifts us to a larger, even more chilling context:
There’s seven people dead
On a South Dakota farm
There’s seven people dead
On a South Dakota farm
Somewhere in the distance
There’s seven new people born
This one is from Rochester once more, again demonstrating the superiority of that concert’s recordings.
Hollis Brown
Anyone bothered by the upsinging? Not me. In this case it is in balance with the overall vocal performance. I feel that he’s in control of it, and using it as an integral part of the overall vocal effect.
‘I Believe In You’ was performed twelve times during 2004, having been played comparatively rarely over the previous five years. A fervent avowal of faith from Dylan’s gospel era, we last encountered this song in 2003 (See NET, 2003, part 3). Both that and the 2004 version are ardent performances. The 2004 version, a little slower, has a finer sense of vocal drama, with Dylan singing low then lifting his voice for dramatic effect, but the 2003 version is the sharper performance. The one thing we can say is that while he can’t match the vocal pyrotechnics of his 1980 performances, the older Dylan can pull the song off magnificently in terms of conveying the passion of the song. I love this song’s chord changes, so melancholy. This one’s from that Glasgow concert, which helps explain the warmth of tone; easy to imagine the song is addressed not to Jesus, or a lover, but the audience itself.
I believe In You
Glasgow and Rochester were not the only good concerts of 2004. We have already heard one song from the Washington concert, but we need to go to Manchester (11th June) to find the most compelling performance of ‘Cold Irons Bound.’ It’s a desperate song, and Dylan usually hits it with everything he’s got. This performance is no exception. From the opening, threatening chords to the sharp, urgent beat that carries the song, this is a wild ride. Dylan is learning, however, to keep on top of the song, and not let his voice get drowned in the fury, moving towards a more minimal backing during the verses. And catch Tony Garnier’s wonderful descending bass, dragging us into the maelstrom of the song.
This is the first time I know of where Dylan uses a repeating echo on his voice. It sounds like Dylan’s ghost repeating the lines after him. It works on this song, I’m just glad he didn’t make it a habit.
Cold Irons Bound
Let’s stay in Manchester to enjoy ‘Blind Willie McTell’ a song Dylan brought into prominence at the same time as the Time out of Mind material. Dylan hasn’t yet changed his approach to the song; it still has the same arrangement as when it débuted in 1997. Dylan’s vocal is outstanding. He pushes his voice into the nasal on the name ‘Mcteeeeel’ to produce his famous snarl, yet can sing with soft sensitivity on the elegiac verses.
Blind Willie McTell
We have to hop back to Washington to catch ‘Love Sick.’ Perhaps because of its distinctive beat and atmosphere, ‘Love Sick’ is another song that hasn’t changed much in performance. It’s a song about walking at night, among the shadows, both shadows of night and the shadows of the past. (…I’m walking…I’m walking…)
It is one of Dylan’s most atmospheric crepuscular songs. Dylan is the great poet of the night. We have songs ranging from ‘After Midnight’ to ‘Visions of Johanna’ that celebrate night, particularly on Time out of Mind (they would make a wonderful playlist), but ‘Love Sick’ is surely the most concentrated of them. Little light shows, just enough to make ‘silhouettes in the windows’ and to light the imagination with ‘lovers in the meadows.’
A great performance.
Love Sick
‘Not Dark Yet’ is straight out of the same bag. In this case approaching night (shadows are falling…) is a metaphor for death, and the inevitability of death. It also expresses the utter aloneness we might feel before that final moment (don’t even hear/the murmur of a prayer). You can’t rid yourself of this song. The older you get the more true it becomes. It’s the same with Dylan. The older he gets the more true the song sounds. We’ll follow it right through to 2019, when it becomes most chillingly true.
Another Washington performance.
Not Dark Yet
I’ve run out of space, but I’m going to squeeze in this ‘Standing in the Doorway’ and finish the post with a triptych from Time out of Mind. Now we are ‘walking through the summer nights’ and we have to face our grief ‘under the midnight moon.’ A sombre note on which to finish the post, but an irresistible Rochester performance. In a rare move, Dylan starts the first verse a second time after the first couple of lines, having apparently lost it first time around.
Kia Ora, see you next time with some jazzy sounds from 2004.
Standing in the doorway
Footnote about Untold Dylan
Untold Dylan was founded in 2008 and is run entirely by volunteers with the aim of publishing insights into Dylan’s work that have not been published elsewhere. We’re always open to ideas and suggestions on how the site can be developed, and welcome contributions from writers. Unfortunately, we don’t have the funds to pay for articles we use, but we do hope you’ll understand why that is. If you are interested in contributing please do write to Tony@schools.co.uk. If you are quoting something you’ve found on the site, please cite Untold Dylan (www.bob-dylan.org.uk).
We also have a vibrant and active Facebook page – just search Facebook for Untold Dylan.
