Bob Dylan All the Songs
Page 46
“Wigwam” was released as a single with “Copper Kettle (The Pale Moonlight)” on the B-side. The single had relative success. The song entered the top 10 in many European countries (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Switzerland), Singapore, and Malaysia. In Canada, the song was a top 40 hit. In the United States, the tune only reached number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Billboard Top 40 Easy Listening charts.
The Self Portrait Outtakes
These eight outtakes, which were taken from The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971), were all excellent songs that could easily have appeared on Self Portrait. The sober arrangements contrasted with the overproduction of some pieces on the album itself. These eight covers also indicate the extent of Bob Dylan’s talent as a performer.
Railroad Bill
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 2:48
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; David Bromberg: guitar; Al Kooper: piano / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 4, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Don Puluse Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (CD 1) / Release Date: August 27, 2013
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
In 1981, the Labor Theater in New York produced a musical comedy about Railroad Bill, which was written by C. R. Portz.
“Railroad Bill” in this song was based on a very real character, an African-American who stole from people along the railroad between Louisville and Nashville at the end of the nineteenth century. He was considered a Robin Hood of the South who was a victim of the Jim Crow laws by some, and a wicked criminal by others. He was killed by the police on March 7, 1896. When his remains were laid out in a public place, several inhabitants of Brewton, Alabama, claimed they recognized one Bill McCoy.
As a symbol of the impossible reconciliation between the black and white communities in the Deep South under Reconstruction (1865–1877), Railroad Bill stirred the spirits of authors and composers. A song relating the so-called exploits of this outlaw was recorded by Riley Puckett and Gid Tanner in 1924. There was another version by Vera Hall that was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1939. Others followed, including one by Joan Baez in 1963.
Dylan must have liked “Railroad Bill,” because he had already recorded it in May 1961 in the apartment of Bonnie Beecher in Minneapolis. He tried it again during the Self Portrait sesions, and this time took out the harmonica he only played on three songs on the album. Brilliantly accompanied by David Bromberg on solo guitar and enthusiastically supported by Al Kooper on piano, Dylan is very convincing in this likable, guitar-picking standard.
Annie’s Going To Sing Her Song
Bob Dylan / Tom Paxton / 2:22
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; David Bromberg: guitar; Al Kooper: piano / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 4, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Don Puluse Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (CD 1) / Release Date: August 27, 2013
Folksinger Tom Paxton recorded “Annie’s Going to Sing Her Song” for his album Paxton 6 that came out in 1970 on Elektra. Maybe he was inspired by “Mathilde,” Jacques Brel’s song, when he wrote it. “Coalman, bring us some wine / The wine of weddings and feasts / Because Mathilde has come back to me.”
Right after Paxton, Bob Dylan performed an entirely acoustic version of “Annie’s Going to Sing Her Song” for Self Portrait. Curiously enough, the mood is reminiscent of Dylan during his Greenwich Village days, the time of Gerde’s Folk City, the Gaslight Cafe, and Cafe Wha?. This version is not really convincing, especially since Bromberg and Kooper do not seem to be at ease with the song. Only Dylan comes through with honors. This performance remained in the drawer until it appeared on The Bootleg Series Volume 10.
Pretty Saro
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 2:16
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; David Bromberg: guitar / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 3, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Don Puluse / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (CD 1) / Release Date: August 27, 2013
In order to promote The Bootleg Series Volume 10, Jennifer LeBeau produced a video of “Pretty Saro” based on archival images from the Farm Security Administration located in the Library of Congress. “His vocal delivery is so haunting,” the producer told Rolling Stone.
“Pretty Saro,” a seventeenth-century English ballad that crossed the Atlantic two centuries later, was rediscovered in 1916 by ethnomusicologist Cecil Sharp during a trip to North Carolina. There have been many versions of it, including ones by Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, and Doc Watson, but the story remained essentially the same: pretty Saro rejected a suitor because he owned neither land not gold, and he wandered over the world without ever being able to forget her. Bob Dylan added a literary dimension to the song: “If I was a poet / I’d write my love a letter / That she’d understand,” he sang in the second-to-last couplet.
On March 3, 1970, six takes of “Pretty Saro” were recorded, but none of them made it onto the Self Portrait album. It was surprising to have to wait over forty years to be able to hear it, because Dylan’s performance, which was nuanced and emotional, was certainly one of the best in the recording sessions for Self Portrait. As writer Anne Margaret Daniel wrote, “Who ever said Dylan couldn’t sing? ‘Pretty Saro’ solidly puts paid to the ancient, variably attributed one-liner about Dylan’s singing voice sounding like a dog with its leg caught in a barbed-wire fence. His voice, here, is a pure, sweet tenor lifting Pretty Saro’s name skyward, then sinking low on the ‘wherever I go’s.” Special mention to the very fine accompaniment by David Bromberg as well. The addition of this song could have raised the level of quality of Self Portrait.
Thirsty Boots
Eric Andersen / 4:08
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; David Bromberg: guitar; Al Kooper: piano / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 4, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Don Puluse Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (CD 1) / Release Date: August 27, 2013
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
“Thirsty Boots” came out in 2013 on side B of a promo 45 rpm single record for the launching of The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (with “Wigwam” on side A).
Eric Andersen, who made his debut at Gerde’s Folk City in 1964, was one of the key figures of the Greenwich Village folk movement. In 1966, he recorded his second album, ’Bout Changes and Things, on the Vanguard label, which included “Thirsty Boots.” This song was dedicated to one of Andersen’s friends who was immersed in the struggle for civil rights. It was also a tribute to all those who had risen up against racial segregation in the Deep South. After the death of folksinger Phil Ochs (1976), Andersen dedicated this song to him.
In the footsteps of many other artists, including Judy Collins, John Denver, and Anne Murray, Bob Dylan added “Thirsty Boots” to his repertoire, which showed at the same time that the fire of folk songs still burned in his heart. Dylan once again found the tone of his first records in this version, dated March 4, 1970, that was recorded in four takes. His performance was great, including a harmonica solo. “Thirsty Boots” was probably removed from Self Portrait because it was too distant from his new musical style.
These Hands
Eddie Noack / 3:43
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; David Bromberg: guitar / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 3, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Don Puluse / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (CD 1) / Release Date: August 27, 2013
Country-and-western singer and composer Eddie Noack explained how one of the most famous songs of his career came to him: “I wrote ‘These Hands’ while in the Army in 1955, statione
d in El Paso, Texas. One night I drew guard duty, and during my shift, I looked at the wasteland that is West Texas and New Mexico, and a song from the second World War, ‘This Is Worth Fighting For,’ kept running through my mind. Looking at the barren country around me, my thoughts were, ‘Is this worth fighting for?’ There is a line in that song to that effect, ‘Didn’t I build that cabin, didn’t I raise that corn?’ and the idea that these tasks, along with any other, are done with a man’s hands, prompted the song.”36
The first recording of Eddie Noack’s song was credited to Hank Snow in 1956. But it was Johnny Cash in 1962 who gave it all its spiritual dimension. Eight years later, Bob Dylan recorded it in one take on March 3, 1970, remaining faithful to the almost solemn mood of the “Man in Black,” showing unfeigned respect for those who work with their hands.
Tattle O’Day
Traditional / Arrangements Bob Dylan / 3:49
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; David Bromberg: guitar; Al Kooper: piano / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 4, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Don Puluse Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (CD 2) / Release Date: August 27, 2013
“Tattle O’Day” was a British nursery rythme evoking Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels or Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The narrator buys a dog with legs thirteen yards long, which makes it possible for him to go around the world in half a day, and a bull whose roaring makes the walls of London fall down. In the early seventies, this song sounded almost psychedelic.
It was the last unpublished piece of The Bootleg Series Volume 10. The mood and the theme are reminiscent of The Basement Tapes of 1967, Dylan finding once again the tone of those days. Accompanied by Bromberg and Kooper, the songwriter recorded it in one take on March 4, 1970.
This Evening So Soon
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 4:49
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; David Bromberg: guitar; Al Kooper: piano / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 4, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Don Puluse Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) (CD 1) / Release Date: August 27, 2013
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Dylan alludes to Bob Gibson’s version of “This Evening Too Soon” at the beginning. He asks, “Remember Bob Gibson?”
Genesis and Lyrics
“This Evening So Soon” was a traditional song. Bob Dylan’s version borrowed its title from a short story that James Baldwin published in 1965. The story is about a black American jazz musician and actor rebuilding his life in Paris, where he has married a Swedish woman. One day he accepts a role in Hollywood and realizes how differently blacks are viewed in Europe and in America. This song has been recorded by many artists with different arrangements. Bob Gibson sang a version in 1958 under the title “Tell Old Bill.” Then it was Dave Van Ronk’s turn in 1961, and then Merle Haggard’s.
Dylan recorded it in just one take on March 4. The range and tone of his voice, as well as his intensity, are surprising. Dylan proved one more time that he was an excellent singer. The song deserved a bit more work, and this single, imperfect take (listen around 2:58), sounds more like a rehearsal than a final recording.
New
Morning
If Not For You
Day Of The Locusts
Time Passes Slowly
Went To See The Gypsy
Winterlude
If Dogs Run Free
New Morning
Sign On The Window
One More Weekend
The Man In Me
Three Angels
Father Of Night
OUTTAKES
Session on May 1 with George Harrison
Working On A Guru
Song To Woody
Mama, You Been
On My Mind
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Yesterday
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Da Doo Ron Ron
One Too Many Mornings
Ghost Riders In The Sky
Cupid
All You Have To Do Is Dream
Gates Of Eden
I Threw It All Away
I Don’t Believe You
(She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Matchbox
Your True Love
Las Vegas Blues
Fishing Blues
Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
It Ain’t Me, Babe
Other Sessions
Alligator Man
Ballad Of Ira Hayes
Lonesome Me
Mary Ann
Sarah Jane
Spanish Is The Loving Tongue
Mr. Bojangles
Kingston Town
Can’t Help Falling In Love
Long Black Veil
Lily Of The West
One More Weekend
Bring Me A Little Water
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Big Yellow Taxi
I Forgot To Remember To Forget
Blowin’ In The Wind
DATE OF RELEASE
October 21, 1970
on Columbia Records
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA KC30290)
New Morning:
Dylan Is Back
In 2004’s Chronicles, Bob Dylan recalled the spark that inspired him to create New Morning: “But one thing I did know was that there’d be a photo of me and Victoria Spivey on the cover. The photo had been taken a few years earlier in a small recording studio. I knew that this photo would be on the cover even before I recorded the songs. Maybe I was even making this record because I had the cover in mind and needed something to go into the sleeve. It could be.”1
But why was this photo taken with Victoria Spivey, a blues singer for whom he had played harmonica on March 2, 1962, at Cue Recording Studios in New York on two records that came out in 1964 and 1970? Nostalgia for those days? To re-create an atmosphere? To pay affectionate homage to her?
It is hard to say, because New Morning was not specifically a blues album. Maybe Dylan just wanted to reassert his roots. It must be mentioned that his preceding work, Self Portrait, which came out on June 8, 1970, had raised a controversy as lively as the performances of Hernani in Paris half a century earlier. Being cut to the quick, did Dylan return to the studio as a reaction to the critics and the public who had put him up against the wall? That might have been the case. But in fact, the recording sessions for New Morning had begun over a month before Self Portrait was available in stores… Maybe the songwriter was looking for a reference point?
The Album
New Morning, which appeared on October 21, 1970, was the end of a threefold story. It was the last record of original compositions produced by Bob Johnston (who was credited for the session of July 1970, although he was no longer around). It was also the end of the eight-year association between the songwriter and his manager Albert Grossman, as of July 17, 1970. During the following years they fought in court with hostility and resentment. Albert Grossman passed away on January 25, 1986, without the two men being reconciled. Finally, it was the first record in over four years to be totally recorded in New York, except for an overdub session carried out in Nashville on July 23, 1970.
This new work was the result of a partnership and an encounter: playing with ex-Beatle George Harrison and meeting playwright Archibald MacLeish. On May 1, 1970, Dylan and Harrison recorded about twenty songs, out of which only four were redone for the sessions for New Morning. As for MacLeish, Dylan composed the songs “New Morning,” “Father of Night,” and “Time Passes Slowly” for his play Scratch, which was based on Stephen Vincent Benet’s novel The Devil and Daniel Webster. Their collaboration ended quickly, but Dylan decided to record the three songs for his new album.
A Hymn to Love, to the Earth, and to the Spirit
New Morning
was a work that exalted the return to nature, while it celebrated love and the benefits of family life and asserted the superiority of mysticism over materialism (“Day of the Locusts”). Many songs on New Morning were simple descriptions of the wide range of pleasures of country living. Fishing in a stream, contemplating the stars, hearing the crowing of the rooster—everything that made you happy just to be alive. This happiness also went along with communion at all times with your loved one. “If Not for You,” which opens the album, was in this respect totally transparent, just like “Winterlude” (“You’re the one I adore / Come over here and give me more”) or “One More Weekend” (“Honey, why not go alone / Just you and me”). In a nutshell, New Morning was a hymn to the land and the love of Sara. Or was Dylan amusing himself by idealizing country life and chronicling a world that ultimately only existed in his own mind? Maybe the answer lay in the real or imagined visit of the songwriter with Elvis Presley in “Went to See the Gypsy” or in the last verse of “The Man in Me”: “The man in me will hide sometimes to keep from bein’ seen / But that’s just because he doesn’t want to turn into some machine.”