Production
It is a medium-tempo blues song about laundry hanging out to dry. Unfortunately, the recording is not very good, and it is difficult to discern the instruments being played. Dylan probably accompanied himself on a 12-string guitar, Robertson’s part is fairly clear, and there is an attempt at violining (0:09) at the beginning of the piece. The piano, however, is inaudible. Only the organ and bass are distinct. The absence of drums is not a major drawback; the songwriter’s tone of voice catches our attention for this burlesque parody.
“Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry reached the top of the charts in August 1967. This suggests that Dylan wrote “Clothes Line Saga” (the first title) shortly thereafter, since the recording dates from the early October.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Mayor of Minneapolis and senator from Minnesota before being nominated as vice president of the United States, Hubert Humphrey played a decisive role in the fight against segregation. He was defeated by Republican Richard Nixon in the presidential election of 1968. Bob Dylan can be assumed to have a bias for the humanist politician from his home state.
Apple Suckling Tree
Bob Dylan / 2:49
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, piano
Garth Hudson: organ
Rick Danko: bass, backup vocals
Richard Manuel: tambourine (?), backup vocals
Robbie Robertson: tambourine, drums (?)
Recording Studio
Big Pink, West Saugerties, New York: September 1967
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Dylan and the Band
Sound Engineer: Garth Hudson
Genesis and Lyrics
“Apple Suckling Tree” was inspired by an old British children’s song based on a Scottish poem from the mid-sixteenth century, “Froggie Went A-Courtin’.” The original nursery rhyme chronicles a wedding between a frog and a mouse. The frog asks Miss Mouse to marry him, but she must obtain permission from Uncle Rat. Dylan transforms everything and makes a kind of grotesque tale, with an old apple suckling tree. The last two lines are even more cryptic: “The forty-nine of you like bats out of hell / Oh underneath that old apple suckling tree.” As he states in The Songs of Bob Dylan: From 1966 through 1975, we should read this line, “The forty-nine of you [can] burn in hell.”72 All the words flow together perfectly, giving the song a great natural swing.
Production
As Sid Griffin stated in his book Million Dollar Bash, “Apple Suckling Tree” was one of the last compositions recorded at Big Pink. Dylan and his colleagues were more relaxed for this last recording. “Apple Suckling Tree” gives the impression of an improvisation, at least in the production. Dylan is at the vocals and piano, Hudson on organ, Danko on bass, and Manuel and Robertson on tambourine and drums. However, it is difficult to be sure who plays what. Robbie Robertson said, “I played drums on a few songs. I think ‘Apple Suckling Tree’ was one.”73 It is indeed likely that he played drums, Richard Manuel being a better drummer than what is heard on the track. Besides being a nursery rhyme, “Apple Suckling Tree” is a basic rock song that exudes the relaxation of the other songs of The Basement Tapes, where the pleasure of playing together without constraints was the central focus of the group. Two takes were made. The second take seems to be the one used for the album.
Please, Mrs. Henry
Bob Dylan / 2:33
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Robbie Robertson: mandolin, guitar (?)
Richard Manuel: piano, clavinet (?), backup vocals
Garth Hudson: organ
Rick Danko: bass, backup vocals
Recording Studio
Big Pink, West Saugerties, New York: Summer 1967
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Dylan and the Band
Sound Engineer: Garth Hudson
Genesis and Lyrics
In this song about a man’s consumption of alcohol, a drunk asks the barmaid, Mrs. Henry, to take him to his room. In the hallway he makes sexual advances, using several animal metaphors: “I can drink like a fish / I can crawl like a snake / I can bite like a turkey / I can slam like a drake.” He even kneels. But nothing works. Accompanied by Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson, Dylan’s voice has a cynical tone, as if the alcohol were flowing freely in the basement of Big Pink as he sings of the character’s disappointments, his erotic fantasies, and the last dollar in his pocket. The music has the atmosphere of a smoky club in any small American town. John Howells describes it well: “Every time I listen to The Basement Tapes I always get the feeling that I’m hearing the lost and sadly neglected recordings of an unknown artist who died at an early age and is just now becoming known through a recent discovery of a cache of obscure recordings. This is similar to the feeling I get when I see a James Dean movie or hear a Buddy Holly song—‘what a tragic loss.’ This is odd because I know that nothing of the kind happened with Dylan. Still, these recordings have a timeless quality not unlike those recorded by Robert Johnson in a makeshift hotel room recording studio or early Hank Williams demos.”74
Production
Dylan has fun and leads us with humor through this hilarious song, oscillating between country and western and a piano bar. He accompanies himself on acoustic guitar and is backed by Robbie Robertson on a rhythm mandolin or a guitar with nylon strings (with a capo placed high on the handle). The surprise comes from the sound of a clavinet at the end of the chorus, probably played by Richard Manuel, who also plays piano. Hudson, as always, provides a very effective organ part, using a flutes registry at 0:35. Although, there is no percussion, the song presents no problems and Dylan has no trouble sharing this humorous song with us.
COVERS
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band released a very good cover of “Please, Mrs. Henry” in 1971, as did Cheap Trick, who played it live a few years later (1977). But the surprise comes from George Harrison, who sang the tune, accompanied by the Beatles, during the Let It Be rehearsal sessions in 1969.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
According to Sid Griffin, the lyrics of “Please, Mrs. Henry” were partly improvised. At 2:09 Dylan giggles in the chorus as if he is laughing at his own lyrics.
Tears Of Rage
Bob Dylan / Richard Manuel / 4:12
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Robbie Robertson: guitar
Richard Manuel: piano, backup vocals
Garth Hudson: organ
Rick Danko: bass, backup vocals
Recording Studio
Big Pink, West Saugerties, New York: Summer or Fall 1967
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Dylan and the Band
Sound Engineer: Garth Hudson
Genesis and Lyrics
“Tears of Rage” is the darkest song on the The Basement Tapes. Andy Gill compared it to Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear. An analogy can be seen between the old king in the play, betrayed by his daughters, wandering and descending into madness, and the narrator in Dylan’s song, betrayed by his own country, in a rage with tears in his eyes. But Dylan refutes this interpretation, despite the references in his text. When asked by Jonathan Cott in 1978, “Were you specifically influenced by King Lear when you wrote songs like ‘Tears of Rage’?” he answered, “No, songs like that were based on the concept that one is one.”20
The song is about anger and disillusionment. Note also Dylan’s foresight, for the song was written well before the end of the Vietnam War. “Tears of Rage” expresses the bitterness and pain felt by a Vietnam veteran returning home and realizing the indifference and ingratitude of the nation. He is bitter to learn that his friends have died for nothing. He “discover[s] there was no one true,” as Dylan sings in the second verse. The song was written in 1967, when US aircraft bombed Hanoi for the first time as President Johnson announced to Congress the escalation in the number of soldiers in Vietnam.
A broader interpretation of “Tears of Rage�
�� is that America itself is under attack—or at least American society in the second half of the 1960s. Andy Gill commented: “Having, as one of its founding fathers, helped define the country, the song’s narrator watches sadly as his ideals are diluted and cast aside by succeeding generations, who treat them as ‘nothing more / Than a place for you to stand.’ In place of idealism is rampant materialism, with a price placed upon even one’s emotions by a society that has come to know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.”24 Critic Greil Marcus suggests that “the song is from the start a sermon and an elegy, a Kaddish.”
Production
According to Clinton Heylin, “Tears of Rage” was probably written and recorded during the sessions for John Wesley Harding between mid-October and late November 1967.66 But it is possible that the song was recorded on October 17, the day before the first recording session for the album.
In listening to “Tears of Rage,” the sound of Dylan’s voice and a harmonic tone new to Dylan’s work is striking. If Bob is the author of the lyrics, Richard Manuel owns the music. In an interview for the Woodstock Times in 1985, Manuel recalls, “Dylan came down to the basement with a piece of typewritten paper… and it was typed out… in line form… and he just said, ‘Have you got any music for this?’ I had a couple of musical movements that fit, that seemed to fit, so I just elaborated a little bit, because I wasn’t sure what the lyrics meant. I couldn’t run upstairs and say, ‘What’s this mean, Bob? “Now the heart is filled with gold, as if it was a purse?”’”75
“Tears of Rage” is an excellent song. The association between both songwriters is a true success. Dylan’s interpretation is surprising; his voice is wrapped by an accentuate delay, and has accents and color curiously reminiscent of John Lennon in his Plastic Ono Band period. The piece reveals a strong collaboration among the musicians, each one clearly performing his part without overshadowing the others. This is especially the case in the interplay between Robertson’s guitar and Manuel’s piano. But the real backbone is provided by Hudson’s organ, particularly inspired and with some gospel tone. The extraordinary vocal harmonies of Manuel and Danko must be singled out as well.
“Tears of Rage” was recorded in three takes. The last one was selected as the master. The atmosphere that emanates from this song illustrates the relentless anger and disillusionment of the narrator. British writer Toby Litt, for whom this song was a favorite, took words by the American poet Emily Dickinson to express his feeling while listening to “Tears of Rage”: “The American poet Emily Dickinson said, ‘If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.’”76 Certainly a feeling shared by a wide audience.
Since the Festival of Patras, Greece, on June 26, 1989, Bob Dylan has sung “Tears of Rage” more than eighty times onstage.
COVERS
A version of “Tears of Rage” by Jimi Hendrix, accompanying himself on guitar, was released on West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology in 2010.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
It was with this song that Bob Dylan prompted the Band to stand on its own. Recorded by the Band (with Levon Helm this time), “Tears of Rage” opens Music from Big Pink, their debut album of 1968.
Too Much Of Nothing
Bob Dylan / 3:04
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Robbie Robertson: guitar
Richard Manuel: piano, backup vocals
Garth Hudson: organ
Rick Danko: bass, backup vocals
Levon Helm: drums
Recording Studio
Big Pink, West Saugerties, New York: Summer 1967
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Dylan and the Band
Sound Engineer: Garth Hudson
Genesis and Lyrics
During his recovery from the motorcycle accident, Bob Dylan spent a lot of time reading Shakespeare’s King Lear and the Bible, which changed his vision of the world deeply. During an interview, Jonathan Cott told Dylan that he saw ideas from the tragedy of King Lear in The Basement Tapes. “I’ve always interpreted some of The Basement Tapes as being concerned with ideas from King Lear: ‘Too much of nothing / Can make a man abuse a king.’” “Exactly,” Dylan replied. “In the later years it changed from ‘king’ to ‘clown.’”23 However, “Too Much of Nothing” is not limited to these two allusions. In the choruses, Dylan addresses two ladies, Valerie and Vivian. Of whom was he thinking? Probably the two wives of the twentieth-century poet and playwright T. S. Eliot. Eliot first married Vivienne Haigh-Wood in 1915. Vivienne was subsequently institutionalized in a mental hospital in North London, and during her nine years there Eliot never visited her once. Vivienne died in 1947. In January 1957 Eliot married Valerie Fletcher, thirty-eight years his junior. Eliot died on January 4, 1965, in London. Dylan’s text takes on a different dimension and becomes an accusation against the playwright-poet, whose personal excesses he does not forgive. In the lines, “He can walk the streets and boast like most / But he wouldn’t know a thing,” Dylan expresses his disdain for the playwright. The folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary covered “Too Much of Nothing” in 1967. The cover reached number 35 on the US Billboard chart. The trio changed the second name, “Vivian,” to “Marion” in the line “Say hello to Valerie / Say hello to Vivien / Send them all my salary / On the waters of oblivion.” The substitution displeased Dylan, for whom the song became meaningless.
Production
“Too Much of Nothing” is a curious mix of “classic” and “innovative” Dylan. The second part of each verse contains a curious harmonic progression (chromatic) that highlights the increasing intensity of the text. The chorus has a pop psychedelic color, which is surprising for Dylan. The whole group “does the job”: Robertson is on electric lead guitar, conjuring a very reverberant sound, and Levon Helm’s overdubbed drums part was possibly added in 1975. Two acoustic guitars are heard, one played by Bob and the second probably overdubbed along with the drums. The song is harmonically wobbly, which is unfortunate given the quality of the text. Only two takes were recorded. The song deserved further work. The first cut was selected.
COVERS
In addition to Peter, Paul and Mary’s version, there are two notable versions of “Too Much of Nothing.” The song appeared on the British progressive rock band Spooky Tooth’s debut album, It’s All About, released in 1968, and on the British folk-rock band Fotheringay’s eponymous debut album, released in 1970.
Yea! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread
Bob Dylan / 2:15
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Richard Manuel: piano, backup vocals
Garth Hudson: organ
Rick Danko: bass, backup vocals
Recording Studio
Big Pink, West Saugerties, New York: Summer 1967
Technical Team
Producers: Bob Dylan and the Band
Sound Engineer: Garth Hudson
Genesis and Lyrics
“Well, the comic book and me, just us, we caught the bus / The poor little chauffeur, though, she was back in bed.” The meaning of “Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread” is unfathomable. Dylan had a great time playing with words in the tradition of the Beat writers and the hallucinatory effects of Lewis Carroll. The line “Take me down to California, baby,” also suggests that Dylan wanted to move from New York to the West Coast, probably for the climate but also for the dreams of the Summer of Love.
Production
There is nothing special in the arrangement of “Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread,” except Manuel’s piano riff. He also provides a distinct backup vocal at the end of the song. The song is based on two chords and is reminiscent of Frank Zappa, who would certainly not have disowned the nonsense or humor of the text. Nothing serious, but it sounds good!
Two takes were recorded, each with a different tone of voice. In the first ta
ke, Dylan sings his lead vocals with a somewhat harsh voice, whereas in the second take he adopts a rather nonchalant and distanced tone. Similarly, the first line is slightly different: in one version, “With a nose full of pus,” and in the second version, “With a nose full of blood.” Whatever the version, “Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread” is the most psychedelic track on The Basement Tapes.
Dylan, oddly enough, played this song twice in concert, in 2002 and 2003. The 2002 version, performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 11, is breathtaking. To a Latino rhythm, a “cha-cha-cha,” Bob demonstrates that “Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread” has real potential, despite the negative judgment of many scholars.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Frank Zappa was discovered by Tom Wilson, who produced the first two albums of Zappa’s group, the Mothers of Invention: Freak Out! (1966) and Absolutely Free (1967).
Tiny Montgomery
Bob Dylan / 2:47
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Robbie Robertson: guitar, backup vocals (?)
Richard Manuel: backup vocals
Garth Hudson: organ
Rick Danko: bass, backup vocals
Recording Studio
Big Pink, West Saugerties, New York: Summer 1967
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 35
