I guess quite a few people will be wanting to say something to you this year about how much they admire your work, and how it has influenced their lives. “Thank you Bob for all the songs, they have changed my life, they have rescued me when times have been dark,” that sort of thing. And yes I can utterly relate to that.
And what a wonderful thing it must be to have that – to know that you have touched the lives of I guess, hundreds of millions (I’ve no way of working out the number but it must be a lot). More than that, you’ve helped shape western culture as a whole. And that’s pretty damn amazing, when you come to think about it.
But no, I’m going to leave that for others, because my thanks to you, for all you have done for me through my life, is this little website.
When I started the website in November 2008 of course I wasn’t the first guy with such an idea, but I think we have managed to take things a little further than most – listing all your songs in the order they were written (as far as we can) and then seeking to explore what they mean to us all, in ways that maybe other people have not.
So here’s this website: your life in 626 songs. Not reviews created by some self-appointed scribbler who thinks that he or she knows exactly what’s what, and doesn’t actually understand the notion of art. But by people who just love what you’ve done, and want to share their love of your work, and the impact it has had on them, with each other. You’ve touched us all.
It’s still growing of course, this Untold Dylan website, and hopefully it will for a few more years yet. And maybe we’ll find some way of preserving it for the future when I’m not around to curate it any more. Perhaps some university might want to take it over, or maybe one of our regular contributors, or my mate Pat who endlessly badgered me to get on with it in the early days…. Maybe someone…
But insofar as what it is, I think it has worked because it now is a record of your lifetime’s achievement as seen not by record producers and self-appointed experts, but by us. The people who listen to your music, because we enjoy it. Because it moves us.
So Bob, what I am trying to say in my usual rambling way is that this is a sharing thing. You created the songs to share with us, and we created this website to expand that sharing, and to keep a record of all those wonderful concerts, and to look again at all those album sleeves, to dig out all those recordings that you made and then left, to listen to all the recordings of your work made by other performers, and from there to go on and record thoughts and memories of the people who have listened to your work, and been inspired and touched by what you have done.
You’ve given us the songs, and through this website, we’ve been trying to give something to each other as we consider what you have done, so that we can enjoy your creativity even more.
I suspect if I had had the money, the influence and the land I’d have put up an 80th birthday Bob Dylan monument this year, but I don’t so I haven’t. But I have this website, and I think that in a way that’s worth a little bit more, because it is built by people who care about you, and care about your work. It’s personal Bob. You and me. You and everyone who ever writes for or reads this site.
So from myself, and all the people listed before and all those whose names I have missed out (and whose names I will add if they remind me) thank you Bob. Thank you for every single song. Thank you for every concert. Thank you for every interview (no matter how silly the interviewer turned out to be). Thank you for every film.
Thank you Bob. We owe you. Happy birthday.
Tony Attwood, Pat Sludden, Larry Fyffe, Jochen Markhorst, Aaron Galbraith, Mike Johnson, Patrick Roefflaer, Filip Łobodziński, Denise Konkal, mr tambourine, Joost Nillissen and the hundreds and hundreds of people who have kindly written an article or three for us before going on their way to other pastures. All those people I’ve missed, please accept my apologies. And if you want me to add your name, of course I will.
Tony Attwood, publisher, Untold Dylan
And to our readers around the world, and others who have offered articles here, if you’d like to offer your good wishes to Bob on his 80th through an article of your own, please do so. You can either send it to Tony@schools.co.uk for consideration for inclusion on this site, or to the Untold Dylan Facebook page, whichever you think is best.
Gather what you can from coincidence – from Thomas Hardy’s interest in British history, and from Bob Dylan’s interest in American history.
Below, the song lyrics mock General Napoleon Bonaparte’s chances of sacking London:
When lawyers strive to heal a breach
And parsons practice what they preach
Then little Boney he'll pounch down
And march his men on London town
(Thomas Hardy: The Sergeant’s Song ~ “The Trumpet-Major”)
Beneath, the song lyrics mock a gal who wants a ‘tough-guy’ lover:
You need a different kind of man, babe
One that can grab, and hold your heart
Yuo need a different kind of man
You need Napoleon Bony-Part
(Bob Dylan: Hero Blues)
The following song lyrics lament the sacking of Washington by General Robert Ross in the War of 1812:
Ever since the British burned the White House down
There's been a bleeding wound in the heart of town
I saw you drinking from an empty cup
I saw you buried, and I saw you dug up
(Bob Dylan: Narrow Way)
Hardy’s history-romance novel “The Trumpet-Major” is set in England at the time there’s anxiety about an invasion by Napoleon; George III still rules, but replaced a bit later by the Regent Prince.
She’s lives near a bivouac camp, and country-girl Anne gains the interest of three men – gallant John who trains trumpeters; his brother Bob, a womanizing sailor; and boastful officer Festus.
After John’s younger brother returns home from Admiral Nelson’s Trafalgar sea battle, Anne and Bob are left to get married; the loyal trumpet-major heads off to fight along side General Wellington against Napoleon’s armies – “to blow his trumpet till silenced forever upon one of the bloody battlefields of Spain”.
A tragic ending akin to the one depicted in the song lyrics below:
John Brown went off to was to fight on a foreign shore
His mother was sure proud of him
He stood so straight and tall in his uniform and all ....
Oh, his face was all shot up, and his hand blown off
And he wore a metal brace around his waist
(Bob Dylan: John Brown)
Thomas Hardy in the novel quotes from a sailor’s ode that takes note of mentally-afflicted George III’s happy days after he no longer bore the duties of Head of State:
Portland road, the King aboard, the King aboard
Portland road, the King aboard
We weighed and sailed from Portland road
The King he sat with a smile on his face, a smile on his face
To see the after-guard splice the main brace
(Portland Road).
Said it could be that historical accuracy is thrown overboard in the lyrics beneath:
Wellington he was sleeping
His bed began to slide
His valiant heart was beating
He pushed the tables aside
(Bob Dylan: Tempest)
it’siron claws
The lamppost stands with folded arms / pretends to be ^ attached
t the curbs neath wailing babies – tho it’s shadow’s metal badge /
All in all, can only fall, with a crashing but meaningless blow
No sound comes from the depths of Eden
“The Cool, Cool River” is a nice song from Paul Simon’s The Rhythm Of The Saints (1990), the successful follow-up to the mega-success Graceland. The song opens with a rhythm-driven, Graceland-like stanza and the beautiful opening line Moves like a fist through the traffic / Anger and no one can heal it, then switches back to slow and melodic, à la “Still Crazy After All These Years”, and then back to the African frenzy of the beginning. It’s defensible that the song was selected for the cash cow The Essential Paul Simon (2007), and Simon’s satisfaction with the song is once more evident when he selects it for the tracklist of his Farewell Tour (2018).
But that’s where it goes wrong. Simon plays in Portland on Saturday, May 19, and “The Cool, Cool River” is the fifteenth song in the set. The first two verses come out well. The first lines of the third verse (Anger and no one can heal it / Slides through the metal detector) are already not quite right and seem to be scraped together, and then Simon loses it completely. For twenty-four seconds, the band keeps hanging on the same chord and Rhymin’ Simon is frozen. Then he turns to the band and asks, clearly audible: “Anybody know the words?” Bandleader Mark Stewart laughs sheepishly, as does the rest of the band, we hang on to that one chord for another twenty seconds, and then Simon just skips the rest of the verse – the last two verses come out right.
Simon is 76 and on his last, very successful tour. He is self-assured enough to fully admit at the end of the song that he fucked up the lyrics and offers to make up for it:
“Ok. Because I made a mistake and forgot the lyrics to that song, I’m going to penalize myself… I need my acoustic guitar. I’m going to sing one of my songs that I loathe. Bring me a six string. Ok. This’ll teach me because I just… I hate this song.”
To the delight of the audience, Simon then starts “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”. After the first wave of enthusiastic cheering and applause, everyone soon starts singing along:
Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feeling groovy
Ba da-da da-da da-da, feeling groovy
Simon makes no mistakes in the lyrics, stares into the audience sultry, quasi-fatigued and playfully grumpy, and reveals his greatest annoyance while singing the second verse:
Hello lamppost, what'cha knowing
I've come to watch your flowers growin'
Ain't you got no rhymes for me? – aarraghh I HATE this song
Feeling grooooovy
… the lamppost stanza. Indeed, not a literary highlight in Simon’s oeuvre. The aversion is certainly not feigned; despite the song’s eternal popularity, Paul Simon has not played it for twenty-five years, and in 2017, as a guest on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show, he expresses his dislike in much the same words (“I loathe that song”). Colbert is shocked and persuades Simon to play it anyway, but then he will provide different lyrics, less “naïve”, because that is what bothers Simon so much. The first verse is the same, but the lamppost couplet is changed:
Hello lamppost, nice to see ya
We might get bombed by North Korea
We’re getting close to World War III
So run for the shelters, feeling grooooovy
… and then two more verses with current affairs (climate change, Trump). The men sing beautifully together, close harmoniously, Simon bows reconciled to Colbert and says: “I hate it.”
The transvaluation of values
It is the middle of 1964, and the Beat Poet Dylan is awakening. “Gates Of Eden” is the first song he writes after Another Side Of and, it seems, the first song in which he tries to imitate Burroughs’ cut-up and deconstruction. For which, very appropriately, he apparently leafs through Burroughs’ Nova Trilogy, or more specifically: The Soft Machine (1961). At least, that is what the later inserted “iron claws” indicates.
After this addition, we see, throughout the song, word combinations and images that are suspiciously common in The Soft Machine. “Phantom rider”, for example, “grey flannel” appears nine times, “silver” dozens of times, in dozens of combinations, plus word combinations too unusual to be due to coincidence. “Foreign sun” is one such, and “iron claws” is another typical Burroughs word combination, appearing three times in The Soft Machine alone (six times in Nova Express). “The all-powerful board that had controlled thought feeling and movement of a planet from birth to death with iron claws of pain and pleasure,” for example (chapter 15, Gongs Of Violence).
But apart from those rather blatant, not too subtle Burroughs borrowings, the fresh Beat Poet Dylan also seems receptive to a transcendent goal of the Junky poet: alienation and deconstruction. This, at least, is what the alienating opening line of this verse, The lamppost stands with folded arms, seems to indicate.
In the art of song, a lamppost is not a very popular decorative item, but if it is, then it usually signals loneliness, romantic longing and despair. Simon’s embarrassment at the silly supporting role he gives the lamppost is palpable – it really is too naive. Sinatra stands leaning against a lamppost, languishing during the wee small hours, as it should be. Herman’s Hermits are “Leaning On A Lamp Post” in case a certain lady comes by (1966), the most famous soldier girl in music history, Lili Marlene, stands underneath the lamp post by the barrack’s gate, and also Janis Ian (“Miracle Row”), Barbra Streisand (“Memory”), Randy Newman (“Naked Man”) and Tom Waits (“Jitterbug Boy”) find support in their loneliness and despair in a lamppost. It is an object, in short, with an emotional value that demands to be revalued – or rather: transvalued.
Burroughs picked up the dictum from Nietzsche: die Umwertung aller Werte, the transvaluation of values. Misunderstood (Nietzsche did not mean a renewal of our values, but rather a return to pre-Christian norms and values), for anarchistic, free-thinking artists such as Burroughs, Ginsberg and Kerouac it is an attractive, catchy motto for their dreamed-of writing. Burroughs, in particular, sees language as an instrument of power and can disrupt that power by Umwertung, by cutting random words, sentences, paragraphs out of their original context and pasting them back into a new one, determined by chance.
Literally cutting and pasting, as Brother Bill does… Dylan does not go that far. But imitating it is not too complicated, and Dylan already has some experience with the related figure of speech catachrese (combining incompatible words, such as worthless foam, breathlike flowers and flaming feet). There, it is mainly alienating. The novice Beat Poet now goes a step further: umwerten, transvaluate. So, a lamp post is no longer a comfort and supportive piece of scenery, no: closed, with folded arms, he does not move an inch, gives no falter, clinging to the curb with his iron claws while in his light the babies lie wailing.
Quite a different value. Paul Simon’s flowery hippy lamppost clasps her hands in shock.
To be continued. Next up: Gates Of Eden part IV: Out of the depths have I cried
————————
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:
Tracks selected by Aaron Galbraith; introduction and comments by Tony Attwood
Introduction
If you are a regular reader of Untold Dylan, you’ll know that our articles are written by a group of people from around the world; people who’ve never met but share an interest in developing this site.
One such is Jochen in the Netherlands who is currently (May 2021) writing a series of articles tracking “Gates of Eden”. The first two have been published here:
That second episode contains a link to a version of Gates of Eden by DM Stith, whose work I was not aware of, and which I find utterly remarkable and challenging and unsettling. Which made me think, “what have others done with this song?” So I asked Aaron if he could come up with some other covers for another edition of “Beautiful Obscurity” – the series in which we take a look at the same song from different sources.
There is a link to the earlier episodes of “Beautiful Obscurity” at the end of the article, but off we go with Aaron’s selection. The third episode of Jochen’s series will follow shortly.
Here is the first ever Gates Of Eden cover from 1965 – The Myddle Class (produced by Goffin & King)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qYqnteKAKDc
Tony: the problem for me is that the arrangement emphasises the solid 4/4 beat (meaning four beats in a bar) at the expense of the musical subtlety that exists within the song. In fact the rhythm of the song is more properly expressed as what musicians would call 12/8. This means there are 12 beats arranged in groups of three, with a slight extra emphasis at the start of each set of three. So
The savage soldier sticks his head in sand and then complains
gives us seven groups of 1-2-3, with the 8th group of three being the pause at the end of the line. This construction has allowed Dylan to play with the song in many ways in performances. For example this from Cologne shows up the 12/8 very well. Make it too rigid as the Myddle Class do, and the nuances of rhythm are lost.
Recording the song in 1967, the Etonians however, removed the subtleties totally and give us a straight four beats in a bar…
This is not as bad an idea as might be felt at first, because the percussionist is really up to dealing with this – although I really could do without the pipes all the way through, or the forced harmony from the singers just before the end… nor the odd extra end in a new key for no logical or musical reason I can find.
Aaron: I’m always a big fan of Arlo Guthrie’s Dylan covers, and this one is no exception, from The Last Of The Brooklyn Cowboys album
Tony: A very refreshing couple of bars of introduction from the band that shows us that someone is thinking about the music rather than just “doing that Dylan song”.
The problem with this song is that opening two lines of each verse have a very memorable melody which is repeated exactly in each verse – just think of
Of war and peace the truth just twists
Its curfew gull just glides
Upon four-legged forest clouds
The cowboy angel rides
So once we know the lyrics, as we all do, it becomes repetitive, and that means the only variation we can get is through the music – which is what Stith does to extreme. By half way through Arlo’s valiant attempt, I’m finding it hard to keep my focus. I want to focus because it is Mr Guthrie Junior and he deserves attention and respect, but I struggle…
I didn’t like the fade either.
Aaron: Ralph McTell also does some pretty great Dylan covers
Tony: And yes indeed Ralph McTell is always worth considering. And, writing these commentaries as I listen to each song, it is as if Aaron knew what I was going to say, because here the singer, knowing he has nothing to prove, changes the melody.
Yes it fits perfectly, and holds my attention 150%. What is so good is that with each verse I am listening to what he has done to the melody. Of course we all know the words by heart, and yet each time he keeps our attention. And that accompaniment varies as we go. Just listen to what happens with
With a time-rusted compass blade
Aladdin and his lamp
Sits with Utopian hermit monks
Side saddle on the Golden Calf
And even now he hasn’t stopped making us sit up and focus – because then he changes the harmonies. OK the birds of prey is a bit obvious from the guitar but if I’d been producing I wouldn’t have had the nerve to point this out either.
Aaron: Last up, it’s Bryan Ferry from his Dylan covers album Dylanesque
Tony: Now I love Bryan Ferry’s music – and I loved his answer to the question, “What would you say if you ever met Bob Dylan?” He replied suggesting that he would say, “I hope you don’t mind.” And mind some people might, because he changes the time signature into 8/4 (eight beats in a bar) although I suspect anyone transcribing would make it 4/4). But you can hear the difference.
So by now we have dived into atmosphere, which is what we get big time. And amazingly even after listening to all the verses of all the versions above, I’m still entranced and enveloped by his. Including the instrumental break. It is so utterly…. haunting. What other words is there for it?
Given that I am a resolute atheist, they could play this at my funeral, but I won’t demand that of my daughters. It’s too long for that moment, and anyone who does turn up will, I’m sure, be anxious to get to the drinks.
Aaron: Ferry did one of the greatest Dylan covers of all time (in my opinion) so an entire album was an exciting prospect, but it turned out to be fairly bland for my taste. Let’s remind ourselves of what he can do with a Dylan song – A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall
Tony: Agreed, it is a classic. The video is fun too.
We are also trying to catalogue the cover versions that we have mentioned across articles in Untold Dylan. The latest edition of that listing is Dylan covers, 2nd edition: 50+ new covers added, now over 150 in total – undertaken in early May. If you are reading this somewhat later in time, it might be worth searching in the Search box for “Dylan covers”
What’s on Untold Dylan
If you take a moment to look at our home page you’ll find indexes to some of our current and recent series.
Alternatively if you scroll to the top of this page you’ll see a set of links and indexes to getting on for 50 of the series we have run, or are running, as well as a link to an article giving details of the writers who kindly give up their time to make Untold Dylan happen.
If you’d like to write for us, or have an idea for a series we’ve never tried, please do email Tony@schools.co.uk
We’re also on Facebook. Just search for Untold Dylan or click here.
Both novelist Thomas Hardy and singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan go a-roving on the deep Jungian Sea.
Saint Jude is the patron saint of the hopeless and despaired.
“Jude The Obscure” by Thomas Hardy tells a tragic ‘gothic’ tale concerning a stone mason who wants to go to university but can’t afford it. Jude’s his name, and he weds the local flirt Arabella; she gives birth to Jude, Jr. after their unhappy marriage breaks up.
Jude meets Sue; they fall in love, but she’s against the institution of marriage. She opts for a sexless marriage with Richard, a schoolmaster who’s older than she is; they too break up.
Sue and Jude live together, unmarried, and after a while Sue decides to have sex – two children, and an expected third is the result.
Things go from bad to worse for the now shunned couple. Jude’s troubled son by Arabella kills his two half-siblings, and then hangs himself; Sue miscarriages. Believing that she’s being punished for her ‘sins’ by the Almighty Christian God, Sue becomes religious. Sue remarries her former husband Richard; Jude, plied by alcohol, remarries his former wife Arabella.
Alas, Jude dies after travelling to talk one more time with his beloved Sue – in a freezing storm.
Below, Thomas Hardy cites a ‘decadent’ poet who pens a lament regretting the displacement of pagan mythology by the Christian religion:
O ghastly glories of saints, dead limbs of gibbeted Gods
Though all men abase them before you in spirit, and all knees bend...
For there is no God found stronger than death; and death is a sleep
(Charles Swinburne: Hymn To Proserpine)
In Greek/Roman mythology, Proserpine, wife of Pluto/Hades, represents the cycle of life and death; in a deck of playing cards, the Ace of Diamonds represents life; the Ace of Spades, death – the strongest card:
I got two cards looking
Lord, they seem to be handmade
One looks like the Ace of Diamonds
The other looks like it's the Ace of Spades
(Bob Dylan: Standing On The Highway)
In “Jude The Obscure”, Hardy quotes the following lines:
Ghastly grim, and ancient raven
Wandering from the nightly shore
Tell me what thy lordly name is
On the night's Plutonian shore
(Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven)
Sorrowfully sings the songwriter the lyrics beneath:
The wind howls like a hammer
The night blows cold and rainy
My love she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing
(Bob Dylan: Love Minus Zero)
In the novel, Thomas Hardy quotes from a Christian hymn:
Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed
Teach me to die, that so I may
Rise glorious at the judgement day
(All Praise To Thee My God This Night - Ken/Tallis)
In the song lyrics below, the singer/songwriter regrets that organized religion won’t even let a person die in peace:
The foreign sun, it squints upon
A bed that is never mine
As friends and other strangers
From their fates try to resign
Leaving them wholly, totally free
To do anything they wish to do but die
(Bob Dylan: Gates Of Eden)
What’s on Untold Dylan
If you take a moment to look at our home page you’ll find indexes to some of our current and recent series.
Alternatively if you scroll to the top of this page you’ll see a set of links and indexes to getting on for 50 of the series we have run, or are running, as well as a link to an article giving details of the writers who kindly give up their time to make Untold Dylan happen.
If you’d like to write for us, or have an idea for a series we’ve never tried, please do email Tony@schools.co.uk
We’re also on Facebook. Just search for Untold Dylan or click here.
Below is part 35 of the Never Ending Tour series of articles. A full index of the series can be found here. The most recent articles (including those mentioned within the article below) are…
Time Out of Mind came out in September 1997, and as far as I can tell, Dylan performed only four songs from the album in the last months of that year, ‘Lovesick’, ‘Till I Fell in Love with You’, ‘Can’t Wait’ and ‘Cold Irons Bound’. However he also brought forward some older songs he had never or rarely performed, such as ‘Blind Willie Mc Tell’ (See NET, 1997, part 1) and ‘This Wheel’s on Fire’.
He also covered quite a few songs by other artists. We get the feeling that in 1997 Dylan was attempting to widen his field and push his boundaries.
Let’s begin with some of the Dylan songs that were new to performance. ‘Wheels on Fire’ was first performed in 1996 (see NET, 1996, part 3) and I commented on that gutsy performance. The 1997 performance is somewhat more lush due to some wonderful steel guitar work by Bucky Baxter. The song was associated with The Band, who recorded it on their first album and, up until 1996, it had remained that way, the only Dylan performances being on the Basement Tapes. At the beginning of this performance Dylan introduces Rick Danko, his old drummer from The Band. It sounds as though Danko takes the drums for this one. (Sorry don’t have the date)
Wheel’s on Fire
This captures all the allusiveness of the song. I miss the harmonica Dylan used to kick the song off in 1996, but Dylan does a great vocal here. In 1997 generally, Dylan didn’t bring out the harp much. There are whole concerts played without it. Seems like Dylan had almost forgotten his trusty little instrument.
‘Tough Mama’ has always been my favourite song off Planet Waves (1974), and I regret that Dylan only rarely performed it. For me, the song belongs to a small group of ‘goddess songs’, a particular kind of love song which celebrates the divine female. Others I would put in that group include ‘Golden Loom’, ‘Isis’ and ‘Shelter from the Storm’. It sounds a bit like a throw-away rocker, but the lyrics are a stand out:
‘Ashes in the furnace, dust on the rise,
You came through it all the way, flyin' through the skies
Dark beauty
With that long night's journey in your eyes
Sweet goddess
Born of a blinding light and a changing wind,
Now, don't be modest, you know who you are and where you've been.
Jack the cowboy went up north
He's buried in your past.
The lone wolf went out drinking
That was over pretty fast.’
This performance is very close in tempo and spirit to the album version, and sounds suitably rough and road-worn.
Tough Mama
Another rarity is ‘The Wicked Messenger’ from John Wesley Harding (1967). The song seems to come out of the same box as ‘All along the Watchtower’ but has been overshadowed by that more famous song. Perhaps it’s not quite as focused as ‘Watchtower’ and one can’t help but wonder if the ‘wicked messenger’ is not Dylan himself in disguise as some Old Testament prophet.
‘Oh, the leaves began to fallin'
And the seas began to part
And the people that confronted him were many
And he was told but these few words
Which opened up his heart
If you can't bring good news, then don't bring any’
This song would become a staple over the next few years, with constant changes in the arrangement. The vocal is done well, but Dylan was to move away from the kind of thump-bash arrangement we find here. This arrangement flattens out the drama of the lyrics, but it’s a good place to start for this long neglected song.
Wicked Messenger
Dylan began performing ‘Born in Time’ in 1996 (See NET, 1996, part 3). I suggested that the song fits very well with the weary of love theme in Time out of Mind. The line ‘You can take what’s left of me…’ is not exactly a seductive invitation. To be born in time is to be born into the death of love. The ‘rising curve/where the ways of nature will test every nerve’ doesn’t leave much but the rag ends. The 1996 performance may be a little gentler than this one, but once more the tone is suitably weary and road worn. The steel guitar gives it a little touch of country music which does it no harm.
Born in Time
‘One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)’ was performed over fifty times in 1978, and not again until 1997, when it was performed twice. The song is an apology, and maybe one of the least interesting songs from Blonde on Blonde (1966). It’s hard to know what might have drawn Dylan back to this song after nearly twenty years. The weary, laid back treatment suits it well, however. (13th August)
One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
Easier to see what drew Dylan back to another Blonde on Blonde performance rarity, ‘Pledging my Time’, a wonderful urban blues which neatly encapsulates the suffocating feeling of being trapped somewhere, at a party maybe, where you’d rather not be.
‘Well, early in the morning
To late at night
I got a poison headache
But I feel alright’
I don’t know how you feel alright with a poison headache, but I guess if you’re stoned enough it doesn’t really matter. As so often with Dylan, he’s not telling a story but only alluding to it:
‘Well, they sent for the ambulance
Then one was sent
Somebody got lucky
But it was an accident’
What exactly was going on in this stuffy room we can’t know, but we can guess. You don’t get that kind of headache from drinking mineral water and breathing fresh air. The murkiness in all this is a perfect way of leading up to the next song on the album, ‘Visions of Johanna’.
This is a great version with Dylan in fine voice. There’s nothing better to listen to on a pale afternoon than Dylan singing the blues. The band nails it too. (22nd of April)
Pledging my Time
Dylan revived ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown’ in 1996 (See NET, 1996, Part 3). This performance is not as cleanly recorded as the Berlin concert version of 1996, and feels a bit unrecorded, but it is still a magical piece of storytelling. It’s in this song that Dylan’s roots in the blues of the 1930s show. We could be back there in the dust bowl of the south listening to some blues singer telling us his story.
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Now we turn to some of the songs not written by Dylan which he covered in 1997, and after ‘Hollis Brown’, ‘Stone Wall and Steel Bars’ by Ray Pennington and Roy Marcum, released in 1963, seems to fit nicely. Dylan first performs this song in 1997, doing it twelve times. Tony Atwood has an interesting discussion and background to the song
As with ‘Blind Willy Mc Tell’ and ‘Born in Time’, I see this song as fitting in very well with the Time out of Mind ethos, and the musical tradition that album evokes. It’s not a big jump from ‘Stone Walls and Steel Bars’ to ‘Cold Irons Bound.’
Stone Walls and Steel Bars
Another take on love, murder and betrayal can be found in Lefty Frizzell’s ‘Long Black Veil’ from 1959. The song has a very Dylanish opening verse:
‘Ten years ago, on a cold dark night
Someone was killed, 'neath the town hall light
There were few at the scene, but they all agreed
That the slayer who ran, looked a lot like me’
It’s a great ghost story of a woman who haunts her lover’s grave, a lover who died to save her from dishonour. It has a melancholy beauty. Like ‘Stone Walls’, it takes us back to the music of a bye-gone era, the 1930s and 40s.
Long black Veil
‘Shake Sugaree’ was written by Elizabeth Cotton, and is squarely in the country tradition. It’s a song about pawning everything and having nothing. The feel of country music starts to come through Dylan’s performances in 1996, and in 1997 that tendency continues. It’s there on Time out Of Mind in ‘Dirt Road Blues’, which has never been performed.
Shake Sugaree
‘Viola Lee Blues’ written by Noah Lewis pushes us even further back into musical history, into the 1920s, the era of the jug band and country blues, an era that could have produced a song like ‘Dirt Road Blues’.
Exploring his musical past is nothing new to Dylan. He did it in the early sixties, when he began writing songs, and again in 1971 while working on Self Portrait, and again in 1993/4 with his two albums of traditional songs, and he would do it again in 2014/15 with his exploration of what’s called ‘The Great American Songbook.’
However no album of Dylan songs has quite the retro feel of Time Out of Mind. It wasn’t just producer Lanois with his swampy southern sound, but Dylan who wanted an album that sounded like the old Sun Records of the forties and fifties. These songs we’re looking at here are from that era. Here’s ‘Viola Lee Blues.’ Incidentally, Lewis was known as a great harmonica player, and I’m a touch disappointed that Dylan didn’t take him on.
Viola Lee Blues
Another song which provides a backdrop to Time Out of Mind is ‘I’ll Not Be a Stranger’ by the Stanley Brothers who began performing their bluegrass back in the late 1940s. The song is both sentimental and yearning and Dylan does a fine job with the vocal.
I’ll not be a stranger
Buddy Holly needs no introduction. He was right at the cusp, as pop music was turning into rock and roll. His ‘Not Fade Away’ (1957) still sounds good, and hasn’t faded away.
Dylan tells of how, as a teenager, while attending one of Holly’s concerts, a ‘transmission’ took place between him and Holly. A look in which the musical baton was passed on. It’s a mysterious feeling, but I think I know what it’s like. I felt something akin to that when I first heard ‘Visions of Johanna’. For Dylan, it must have been a bit spooky too, for Holly was to die shortly afterwards.
Dylan’s ‘Not Fade Away’ is a great tribute to Holly, and to that musical history which, if Dylan can help it, will never fade away. (19th March)
Not Fade Away
I’ll be back soon with more sounds from 1997.
Kia Ora
What’s on Untold Dylan
If you take a moment to look at our home page you’ll find indexes to some of our current and recent series.
Alternatively if you scroll to the top of this page you’ll see a set of links and indexes to getting on for 50 of the series we have run, or are running, as well as a link to an article giving details of the writers who kindly give up their time to make Untold Dylan happen.
If you’d like to write for us, or have an idea for a series we’ve never tried, please do email Tony@schools.co.uk
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Salieri is not dismissive. Constanze may leave the manuscripts here, he will study them and then judge whether the work of her husband, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is good enough for a job as court composer. But alas, that is not really an option. Contanze cannot possibly leave the manuscripts here. She has taken them away secretly; she has approached Salieri behind Mozart’s back. Should Wolfgang discover they are missing, all hell would break loose. “You see, they’re all originals.” Confused, Salieri opens the folder and leafs through the sheet music. Are these originals? “Yes, sir. He doesn’t make copies.” Salieri gasps. The flashback is broken off; we are back in the present, in the Vienna of 1823, where an elderly, embittered Salieri is telling his story to a shaken, non-understanding young priest, to Father Vogler.
OLD SALIERI
Astounding! It was actually beyond belief. These were first and only drafts of music yet they showed no corrections of any kind. Not one. Do you realize what that meant?
Vogler stares at him.
OLD SALIERI
He’d simply put down music already finished in his head. Page after page of it, as if he was just taking dictation. And music finished as no music is ever finished.
(Amadeus, 1984)
It is not even too romanticised, this scene. Although Mozart’s widow committed the atrocity of throwing away sketches and cutting up manuscripts in order to earn money by selling strips of “original Mozart”, enough manuscripts have been preserved to confirm the essence of Salieri’s bewilderment: Mozart wrote down his masterpieces almost without errors, corrections or erasures. The difference with, for instance, the battlefields that Beethoven or Mahler put down on paper, is huge. And it is also in line with Mozart’s own statements about his working methods, such as in this letter to his father from 1780:
“Nun muß ich schliessen, denn ich muß hals über kopf schreiben – komponirt ist schon alles – aber geschrieben noch nicht (Now I have to close, because I have to write head over heels – everything is already composed – but not yet written).”
In the miraculous Horn of Plenty The Bob Dylan Scrapbook 1956-1966 (2005), there is a reproduction of Dylan’s original draft for “Gates Of Eden” folded between pages 40 and 41, which evokes a sensation similar to Salieri’s. It seems to have been written down in one go, has hardly any corrections and is almost finished. As if he was just taking dictation. Only the last verse lacks the middle part; with no attempts to shovel the glimpse / Into the ditch of what each one means is the sole thing that was thought up later.
Remarkable, but not very surprising; we know the testimonies of studio technicians, producers, session musicians and colleagues, who tell how Dylan, between takes, comes up with complete, perfect song texts. No, the true richness of such a manuscript lies on another level: it provides some insight into the creative process, into the workings of Dylan’s poetic vein.
Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds
Apparently, the poet initially had something different mind. In terms of form, at least, it is striking: four-line stanzas, i.e. quatrains, and from the third stanza onwards, he decides on an AAAB rhyme scheme. Here, also graphically, on paper, all opening lines are fourteeners – the dividing forward slashes are clearly inserted later. There are a few deviations in terms of content, Dylan makes punctuation errors (it’s instead of its, for example) and the few deletions are all readable. In content, the first verse is slightly different from the final version:
Of war and peace / the truth does twist / it’s curfew gull just glides /
Upon the fungus forest cloud, the cowboy angel rides
An tho he lights his candle in the sun, it’s glow is waxed in black
All ecpt when neath the trees of Eden ______
Twice the error it’s (instead of its), the third line first read An tho his candle burns the day, is crossed out during this drafting phase and changed to he lights his candle in the sun and after the writing and correcting of this manuscript is finally rewritten to with his candle lit into the sun, and the most striking, the most interesting: on the place of the incomprehensible four-legged forest clouds was initially the relatively normal, reducible fungus forest cloud.
It’s quite a giveaway. Any doubts regarding Dylan’s initial angle to this lyric evaporate now. The atomic bomb, obviously. How we definitively forfeited our right to reaccess Eden by dropping the bomb, something like that. The insight into the creative process is almost voyeuristic. The poet evidently wants to avoid mushroom cloud. Although “mushroom cloud” is a powerful, highly visual metaphor, it has long since been chewed out and has become so commonplace that its poetic brilliance has faded away. So, the poet chooses the closest association: fungus.
At this point in the creative process, the poet still seems to want to work towards the trees of Eden, and to write in fourteeners, and the mushroom cloud resembles a tree as much as a member of the kingdom Fungi, and an alliteration is always welcome, so: fungus forest cloud it shall be. Dylan probably writes this shortly after the last song he writes for Another Side Of, after “My Back Pages”, so around mid-June 1964. The first live performance is the one on 31 October in New York, the concert that hits shops as The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall in 2004.
Thus, sometime between mid-June and late October, Dylan changed that fungus to four-legged, and the obvious explanation is a desire for mystification or, to put it more kindly, a penchant for poeticisation. In those months, the young poet has walked past Lombardi’s on Spring Street and John’s Of Bleecker Street dozens of times, seen pizza al funghi on the menu dozens of times – and at some point he probably thinks: fungus, no, too obvious, too forced, too in-your-face. But he does want to keep the forest, and the alliteration too. The bomber already is a “forbidden bird, a curfew gull”, the pilot is a cowboy angel, a winged weapon carrier… an associative mind just might arrive via world destruction, cowboy angel, the Apocalypse and the Four Horsemen at four-legged.
The all-too-obvious atomic bomb reference of the original verse His candle burns the day, the other no-brainer, has already been blurred by Dylan in the conception phase and will thus be blurred even further. However, the paraphrase of Oppenheimer’s famous quote from the Bhagavad Gita (“Brighter than a thousand suns”) is still recognisable. Especially because of the continuation, which concludes that this sky-burning candle has a black afterglow, that it will bring Death. Or, as Oppenheimer said in response to that first atomic test: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
The closing line, all ecpt when neath the trees of Eden, confirms that the young poet Dylan is initially in this rather one-dimensional, almost topical corner. After all, we only know of two trees in Eden: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – two concepts steeped in symbolism, effortlessly fitting into an apocalyptic theme.
Well, perhaps anyway. The truth, as we all know, just twists.
To be continued. Next up: Gates Of Eden part III: Hello lamppost, nice to see ya
—————–
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:
Publisher’s Footnote: we are currently evolving a page which provides links to some of the most interesting cover versions of Bob Dylan songs – you can find the latest edition at
In his novel ‘The Well-Beloved’, Thomas Hardy relates the story a self-serving sculptor from London who justifies his lusting after three generations of girls from an island family by explaining he’s chasing after the ideal ‘feminine spirit’.
Only when old does the sculptor feel it’s time to settle down with a good woman, but his last hope runs off with a guy her own age; he ends up having sex with none of his ‘beloveds’; marries a female friend instead.
Hardy backs up his emotional-driven novel with quotes from relevant poems.
From a poet of sonnets and odes (Allen Ginsberg mentions that he dropped of books to Bob Dylan, one that contained Sir Wyatt’s poems):
Since love will needs that I shall love
Of very force I must agree
And since no chance may it remove
In wealth and in adversity
I shall always myself apply
To serve and suffer patiently
(Sir Thomas Wyatt: The Lover Determineth To Serve Faithfully)
Hardy quotes from a poet of oxymorons and conceits:
Now, if time knows
That her whose radiant brows
Weave them a garland of my vows ...
Her that does be
What these lines wish to see
I seek no further, it is she
(Richard Crashaw: Wishes To His Supposed Mistress)
In Greek/Roman mythology, Cyprian sculptor Pygmalion falls in love with an ivory statue of a female that he’s carves, and Aphrodite/Venus brings the piece of art alive that he craves.
Quck come see, from the poetic lines below, Hardy quotes:
One on his youth and pliant limbs relies
One on his sinews and giant size
The last is stiff with age, his motion slow
(Virgil: The Aeneid, book v ~ translated)
The darkling Hardy theme expressed in the double-edged song lyrics beneath:
The girls all say, "You're a worn-out star
My pockets are loaded, and I'm spending every dime
How can you say you love someone else
When you know it's me all the time
(Bob Dylan: Summer Days)
In “The Well-Beloved” be cited the following lines:
And, like a captain who beleaguers round
Some stong-built castle on a rising ground
Views all the approaches with observing eyes
This and that other part in vain he tries
And more on industry than force relies
(Virgil: The Aenead, book v ~ translated)
Then there’s this:
All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants too
Outside in the distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
The wind began to howl
(Bob Dylan: All Along The Watchtower)
As well, the motif of the trials and tribulations that an artist goes through as s/he endeavours to create a piece of art that will last threads through all the works mentioned above.
What’s on Untold Dylan
If you take a moment to look at our home page you’ll find indexes to some of our current and recent series.
Alternatively if you scroll to the top of this page you’ll see a set of links and indexes to getting on for 50 of the series we have run, or are running, as well as a link to an article giving details of the writers who kindly give up their time to make Untold Dylan happen.
If you’d like to write for us, or have an idea for a series we’ve never tried, please do email Tony@schools.co.uk
We’re also on Facebook. Just search for Untold Dylan or click here.
“All directions at once” is a series which looks at Bob Dylan’s writing as it evolves over time, rather than focusing entirely on individual songs or albums. The index of all articles is here.
We have reached the early 1980s…. The last article in the series was “Farewell to the Almighty, welcome back Bob” and took us as far as the writing of “Dead man dead man”. The Christian era is over, the extraordinarily brilliant transition era from “Every Grain of Sand” through “Angelina”, has delivered a stunning array of works of genius, and now once more Bob seemed somewhat unsure where to go next.
What we got were some 16 or so songs including a fair number that only the most ardent fans will immediately remember, and indeed many followers of Dylan simply will not know at all.
But I think many would agree “Heart of Mine,” at the start of this next period of writing, is a really good song – not up there with the greatest works, but most certainly one that is worth listening to in its various cover versions….
But after that, we come to a run of songs that for most people are much harder to recall. Indeed, some like “Is it worth it?” don’t even get a mention on BobDylan.com. Obviously we’ve reviewed them all on this site, because that was the original task we set ourselves, and you can see the full list of compositions of the era here.
But Dylan returned to form with the last few songs in the sequence: “Dead Man,” “Trouble”, and a song for the Hawaii 5-0 TV series, and “Watered down love,” are memorable pieces, but are dwarfed by the next composition: “Lenny Bruce”.
What strikes me strongly in listening to these songs in the order they were written is that they are mostly negative – the positive message of Christianity has not been replaced by any other positivity; things are certainly not right. And I think this is a thought worth holding as we move on through Bob’s list of compositions from here on. It’s not all dark yet, but it’s not that hopeful.
Indeed I feel it is possible to argue that Bob had reached a view that things in the world in general were falling apart, and the bits which had not fallen apart yet were in the process of tumbling down.
“Lenny Bruce” is a song from this period which Heylin describes as trite and simplistic, yet is one that Dylan clearly had an affection for, and it is one that highlights the contradictions that were entering Bob’s new world-view. Lenny Bruce, the man who loved to make fun of organised religion, the man who when alive found it hard to get work because of the nature of his approach to comedy, and yet who was revered after his death.
Certainly for me (although clearly not for Heylin), “Lenny Bruce” is the highlight of Dylan’s compositions of 1981; the melody, the lyrics, the simplicity of the arrangement – all redoubled when one listens to it as part of a review of Bob’s writing at this time. Hearing those compositions in sequence makes one feel, this is Bob with reaching into his new direction.
And yet, as if to disprove my point, after that Bob wrote two more religious songs (“Jesus is the one” and “Thief on the cross”). The last two openly religious songs, although with a spot of uncertainty creeping in as well.
Of course with “Lenny Bruce”, Dylan was no stranger to writing about individuals – and no stranger to getting hammered by the critics for such works… From Catfish to St Augustine, from Rubin Carter to Rimbaud and Verlaine from Jessie James to F Scott Fitzgerald, from Joey Gallo to … well the list goes on. But I do find Lenny Bruce turning up next to “Jesus is the one” somewhat arresting. Was it by chance or by design?
“Thief on the Cross” got one live play on 10 November 1981, and that was that. Either the urge to create new Christian songs had run its course, or that was a deliberate epilogue. Interestingly (for me at least, if no one else) the song has a riff that runs throughout which is basically the same as in “Cover Down Break Through”, which suggests either that Dylan had lost his creative drive in this form of writing, or he is deliberately wrapping the era up.
Here is the one and only recording of the song that exists, recorded in New Orleans. The band is Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar), Fred Tackett (guitar), Steve Ripley (guitar), Al Kooper (keyboards), Tim Drummond (bass), Jim Keltner (drums), Arthur Rosato (drums), Clydie King, Regina Havis, Madelyn Quebec (background vocals)
There were two thieves on crosses. In Luke 23 one of them declares that there is no divine presence, everything is hopeless. The good thief attempts to convert the bad thief while the Son of God is crucified.
Well everybody’s been diverted
Everybody’s looking the other way
Everybody’s attention is divided
Well they may not afford to wait
There’s a thief on the cross his chances are slim
There’s a thief on the cross I wanna talk to him
And that was it – the end of the gospel era, and the last song of the 23 pieces written and recorded in 1981. Now Dylan took another long break. When he did return it was in a completely different mode, with Jokerman – which maybe tells us something.
Jokerman has (for me, if no one else) the feel in part of “Caribbean Wind” – and indeed Dylan has said it was again written in the Caribbean. Although we might well feel that this is another song about the end of all things, the message is more about the futility of mankind’s ways than it is about the utter certainty of how it will all pan out in the end.
So Biblical input was still there in his songs but it is combined with a style of writing that leads to an uncertainty of meaning. And when one thinks about it, these two notions are poles apart. With a religion such as Christianity, everything is certain. We know what happened in the past with Jesus Christ, and we know what will happen in the future with Armageddon and the Second Coming.
But the Caribbean Wind style of writing removes the certainty of meaning and seems to take us to the opposite end of the spectrum. Which is why I and I (again seemingly written in the Caribbean period) is interesting: it appears at one level to be trying to balance the two – the religious feel and the uncertainty. But then maybe uncertainty won and Dylan travelled in other directions indeed.
I think that these opening two songs of 1982 show that Dylan really had found a new direction in his writing, for there was a new thought emerging from within – and that was that Bob’s country – the United States – was in real trouble, not just because of its politicians but because of the way that its people were thinking.
The songs from hereon in 1982 and moving into 1983 really do take us in a new direction, and contain some absolute masterpieces dealing with this new feeling that Bob was exploring.
Of course if you know the sequence of Dylan’s writing you’ll know that “Blind Willie” was about to be created, among others, but there is something else in this sequence that I think is an greater indicator of where his thinking was heading, as well as being an absolute monument of Bob’s writing – although as has happens so often with Bob, it took a recording by another performer to realise it.
In fact I see it as one of the all time most masterful and insightful realisations of a Dylan song ever.
And although it comes from later in the year, so important is this song in understanding how Bob’s thinking was evolving, I’ll finish this little piece with it, just so that if you are interested, you can see where I am heading. Then in the next episode I will endeavour to take up the story of this build up to Bob at his most nihilistic. If you are following my meandering through Bob’s writing career, you might care to listen to this now, because how Bob moved from Christianity to Foot of Pride really is something to contemplate.
(It is also reassuring that Lou couldn’t remember all the lyrics and so is reading them from a monitor to his right. Some years back I really struggled trying to perform this song and put my inability to get the lyrics down to early onset dementia. Maybe it wasn’t; maybe they just are impossible).
There’s a retired businessman named Red
Cast down from heaven and he’s out of his head
He feeds off of everyone that he can touch
He said he only deals in cash or sells tickets to a plane crash
He’s not somebody that you play around with much
Miss Delilah is his, a Philistine is what she is
She’ll do wondrous works with your fate, feed you coconut bread,
spice buns in your bed
If you don’t mind sleepin’ with your head face down in a grave
What’s on Untold Dylan
If you take a moment to look at our home page you’ll find indexes to some of our current and recent series.
Alternatively if you scroll to the top of this page you’ll see a set of links and indexes to getting on for 50 of the series we have run, or are running, as well as a link to an article giving details of the writers who kindly give up their time to make Untold Dylan happen.
If you’d like to write for us, or have an idea for a series we’ve never tried, please do email Tony@schools.co.uk
We’re also on Facebook. Just search for Untold Dylan or click here.
Thomas Hardy’s novel “Desperate Remedies” takes it inspiration from an English Baroque opera that’s based on Virgil’s story about the Trojan Aeneas and Queen Dido’s love for him; she’s fled in fear of Pygmalion (see ~ Untold: The Hart Of The Matter):
Pursue thy conquest, love
Her eyes confess the flame her tongue denies
(Henry Purcell/Nathum Tate: Dido And Aeneas)
Without revealing who wrote that which he quotes, Thomas Hardy accompanies his prose with poetic lines from various sources.
He quotes from a hymn:
Like some fair tree which, fed by streams
With timely fruit doth bend
He still shall flourish, and success
All his designs attend
(Nicholas Brady/Nahum Tate: How Blessed Is He Who Does Not Consent)
The hymn in turn is based on the following lines from the Holy Bible:
Blessed is the man that walkest not in the counsel of the ungodly ...
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water
That bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither
And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper
(Psalm I: 1,3)
In the novel, Hardy quotes from a poet who influences William Shakespeare:
Love Is a sour delight, a sugared grief
A living death; an ever-dying life
A breach of reason's law; a secret thief
A sea of tears; an everlasting strife
(Thomas Watson: The Passionate)
He quotes from an opera, a musical that’s inspired by the Tate and Purcell composition mentioned above:
Yet, were he now before me
In spite of injured pride
I fear my eyes would pardon
Before my tongue could chide
(Thomas Lingley Sr.& Jr.: The Duenna)
From a poem penned in the Age of Romanticism, Hardy quotes:
Its passions will rock thee
As the storm rock the ravens on high
Bight reason will mock thee
Like the sun from a wintry sky
(Percy Shelley: When The Lamp Has Shattered)
In the novel, Hardy shares with his readers the title of an Early Victorian poem; he quotes from it:
He looked at her as a lover can
She looked at him, as one who is awake
The past was a sleep, and their life began
(Robert Browning: The Statue And The Bust)
“Desperate Remedies” tells the story of Cytherea who’s poor; she works as a maid for a lady; Cytherea loves architect Edward, but he’s engaged. She weds Aeneas, son of her employer; the son brings in someone to pose as his former wife when he comes under suspicion that he killed her; Edward comes to the rescue of Cytherea; they get married.
From “Mythology” by Edith Hamilton in regards to Aphrodite
(Venus), the mother of Aeneas:
This sea-birth took place near Cythera, from where she was wafted to Cyprus. Both islands were ever after sacred to her, and she was called Cytherea or the Cyprian as often as by her proper name … ‘Wonder seized them all as they saw/Violet-crowned Cytherea’.
Singer/songwriter/musician Bob Dylan likewise borrows from works of literature and musicals to support themes, like love found and love lost, that are presented in his song lyrics:
But, oh, what a wonderful feeling
Just to know that you are near
Sets my heart a-reeling
From my toes to my ears
(Bob Dylan: The Man In Me)
What’s on Untold Dylan
If you take a moment to look at our home page you’ll find indexes to some of our current and recent series.
Alternatively if you scroll to the top of this page you’ll see a set of links and indexes to getting on for 50 of the series we have run, or are running, as well as a link to an article giving details of the writers who kindly give up their time to make Untold Dylan happen.
If you’d like to write for us, or have an idea for a series we’ve never tried, please do email Tony@schools.co.uk
We’re also on Facebook. Just search for Untold Dylan or click here.
In 2004, sports journalist Michael Bamberger meets director M. Night Shyamalan at a party. Shyamalan intrigues him. Bamberger talks, wins the director’s trust and is allowed to carry out his spontaneous plan: over the next two years, the senior writer for Sports Illustrated shall be a fly on the wall, he will follow the director on his way to his next film, in order to write a kind of Making Of about it. Shyamalan’s only condition is that Bamberger must be as brutally honest as in his recently published book Wonderland: A Year in the Life of an American High School.
Whether he has succeeded therein, in being ruthlessly honest, in presenting an untwisted truth, is open to debate. Bamberger seems to be primarily a sports journalist, a chronicler who thinks mainly in terms of winning or losing, who first and foremost admires his protagonist’s unbridled work ethic and burning ambitions; his The Man Who Heard Voices: Or, How M. Night Shyamalan Risked His Career on a Fairy Tale (2006) is not quite a hagiography, but it comes close.
Dylan is a kind of mystical reference point for Shyamalan, or so it seems to be, a couple of times. “Night knew there was something telepathic going on between him and Michael Jordan, him and Bob Dylan, him and Walt Disney,” we read on page 12. And in the same vein, a little further on:
“If it came together, it would be like Dylan and Clapton and Springsteen and Eminem and Kanye West and Miles Davis and Bonnie Raitt and Joan Armatrading and Jerry Garcia and every musician you’ve ever loved joining George Harrison and belting out the opening chord of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ at the same time.”
“It” being the film Shylaman is working on in the two years Bamberger has been following him, the flopped The Lady In The Water.
The film is yet another artistic disappointment after the world success of the staggering The Sixth Sense (1999), and even a low point within this line of letdowns. It is a dark fairy tale with a stumbling plot about a water nymph-like creature, “Story”, who has left her “Blue World” to save humanity, or something like that. And meanwhile, she is besieged by hellhounds with a coat of grass. The entire film takes place in and around a rather shabby apartment complex. Main character Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) is the caretaker of that apartment complex, and this setting offers a multitude of colourful side characters, to whom one can ascribe all kinds of metaphorical qualities. “The Healer”, for example, and “The Guardian”.
Director Shyalaman rather subtly weaves his telepathic soulmate Dylan through the film. Inevitably, after the happy end, when a cover of “The Times They Are A-Changin'” underlines the rolling credits, and equally evident on the CD edition of the soundtrack with James Newton Howard’s brilliant film music, which for obscure reasons is concluded with three more covers (“It Ain’t Me Babe”, “Every Grain Of Sand” and “Maggie’s Farm”). And much less obtrusive, almost like background noise, in a couple of film scenes. One of the flats, for example, is inhabited by a group of musty young adults who spend their days blowing weed and idly chatting. In the first scene, Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue” plays in the background.
The second time we hear Dylan is after about eight minutes, when superintendent Heep leaves the U-shaped complex late at night. He walks past the pool, crickets chirp and Dylan’s “Gates Of Eden” echoes vaguely across the courtyard.
A connection with the film is not very obvious. A multitude of colourful side characters, a fairytale, the search for the lost paradise… with a bit of wriggling, even a less creative analyst might be able to construct a shaky bridge – but one can just as easily do that with, say, “Child In Time”, “Blinded By The Light” or “Strawberry Fields Forever”. Perhaps Shyalaman was taken by the first line and a half;
Of war and peace the truth just twists
Its curfew gull just glides
… the plot of The Lady In The Water does indeed revolve around finding a truth during a war, and salvation is ultimately provided by a bird that only flies at night, after curfew. Okay, not a gull but close enough: a large eagle, as big as the eagles from Lord Of The Rings, flies Story back home.
The Fool On The Hill
The opening lines of “Gates Of Eden” are of extraordinary beauty. Not only because of its wondrous, symbolic and allegory-suggesting content, but also because of an artifice that characterises more of Dylan’s most successful poetry: the clash of surreal, unconventional content on the one hand and the austere, classical form, larded with conventional figures of speech, on the other. And, again as often, the formatting of the texts in all publications (Writings & Drawings, bobdylan.com, Lyrics) obscures the actual form.
In the official publications, the lyrics of “Gates Of Eden” consist of nine seven-line stanzas, each ending with a refrain-like line referring to Eden. Dylan’s reading, the melody and the chord progression then reveal the “real” form:
Of war and peace the truth just twists Its curfew gull just glides
Upon four-legged forest clouds The cowboy angel rides
With his candle lit into the sun
Though its glow is waxed in black
All except when ’neath the trees of Eden
This restructuring can be applied to each of the nine stanzas, with the rhyme scheme remaining AABCD, and the opening lines always being fourteeners, or seven-footed, iambic heptameters, as the professor would call it. Classic, or perhaps even archaic. The first English translations of Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey were written by George Chapman in these so-called fourteeners (1616), C.S. Lewis disliked the six-foot alexandrines, and passionately advocated the use of iambic heptameter (“The fourteener has a much pleasanter movement, but a totally different one: the line dances a jig”) and Lewis’ friend Tolkien regularly uses it for the poems in The Lord Of The Rings.
But actually, the form is already extinct, except among conservatives like Tolkien and Lewis. And with singing poets who are blessed with an exceptionally fine sense of rhythm, rhyme and reason, it still pops up every now and then – more or less spontaneously, we may assume. Paul McCartney’s “The Fool On The Hill” is one such rare exception:
Day after day, alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer
… the same, rather unique rhyme scheme AABCD, and again a heptameter, though Macca, instinctively presumably, chooses to make the second verse a fourteener. No coincidence. It’s the same with the second verse;
Well on the way, head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
In terms of content, it cannot be compared with Dylan’s “Gates Of Eden”, obviously. McCartney has neither the ambition nor the extraordinary literary instinct of Dylan, but it is certainly not lousy poetry. And the Beatle is also the man who wrote “Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been”, and “Lovely Rita”, and “Wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door”, and “Blackbird” – lyrics that would not shame a Nobel Prize winner.
Anyway, the poetic Beatle’s superior sense of melody and rhythm unmistakably mirrors the poetry of Beat Poet Dylan – even if mainly in terms of form. Two lonesome sparrows whose songs harmonize, so to speak.
To be continued. Next up: Gates Of Eden part II: As if he was just taking dictation
—————-
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:
If you take a moment to look at our home page you’ll find indexes to some of our current and recent series.
Alternatively if you scroll to the top of this page you’ll see a set of links and indexes to getting on for 50 of the series we have run, or are running, as well as a link to an article giving details of the writers who kindly give up their time to make Untold Dylan happen.
If you’d like to write for us, or have an idea for a series we’ve never tried, please do email Tony@schools.co.uk
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This list of covers of Bob Dylan songs includes cover versions suggested by readers and cover versions that have been included within articles on this site. Of course the list is not going to be anything like comprehensive, but the idea is to help introduce one or two cover versions of songs you might like, which perhaps you haven’t heard before.
This is an update on the version published a week or so ago with around 60 new recordings added (most of them marked NEW). If you would like to see a favourite of yours which is not on this list added please do add a comment at the end. Ultimately we might have a cover version of every song… you never know.
NEW Blind Willie McTell (in Polish). Following a concert promoted by Untold Dylan.
Blood on the Tracks by Mary Lee’s Corvette. Suggested by Jerry Strauss. The whole album is not on the internet at large but “You’re a big girl now” is on line. As is “Idiot wind” from the Blood on the Tracks Concert.
Boots of Spanish Leather on Dylan på svenska suggested by Jesper Fynbo [Spotify] (This link will start the whole album – you have to move down to the track suggested to play it)
Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word – Joan Baez. Suggested by Tom Haber. The link is to the Untold Dylan review, which includes within it a recording of the song.
We are constantly looking for authors who can offer a new perspective on Dylan’s work. If you have an article ready, or just an idea for an article, I’d love to hear from you – just email Tony@schools.co.uk You can send me the full article (as a word file ideally) or just the idea, as you wish.
The bad news is we don’t pay. The good news is your article will be widely read across the English speaking world, and if you are young enough to care about your CV, it can look good there.
You can read about the writers who kindly contribute to Untold Dylan in our About the Authors page. And you can keep an eye on our current series by checking the listings on the home page
We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with getting on for 10,000 members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Dow
“All directions at once” is a series which looks at Bob Dylan’s writing as it evolves over time, rather than focusing entirely on individual songs or albums. The index of all articles is here.
My thesis relating to this stage of Dylan’s career is twofold. One part is that that Bob Dylan stopped writing overtly Christian songs in 1980 after “Property of Jesus” and then moved on to other topics, some obscure, some overt, some spiritual, some with Christian overtones, some not. So it wasn’t an absolute and complete break with Christianity that occurred, but a move away, sometimes with annoyance (as with “You’re making a liar out of me”) sometimes anguish, sometimes searching for what the world really was about if it wasn’t primarily about being the “Property of Jesus”.
The other element of my approach is that Dylan’s writing has from the very start gone through three phases. One involves writing brilliant song after brilliant song as for example in 1974, when seemingly every song is an absolute winner. There are other times when he almost totally stops writing (as in 1968, 1972 and 1976), and there are yet other periods where he writes a lot, but few of the resultant songs are those which most people would rank highly (such as 1969 and 1978).
It’s a simple theory that has served well up to this point, but 1981 is more difficult to fit into this vision. We might have different feelings about the opening songs of the year Shot of Love, You changed my life, Angelina and Heart of Mine, but I simply cannot be moved from the viewpoint that Angelina is an utter, stunning masterpiece in terms of lyrics and musical composition. And although it is pompous of me to say this, I suspect Bob knew that, and also felt he had not done it justice on the recording considered for the album.
And perhaps he was frustrated with himself for the fact that, he then wrote a collection of songs that I suspect most fans will rarely if ever have heard. Finally he did get back on track with “Watered down love” and the masterpiece that is “Lenny Bruce”. But it took quite a bit of writing to get there.
Yet even after reaching those heights, Bob wrote two final Christian songs to round off his songwriting in 1981, songs which I doubt that most people don’t remember today (“Jesus is the one” and “Thief on the cross”).
The problem in discussing this ebb and flow of creative genius of course is that the era is dominated with commentaries of Christianity and debates about how long the Christian era continued for, rather than the musical and literary merits of the songs that were written. However when one looks at this list from 1980/1 I think many would agree on the merits of this set of songs which poured out one after the other:
And I stress, that is not a list of selected highlights – that, as far as I can ascertain, is a list of songs from within this period in the order of composition.
But at that point, in my judgement, the brilliance stopped. In fact I would suspect only a small number of the most ardent of fans would be able to tell us what came next. Which is not to say that Bob has lost his ability to compose, because we have come across other periods where the writing is not up to his highest standards, from which he bounced back.
As a single example take the very next song:
https://youtu.be/4IJoPZe37YM
There were 16 songs (at least) between “Heart of Mine” and “Lenny Bruce”, but few if any are remembered by most fans and commentators.
Meanwhile Bob himself was not that helpful for anyone trying to work out what he was up to, for in 1981 Dylan was telling us that “Shot of Love” was all about where he was at the moment while seemingly delivering a song that didn’t seem to tell us that much that we didn’t already know.
The full comment from Bob is indeed worth considering. “To those who care now where Bob Dylan is at, they should listen to “Shot Of Love” off the Shot Of Love album. It’s my most perfect song. It defines where I am at spiritually, musically, romantically and whatever else. It shows where my sympathies lie. No need to wonder if I’m this or that. I’m not hiding anything. It’s all there in that one song.”
In terms of the lyrics of the song, and of course just in my opinion, it doesn’t really stand up to Bob’s proclamation, but I guess it means that man cannot live through Jesus alone – he’s needs human love too. Fair enough but for me nowhere near as interesting as what he created with “Angelina”.
So we are moving into a world in which Dylan is going exploring – just to see where it all might lead. And where it leads in particular is to another stunning, overwhelming masterpiece which in true Bob Dylan fashion is left off “Shot of Love”.
We get a song packed with imagery and biblical allusions (the ‘four faces’, for example, of the final stanza appear to allude to Ezekiel 10. 14 and 10.21 and the reference to ‘trying to take heaven by force’ to Matthew 11:12). In fact we get more than a classic – an utter masterpiece. in which obscure yet seemingly meaningful poetry and what appears to be an all-encompassing vision take on humanity’s most pressing problems is balanced by a beautiful melody and simple chord sequence.
But it is a really tough song to sing while holding the audience throughout, and I suspect that is why Bob pulled it from the album – and why Masked & Anonymous only has a short instrumental version. Fortunately we have Ashley Hutchings utterly magnificent rendition now available free for all of us. I do hope you can spare six minutes to listen. This is a beautiful, beautiful performance of a staggeringly brilliant composition.
As Joost said in his review of the song on this site, “Dylan, sitting on a bench, looking back, talkin’ to himself.”
Well, it’s always been my nature to take chances
My right hand drawing back while my left hand advances
Where the current is strong and the monkey dances
To the tune of a concertina
The point about Angelina that always strikes me are the references to self doubt…
When you cease to exist, then who will you blame
I’ve tried my best to love you but I cannot play this game
Your best friend and my worst enemy is one and the same
Angelina
Beat a path of retreat up them spiral staircases
Pass the tree of smoke, pass the angel with four faces
Begging God for mercy and weepin’ in unholy places
Angelina
Looking at Bob’s writing through the era that seems very autobiographical to me.
After “Angelina” came another song of enormous merit – Heart of Mine
However it was only on Biograph that we found out what “Heart of Mine” really could do, as Bob tried to explain to himself (if not to us) his move away from Christianity, and my view remains that at this stage he really did not know where he was going although he knew perfectly well where he had been.
And so by the time we get to Dead Man Dead Man we have a song which fades out with the repeated line, “Ooh I can’t stand it I can’t stand it” and although I think that statement is an over exaggeration of where Bob was, I think I can nevertheless understand where Bob had got to.
I know thy worksThat thou are neither cold nor hotI would thou wert cold or hotSo then because thou art lukewarmAnd neither cold nor hotI will spue thee out of my mouth(Revelation 3: 15,16)
In the song lyrics below, the narrator therof does no agree with the harsh admonishment:
My love speaks like silenceWithout ideals or violenceShe doesn't have to say she's faithfulYet she's true, like ice, like fire(Bob Dylan: Love Minus Zero)
The song lyrics beneath sound like they’re narrated by a modern-day Laodicean:
In ‘A Loadicean’, a novel by Thomas Hardy of the Late Victorian era, Paula Power cannot decide which man she should marry. She’s caught in the middle between George Somerset, a ‘modernist’ young architect; and the older ‘romantic’ Captain De Stancy, a descendant of an aristocratic family.
The woods are lovely dark and deepBut I have promises to keepAnd miles to go before I sleep(Robert Frost: Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening)
The song lyrics beneath sound like they’re narrated by a modern-day Laodicean:In ‘A Loadicean’, a novel by Thomas Hardy of the Late Victorian era, Paula Power cannot decide which man she should marry. She’s caught in the middle between George Somerset, a ‘modernist’ young architect; and the older ‘romantic’ Captain De Stancy, a descendant of an aristocratic family.
Her father, who made his wealth constructing railways, leaves Paula a half-ruined castle in his will, a medieval structure that once belonged to the Stancy family.
Paula’s enthralled by modern technology such as the telegraph; however, she accepts the Captain’s proposal of marriage. Unknown to her is that the Captain’s son is a drinker and ne’er-do-well who hopes to get his gambling hands on her money. He’s faked a telegram ‘exposing’ young George as a drunk and gambler.
Finding out about the deceit, pretty Paula decides to marry the architect instead ; the Captain’s no-good son sets a fire in the castle; George says he’ll design a modern house for the couple to live in.
Still Paula’s torn between fantasies of the ‘romantic’ past, and the ‘realism’ of the present – the times they are a-changing.
Charles Darwin hath ploughed asunder the idealiism of poet William Wordsworth’s transcendentalist views of a divinely driven Nature.
“A Loadicean” by Hardy is partially a lament for this having happened, and partially a paean to the evolution of modern technology.
In the verse below, the middle-of-the-road poet sides with both Wordsworth and Darwin; he sees beauty in the natural environment, but feels no divine spark within it:
The river whispers in my earI've hardly a penny to my nameThe heavens never seemed so nearAll my body glows with flame The tempest struggles in the airUnto myself alone I sing ....The evening sun is sinking lowThe woods are dark, the town is tooThey'll drag you down, they'll run the show(Bob Dylan: Tell Old Bill)
Could you write for Untold Dylan?
We are constantly looking for authors who can offer a new perspective on Dylan’s work. If you have an article ready, or just an idea for an article, I’d love to hear from you – just email Tony@schools.co.uk You can send me the full article (as a word file ideally) or just the idea, as you wish.
The bad news is we don’t pay. The good news is your article will be widely read across the English speaking world, and if you are young enough to care about your CV, it can look good there.
You can read about the writers who kindly contribute to Untold Dylan in our About the Authors page. And you can keep an eye on our current series by checking the listings on the home page
We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with getting on for 10,000 members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down
The jingle-jangle sound of The Byrds’ world hit “Mr. Tambourine Man” is, obviously, largely due to Roger McGuinn’s guitar, the electric twelve-string Rickenbacker 360 Deluxe. It brings immortality to both McGuinn and the guitar and is considered in music history as one of the first pillars of the invention of folk rock.
How justified this is, is for music historians to decide, but McGuinn doesn’t record his 360/12 on the Dylan song until January 1965, so he’s certainly not the first to play the guitar on a hit. Rickenbacker is smart enough to give a prototype (the second copy, actually) to George Harrison almost a year earlier, in February ’64, when The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. In the television show the Beatle remains faithful to his Gretsch, but soon he parades and plays the Rickenbacker prominently in the successful film A Hard Day’s Night (1964), igniting enormous, worldwide popularity. Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys, for example, is quick to strike. The Rick 360/12 already seems to be sounding on “Don’t Hurt My Little Sister” (June ’64), on Pet Sounds it certainly jingle-jangles (in “That’s Not Me”, among others), and the particular beauty of “California Girls” (April ’65) also owes more than a little to the twelve-string.
But Harrison is the first. After that brilliant marketing move by Rickenbacker in February, George takes the guitar to London, and a week later, 1 March 1964, “I Call Your Name” is embellished with it. The recording appears on the EP “Long Tall Sally” and on the US-release The Beatles’ Second Album. But the real splendour of the sound can be heard on the very first Beatles song on which Harrison uses the guitar.
The Beatles play three Sundays in a row at Ed Sullivan’s, the last time on Sunday 23 February. On Monday they fly back home, and on Tuesday 25 February they are back in the EMI studios. Lennon plays a new song for his mates. From the mouth of Tom Petty, we now know the origin of George’s intro, or at least his remembrance thereof:
“George Harrison and I were once in a car and the Beatles song “You Can’t Do That” came on, with that great riff in the beginning on the 12-string. He goes, ‘I came up with that.’ And I said, ‘Really? How?’ He said, ‘I was just standing there and thought, I’ve got to do something.’ That pretty much sums him up.”
Producer George Martin and Harrison himself apparently also hear the added value of the chiming, jangling Rickenbacker right away; the same day, the first takes of “I Should Have Known Better” are recorded – for the middle-eight and the short solo, the Rick is used again.
A year later, Wednesday evening 13 January 1965, Dylan is in Studio A at Columbia Recording Studio in New York from 7 to 10. It is the first recording session for Bringing It All Back Home, and Dylan does about half of the takes alone, with his guitar, harmonica and the occasional piano. Tomorrow, with a band and electrically amplified instruments, he will tackle eight songs in twenty-four takes, including the landsliding “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, but today is still largely old-fashioned, acoustic, familiar. This evening’s performances include a beautiful, dreamy, semi-acoustic version of “She Belongs To Me”, the only recording of “Farewell Angelina” and a hypnotic “I’ll Keep It With Mine”.
Around nine o’clock, after “Farewell Angelina”, the Beatles quarter starts. Dylan starts “If You Gotta Go, Go Now”, and after the first verse it is clear that he has been listening a lot to A Hard Day’s Night, that first Beatles record with only original songs, the record with which the Beatles definitively take the final step from rock ‘n’ roll band to grandmasters of pop music.
This first recording of “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” is still acoustic, but already has a something of a Merseybeat, sounds like a mash-up of “Things We Said Today” and “I Should Have Known Better” – like the pop gem that Manfred Mann will grind out a little later.
After that first, embryonic take, Dylan holds on to the Mersey mood for just a little while longer and starts an unfinished next Beatlesque rocker: “You Don’t Have To Do That”. There’s no more than one sort-of-riff, basically one chord and only one verse, and the lyrics aren’t too mind-blowing either. Miles away from the mercurial beauty of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” or the Big City Beat Poetry of “Subterranean Homesick Blues”, but indeed closer to the unsubtle Hard Day’s Night rhyming of “I’ll Cry Instead” or, for that matter, a jealousy song like Lennon’s “Run For Your Life”, or a wailing song like “It Won’t Be Long”;
You say that you're fed up
You say you're gonna head off
Then you run around packin'
Like a chicken with your head off
I just wanna ask you
Honey where are you at?
'Cause I tell you all the time
You don't have to do that
… or as Lennon would say: “Because I told you before, you can’t do that.”
The title on the original recording sheet is more promising, by the way: “Bending Down On My Stomick Lookin’ West”. Presumably, it’s an unseriously shaken off title, as unserious as “Alcatraz To The Ninth Power” (the so-called working title of “Farewell Angelina”) or any of the many other nonsensical titles we hear Dylan shout at his producer on The Cutting Edge – but on the other hand, it leaves an admittedly unlikely option open, the option that Dylan already sees in his mind the outline of a kind of “Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence”, or even a hallucinatory, kaleidoscopic text like “Farewell Angelina”.
We will never know. Dylan rejects the song already after 51 seconds. Plenty more where that came from.
Editorial note: Although there is no recording of Dylan’s song, “You don’t have to do that” is available on Spotify.
——————–
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 are constantly looking for authors who can offer a new perspective on Dylan’s work. If you have an article ready, or just an idea for an article, I’d love to hear from you – just email Tony@schools.co.uk You can send me the full article (as a word file ideally) or just the idea, as you wish.
The bad news is we don’t pay. The good news is your article will be widely read across the English speaking world, and if you are young enough to care about your CV, it can look good there.
You can read about the writers who kindly contribute to Untold Dylan in our About the Authors page. And you can keep an eye on our current series by checking the listings on the home page
We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with getting on for 10,000 members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down
“All directions at once” is a series which looks at Bob Dylan’s writing as it evolves over time, rather than focusing on individual songs or albums. The index of all articles is here.
After a review of the ebbs and flows of Dylan’s writing process from the late 1950s to 1978, I then produced a set of five overviews (which in retrospect should have been written after each group of five of the main articles!) before in the last piece returning to the detailed look at the themes within one period – in this case 1979/80
This was indeed a unique spell for Dylan, since for 18 months every song was on the same theme: the Christian faith. What’s more, in writing about Christianity although Bob didn’t change his approach to music, his approach to lyrics did change. The metaphor and obscurity went and direct and clear commentary came in.
My thought on the removal of metaphors and obscurity – songs in which the meaning is not always clear and which leave the listener puzzling over the exact meaning of certain lines – is also a reason why I place “Slow Train” outside of the Christian catalogue. It’s not the only reason, but it is a powerful argument. The Christian songs are all immediately clear in their meaning.
Of course Dylan then adopted “Slow Train” as part of the Christian collection – but from where I sit, that song still suggests to me it is about change, not about giving everything up, to give oneself to the Lord. And as I have noted, Dylan had written a few religious songs across the years – but previously it was just another topic among the 46 different subject areas his songs had dealt with.
Thus for me “Property of Jesus” was the last of the series of Christian songs that began with “Gotta Serve Somebody.” After that came the pivotal point with “Every grain of sand”.
Others far more capable than I have argued this song back and forth, and for me it was Jochen who expressed the nature of the song when he wrote on this site, “Dylan weaves Blakean influences, biblical references, French symbolists and François Villon, intertwining with baroque, impenetrable, Dylanesque imagery.”
Of course it can be read as a Christian text, but I see it as having so much more than that inside it, exactly as Jochen points out. It has a confession, and Cain, knowing exactly what he has to do next… But hang on… what Cain did was kill his brother. So what is Dylan saying? Cain as a reference point to the future? That seems a trifle odd. No, I think it is as he said in 1962, it’s a “Mixed up confusion”.
Bob had turned away from his preaching to his familiar theme of ambiguity – of introducing words that are as likely to be there because they make interesting images and basically sound good, as they are they to carry a literal meaning. Plus the metaphor is back, the clear statement of handing oneself over to the service of the Lord has been edged out of the door.
To see fully where Bob is going, perhaps we need to know what the “dying voice within me reaching out somewhere” is actually reaching out to. But we are not told. OK, he is in despair and in despair some people turn to an all encompassing religion. But now he is encompassing possibilities once more. And indeed we might even consider that “Every Grain of Sand” is not a religious song at all, but a song of despair about religion.
But, the contrary argument could be made when considering…
“In the fury of the moment I can see the Master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand”
and my reply is that yes this could be The Master as God, except we are back with metaphors. Tangled metaphors maybe, but still metaphors. And in the religious songs metaphors were pretty much set aside.
If it is Christian imagery it is convoluted and obscure, in my view, and also not what Blake was writing about at all.
However there is another way through this, to step aside from Christian imagery and see this as more a Taoist vision. Here the Master is not God or Jesus, but a master in the sense of a teacher. One who has mastered the arts of meditation. A swami. A Lao Tsu character – depending how you want to see him. And the mere fact that all is not clear again suggests Bob has moved on from the explicit Christian messaging in songs.
I would argue that in the second verse (and I take this song as having three verses not the six four liners as sometimes printed) there is little that is specifically Christian but there is everything to do with inward reflection and consideration. Yes, temptation is a Christian concept, but it appears in many philosophies. Where there is the notion of the free mind there is the choice of what to do – and temptation can always be there. But that notion in itself does not have to lead on to saying that this is temptation placed by the Devil. In the way Dylan writes, it could just be circumstance.
So, to me this is the tipping point; these are not Christian questions, but questions from a man who is interested in a philosophy that asks questions relating to the very nature of man without having the God-given certainty of the answers….. Dylan is gazing into the doorway, not just of temptation, but of his own future.
I also find it incredibly interesting to note that “Every Grain” was then followed by the majestically confused and constantly confusing Caribbean Wind…
Again some argue that this is a Christian song, and to this I would make just three points. First, it is not a song like those of the previous year in which the Christian message was set out clearly in a way that could not be misunderstood. Second, we have metaphors and the Christian songs don’t do metaphors. Third the lyrics go for a meander – it is hard to say it is all about the Christian message – although that argument has been made, and indeed made on this site.
We might call this period of Bob’s writing “varied”, or if we were being less generous it could be called “confused”, and that latter thought does help us understand “Groom’s still waiting at the alter”. Indeed lines such as
Prayed in the ghetto with my face in the cement,
Heard the last moan of a boxer, seen the massacre of the innocent
Felt around for the light switch, became nauseated.
She was walking down the hallway while the walls deteriorated.
could just as easily have been written into one of the many re-writes of Caribbean Wind as destined for the Groom.
It is also extraordinary that Bob could devise these amazing pieces of music and literature one after the other, and then abandon them. And why did it happen like this? To me the most obvious answer is that the old rock and roll, and all those metaphors just kept on breaking through, refusing to lie down. It is almost as if Bob could find a song writing itself, could play it, and then decide he didn’t want it!
And we get more of it with the next song Yonder comes sin (also one that was seemingly abandoned).
You wanna talk to me
You got many things to say
You want the spirit to be speaking through
But your lust for comfort get in the way
I say: See them six wild horses, honey
You say: I don't even see one
You say: Point them out to me, love
I say: Honey I got to run
The Year of Abandoned Masterpieces indeed – and he keeps going with at least a couple of versions of “Let’s keep it between us”. But Bob is never anything if not contrary, so he ended the year with … a piece of gospel in “City of Gold”. Make of that sudden change what you will.
As I have argued before, in studying science we are always taught to accept the simplest interpretations of anything we find, and I think the simplest of interpretations for this change was that Bob had stopped seeing himself as a servant of God.
Its a step by step process running down to Making a liar – the penultimate song of the year and one that I consider an absolute masterpiece of simple music.
For the most part just two chords over and over, and yet he can hold our attention all the way through. Who was making a liar out of Bob – if anyone – we are not really told.
Is he talking to the believers or the non-believers, or everyone? Certainly when I first heard the line, “Well I say that, that ain’t flesh and blood you’re drinking” gives us quite a challenge. From the moment I heard that line I felt it was a reference – an obvious reference – to the Eucharist (Holy Communion) in which the bread and wine are transformed into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.
Which makes the lines
Well I say that, that ain't flesh and blood you're drinking
In the wounded empire of your fool's paradise
With a light above your head forever blinking
Turning virgins into merchandise
an attack on contemporary Roman Catholicism. But does he also say that the church is correct in its beliefs, but it is misusing Dylan’s input? Or is Dylan admitting that he was a liar in the past? Everyone can decide for her or himself.
There were a few more religious songs to come, but after the statement of “Liar” I think it was by and large over. We were back to the old pre-1979 Bob.
All Directions continues shortly…
Could you write for Untold Dylan?
We are constantly looking for authors who can offer a new perspective on Dylan’s work. If you have an article ready, or just an idea for an article, I’d love to hear from you – just email Tony@schools.co.uk You can send me the full article (as a word file ideally) or just the idea, as you wish.
The bad news is we don’t pay. The good news is your article will be widely read across the English speaking world, and if you are young enough to care about your CV, it can look good there.
You can read about the writers who kindly contribute to Untold Dylan in our About the Authors page. And you can keep an eye on our current series by checking the listings on the home page
We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with getting on for 10,000 members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down
‘While I'm strolling through the lonely graveyard of my mind
I left my life with you somewhere back there along the line
I thought somehow that I would be spared this fate
But I don't know how much longer I can wait’
1997 was a big and varied year for Bob Dylan. In September the album he’d been working on since August 1996, Time out of Mind was released, his first since Under the Red Sky in 1991. This meant it was only later in the year that some of the songs from the new album made their way into the concerts. As well as a few of the new songs, Dylan introduced a couple of older songs he’s never performed, most importantly ‘Blind Willy McTell’. ‘The Wicked Messenger’, also, which hadn’t been performed since 1987 I believe, was to become a staple over the next few years.
There were also some changes to the make up of his band, also the first since 1991. Larry Campbell joined in March, replacing John Jackson, and in October 1996 David Kemper took over the drums from Winston Watson.
Watson has been criticised for being too heavy-handed on the drums. That heavy-handedness worked brilliantly for some performances – try ‘I and I’ in 1991 (see 1991: Part 1 Hidden Gems in a Train Wreck – The Undesirables) – but perhaps didn’t always work so well. However you feel about that, Kemper did bring a new sensitivity to the drums, which subtly altered the sound of the band.
Larry Campbell, who would stay with Dylan through to 2004, is generally considered to be a better guitarist than John Jackson. I think Jackson did his best guitar work for Dylan in 1993, when Dylan was veering towards the jazzy side. Campbell is also credited with being a multi-instrumentalist. Wikipedia comments: ‘Campbell expanded the role to multi-instrumentalist, playing instruments such as cittern, violin/fiddle, pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, and slide guitar,’ but I’m not sure of the accuracy of that. Bucky Baxter was retained as steel guitarist, and is also credited with playing dobro, pedal steel guitar and mandolin for Dylan.
In addition 1997 was the year the apparently unstoppable Dylan ended up in hospital with a chest infection. Official statements indicated that the ailment was histoplasmosis, a fungal infection of the lung that causes swelling of the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart. After recovering, and going back on the road Dylan’s only comment was: ‘Thought I was going to see Elvis.’
Finally, in 1997, Dylan performed before Pope John Paul II, at the Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, with an audience of 400,000. (Sept 27th). The performances were not as outstanding as the occasion.
The anonymous CM, of the website A Thousand Highways, flatly declares that ‘1997 is one of the best years of Bob Dylan’s NeverEnding Tour.’ I don’t entirely agree, but I’m happy to put it to the test in the next few posts.
Let’s start with those new songs from Time out of Mind. The first track of the album is ‘Lovesick’, a song which would undergo many changes in the next ten years. Dylan has indicated that he believes ‘Lovesick’ to be one of the few songs he’s written that might be worthy of inclusion in what is loosely called the Great American Songbook. In the song we drift like ghosts through the nighttime world, observing the rites of humanity as if from afar.
‘I see
I see lovers in the meadow
I see
I see silhouettes in the window
I watch them 'til they're gone
And they leave me hangin' on
To a shadow’
‘Lovesick’ is an astonishing and dramatic introduction to the despair and alienation of the album, setting the tone for the coming songs. Its slow, heavy, death-march beat, and sudden reversal at the very end, all make for one of Dylan’s most memorable songs.
Dylan exploits a possible ambiguity in the term ‘lovesick’ which he creates for the song. During most of the song he uses the term to mean being sick of love, which is not the conventional meaning of the term. Only at the very end does the sentiment return to the normal meaning of the term, to feel sick from being in love. The misery of that last line changes the whole meaning of the song. He’s sick of love because he’s lovesick, if you can make sense of that.
This first performance is from San Jose, 14th of November. He sticks pretty much to the studio arrangement. The backing is good, Larry Campbell emphasising the heavy grandeur of the chords and the emotional anguish of the vocals.
Lovesick (A).
Dylan sounds a bit wan, but that’s at least partly how he’s singing the song. He really does sound like a wandering ghost. That effect may be, at least in part, a result of the recording. Here’s another version from December the 18th (El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles) that’s stronger and more upfront:
Lovesick (B)
Overall, however, we’ll find that Dylan’s vocals are nothing too special in 1997. He doesn’t soar the way he did in 1995, and despite the energy of some of the performances, I get the feeling that Dylan is once more struggling with his voice. New cracks and fissures are opening up in his voice which will eventually lead, after 2004 or so, to his fully cracked, circus barker voice. To my ear, this is not the scratchiness of the early nineties, which he eventually overcame, but a more genuine ageing.
This is his Time out of Mind voice, full of bitter experience and marinated in awareness of mortality. Arguably, Dylan’s songs have never strayed too far from an awareness of mortality; what is different in Time out of Mind is Dylan’s response to ageing. It crops up directly in songs like ‘It’s Not Dark Yet’ and ‘Highlands,’ but permeates the whole album, and is cultivated in his voice.
It’s hard to match ‘Can’t Wait’ for desperate weariness, both as a song and in performance. Different studio versions of the song found on Tell Tale Signs (a compilation of outtakes released in 2008) show Dylan working hard to find the right sound and tempo for the song, and that experimentation would continue right up to 2019. Dylan may never have settled on a particular arrangement and sound for the song, but the journey itself is a fascinating one.
Even during 1997 Dylan was trying out different paced performances. This first, fast tempo performance is from the highly regarded December 19th show at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. (There were three shows at El Ray, the 19th is the second of them.) It’s full of verve, yet sung by a man sounding at the very end of this tether. Can’t wait for what? Love? Death? The end of time? The end of mind? Whatever, it’s a real kicker.
Can’t Wait (A).
In tailoring this song for the stage, Dylan eschewed the swampy sound Lanois achieved on the album. This is much more raw. But he didn’t always play it at this pace. Sometimes he slowed it down. This one’s from the 24th of October. The slower pace enables Dylan to relish the despair of the song.
Can’t Wait (B)
‘Cold Irons Bound’ is one of the most acknowledged songs on Time Out of Mind. and won Dylan a Grammy award. In the song the lovesick poet, whose love is ‘taking such a long time to die,’ is likened to a prisoner chained in cold irons.
‘One look at you and I’m out of control
Like the universe has swallowed me whole
I’m twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound’
While this state of mind might have been sparked by a love he couldn’t kill, the feeling is universalised into a general sense of alienation from the world. The ‘too many heads’ refers to the Greek myth of a Hydra who would grow two new heads for every one chopped off. We find the same desperation here as in ‘Can’t Wait’.
‘Oh, the winds in Chicago have torn me to shreds
Reality has always had too many heads
Some things last longer than you think they will
There are some kind of things you can never kill’
This hard-driving rocker suits Dylan’s snarling delivery perfectly. This is from the 11th of November, and had only been played a couple of times. It’s fresh and full of fire.
Cold Irons Bound (A)
No less compelling is this performance from the 19th of December, the Los Angeles show.
Cold Iron Bound (B)
Until I heard the following performance, I’d always thought of the bluesy ‘Till I Fell in Love with You’ as one of the lesser tracks on Time Out of Mind. One of those fillers you get from time to time on Dylan albums. But this rough and tearing performance, plus another look at the lyrics, has convinced me otherwise.
The album version can’t match the sheer raw power of this 19 of December Los Angeles performance. The throat-ripping vocal takes me back to the early days of the NET, 1988/89, and the lyrics are some of the very best in terms of how Dylan can convey his inner state by the condition of his body. Remember ‘Mr Tambourine Man’:
‘My weariness amazes me
I’m branded on my feet
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty streets too dead for dreaming’
Compare that to this from ‘Till I Fell..’
‘Well, my nerves are exploding
And my body's tense
I feel like the whole world
Got me pinned up against the fence’
Dylan songs are full of references to, and the feeling of, entrapment; as he’d later put it in ‘Mississippi’ – nowhere to escape. ‘Till I Fell…’ gives powerful expression to the physicality of that feeling:
‘Well junk is piling up
Taking up space
My eyes feel
Like they're falling off my face
Sweat falling down
I'm staring at the floor
I'm thinking about that girl
Who won't be back no more’
At the risk of getting sidetracked, I’m reminded of these lyrics from ‘Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight’ from Infidels (1983), a song Dylan has never performed as far as I know.
‘But it's like I'm stuck inside a painting
That's hanging in the Louvre
My throat start to tickle and my nose itches
But I know that I can't move’
Anyway, here it is. I can’t help feeling that this is what Dylan really had in mind for the song, the way it should sound, the emotions right up front, not buried in an echo chamber.
Till I fell in love with You
I’m running out space, but I want to finish this post with two performances of ‘Blind Willie McTell’, performed for the first time in 1997 and which would, over the coming years, be developed alongside the Time out of Mind songs. Although written for Infidels, but never included on the album, it fits well with the dark aesthetic of Time out of Mind.
‘Well god is in his heaven
And we are what was his
But power and greed and corruptible seed seem to be all that there is’
The first performance is from the 5th of October. It swings along and Dylan is in great cracked-voice form.
Blind Willie
This second performance, from the 23rd of October, slows the pace down a fraction, giving Dylan more time to savour those wonderful lyrics. Some great guitar work on both these performances.
NET, 1997, part 1 ins 8 Blind Willie (B)
I’ll be back shortly with more exciting sounds from 1997.
Kia Ora
Could you write for Untold Dylan?
We are constantly looking for authors who can offer a new perspective on Dylan’s work. If you have an article ready, or just an idea for an article, I’d love to hear from you – just email Tony@schools.co.uk You can send me the full article (as a word file ideally) or just the idea, as you wish.
The bad news is we don’t pay. The good news is your article will be widely read across the English speaking world, and if you are young enough to care about your CV, it can look good there.
You can read about the writers who kindly contribute to Untold Dylan in our About the Authors page. And you can keep an eye on our current series by checking the listings on the home page
We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with getting on for 10,000 members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down
As singer Bob Dylan does in the television play “The Madhouse On Castle Street”, Thomas Hardy in his novel “The Mayor Of Casterbridge” sets the stage for his tragic tale through folk song – ballads similar to those ‘borrowed’ by Robert Burns:
It's home, and it's home, home glad would I be
O home, home, home to my own country
There's an eye that ever weeps, and a fair face will be fain
As I pass through Annan Water with my bonnie bands again
When the flower is in the bud, and the leaf upon the tree
The lark shall sing me home to my own country
(Home To My Own Country)
Later artists, such as poet William Wordsworth, consider industrialized, city-enclosed, people as no longer in touch with the regenerative ‘spirit’ of Nature; Darwinian science depicts the Universe as uncaring, and at times even cruel to its living inhabitants.
Alienation from natural world is portrayed in the dark-humoured song from the TV play:
Lady Margaret's pillow is wet with tears
No body's been on it in twenty years
(Bob Dylan: The Ballad Of The Gliding Swan)
Happier is the following ballad that shows up in Hardy’s story:
As I came in by my bower door
As day was waxing weary
Oh, who came tripping down the stairs
But bonnie Peg, my dearie
(Bonnie Peg My Dearie)
The singer of the similar ballad below adds a humorous last line to the traditional song:
Come a-running down the stairs, pretty Peggy-O
Come a-running down the stairs
Combing back your yellow hair
You're the prettiest darn girl I ever seen-io
(Bob Dylan: Pretty Peggy-O)
It’s a line that parodies the last line in the song below that’s mentioned by Hardy in “The Mayor Of Casterbridge”:
The rosebud washed in summer's shower
Bloomed fresh within the sunny bower
But Kitty was the fairest flower
That ever was seen in Gowrie
(The Lass Of Gowrie)
A folk song based on the following biblical text is also noted by Hardy:
When he shall be judged
Let he be condemned
And let his prayers become sin
Let his days be few,
And let another take his office
Let his children be fatherless
And his wife a widow
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg
(Psalm 109)
The song too calls for the deceitful to be severely punished:
His seed shall orphans be, his wife
A widow plunged in grief
His vagrant children beg their bread
Where none can give relief
His ill-gotten riches shall be made
To usurers a prey
The fruit of all his toil shall be
By strangers borne away
None shall be found that to his wants
Their mercy will extend
Or to his helpless orphan seed
The least assistance lend
A swift destruction shall soon seize
On his unhappy race
And the next age his hated name
Shall utterly disface
(Psalm One Hundred Nine)
Reminding of the curse cast by the singer/songwriter in the song beneath:
These be seven curses on a judge so cruel
That one doctor will not save him
That two healers will not heal him
That three eyes will not see him
That four ears will not hear him
That five walls will not hide him
That six diggers will not bury him
And that seven deaths shall never kill him
(Bob Dylan: Seven Curses)
All the above verses are befitting musical props to Hardy’s story. Unemployed Michael gets drunk, sells his wife Susan and their baby girl Elizabeth-Jane to a sailor; Michael regrets that, reforms, sells corn, climbs the social ladder. He becomes the mayor of Casterbridge.
Then things fall apart. Believing the sailor dead, the mayor’s wife returns, and ‘remarries’ her husband; his beautiful grown-up ‘stepchild’ is there too – she’s also named Elizabeth-Jane, but sired by the sailor (the baby that Michael sold to the sailor having died). Things go from bad to worse. Susan dies; the mayor’s business fails; the girl’s father turns up, and Michael tells him that Elizabeth is dead.
In the end, the ‘stepchild’ gets happily married to a successful man. Needless to say, the former mayor is now a social outcast; he wishes to be forgotten, and dies alone.
If Bob Dylan were around at that time, he’d be in Hardy’s novel singing a ballad that addresses the amoral Universe:
You treat me like a stepchild
Oh, Lordy, like a stepchild
I wanna turn my back, and run away from you
But you know that I can't leave you, babe
(Bob Dylan: Stepchild)
Could you write for Untold Dylan?
We are constantly looking for authors who can offer a new perspective on Dylan’s work. If you have an article ready, or just an idea for an article, I’d love to hear from you – just email Tony@schools.co.uk You can send me the full article (as a word file ideally) or just the idea, as you wish.
The bad news is we don’t pay. The good news is your article will be widely read across the English speaking world, and if you are young enough to care about your CV, it can look good there.
You can read about the writers who kindly contribute to Untold Dylan in our About the Authors page. And you can keep an eye on our current series by checking the listings on the home page
We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with getting on for 10,000 members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link And because we don’t do political debates on our Facebook group there is a separate group for debating Bob Dylan’s politics – Icicles Hanging Down
The follow-up to “As Tears Go By” is a failure. Marianne Faithfull’s version of “Blowin’ In The Wind” is pretty atrocious, and the performer herself is the first to agree wholeheartedly: “A total disaster. All I remember about that session was how dreary I sounded.” Despite Faithfull’s sudden popularity and her closeness to the Stones, the single doesn’t even make it to the bottom of the charts; it’s really a rather gruesome version. Like a real Lady, by the way, she blames the debacle entirely on herself:
“I did my best to blame Andrew and Decca for “Blowing in the Wind” but it was my own doing entirely. Poor Andrew, it wasn’t his fault at all. Somebody must have said to him, “Why don’t you just let Marianne do the sort of thing she’d like to do?” I can just see it. And, of course, I worshipped Bob Dylan. Andrew went against his better judgement and it was a fiasco.”
Fortunately, she recovers immediately after this flop – the three following singles (Jackie DeShannon’s “Come And Stay With Me”, the Tennessee Williams-inspired “This Little Bird” and the charmingly aged “Summer Nights”) all make the Top 10. But “As Tears Go By” is and remains her signature song.
It is a beautiful song, of course. And remarkably, the first song written by Jagger and Richards. In her memoirs (Faithfull, An Autobiography, 1994), Faithfull already tells the urban legend-like story of manager Andrew Loog Oldham locking the Glimmer Twins in the kitchen with the order that they may not come out again until they have written a song, and sixteen years later Keith Richards indeed confirms that story in his life story, in Life (2010):
“The famous day when Andrew locked us in a kitchen up in Willesden and said, “Come out with a song”–that did happen. Why Andrew put Mick and me together as songwriters and not Mick and Brian, or me and Brian, I don’t know. It turned out that Brian couldn’t write songs, but Andrew didn’t know that then. I guess it’s because Mick and I were hanging out together at the time. Andrew puts it this way: “I worked on the assumption that if Mick could write postcards to Chrissie Shrimpton, and Keith could play a guitar, then they could write songs.” We spent the whole night in that goddamn kitchen.”
La Faithfull “was never that crazy about” the song but is still amazed that two twenty-year-old boys could create such lyrics, “about a woman looking back nostalgically on her life”.
When Faithfull for days hangs around in Dylan’s crowded hotel suite at the beginning of May ’65, The Beatles have gone straight to number one with “Ticket To Ride”, Donovan’s “Catch The Wind” and The Stones’ “The Last Time” are at six and seven, and her biggest hit “Come And Stay With Me” is still high on the charts. It’s her third single and her LP has just been out for three weeks, but “As Tears Go By” already is the Marianne Faithfull song, and she can’t escape it in the hotel suite either. Not to her displeasure, by the way, as her cheerful, witty recollection of it shows:
“At one point Baez, whom I worshipped, picked up a guitar and began to sing “As Tears Go By.” I’ve never heard it sound better, even by whatsisname. It quite blew me away. Very unlike my version! “As Tears Go By” as a folk song (it sounded like one of her records). When sung like that, the meaning is flopped: instead of being a subjective thought, the words become beautiful artefacts. Which is what folk interpreters do as a rule.”
“Never Better” is a gallant overstatement, and its beauty is partly due to Faithfull’s and Baez’s surprisingly beautiful, spontaneous singing together, but still, it’s true: it’s a mesmerising minute in which Mrs. Baez’s Olympic talent is reaffirmed once again.
Of more musical historical interest is La Baez’s action of just before or just after this moment. From the seating arrangement and the clothing of the ladies, we can deduce that this is the playtime in which Baez saves “Love Is A Four-Letter Word” from the dustbin of Dylan’s overflowing creativity. The Joan Baez Appreciation Society doesn’t have too many rabid Dylan fans, but even the Baez bashers will have to give her credit for this: without her, this song of the outer category would have sunk into the Waters of Oblivion.
After that hotel room scene in May ’65 at the Savoy Hotel in London, it takes quite a long time before the song really comes to the surface. The film is released two years later, in May 1967, including that one minute with that one verse that Baez sings and the ensuing discussion about whether or not to finish the song. Baez’s promise (“If you finish it, I’ll sing it on a record”) is not an empty promise, but it does take almost another two years for it to be fulfilled – Baez’s recording takes place in September ’68, the Dylan debut album Any Day Now hits American shops in December, Europe’s in January ’69. The single “Love Is A Four-Letter Word” b/w “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” is released in March 1969. Assuming that Dylan first plays the song to Baez in November 1964, at her home in Carmel Valley, there are over four years between conception and birth.
The single has limited success; the top position is #86, the album reaches #30. But the song has a long run; it becomes one of Baez’s signature songs, audiences keep asking for it, it is selected for compilation albums, is on her live album From Every Stage (1975, with five Dylan songs, including her interpretation of “Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts”) and she continues to play the song well into the twenty-first century (in November 2018, during her Fare Thee Well Tour, it is the opening song in Portland, for example).
Strangely enough, not too many artists are venturing into a cover. Perhaps the song is too attached to Baez; comparable to the reluctance of artists to cover “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” or, for example, “Waterloo Sunset” or “Like A Rolling Stone” – songs of which the definitive version already exists, and which are almost impossible to separate from the original. The title itself inspires – usually saltless – paraphrases (“Hate Is A Four-Letter Word”, for instance, and “Love Is More Than A Four-Letter Word”), but real covers… no, hardly any. About four or five. One stands out.
Joy Of Cooking is a relatively unknown hippie band from California in the late 60s, early 70s, that released three nice records with dated sounding, but definitely attractive music. No Dylan songs. Although… “Don’t The Moon Look Fat And Lonesome” from 1972 is a pleasantly rocking song that opens with the words “Don’t the moon fat and lonesome, shining through the trees”; almost literally the opening of “It Takes A Lot To Laugh”.
But in 2007, the beautiful, noteworthy cover of “Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word” surfaces on a collection of unreleased recordings 1968-1972 (Back To Your Heart). Superb Westcoast harmonies in a The Mamas & The Papas-like vocals arrangement.
Seems like only yesterday.
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Jochen is a regular reviewer of Dylan’s work on Untold. His books, in English, Dutch and German, are available via Amazon both in paperback and on Kindle:
Research by Aaron Galbraith, commentaries and random thoughts by Tony Attwood
Update: 23 May 2021, the original source of the White Stripes recording had vanished – it has been replaced.
This is part of an ongoing series of reviews of covers of Dylan songs under the title Beautiful Obscurity. There is a link to other articles in the series at the foot of the page. We’re also, very laboriously trying to putting together a complete index of covers of Dylan songs that we have commented upon over the years. There are links to both at the foot of this article.
Tony: There is only one mention of “One more cup of coffee” on that list so far, so I’m delighted Aaron went searching for more. It is a song with great challenges because of the unique qualities of the melody line against the very commonplace descending bass and chord sequence in the verse. How does one make originality of out both without losing the essence of the song?
Aaron: Let’s start off with the very first released cover of One More Cup Of Coffee by Hard Nutz from 1977
Tony: Obviously the explosive chord after a the gentle guitar intro tells us there is going to be something unusual here. And the key to carrying that off is by having total security in the very unusual (for Dylan) first melodic line of each verse.
By the time the dramatic explosive chord hits us for the third or fourth time we’re getting it and there is a danger of tedium by repetition, but the extended instrumental moment around the 2 minutes 30 mark, which includes some energetic bass guitar work too gives a musical justification for it all. The intro of the violins (or maybe it an organ sounding violinish) helps too, and thus everything works.
So throughout the song keeps us going. I imagine lots of young men doing air guitar work as an accompaniment. Very enjoyable.
Aaron: Now, almost certainly the best cover of this one, The White Stripes
Tony: Of course one of the big problems is that the melody and instrumentation in the original is so, well, utterly original, even though the chord sequence has been heard 10,000 times. Thus we know where this is going but it is the Stripes, so we don’t know where the accompaniment will take us. Novelty is needed to hold attention as we all know the words so well, and that is indeed what the Stripes always delivered.
Sudden pauses, perfect singing, that highly distinctive drumming of the Stripes, and slightly changes to the melody throughout… exactly what is needed. Oh yes.
In fact I agree with Aaron this is brilliant – indeed an absolute triumph of talent and inventiveness over familiarity. Even the line “One more cup of coffee for the road” is sung as a variation on the Dylan original. Brilliantly done.
Aaron: Now, something a bit different by Robert Plant
Tony: Robert Plant MBE can always surprise, and he certainly does it with his vocalisation here. Not for nothing did Rolling Stone rate him as the greatest of all lead singers. Not for nothing did Hit Parader name him the “Greatest Metal Vocalist of All Time” and not for nothing did Planet Rock call him “the greatest voice in rock”. I’ll go with all three.
And here we not only hear that but also the instrumentation behind him works wonders. The Indian feel to the acoustic guitar (at least I hear it as an acoustic guitar) is a fabulous addition. Oh goodness, to have talent like that…
Aaron: Talking of different, take a listen to this by Bic Runga
Tony: We are immediately reminded of Dylan’s original, only to have it whisked away by the full orchestration – which is a little lacking in originality. It is exactly how I would have written it, by which I mean, its rather obvious. The sudden drop of the strings downwards… oh no surely a pro can do better. I know I couldn’t, but that’s why they didn’t hire me.
And it is the strings that are the problem – the playing is of course perfect – but it is the arrangement which seems to be a little too obvious, using every trick in the book to give a touch of the mysterious east and all that stuff which is actually not mysterious any more.
And yet, and yet, this is highly listenable. I don’t mean I will go back and play it again at the end of writing this little article, as I certainly will do with Mr Plant, but its good. Indeed if it suddenly was played while I was on the dance floor I’d be there doing the full interpretation, and enjoying myself like crazy. In fact when my dance partner comes back from wherever she’s meandered off to (Yorkshire I think) we’ll be back in the studio and I’ll try this. (Stop giggling, some people think we’re quite good. Not very good, but quite good).
Aaron: Roger McGuinn with Calexico
Tony: This soundtrack really really does throw up some extraordinarily interesting elements, and having just listened to four tracks that is what I need. There is a subtle change of chord on the singing of “One more cup” and that really is arresting. Plus the backing is so subdued, it works brilliantly.
As this moves on second by second, minute by minute, I am transfixed. And that is remarkable because of course like everyone I know the song inside out, and yet these arrangers really know how to introduce something new, different and yet fitting. It is exactly what is needed, and what we have not always had in some of the other renditions in this series.
I love this.
Aaron: Now let’s bring things right up to date with the most recent cover, from his new album (out today as it happens) it’s Tom Jones!!
Tony: Not my favourite performer, but one cannot deny his magnificent voice. And just listening to this orchestral opening… Oh my oh my. I’m transfixed, and relieved at the way Mr Jones approaches the vocals. He’s not trying too hard, but letting his natural talent shine through.
I think the restraint of that backing over the constant percussion really is an inspired bit of arranging.
So there we are, a remarkable collection, and Aaron mate, I’m really indebted to you for this. I’ve no idea how long it took you to dig this lot out, and whether they were in your head already, but that was really, really great. I can only hope I did the selection justice.
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From the existing file of covers:One more cup of coffee by Frazey Ford; listen to the harmonies in the chorus lines. Exquisite.
Compiled by Tony Attwood
This list of covers of Bob Dylan songs includes cover versions suggested by readers and cover versions that have been included within articles on this site. Of course the list is not going to be anything like comprehensive, but the idea is to help introduce one or two cover versions of songs you might like, which perhaps you haven’t heard before.
This is an update on the version published a week or so ago with around 60 new recordings added (most of them marked NEW). If you would like to see a favourite of yours which is not on this list added please do add a comment at the end. Ultimately we might have a cover version of every song… you never know.
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A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall by Jason Mraz . Suggested by Jim
A Hard Rain’s a gonna fall from the TV series Peaky Blinders. By Laura Marling, included by Jochen
Abandoned Love – Chuck Profit. Reviewed by Tony in All Directions “the build up to religion”
Abandoned Love – unknown solo artist. Reviewed in All Directions by Tony
Absolutely Sweet Marie by Jason and the Scorchers, suggested by Dave Miatt.
Absolutely Sweet Marie by George Harrison, suggested by Imam Alfa Abdulkareem.
Absolutely Sweet Marie by Stephen Inglis in The Bob Dylan Twist by Larry
Acquaraggia plays Dylan: Drifters Escape, Chimes of Freedom, Blowing in the Wind.
All along the watchtower – Brian Ferry. Suggested by Diego D’Agostino
All Around the Watchtower: Yul Anderson. Suggested by Fred Muller.
As I went out one morning; Thea Gilmore. Suggested by Ralph
Baby, I’m in the Mood for You – Odetta. Suggested by Fred Muller.
Blind Willie McTell. (Rick Danko) Six Cover versions selected in “Beautiful Obscurity”
NEW Blind Willie McTell (in Polish). Following a concert promoted by Untold Dylan.
Blood on the Tracks by Mary Lee’s Corvette. Suggested by Jerry Strauss. The whole album is not on the internet at large but “You’re a big girl now” is on line. As is “Idiot wind” from the Blood on the Tracks Concert.
Blowin’ in the wind by McCrary Sisters. Suggested by Johannes.
Blowin’ in the Wind. Peter Paul and Mary. Suggested Mike
Bob Dylan’s Dream. Peter Paul and Mary (selected by Tony for article by Larry)
Boots of Spanish Leather by Patti Smith, suggested by Matt Rude
Boots of Spanish Leather on Dylan på svenska suggested by Jesper Fynbo [Spotify] (This link will start the whole album – you have to move down to the track suggested to play it)
NEW Boots of Spanish Leather: Mandolin Orange and four other versions. Commentary here.
Caribbean Wind Svante Karlsson. Suggested by Tony
Changing of the Guard by Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang, suggested by Matt Rude
NEW Changing of the Guards by Patti Smith in “Bob Dylan and his mythology” by Larry
NEW: Clothes Line Saga by Suzzie and Maggie Roche suggested by Donald Tine
Country Pie by The Nice, suggested by Ken Willis.
Crash on the Levee by Tedeschi Trucks, suggested by Tony
De swalkers flecht (The Drifter’s Escape in Frisian). Ernst Langhout & Johan Keus. Suggested by Tony. The recording is on Spotify.
Desolation Row by Stan Denski. Suggested by Stan Denski.
NEW: Desolation Row by Craig Cardiff. All Directions
Dirge by Michael Moravek, suggested by Paul. [On Spotify]
Dirge by Erik Truffaz. Suggested by Ralph.
“Don’t Think Twice” by Eric Clapton, suggested by Rabbi Don Cashman.
“Don’t Think Twice it’s All Right” Ramblin’ Jack Eliot suggested by Tom Felicetti.
NEW Don’t think twice by Girl Blue in Dylan’s Way to Leave his Lovers
De kweade boadskipper (The wicked messenger in Frisian) by Ernst Langhout & Johan Keus. Suggested by Johannes
Emotionally Yours by The O-Jays suggested by Imam Alfa Abdulkareem
Every Grain of Sand: Emmylou Harris. Suggested by Fred Muller.
NEW Every grain of Sand: 10 different versions. Reviewed by Tony
NEW Every grain of Sand by Lizz Wright
Farewell (Leaving of Liverpool) by Marcus Mumford. Reviewed by Jochen
Father of Night Trigger Finger. Suggested in All Directions
Foot of Pride. Lou Reed. Suggested by Laura Leivick
Forever Young by Joan Baez. Suggested by Mike
Gates of Eden by Totta from Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy
Girl from the North Country by Johnny Cash and Joni Mitchell. Suggested by anonymous contributor.
Girl from the North Country by Walter Trout. Suggested by Darrin Ehil.
NEW: Girl from the North Country by Paul Jost from Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy
Going, Going, Gone – Richard Hell & The Voidoids. Suggested by Fred Muller.
NEW: Groom’s still waiting at the alter – Elkie Brooks. Suggested by Jochen
NEW: Heart of Mine by Norah Jones and the Peter Malick Group. (All Directions at once)
NEW: High Water by Big Brass Bed from Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy
Highway 61 Revisited – Johnny Winter. Suggested by Laura Leivick
I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight by Judy Rodman suggested by Steve Perry.
NEW I’ll Remember You by Thea Gilmore suggested by Donald Tine
I Believe in You by Sinead O’Conner, suggested by Matt Rude.
I Believe in you by Alison Krauss
I dreamed I saw St Augustine by Thea Gilmore
I Threw It All Away – Yo La Tengo. Suggested by Fred Muller.
I want you by Bruce Springsteen
Idiot Wind By Luke Elliot, suggested by Matt Rude.
Idiot Wind by Jeff Lee Johnson Featured in All Directions
If not for you by George Harrison suggested by Larry Fyffe
I believe in you by Sinead O’Conner suggested in All Directions by Tony
NEW I’m not there by Sonic Youth in Dylan and his mythology
It ain’t me babe by Joan Baez suggested by anonymous contributor
It Ain’t Me, Babe by Jesse Cook. Suggested by Fred Muller.
It’s alright Ma (I’m only bleeding) by Bettina Jonic [Spotify], suggested by David Alexander-Watts.
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue by Graham Bonnet, suggested by Matt Rude
It’s all over now Baby Blue by Bonnie Raitt
It takes a lot to laugh by Chris Smither selected by Tony for Larry article
NEW: Jokerman (sung in Polish)
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues – The Handsome Family. Suggested by Fred Muller.
Just like Tom Thumb’s Blues by Nina Simone suggested by Paul and separately by David Alexander-Watts.Just like Tom Thumb’s Blues by The Tallest Man on Earth, suggested by Curtis Lovejoy.
Jokerman – Dylan.pl Suggested by Anon. Polish (“Arlekin”). Available on Spotify.
Lay Down Your Weary Tune – Tim O’Brien. Suggested by Fred Muller.
Le ciel est noir (A hard rain’s a-gonna fall) by Nana Mouskouri. Suggested by Johannes
Let’s keep it between us by Bonnie Raitt. Suggested by Johannes
License to kill by Tom Petty (30th anniversary concert)
Like a Rolling Stone – Articolo 31. Suggested by Fred Muller.
Like a Rolling Stone by Spirit suggested by Davy Allan.
Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts by Tom Russell (and friends) selected by Tony in All Directions
Lo and Behold by Coulson, Dean, McGuiness, Flint suggested by Mike Mooney
NEW: Lord Protect my Child Suggested by Donald Tine
Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word – Joan Baez. Suggested by Tom Haber. The link is to the Untold Dylan review, which includes within it a recording of the song.
Love is Just a Four Letter Word – Joy of Cooking. Reviewed by Jochen
Love minus zero – The Walker Brothers. Suggested by John Wyburn.
NEW Love minus zero Chrissie Hynde. In “Beautiful Obscurity” with several others.
NEW Love minus zero Judy Collins. In “Beautiful Obscurity” with several others.
Maggie’s Farm by Solomon Burke, suggested by Ingemar Almeros Almeros.
Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind by Idiot Wind, suggested by Matt Rude
Mama You Been On My Mind. Bettye Lavette. Suggested by Laura Leivick
Man in Me by Matumbi. Suggested by Ray Ellis after Edition 1
Man in the Long Black Coat – Mark Lanegan. Suggested by Fred Muller.
Mississippi recorded live by Dixie Chicks, suggested by Tony
Mississippi by Chris and Kellie While in Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy
Moonshiner by Charlie Parr, suggested by Edward Thomas.
Mr Tambourine Man – Melanie Safka. Suggested Ken Fletcher.
Mr Tambourine Man by The Helio Sequence suggested by Imam Alfa Abdulkareem
Mr Tambourine Man by the Byrds. Suggested by Mike.
Moonshiner Cat Power
NEW: My Back Pages by Magokoro Brothers suggested by Donald Tine
No Time to Think: suggested by Jochen, and ever since repeatedly by Tony
Not Dark Yet: Lucinda Williams
One more cup of coffee by Frazey Ford.
NEW: One more cup of coffee by Nutz (Beautiful Obscurity)
NEW: One more cup of coffee by White Stripes (Beautiful Obscurity)
NEW: One more cup of coffee by Robert Plan (Beautiful Obscurity)
NEW: One more cup of coffee by Big Runga (Beautiful Obscurity)
NEW: One more cup of coffee by Chris Durante in Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy
New: One more cup of coffee by Calexico (Beautiful Obscurity)
NEW: Property of Jesus by Chrissie Hynde (All directions)
Queen Jane Approximately by The Daily Flash suggested by Bill Shute.
She Belongs To Me by Nice, suggested by Ken Willis
NEW: She’s your lover now by Luxuria. Suggested by Olaf
NEW: Shelter from the storm: The Sachal Ensemble, on Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy
Tangled up in Blue by Indigo Girls. Reviewed in All Directions.
To Ramona by Sinéad Lohan, suggested by Kurt-Åke Hammarstedt [Spotify – select track 9]
New Pony – The Dead Weather. Suggested by Diego D’Agostino
One more cup of coffee – The White Stripes. Suggested by Diego D’Agostino.
Please Mrs Henry – Manfred Mann
Positively 4th Street by Johnny Rivers suggested by Tom Haber.
Precious Angel by Sinead O’Connor, suggested by Matt Rude
Pressing On – Chicago Mass Choir with Regina McCrary. Suggested by Johannes
Property of Jesus – Chrissie Hind. Reviewed in All Directions 47 by Tony
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 by Old Crow Medicine Show. Suggested by Vadim Slowoda.
Red River Shore by unknown duo, in Larry’s “The Bob Dylan Twist (continued).
Restless Farewell by Mark Knopfler, suggested by anonymous contributor
NEW Senor by Anna Kaye in Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy
NEW Seven Curses by June Tabor. Suggested by Tony within a Larry article.
Seven days by Joe Cocker. Suggested by Johannes.
She Belongs to me by Jerry, Phil and Bob, suggested by Edward Thomas.
NEW: Shot of Love: the Devilish Double Dylans
Simple Twist of Fate by Sarah Jarosz, suggested by Matt Rude
Slow Train by Glasyngstrom. Reviewed in All Directions. One of the very few covers.
Spanish Harlem Incident by Chris Whitley, suggested by Matt Rude
Stepchild by Jerry Lee Lewis in “The Bob Dylan Twist” by Larry.
NEW: Stuck inside of Memphis. Old Crow Medicine Show
Tears of Rage by The Band in “Bob Dylan Approximately” by Larry
Tight Connection to My Heart by Sheila Atim (from Girl from the North Country) . Suggested by Tony Allen.
NEW: Things have Changed by Curtis Stigers
Time Passes Slowly: Judy Collins. Repeatedly selected by Tony!
NEW Times they are a changing. Herbie Hancock. Dylan before the basement
Tomorrow is a Long Time – Elvis Presley, suggested by Tom Haber
Tomorrow is a long time – Rod Stewart. Suggested by Diego D’Agostino
Too Much of Nothing. Peter Paul and Mary. Suggested by Tony.
Up to me by Roger McGuinn. In All Directions
Visions of Johanna recorded live by Old Crow Medicine Show, suggested by Tony [Spotify]
Wallflower – Buddy & Julie Miller. [Spotify] Suggested by Fred Muller.
Walls of Red Wing. Joan Baez. Suggesfted by Laura Leivick
NEW Wandering Kind by Paul Butterfield reviewed by Jochen.
Wanted Man by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Suggested by Matt Rude
Watching the River Flow by Leon Russell. The Beautiful Obscurity article has multiple cover versions detailed.
What Good am I? – Solomon Burke. [Spotify] Suggested by Fred Muller.
What Good Am I by Tom Jones, suggested by Pat Sludden
With God on our side: Buddy Miller. Suggested by Fred Muller
NEW: When He Returns by Jimmy Scott. Suggest by Donald Tine
When I Paint My Masterpiece by Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang, suggested by Matt Rude
When you gonna wake up by Lee Williams, in Bob Dylan Approximately by Larry
NEW You changed by Life by Iva & Alyosha in Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy