Untold Dylan

Dylan released and unreleased: Soundstage, The World of John Hammond

Posted on December 23, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

“Soundstage : The World of John Hammond” was broadcast on December 6, 1975 and lasted almost 3 hours! Tributes were made to Hammond from all the many and varied artists whose careers he had touched including Bessie Smith, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, and others.

Highlights of the show included a performance from Benny Goodman and for the first time on television in over 6 years, Bob Dylan.

I found an article from The NY Times archives discussing the show from 1975 which makes for interesting reading:

“the main attraction, of course, the reason Channel 13 is running the segment twice tomorrow, is Bob Dylan, accompanied by two men (drums and bass guitar) and a woman (violin).

“Displaying his well‐established genius for tapping the most fashionable of politicalsocial causes, the millionaire chronicler of modern folk opens with “Hurricane,” his version of the Rubin Carter story, a story now being played out in the courts and prisons. Mr. Carter, the former boxer (“It’s my work, and I do it for pay”) is Mr. Dylan’s idealized hero. His villains, needless to say, are all those “criminals in coats and ties.” Also, needless to say, all, the coats and ties in the “Soundstage” audience applaud lustily.

“Mr. Dylan’s other numbers are “Oh, Sister” and “Simple Twist of Fate,” both performed a bit sullenly but attractively. While not generating the sheer excitement of the Benny Goodman group’s appearance, the Dylan set provides an effective, oddly lyrical, close for these two exceptional instalments of “Soundstage.””

Here are Bob’s performances

Hurricane – the single had been released by this time but the album was not released until January 1976.

Tony: Watching what Bob does before he starts playing I think he is actually suddenly deciding to change the key at the very last moment. He couldn’t be could he?

Whether that is me just trying too hard to understand the moving of the capo and changing the harmonica – or whether it is all a sleight of hand (or indeed maybe they had been warming up prior to the film starting and Bob had forgotten to remove the capo) I’m not sure. Interesting see the look the violinist gives him at one point as if to say, “If that’s what you do, I’m not playing for you again.”

But whatever was going on, this is a brilliant performance and a half.

Oh Sister

Tony: Ah the old “she knows who she is” line – not one of Bob’s, but the song fits perfectly well with the quartet approach of guitar/harmonica, violin, bass and percussion.

And contradicting my thought about the sudden change of key – these are beautiful renditions.

Simple Twist Of Fate

Aaron: This isn’t on YouTube but it is on Dylan’s official Facebook page, so hopefully if you click this link it should take you there!

https://fb.watch/9-tj6DyIng/

Tony: This is indeed a superb collection and one that I didn’t know about. (My excuse is being British, I had no chance to watch this, as it was never shown in the UK.) It is a beautiful song, but the move into declamation rather than singing at certain points removes some of the beauty in my view.

And dare I say it, I think the format of the quartet’s accompaniment isn’t varied enough to carry us through a whole series of songs. At first, it is incredibly attractive, but by this third song I am starting to think, well yes, I can see how this song will go when played by the quartet – so is there anything else they can put into the arrangement?

But the answer is no. The accompanying instruments are all playing the same way on each song – and if there is a problem with this performance, then that’s the problem. There’s no musical variation, so we are left enjoying the songs we now know so well.

Of course, they were much newer when this was recorded, so the impact then would have been very different. And I am at this moment influenced by having started my little “Dylan cover a day” series on this site, which focuses on what interests me – the way the songs can be varied and changed. Perhaps if I were not writing that each day, I’d appreciate the undoubted beauty of these arrangements more.

Aaron: As a bonus, I did a bit of detective work and found the missing track from the article in this series on Quest (Girl From The North Country) on YouTube. This was track 4 on the program. Here it is…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rziSN63X5FE&t=52s

Tony: Ah you took me by surprise there Aaron. I wasn’t ready for the jump – but it does give some emphasis to my point above. Now, after a lifetime of Dylan, we appreciate how he has changed his style and approach to songwriting and performance. That was a bit of serendipity.

But when we hear a complete concert not just performed with the same instrumentation (they normally are) but with the same style of performance, that makes it a bit less Bob, somehow. But still these are exquisite performances and arrangements; maybe I’m just demanding too much these ays.

Dylan released and unreleased

———-

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

A Dylan cover a day 37: Desolation Row

Posted on December 22, 2021 by TonyAttwood

If it were just the shouting it would be nothing, but the vocal harmonies, the slight intermissioins and the guitar solo make it.

Of course we all know the lyrics so well, so an instrumental version is welcome – if nothing else but to find out what exists beneath the lyrical lines we already know so well.

There is a note on Vitamin String Quartet’s wiki article which says, “This article appears to contain trivial, minor, or unrelated references to popular culture. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject’s impact on popular culture, providing citations to reliable, secondary sources, rather than simply listing appearances. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.”

What utter tripe. Turning anything to do with Vitamin String Quartet into something other than unrelated references to popular culture is to deny what VSQ is about.

The final choice of the day is something that really surprises me. It is one of two Dylan tracks on the album Les Sauterelles which was apparently released within a year of Desolation Row coming out. I am surprised that anyone had the audacity to do this so early on. Hats off to them, in that case, because they must have been one of the influences that said to other artists, really you can try anything you like with Dylan – just to see what happens.

Les Sauterelles played between 1962 and 1971 and then were reformed at the end of the 1980s. Toni Vescoli has been with the band from the start.

But in the end I still feel the essence of the song needs a certain level of simplicity. So I leave you with Songdog. It’s far from perfect in my view, but it takes me back to the original, and then adds a certain something. Of course I know the words by heart, but somehow I find a little more here than I have thought of before.

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Bob Dylan And That Old-Time Religion

Posted on December 22, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Larry Fyffe

John Milton and John Bunyan be Puritans, and believe faith in God, not good works, is the key to salvation.

In the poetic lyrics below, blindness is a burden that the writer just has to learn to live with:

... Thousands at his bidding speed
And post over land and ocean without rest
They also serve him best who only stand and wait
(John Milton: On His Blindness)

Likewise, so too, in regards to the burden of being locked up:

And stand by him, too, when bound in irons....
(John Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress, chapter VII)

In the song lyrics below, the Puritan creed is questioned; not only that, questioned is the choice left by the Almighty to stand beside Satan instead.

Which side are you on?

Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody
(Bob Dylan: Gotta Serve Somebody)

Expressed rather sarcastically in the song lyrics beneath:

Temptation's not an easy thing, Adam given the devil reign
Because he sinned, I got no choice, it run in my vein
(Bob Dylan: Pressing On)

In the following lines, an experiment is undertaken – men from a number of different religions, including Catholic and Protestant, are locked up together in a cage:

When I came back to note results ….not a specimen left alive. These Reasonable Animals had a disagreement on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court

(Mark Twain: Letters From Earth)

The above satire sourced for the following song lyrics that reference a performer known to have suffered due to the colour of his skin; not merely because of consuming some forbidden food or drink, or wearing certain kinds of makeup, or wearing particular types of clothes:

I live on a street named after a saint
Women in the churches wear powder and paint
Where the Jews and the Catholics, and the Muslims
all come to pray
I can tell a Proddie from a mile away
Goodbye Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Reed indeed
Give me that old-time religion, it's just what I need
(Bob Dylan: Goodbye Jimmy Reed)

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

As presented in the Old Testament below, the Hebrews manage to keep hold of their faith in spite of their suffering:

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me

Why art thou so far from helping me

And from the words of my roaring?”

(Psalm 22:1)

God warns His creations that He bluffs some of the time, but not all the time.

Jesus, as He hangs dying on the cross, loses faith in a loving Father figure.

An irony not lost on the following song lyrics in which God does come to Ishmael’s rescue at the last second:

Ah, God said, “Kill me a son”

Abe said, “You must be putting me on”

God said “No”; Abe say, “What?”

God say, “You can do what you want, Abe

But the next time you see me coming, you better run”

(Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited)

Nor is their a loving father in the song lyrics quoted beneath:

Oh Lazarus’, Lazarus’ father

When he heard his son was a-dying

Said, “Let the fool go down

Let the fool go down”

(Bob Dylan: Poor Lazarus ~ Dylan, traditional)

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

A Dylan cover a day 36: Dear Landlord

Posted on December 21, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

Moving on through the Dylan songs in alphabetical order I was not especially surprised to find the paucity of covers of Day of the Locusts, which is a very personal song, but I was interested and slightly taken aback by the lack of versions of “Dead Man Dead Man”, which musically I feel has a lot of potential.

However, it’s not for me to tell artists what they ought to be putting out to the great wide public, so on we go and “Dear Landlord” turns up more. Including an offer from Diva de Lai (Dylan at the opera). At first, I thought it might just be an operatic voice with vibrato cashing in on the song, but no it is much more than this. I love the harmonies later and the male chorus which also appears later. Great fun.

I have no idea how long Thea Gilmore and her colleagues actually took to work out the arrangements for the John Wesley Harding album, but the great thing about it is that each arrangement really does start from a different position, each related to the essence of the song. It would have been so easy to take a style (which is after all what Bob did for all the songs apart from the last two extra tracks, seemingly thrown in to make it long enough to be an album), but they resisted. I get the feeling each and every song was considered in depth, the new arrangement always starting from scratch.

Janis Joplin and Joe Cocker in their own versions of the song have given it a regular rock n roll beat and although musically it is possible, I just don’t think it works for the essence of the lyrics. So I move on finally to…

… Joan Baez… I really don’t feel this bouncy rhythm works. Ms Baez is easily adept enough to fit the lyrics and variations of the melody to this, but the rhythm behind her makes no sense in the context of her singing, nor in the context of lyrics. Indeed you can hear the pianist getting rather desperate to fill in his/her part around it all. Artistically it is the equivalent of taking a famous picture and saying “Ok let’s turn it upside and add a load of paint sploshes around the edges; that might work.”

It’s not Ms Baez fault – she’s not the producer, although she might have had the power to say, “let’s not put that one out”. In that context, the picture of her (below) is just about right.

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Dirt Road Blues part 2: The troublingest woman I ever seen

Posted on December 21, 2021 by TonyAttwood

Dirt Road Blues (1997) part 1: They going down 61 Highway

by Jochen Markhorst

II The troublingest woman I ever seen

Gon’ walk down that dirt road, ’til someone lets me ride
Gon’ walk down that dirt road, ’til someone lets me ride
If I can’t find my baby, I’m gonna run away and hide

They do walkabout, the poor protagonists of Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind. “I’m walking through streets that are dead” is the opening line of the album (“Love Sick”), “Standing In The Doorway”, the song after “Dirt Road Blues” starts with I’m walking through the summer nights, then comes “Million Miles” and “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven”, in which the I-person has to walk through the middle of nowhere, to wade through high muddy water and is just going down the road feeling bad, and like this, it goes on. In “Not Dark Yet” he follows the river, he is twenty miles out of town in Cold Irons Bound, he goes to the end of the earth To Make You Feel My Love and the album’s closing track is a restless wanderer again, with his heart in the Highlands.

Already after one verse “Dirt Road Blues” seems to be a similar lament as the lamentations of the other lamenters on this album; scourged by heartbreak, abandoned by the woman he can’t live without. Not that those first few words are that explicit – but after about seventy years of blues tradition, it’s an educated guess; most of us have been conditioned to the point that walking down the dirt road can only mean: that poor sucker just lost the love of his life. A Pavlovian association that can be traced all the way back to Tommy Johnson, presumably.

“Sing in me, O Muse, and through me tell the story.” The Odyssey quote with which Dylan concludes his Nobel Prize lecture is also the opening of the brilliant 2000 Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou. Dylan publicly expresses his great admiration for the film, which has a lot to do with George Clooney, but even more with the soundtrack. And with the wildly colourful script of course, which playfully, unobtrusively and extremely imaginatively incorporates hints and nods to classic films, Homer, American history and music. Like the role for Tommy Johnson:

HITCHHIKER: Thank you fuh the lif’, suh. M’names Tommy. Tommy Johnson.
Delmar is genuinely friendly:
DELMAR: How ya doin’, Tommy. I haven’t seen a house in miles. What’re you doin’ out in the middle of nowhere?
Tommy is matter-of-fact:
TOMMY: I had to be at that crossroads las’ midnight to sell mah soul to the devil.

Indeed, of the legendary blues Founding Father the story was spread that he owed his exceptional guitar skills to a deal with the devil on the crossroads, a story that somehow got transferred to Robert Johnson. In the film, the Soggy Bottom Boys take him to the studio, where, with Tommy as guitarist, they record an irresistible version of “Man Of Constant Sorrow”, the song that is also somewhere in Dylan’s personal Top 40.

Dylan got to know Tommy Johnson’s work as early as 1960 in Minnesota, he tells in Chronicles (“where I first heard Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Blake, Charlie Patton and Tommy Johnson”), and as a DJ in Theme Time Radio Hour, he dwells on him more extensively:

“Along with Son House and Charley Patton, no one was more important to the development of Delta Blues than Tommy Johnson. And long before the stories about Robert Johnson, selling his soul at the crossroads, those same stories were told about Tommy Johnson. His live performances, where he would play guitar behind his neck, while hollering the blues at full volume, are legendary. Unfortunately, his addiction to alcohol was so pronounced, that he was often seen drinking sterno and even shoe polish, strained through white bread, when whiskey wasn’t available.”

… introducing “Cool Drink Of Water Blues”, episode 23, Water. Dylan recalls the bizarre-appearing fact that Tommy even drank sterno and shoe polish to satisfy his alcohol addiction, but it does seem to be a true story; several sources report this disturbing biographical fact – not least Tommy Johnson himself:

Cryin', canned heat, mama
Sho', Lord, killin' me
Take alcorub to
Take these canned heat blues

… the opening couplet of “Canned Heat Blues” from 1928, in which Tommy complains that rubbing alcohol, the at least as poisonous isopropyl, is supposed to save him from the canned heat blues, from the sickly desire for that thoroughly toxic burning paste Sterno. Repulsive, but who knows – maybe it contributed to the emergence of immortal pillars of the blues, to monuments such as “Big Road Blues” that via Floyd Jones’s “Dark Road” from 1951 eventually evolved into “On The Road Again”.

“On The Road Again” (1968) is one of the biggest hits for the Californian blues rock band Canned Heat, the band that already honours Tommy Johnson in its choice of band name. And with this hit, the band contributes to the continuity of that image, of the image that walking down the road evokes;

Well, I'm so tired of crying
But I'm out on the road again
I'm on the road again
I ain't got no woman
Just to call my special friend

… the image of the pitiful, love sick dupe. The image carved in 1928 by Tommy Johnson’s “Big Road Blues”;

Cryin', ain't goin' down this
Big road by myself
A-don't ya hear me talkin', pretty mama?
Lord, ain't goin' down this
Big road by myself

But from that other monument, the song that DJ Dylan plays in the twenty-first century, “Cool Drink Of Water Blues”, we hear echoes in Dylan’s “Dirt Road Blues” as well; the simple blues lick that carries the song is a sped-up copy of Tommy Johnson’s lick. Another song that reverberates for decades, by the way; Howlin’ Wolf’s 1956 hit “I Asked For Water” is Wolf’s take on the same song.

… which the DJ knew all along, of course:

“Cool Drink Of Water Blues” was amped up in the fifties and became one of the great Chicago blues tracks when it was recorded by one of his biggest admirers, Howlin’ Wolf, under the name “I Asked For Water, She Brought Me Gasoline”

Not an easy-going girl either, that one. “That’s the troublingest woman, that I ever saw,” as Howlin’ Wolf says. Sooner rather than later, that boy shall go down the road too. But: by car, this time.

To be continued. Next up: Dirt Road Blues part 3

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

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Dylan cover a day 35: Dark Eyes

Posted on December 20, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

I have loved Dark Eyes from the first moment I heard it and am always sad about the fact Bob’s hardly ever played it on tour. It is a delicate beautiful song of sadness and world weariness. A work of musical and poetic art.

And yet the first cover I am going to present may well have you switching off within the first minute. But if so skip to around 1 minute 30 seconds, and let it roll. It is Jewels and Binoculars’ instrumental version, and if you like what they do just leave the video running.

If you would like to know more about Jewels and Bioculars there is an interesting review here. But I know this is not everyone’s cup of whatnot, so moving on…

By and large I restrict myself to recordings that are on the internet but I must make an exception of The Proper Way with Carrie Myers, who have produced what is the most disturbing version of this song not only that I have heard, but that I can imagine. You can listen to it on Spotify or Amazon, but perhaps not if you are already feeling down. If it gets too much, do listen just to the last minute. It takes the essence of the song, screws it up and the straightens it out again and totally expresses the whole notion of Dark Eyes in music.

Back on the internet Nathan Salsburg and Joan Shelley do it straight but with their own instrumentation experimentations.

But if a gentle harmonic expression which recognises the sadness but doesn’t take it inside you, leaving you free just to consider it from afar, then Dawn Landes and Bonny Prince Billy offered that. It’s beautiful, and I need this to recover from listening to the earlier ventures. The harmonies are quite different, and to be cherished.

And of course I am going to finish with Judy Collins, simply because she knows how to do it so perfectly. And sometimes I don’t want to be challenged in my simple existence sitting here looking at my garden with the bare trees of winter and my windmill, still today as there is no wind. This is where I sit every day and turn out my thoughts on the computer. Today, because we are in the week approaching Christmas, no one phones and demands writing to be completed. At such time Judy does me just fine.

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Dylan released and unreleased 10: Playing for Change

Posted on December 20, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

Aaron: I first came across Playing for Change a couple of years ago when I stumbled upon this version of The Bands’ The Weight on YouTube

This is from their website https://playingforchange.com/

Playing For Change is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. Its primary focus is to record and film musicians performing in their natural environments and combine their talents and cultural power in innovative videos we call Songs Around The World.

Several big names have been involved over the years (Robbie & Ringo, Keith Richards, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Peter Gabriel etc) and as you can imagine Dylan covers pop up regularly. Here are some I’ve come across for your listening pleasure, let’s see what Tony thinks of these! I’ll put these in order of my favorites – leaving the best to last (in my opinion!)

If the videos don’t work in your country you can listen/watch them all on their website above.

Times They Are A-Changin’

Tony: You’ve probably had enough of me saying that the song is not a call to arms, not a statement saying, “rise up and change the world” but rather that times change – that is what happens. But that fact still seems to be ignored, and the song is presented as a call to arms.

I find the pauses before certain words a bit artificial – we all know the lyrics so I’m not sure of the musical validity. But the instrumental verse really is fun with its delayed echo, and after that yes, it’s quite moving. However, the central point of this song now is that we have heard it over and over and we know that yes times they changed, and we got Trump and the Taliban and global warming. That rather spoils the message for me.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

Tony: Now this is more up my street, simply because the arrangement allows the musicians to say something new through the song. It’s a beautiful presentation because it is totally natural and unforced and there is that extra lilt to the rhythm via the unseen percussionist. In fact I wonder, did they add the drums after the recording to give it more of that lilt? Or was there nowhere on the set for the percussionist to sit? And did the producer of the video think we wouldn’t notice?

But I’m glad she or he is there, because that is what really makes this bounce along – they are all such superb musicians it gives that little bit of pulse behind their elegant harmonies.

Jokerman

Tony: We’ve looked at some of these before, and I’ve not cheated by going back to see what I said last time around. But whatever I said before, I utterly love this. The presentation of the video is sublime, and so is the music. Perhaps this is my favourite “Jokerman” of all time – every word needs to be heard and appreciated, while the guitar playing is so understated but utterly right throughout, even as it builds in the latter part of the performance.

Additionally, it really makes sense of the “wo-oh-oh” line. Oh this is gorgeous.

All Along The Watchtower

Tony: The settings they have arranged are extraordinary, and in this song more than any of the other recordings. What I think one needs to do is to listen to this twice – once just hearing the performance without looking at the video.

“Watchtower” has been performed by so many people that it is very hard to think of what to do with the song – after all there is only one musical line repeated over and over. And yet it still holds our attention.

The one thing I’ve found with friends I’ve debated this song with is that we have to work to remind ourselves of the magic of those vocal lines. To remind us that this is a song that ends

Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl

That is part of the magic – we are left not with a resolution but a feeling that this is just the start… indeed I am rather surprised no one (that I know about) has written the song of what happens next. I think one could almost make a novel out of it.

I really would like to know.

Dylan released and unreleased

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Dylan cover a day 34: Country Pie

Posted on December 19, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

Not a Dylan song I particularly care about, and when this ramble through Dylan songs (which rather obviously is being undertaken in alphabetical order) got to Country Pie I suspected this was going to be another song I’d miss out on.

But as ever I didn’t simply trust to my rapidly declining powers of memory, and so went a-looking, and to my surprise found a couple of covers that are quite jolly and fun and add something to the original – in my view.

Charlie Daniels from 2014 gives it that bit of fun and nonsense that the song seems to need. Charlie passed away just over a year ago at the ripe age (for a musician with multiple hits) of 83. Incidentally, he co-wrote “It Hurts Me” for Elvis Presley. Now there’s a thing.

The other is a singularly chaotic Fairport Convention version…

I knew a few members of the band in the very early days – they of course won’t remember me, but it means I always have a soft spot for them.

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXIX)

Posted on December 19, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Larry Fyffe

Said by some art historians that Leonardo da Vinci replaces the bad-boy Apostle John with Mary Magdalene in the painting “The Last Supper”.

Christ’s bond with her is much stronger than the relationships He has with His male companions.

Close examination of the Dylavinci Code demonstrates that indeed Christ has a long-term relationship with Mary, but, hold on to your seatbelts, it’s a bumpy ride.

Turns out Maggie has multiple personalities, and Jesus manages to kick out only seven of them.

For example, she easily changes from ‘Spanish Mary” to “French Marie”, and then back again.

As the song lyrics beneath reveal, Jesus is in France to meet up with pregnant Mary; He runs into a bit of trouble, and, lo and behold, something strange happens:

They threw me in the alley
When up comes this girl from France
Who invited me to her house
I went, but she had a friend
Who knocked me out
And robbed my boots
And I was on the street again
(Bob Dylan: 115th Dream)

Mary’s ‘half-siblings’ Martha and Lazarus are living with her in France, and are a bit surprised that Jesus is caught off guard because of a similar incident that happened in America.

Indicated in the following song lyrics:
Shakespeare's in the alley 
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking to some French girl
Who says she knows me well
(Bob Dylan: Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again)

Magdalene’s schizophrenia explains in part why Jesus bounds her up “undead” in the Sphinx – to protect their child, and to save Himself from any of her unsavory personalities.

Vivien, first wife of TS Eliot, suffers a similar fate, dies in a mental hospital.

The singer/songwriter as “Jesus, the Thief” could be playing that role again, cohabiting with his grown-up daughter for a time in some Gothic Usher Castle in order to strengthen the right of family members to the hold the keys to the pearly gates through their blood line.

Or Dylan as “Jesus, the Joker”, could just be pulling a fast one on everybody.

In the verse beneath, Jesus and Mary gaily ride up to the Magdala Castle on the Sea of Galilee while the wind laughs it’s clouds off:

Outside in the distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
The wind began to howl
(Bob Dylan: All Along The Watchtower)

As Jesus is always telling Mary, “He who laughs last, laughs loudest”.

Cover versions in this series

Earlier articles

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Dylan Cover of the Day 33: Crash on the Levee

Posted on December 18, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

The trouble with this song is that although it isn’t a 12 bar blues it feels as if it ought to be created as one, and that thought has obviously sunk into the minds of many of the artists covering the song. As a result, a lot of the covers sound pretty much the same.

But although The Derek Trucks Band don’t turn it into a ballad they do keep a lot of the obvious feel of the piece, while at the same time do that magical thing of taking us somewhere else.

And then rather unexpectedly at around 3 minutes 30 seconds they create a coda which feels absolutely part of the song, and yet at the same time gives us new insights, new feelings, new emotions, and above all a new sense of catastrophe, which contrasts with many other recording in which the only catastrophe is that the cover version was made at all.

But of course, really this is a blues song, and Jimmy LaFave (pictured at the top of this article) gave us a fair old working through of the song in this style tinged with some solid rock and roll. He really was a sublime performer who incidentally championed the work of Woodie Guthrie. Jimmy died tragically of cancer in his early 60s, never missing a gig.

I can think of no talent more deserving than a place among this daily look at Dylan covers. Utterly stunning.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dylan released and unreleased: the Galas

Posted on December 18, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

Aaron: For this episode, I thought we could take a look at some performances Bob made at a series of televised galas down the years.

First from the Gershwin Gala in 1987 is Bob’s performance of Soon.

Tony: This is a 1927 song from the Gershwins – music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira and it was used in the musical Strike up the Band. As this song takes us away from our normal territory I thought I might drop in a recording which is closer to showing how it was used in the musical.

I’m actually not sure Bob adds anything to the song – but then I was brought up in a family that knew all about (and played) Gershwin. This is how I suspect many people will think of Gershwin

Sorry Aaron, I’ve taken this piece away from where you intended. I’ll try and get us back on track…

Aaron: From 2012 comes this version of Blind Willie McTell in honor of Martin Scorsese- introduced by Olivia Harrison, you can have great fun playing “spot the A listers” in the audience!

Tony: Oh my goodness. I have never seen this before. This is incredible – from the rearrangement of the time (the extra bar at the end of each verse) to the hand movements, from the swing in the beat to the smile on Bob’s face, and on to the false ending. This is so not Bob it is utterly wonderful. And then beyond this the utter bemusement on the faces of the audience. I’ve just had to play it a second time, rather than continuing with the article.

Aaron: Last up for this time is a one-off performance Bob gave at the White House of The Times They Are A Changin’

Tony: OK this is the reverse, this time he takes out the bar at end of the verse. I remember the President saying that other performers make use of the occasion of the Presidential concerts by spending the day in the White House looking around, rehearsing etc, whereas Bob just turned up, performed and then left. And, as I recall, President Obama said “And that’s how you want Bob Dylan to be.” Or something like that.

Here Bob performs the song as a waltz – whoever would have thought it? Love it.

But really I just have to go back to Blind Willie – that is such a sensational performance and amazing arrangement. Aaron I’m very much indebted to you for this.

(I perhaps should add, if you have not read any Aaron / Tony pieces before, Aaron is in the USA and I’m in the UK. Aaron sends me the videos and his script and I try and write a commentary on hearing the music, straight off without sneaking onto the internet to look stuff up. If I’ve got the bit about the White House performance wrong, sorry about that. Please put me right.)

Dylan released and unreleased

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dylan cover a day: Down along the cove

Posted on December 17, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

“Down along the cove” is not one of my favourite Dylan compositions, simply because there isn’t much there. The lyrics seem to me to be profoundly ordinary, the song doesn’t fit with the rest of the album, and it’s just a simple 12 bar blues without any variation. In short, it has all the hallmarks of being a filler to complete the album, written I suspect for when Dylan played at a location called “The Cove”.

So would any cover version make anything worthwhile of the song? Well, yes this one does.

David Kincicky is one of those instrumentalists – he’s a fiddler – who knows how to retain something from the original song, while transmuting it into something else. And more, for all the while he is showing that he understands the essence of the original. And he manages to deliver perfectly arranged gentle vocal harmonies, which is much harder than it sounds.

Now forgive me while I meander off piste for a second to offer David’s take on Dire Straits

But now, since I must, back to the Cove. Thea Gilmore has to cover this because she has done the whole JWH album as a cover. She takes it very gently although somewhat breathlessly, and once again I find it enjoyable and fun. Not that memorable, but still enjoyable.

So I’m not going to dig it out to play again, in the way that I would with a few pieces from that album (and her Drifters’ Escape is definitive in my world), but it’s fine. The song still doesn’t make any sense in relation to the rest of JWH, but at least the instrumental break relates to the way the rest of the track goes.

And that’s about it. There are others, but mostly they involve someone saying “Hey, let’s try it faster” or “Hey let’s try it slower.” And really, most of the time that ain’t enough.

At least not for me.

———-

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.

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Dirt Road Blues (1997) part 1: They going down 61 Highway

Posted on December 17, 2021 by TonyAttwood

by Jochen Markhorst

I They going down 61 Highway

Mozart, Van Gogh, Garrincha, Charley Patton, Nick Drake, Baudelaire… our history is rich with exceptionally gifted artists who, for various reasons, do not manage to cash in on their otherworldly talent and die penniless and forgotten. Especially painful in that shameful list are the artists who live long enough to see others make use of their work and become rich and famous with it. Arthur Crudup, of course, is a prime example. The man who wrote “That’s Alright, Ma” and “My Baby Left me”, the songs that catapulted Elvis into the stratosphere. Crudup was eventually fobbed off with $10,000, three years before his death in 1974, after years of lawyer’s sabre-rattling and embarrassing legal wrangling.

His genius seems to have touched Dylan, too. Apart from “It’s Alright, Ma”, which Dylan will continue to play over the years (including with Johnny Cash in the studio, 1969), a dusty Crudup single also seems to have been among the “reference records”, the records Dylan gives as homework to producer Daniel Lanois and studio staff before recording Time Out Of Mind and “Dirt Road Blues”. Like engineer Mark Howard, who tells Uncut:

“All these old blues recordings, Little Walter, guys like that. And he’d ask us, ‘Why do those records sound so great? Why can’t anybody have a record sound like that anymore? Can I have that?’ And so, I say, “Yeah, you can get those sounds still.”

Similar to how engineer Chris Shaw describes his experiences of searching for the right sound: “He might say, ‘Well, I’m kinda hearing this like this old Billie Holiday song.’ And so we’ll start with that, the band will actually start playing that song, try to get that sound, and then he’ll go, ‘Okay, and this is how my song goes.’ It’s a weird process.” And fitting with what Lanois reveals about his preparations for Time Out Of Mind:

“I did a lot of preparation with Pretty Tony in New York City. I listened to a lot of old records that Bob recommended I fish out. Some of them I knew already – some Charley Patton records, dusty old rock’n’roll records really, blues records. And Tony and I played along to those records.”

Charley Patton is, of course, a spirit that hovers over Time Out Of Mind anyway, and especially over its successor «Love And Theft» (2001). In lovingly stolen riffs (“Highlands”), complete songs (“High Water”), fragments of lyrics and, indeed, sound. Patton’s stamp on “Dirt Road Blues” seems rather obvious. After all, one of Patton’s best-known songs is the smashing “Down The Dirt Road Blues” from 1929, with the opening lines expressing the same, world-weary state of mind as Dylan’s protagonist:

I'm goin' away to a world unknown
I'm goin' away to world unknown
I'm worried now, but I won't be worried long

https://youtu.be/cuICVsaxJxc

… and, obviously, the same classic blues text structure – each verse a repeated opening line, followed by a rhyming closing line. And coincidentally, almost as many words even (170 vs. 179). Yet this doesn’t seem to be the “reference record” around which Dylan constructs his song – the sound doesn’t match. In this respect, Crudup’s adaptation, “Dirt Road Blues”, which he recorded in Chicago in October 1945, is closer. From which, by the way, Arthur will lift the second verse, turning it into the Big Bang of rock’n’roll:

Well now, that's all right now, mama, that's all right for you
That's all right, baby, any way you do
Now, I ain't goin' down, baby, by myself
You know, the one that I love, moving down with someone else

… the verse with the lyrics, the drive and the melody that will become “That’s All Right Mama”, rock’n’roll’s ground zero, which Crudup will record eleven months later as “That’s All Right”, a B-side to “Crudup’s After Hours”. That music-historical fact of Crudup’s “Dirt Road Blues” eclipses everything else, but in 1997 Dylan seems to be particularly touched by the sound;

…at least, Dylan takes the stomp, the rhythm, the guitar pattern and the rattling, shrill guitar sound with him. The atmosphere is different, though – Dylan’s song is spooky. Thanks to a fairly simple artifice: reverb on Dylan’s vocals and the ethereal, wispy, unearthly organ sound of Augie Meyers’ keys.

Dylan is asked about it, in interviews after the release of Time Out Of Mind. By Newsweek‘s David Gates, for example. In the week of 21 September 1997, a week before the release of Time Out Of Mind, three journalists are invited, one after the other, to a Santa Monica hotel suite. They have already heard the recordings, and Gates did notice both the overall desolate theme and the extraordinary sound. “It is a spooky record,” Dylan agrees, “because I feel spooky. I don’t feel in tune with anything.”

Bleak, lugubrious words. Spoken by a man who is still recovering from an encounter with Death four months earlier – that viral infection in the sac around the heart. Who, the doctors explain, presumably contracted his infection by inhaling fungal spores down some dirt road in Indiana, Tennessee or Illinois. Who declares after his discharge from hospital: “I really thought I’d be seeing Elvis soon.” And Patton, Robert Johnson and Arthur Crudup, we might add. That heavenly choir would probably have had strike up “Dirt Road Blues” as welcome song. Although Crudup most likely would have called for his own “Death Valley Blues”:

Tell all the women
Please come dressed in red
They going down 61 Highway
That's where the poor boy he fell dead

“Man, you must be puttin’ me on,” Dylan probably would have said, before joining in.

To be continued. Next up: Dirt Road Blues part 2

——————

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:

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

A Dylan cover a Day: Don’t think twice

Posted on December 16, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

OK this is where it gets a bit silly. There are so many many many covers of Don’t think twice that it is impossible to say this is the best, or anything remotely like that. Except that is what I am going to do at the end of this piece.

But in case you don’t like it I’ll offer three others first…

There are two covers we have mentioned before on this site which have been in my favourites list for quite a long while, having kindly had them pointed out by readers of Untold, and I want to remind you of them. The first is just beautifully simple…

and the second is one that just sounds perfectly right in every regard. Sheeran doesn’t try, he just knows it is a beautiful song and offers it with due respect and understanding and in a most understated way.

So, those are two versions we have discovered before from the hundreds available. Here are two more recorded in the last year or two. First DylanGrass – an album from the Grassmasters. I’m not a bluegrass fan, but this is laid back and gentle and I can enjoy this as the sun sets.

And now the one track that I really wanted to send your way: a version released this year, and my newfound friend in relation to this wonderful song. A recording by Sachal Vasandani and Romain Collin.

Sachal Vasandani is a jazz vocal improviser who just has that way of singing that makes his voice something very special. Here he works with French pianist, Romain Collin, who is well-known on the New York jazz scene for his innovative playing.

If that doesn’t make you want to play the song again, well, sorry, because that is what I am doing.

There are hundreds and hundreds of covers of this song – but this Sachal Vasandani and Romain Collin version is the one that does it for me.

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dylan released and unreleased: the compilation albums

Posted on December 16, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Aaron Galbraith and Tony Attwood

Aaron: Let’s take another meander through some various artists compilation albums in search of more one-off Dylan performances!

First up from the Hank Williams tribute album Timeless (my pick for the all-time greatest tribute album!) it’s I Can’t Get You Off Of My Mind.

Tony: Just what I want to get me moving this morning after a late night out in London (and 90 miles back home up the motorway in the early hours) – a really bouncy instrumentation and Bob singing in a relaxed way over the top of it. I’m now awake.

And it reminds me that how we hear music is so much influenced by how our days are going. For me, yesterday evening was spent watching my football (soccer) team winning in style. Now this morning getting out my rarely worn respectable clothing to go to the Christmas Dinner of the walking group I’m a member of. Two very different hobbies, but both greatly loved. And this recording sets me up for the day.

Incidentally, is that Bob playing the lead guitar in the instrumental breaks? Sounds like it to me.

Aaron: Next from The Art Of McCartney (the most star-filled tribute album of all time…seriously, everyone who is anyone is on this!) is Bob’s cover of Things We Said Today.

Tony: Bob as his most growly! It is interesting because it is Bob, but … well I don’t know. There is something about that growl that doesn’t quite fit with a song about loving a young woman. Maybe it is just that we are all so aware these days of the activities of predators (there was a long piece about it on the BBC news this morning) that just makes me edgy. It just shows how times change.

Musically it is one of the few pop songs that goes from the minor key for the verses to a major key for the middle 8 (“me I’m just the lucky kind”). But that’s McCartney for you.

But no, Bob singing like this is weirdly weird. A bit too spooky for me.

Aaron: Interestingly the producer of the album matched each artist with a song, except in Dylan’s case, as he picked that track himself. “I was surprised he decided to take part,” says Sall. “That’s not the song I would have picked, but it sure fits him.” McCartney’s live band was also used as the musicians on the album.

Tony: Ah well if the producer thinks it fits, who am I to say?

Aaron: Lastly from Bob’s own tribute album “Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs Of Bob Dylan” comes this excellent duet with Mavis Staples of Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking.

Tony: So much better musically, but I never get the idea of having the rehearsed chit chat in the middle of a song. I want to hear the music – and the music is great. Love the harmonies.

The old 12 bar blues can become tedious sometimes, but not here, this is sensational, the band really get it even when around 2.43 the rhythm guitar (is that Bob?) plays the wrong chord – except he does it in the next verse as well, so maybe not. Not sure if it quite works but, well, it’s Bob. And besides Mike Johnson has a go about Bob’s upsinging in the Never Ending Tour series, so I guess I can criticise his guitar work on this track. (If it is Bob that is).

So there we are, great fun. Another good collection Aaron. Here are the series details…

Dylan released and unreleased

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dylan cover of the Day 30: Don’t fall apart on me tonight

Posted on December 15, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

The next song in the alphabetical list is the lesser known “Dirty Lie” which has one superb cover version by The Secret Sisters. But I’ve already raved about that here, so if you want to hear that cover, and the original from which the song was derived, that’s the place to go.

I’ve also replaced the source of the Dylan recording of the song in that article – the previous one linked to was no longer available. It’s a fun piece of music, and so is the cover version.

So moving on, “Don’t fall apart from me tonight” is next – one of the songs that Bob has never chosen to perform. But others have.

During the first lockdown in England I discovered what Chrissie Hynde was up to, recording Dylan songs for the fun of it, and “Don’t fall” was one of them…

She really has that ability to get inside the lyrics. I’m not at all sure about video, but I do love this recording. It really shows to me that these songs that many Dylan fans will have completely forgotten, have so much in them. They are worthy of being kept alive…

Just listen to what she does with the “These people walking toward you” section – that is stunningly brilliant.

And to prove how brilliant that recording above is I am going to include three other covers that fail to get there.

Overall Bettye Lavette’s contribution to the cause really is something to behold. But this isn’t my favourite reinterpretation of a Dylan song. However I feel it deserves to be noted simply because of how much she has done to bring the songs to more and more people’s awareness. Yet it shows that no matter how much talent and background understanding one has, success with a Dylan song is not guaranteed.

These next two covers also provide a further warning. Just playing and singing the song as another pop ballad, without any extra insight (as opposed to a load of emphasis to try and suggest that the singer is really really really feeling it) doesn’t quite make it worthwhile.

Aaron Neville (below) takes it more gently and seeks to use his voice as the prime input but the instrumentation for me trivialises what’s left. The insight has gone.

And so again I think it is worth hearing these three versions just to show the magnitude of what Chrissie Hynde achieved. Once you’ve had enough of this, go back to that opening recording on this page, if you have the time, and hear just what can be achieved with a person who really feels that this is a Dylan song, not just another song. Listening to these alternative versions I just feel that Chrissie has not only understood the lyrics and music, but understood Dylan. Not only Dylan in this song, but Dylan generally.

The series so far…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

That drumming is driving me mad: Bob Dylan’s 2nd Big Bang

Posted on December 15, 2021 by TonyAttwood

Last week Jochen Markhorst’s eleventh English Dylan book was published, and this week the German and Dutch versions: Bringing It All Back Home – Bob Dylan’s 2nd Big Bang. Available, as usual, through Amazon.

The book contains an elegant foreword by David Marx, comprehensive analyses of the eleven album tracks and of four songs that we’ll refer to as “BIABH outtakes” for convenience: “Farewell Angelina”, “If You Gotta Go, Go Now”, “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word” and “You Don’t Have To Do That”. Connecting those often wide-ranging song excursions are short key chapters like the one below.

That drumming is driving me mad

by Jochen Markhorst

Mr. Tambourine Man”, 2. “Gates Of Eden”, 3. “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” and 4. “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”… there are quite a few fans for whom Side B of Bringing It All Back Home is the best album side in Dylan’s bulging catalogue, and, consequently for them the best album side of all time.

Thanks to Michael Krosgaard’s exhaustive The Recording Sessions and the fascinating time document The Cutting Edge, we can reconstruct its creation fairly accurately.

All four songs were recorded on the same afternoon, that fruitful Friday 15 January 1965 at Studio A of the Columbia Recording Studio in New York. The studio logs indicate that the studio was at Dylan’s disposal from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm. Three hours, in other words. The first half of that time is spent on “Maggie’s Farm” (which is a wrap in four minutes, in one take) and on “On The Road Again” (twelve takes). Then come the four songs that will become side B of Bringing It All Back Home.

To begin with, the two songs Dylan will record solo, without any further accompaniment. First “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”. A first take is cut short by producer Tom Wilson after twenty-four seconds, “Bob can you back up just a little bit,” – apparently Dylan is standing too close to the microphone. The fun is almost washed away by then. We hear him say “I really don’t feel like doing the song” and “It’s such a long song”, but fortunately he is able to restart his motivation: the next take of “It’s Alright, Ma” is taped in one go and is the definitive, staggering, cosmic 7’32” album version.

The Cutting Edge continues with the only take of “Gates Of Eden”, 5’44”, which is also in the can in one, perfect, take. We hear no studio talk or other background noise between the two recordings, but we can assume that Dylan allowed himself a short smoke break or something in between. And probably went for a cup of tea after the tour de force “Gates Of Eden”.

Meanwhile, Bruce Langhorne (electric guitar) and drummer Bobby Gregg are invited back into the studio. “Mr. Tambourine Man” is on the roll. Not for the first time, by the way; six months ago, during the recording sessions for Another Side Of Bob Dylan on 9 June 1964, Dylan already recorded two takes, accompanied by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, who provided some back-up vocals.

Those recordings did not pass the selection. In general, Dylan is not really too critical of recordings, which to him are nothing more than snapshots of how a song is played on that particular day, but “Mr. Tambourine Man” is different. He is proud of the song, has been playing it since May ’64, has shown it to friends, has performed it in England and in Newport and at the Halloween concert at the Philharmonic Hall, New York October 31, has actually played it at almost every small and large gig in 1964. And apparently, he feels that the June recording with Elliott doesn’t do the song justice – he moves it on to a next album, saving it for perhaps a Best Album Side Of All-Time.

So, Dylan has “Mr. Tambourine Man” under his belt by the time the song is recorded for Bringing It All Back Home. But for the band, it’s still a bit of a search. Drummer Bobby Gregg, in particular, seems to be inspired by the title to come up with sort of playing like a drum major, choosing a very Greenwich Village Fanfare-like boom-boom accompaniment. Halfway through take 3, Dylan can’t take it anymore. He has kept it up for three torturous minutes, but then abruptly breaks off: “Aww hey, I can’t uh… hey, that drumming is driving me mad. I’m going outa my brain.”

Take 4 and 5 are two short, aborted runs of a few seconds, and take 6 then is perfect. Bobby Gregg is no longer allowed to participate.

In the end, it’s the only song on Side B that takes more than eight minutes to complete, this Friday afternoon. “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” is recorded in the 4’14” that the song lasts. Gregg is still not allowed to return, guitarist Bruce Langhorne stays put and does basically the same thing as on “Mr. Tambourine Man”, only an octave lower – swirling single notes on almost every beat.

And with that, the recording of the Best Album Side of All Time is done. Without a single second of Bobby Gregg.

———-

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:

———-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Dylan Cover a Day 29: Dirge

Posted on December 14, 2021 by TonyAttwood

By Tony Attwood

This, I suspect, is going to be one of the articles in this series that is skipped by quite a few readers who so kindly generally follow me on this daily meander through Dylan’s catalogue in alphabetical order via the covers. Cover version of “Dirge”? Let that one go.

Dylan himself has never performed “Dirge” in concert and perhaps for that reason the number of covers is tiny and do take a little bit of finding.

But I certainly don’t want to repeat my whole argument about the importance of “Dirge” and “Wedding Song” – my thoughts are still online as part of All Directions. But if I may quote myself briefly, I said, “those final songs took us to a new high point from which Dylan was completely ready and free to launch himself forward with not only works of genius, but works of genius the fans and the self-appointed critics would like.”

Thus these are the two compositions that preceded “Blood on the Tracks” and my suggestion has been that next time you play that album you might care to precede it with these two extraordinary songs and hear them as “Blood on the Tracks: the Prelude”.

Anyway, because of their low ranking among the self-anointed experts, we don’t hear too much of them in the world of covers, but there are two that I really enjoy and a third which is, well…. interesting.

And indeed when we published a list of covers suggested by readers Dirge came up twice – and those two suggested covers make up the two main entries today.

Michael Moravek

This artist (of whom I know nothing) gives me a feeling that he has contemplated every word he is singing and worked with the musicians around him to produce this beautiful arrangement of such a difficult song. Even the repeated bars at the end are carefully crafted – and one can’t always say that.

Please do stay with this version rather than moving on after a few seconds… it really is worth it. Sophie Hunger is another artist I am not familiar with – very much my loss – and Wiki tells me she is a Swiss singer-songwriter, film composer, multi-instrumentalist (guitar, blues harp, piano) and bandleader, currently living in Berlin.

And a remarkable interpreter of Dylan it seems. I really do think this is a fantastic interpretation of a totally remarkable and ludicrously ignored Dylan masterwork.

Erik Truffaz.

And finally…

Diva de Lai

This is not a recording I’m going to play over and over again – it is the previous two covers that have been and will be heard in the Attwood household. But this version does show just how much there is in this often ignored song.

Dirge really is an amazing composition. It does deserve more recognition. Just because Bob doesn’t want to perform it, don’t mean it ain’t great.

The series…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXVIII)

Posted on December 14, 2021 by TonyAttwood

Details of all the cover versions of Dylan songs, and links to all the previous episodes, are included at the end of the article.

by Larry Fyffe

According to the Dylavinci Code, Jesus Christ meets up with Mary Magdalene in “the land of oaks”.

In the song lyrics below, He thinks of mama, who is also the mother of Magdalene, which biologically makes Maggie and JC “half-siblings”.

Clear away the mixing in of modern technology like the railway train, and it’s obvious that pregnant Magdalene (‘my woman’), and time-traveller Dylan, transfigured into the form of Christ, rendezvous in France:

I can hear a sweet voice gently calling
Must be the mother of our Lord
Listen to the Duquesne whistle blowing
Blowing like my woman's on board
(Bob Dylan: Duquesne Whistle ~ Dylan/Hunter)

So far we realize that Lazarus is restored back to life, and Martha feeds the Saviour well; Jesus is present to be with Magdalene at His daughter’s birth.

Then He leaves to distract Church authorities away from the location (this is speculation as no other hidden clues are left behind in any song lyrics to assure the code-busters that their reconstruction of the timeline is right on).

Religious authorities have accused the couple of having a “Roderick/Madeline Usher relationship”.

In the following song lyrics that accompany a movie produced in Durango, Mexio, Jesus (aka ‘Billy’) is depicted as an outlaw of the Old West in America – on the run with Mary Magdalene (aka “Maria”) before they escape to France:

Playing around with some sweet senorita
Into her dark hallway, she will lead you
To the shadows of the mesa, she will greet you
Billy, you're so far away from home
(Bob Dylan: Billy)

There are so-called ‘Dylanologists’ who hold to a different decipher of the Divinity Code. They claim that Jesus brings His wife back with Him to New England along with the child.

Based on the song lyrics below in which Christ (aka Jack Astor) saves pregnant wife Madelene after the Titanic hits the iceberg.

Jesus, because He cannot die, or else because He disguises Himself as a woman and is allowed into a lifeboat, makes it to shore; contrary to the finding of Astor’s drowned body:

The rich man Mr. Astor
Kissed his darling wife
He had no way of knowing
Be the last day of his life

Perhaps misled by their reading of the following quote:

The companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene
And He often kissed her on the lips
(Gospel Of Philip)

Such an interpretation does not hold water because Jack’s wife Madelene gives birth to a male child once safely back home. The true interpretation, as demonstrated, be that Jesus travels alone to Utah with baby Sophia Sarah wrapped up warmly in swaddling clothes.

Just goes to show that many of Bob Dylan’s songs are subjected to misinterpretation.

Cover versions in this series

Earlier articles

——————-

We also have a Facebook site with over 13,000 members.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Dylan cover of the Day 28: Dignity.

Posted on December 13, 2021 by TonyAttwood

by Tony Attwood

The thing about Dignity is the rhythm of the bass – I defy anyone who listens to the music of Dylan (as opposed to just focussing on the lyrics) not to recognise the song from that bouncing bass line before any chord changes or vocalisation has been introduced.

It doesn’t really matter what the language is, if you hear the bounce you know it. And this version by Francesco De Gregori – “Il Principe dei cantautori” (the prince of the singer-songwriters) keeps that bass so we know what song we are listening to, even if we don’t speak a word of Italian.

I’m slightly puzzled why I like this cover version so much but I think it is the rolling sound of the Italian, and the fact that the singer does keep the whole piece so much under control, which is what I feel it needs.

But then take that away and you’ve not got Dignity at all – and so I really don’t get this next version at all. OK I don’t speak Swedish, but now the song just sounds like nothing particular. And the rhythm they have chosen just doesn’t seem to do justice to the feeling of the song, even though I can’t understand the lyrics.

There is something engaging about the jolly bounce of it all I guess, and I’ve tried imagining this music with the lyrics in English, but no, it doesn’t work.

I’m not normally including versions I don’t really take to, but I feel the need here to make my point. Take out the absolute essence of the piece and you might as well write your own new song.

OK, so that’s two versions that are not in English. What else can we find? Well of course, there is the instrumental version… And why not Denny Freeman who worked with Bob from 2005 to 2009 and played on Modern Times – the band of which Bob said, “This is the best band I’ve ever been in, I’ve ever had, man for man.”

Denny sadly is no longer with us – he passed away from cancer earlier this year. Remembering you Denny.

But moving on, as one must do, I am as ever looking for a version of the song which really does re-interpret the composition while providing interesting music. And yes I get that with the Low Anthem.

Aaron found this band as part of the Beautiful Obscurity series and I loved it the first time I heard it. Apologies for bringing out the same song twice, but it is so gorgeous.

The series…

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Dylan released and unreleased: Soundstage, The World of John Hammond

A Dylan cover a day 37: Desolation Row

Bob Dylan And That Old-Time Religion

A Dylan cover a day 36: Dear Landlord

Dirt Road Blues part 2: The troublingest woman I ever seen

A Dylan cover a day 35: Dark Eyes

Dylan released and unreleased 10: Playing for Change

Dylan cover a day 34: Country Pie

Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXIX)

Dylan Cover of the Day 33: Crash on the Levee

Dylan released and unreleased: the Galas

Dylan cover a day: Down along the cove

Dirt Road Blues (1997) part 1: They going down 61 Highway

A Dylan cover a Day: Don’t think twice

Dylan released and unreleased: the compilation albums

Dylan cover of the Day 30: Don’t fall apart on me tonight

That drumming is driving me mad: Bob Dylan’s 2nd Big Bang

A Dylan Cover a Day 29: Dirge

Bob Dylan And The Dylavinci Code (Part XXVIII)

Dylan cover of the Day 28: Dignity.

Blogroll

Meta

Recent Posts

Archives

Indexes and reference pages

Recent articles