Production
A first take of “Oh, Sister” was recorded during the session of July 28, and eight others the following day. None were retained. On July 30, the songwriter persevered, accompanied by a simple quartet and Emmylou Harris’s backup vocals. The number of takes may indicate that Dylan believed in the song. His vocals mingled with Harris’s are a success, conferring a palpable emotion. Once again, he did not hesitate to mix his harmonica (in G) with Scarlet Rivera’s violin, yielding an excellent result. Curiously, there is a certain similarity in the melody and its sweetness with “Oh, Sister” and the version of “Girl from the North Country” released on Nashville Skyline. The bass, drums (still with heavy reverb), and percussion (finger cymbals? triangle?), give the song a solid rhythmic base that Dylan sometimes has difficulty following on his acoustic guitar. However, “Oh, Sister” is a success.
The song required five takes; the second was chosen for the album. “Oh, Sister” was included in the setlist for the concert in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on October 30, 1975.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Dylan performed “Oh, Sister” live for the first time in a small TV studio in Chicago, singing the tune to a selected audience of invitees in September 1975. He dedicated this new song to… his first producer, John Hammond.
Joey
Lyrics: Jacques Levy and Bob Dylan / Music: Bob Dylan / 11:06
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Emmylou Harris: harmony vocals
Scarlet Rivera: violin
Vincent Bell: guitar, mandolin
Dominic Cortese: accordion
Rob Stoner: bass
Howard Wyeth: drums
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio E, New York: July 30, 1975 (Overdub August 11, 1975)
Technical Team
Producer: Don DeVito
Sound Engineer: Don Meehan
Genesis and Lyrics
The song “Joey” describes the life of the gangster Joey Gallo, an influential member of the Mafia in New York from the late 1940s to 1972. Dylan paints a romantic portrait of the man known as “Crazy Joe.” He seems to be a person of extreme brutality and unlimited ferocity, who also wrote poetry and befriended pop stars. Film director Otto Preminger thought of making a film about Joey Gallo’s life, with a screenplay by Gore Vidal.
Bob Dylan told Larry Sloman it was at a dinner party that he and Jacques Levy attended at Jerry Orbach’s house that the idea of “Joey” came to him. “I just listened for a few hours, they were talking about this guy… I never considered him a gangster, I always thought of him as some kind of a hero in some kind of a way. An underdog fighting against the elements.” He continued, “It was like listening to a story about Billy the Kid, so we went ahead and wrote that up in one night. I was living around Little Italy so I was always walking around there.”112 The songwriter later said that Jerry Garcia from the Grateful Dead had made him sing the song onstage. “[Garcia] said that’s one of the best songs ever written… ‘Joey’ has a Homeric quality to it that you don’t hear every day. Especially in popular music.”20
Production
The longest song of the album, Joey is an eleven-minute, twelve-verse ballad. The song was recorded on July 14 with a dozen musicians, including Dave Mason on guitar. On July 30, Dylan rerecorded it completely with a smaller orchestration. He was surrounded by the same group of musicians with whom he had recorded “Oh, Sister.” He sang with a voice surprisingly at the limit of saturation on many lines. Don Meehan recalled that, unlike the majority of the songs on the album, he succeeded in convincing Dylan to overdub some instruments. The overdub session took place on August 11, including Vincent Bell on electric rhythm guitar and mandolin and Dominic Cortese at the accordion. Both provided new sounds that made the piece “world music” in style. Unfortunately, another acoustic guitar was added, probably played by Dylan himself (at 2:00 and 4:38). Thanks to Jerry Garcia, the first live version of “Joey” was performed on July 4, 1987, at Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
The famous rock critic Lester Bangs was by far the most virulent critic of Bob Dylan. After listening to “Joey,” he wrote in Creem in April 1976, “One of the most mindlessly amoral pieces of repellently romanticist bullshit ever recorded.”
Romance In Durango
Lyrics: Jacques Levy and Bob Dylan / Music: Bob Dylan / 5:44
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, piano, harmonica
Emmylou Harris: harmony vocals
Scarlet Rivera: violin
Eric Clapton: guitar
Perry Lederman: guitar
Neil Hubbard: guitar
James Mullen: guitar
Erik Frandsen: slide guitar
Tony O’Malley: keyboards
Michael Lawrence: trumpet
Mel Collins: tenor sax
Dominic Cortese: accordion
James Whiting: harmonica
Alan Spenner: bass
Sheena Seidenberg: percussion
Jody Linscott: percussion
John Sussewell: drums
Paddy McHugh, Francis Collins, and Dyan Birch: backup vocals
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio E, New York: July 28, 1975
Technical Team
Producer: Don DeVito
Sound Engineer: Don Meehan
Genesis and Lyrics
Jacques Levy said he wrote most of the lyrics of “Romance in Durango.” While doing so, he was undoubtedly thinking of Bob Dylan, who a few years earlier acted in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, which was filmed in Durango, Mexico. The story of the song is similar to a cowboy movie scenario. An outlaw and his lover are on the run in Durango, Mexico, with a posse of sheriffs and bounty hunters on their tail. But it is also a typical Dylanesque story, in the sense that the main character of the song is haunted by his murder of a close friend named Ramon: “Was it me that shot him down in the cantina? / Was it my hand that held the gun?” This goes unanswered, yet there is the implicit desire for redemption and reference to sacred texts. The name “Magdalena” obviously refers to Mary Magdalene, “apostle to the apostles,” who told the apostles of the resurrection of Christ.
Production
“Romance in Durango” was recorded at the first session for Desire on July 28. Six attempts were made. Even if Dylan was not entirely familiar with the lyrics, singing while reading them off a sheet of paper (especially the Spanish lines), he was sufficiently satisfied with the second take to include it on the album. This session is the only recording for which he is accompanied by the entire group of twenty musicians and singers put together by producer Don DeVito. Eric Clapton is among the sidemen. Clapton summarized the session as follows: “[Dylan] was trying to find a situation… where he could make music with new people. He just driving around, picking musicians up and bringing them back to the sessions. It ended up with something like twenty-four musicians in the studio, all playing these incredibly incongruous instruments.”119 The plethora of musicians is overwhelming; not all of them are essential. The Mexican side of this romance is charming, but not very convincing. The sound engineer Don Meehan remembers a crowded studio and that Dylan’s session was “very loose.” Maybe a little too loose, as the production lacks overall control and direction. It is easy to see why Dylan reverted two days later to a smaller band sound.
“Romance in Durango” was played live for the first time in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on October 30, 1975.
Black Diamond Bay
Lyrics: Jacques Levy and Bob Dylan / Music: Bob Dylan / 7:30
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Emmylou Harris: harmony vocals
Scarlet Rivera: violin
Rob Stoner: bass
Howard Wyeth: drums
Sheena Seidenberg: percussion
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios
/ Studio E, New York: July 30, 1975
Technical Team
Producer: Don DeVito
Sound Engineer: Don Meehan
Genesis and Lyrics
Dylan and co-lyricist Jacques Levy were clearly inspired by the work of Joseph Conrad (distant journeys full of mystery) and Ernest Hemingway (fascination with the Caribbean) for this song, one of the most evocative and ambitious on the album. Levy recalls, “When we started to write the song there was this image of a mysterious woman on a veranda somewhere, with a Panama hat and a passport. Then there was that kind of slightly seedy hotel with a gambling room.” He added, “The hotel is probably run by Humphrey Bogart,”112 in reference to the 1942 masterpiece Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz. They began writing “Black Diamond Bay” in New York and finished it in East Hampton. The pair built the song like an adventure novel with enigmatic characters: the heroine “up on the white veranda” whose “remnants of her recent past / Are scattered in the wild wind”; “The Greek [who] comes down and “asks for a rope and a pen”; a soldier “Doin’ business with a tiny man who sells him a ring.” Finally, in the last verse, it becomes clear that the tale is about the destruction of a Caribbean island in 1975 following the eruption of a volcano, as reported on television by CBS broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite.
Production
“Black Diamond Bay” was one of the most difficult songs to record. Dylan spent most of the July 29 session struggling with the mandolin and brass to record it. Twelve takes were done that day, but he was unsatisfied with the result. He opted on July 30 for a more sober orchestration. This new version is a success. The song grooves with a fantastic rhythm, played by the talented Stoner and Wyeth. Dylan provides an excellent vocal performance in tandem with the very professional Emmylou Harris, who tries hard to be in sync with the unpredictable singer. And for the first time in his career, after singing some lines in Spanish in “Romance In Durango,” Dylan chooses the language of Molière for “Black Diamond Bay.” The pronunciation is not the best, but the French were flattered.
Five new takes were made, the fourth being retained for the album. To date, Dylan has played “Black Diamond Bay” only once onstage at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 25, 1976.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Bob did not have good advice on the French translation of this song. In the third verse, he sings, “Attendez-vous, s’il vous plait,” which is curious. He probably wanted to say, “Attendez, s’il vous plait.” Either way, the French were pleased with the attempt.
Sara
Bob Dylan / 5:31
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Scarlet Rivera: violin
Rob Stoner: bass
Howard Wyeth: drums
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio E, New York: July 31, 1975
Technical Team
Producer: Don DeVito
Sound Engineer: Don Meehan
Genesis and Lyrics
According to Jacques Levy, Bob Dylan had been fooling with “Sara” for a long time. He had the choruses done, but he wrote the verses in East Hampton, where he and Levy spent several weeks in July 1975. It seems that the view of the dunes, combined with the gentle sound of the waves, acted on the songwriter like the madeleine on Proust, allowing him to recall his wife and family in such lines as, “Stayin’ up for days in the Chelsea Hotel / Writin’ ‘Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands’ for you,” “When the children were babies and played on the beach,” or even their short vacation in Portugal in 1965, “Drinkin’ white rum in a Portugal bar.” All these moments of his life come up to the surface, including regrets (“Whatever made you want to change your mind?”) and remorse (“You must forgive me my unworthiness”). Dylan told Rolling Stone’s Jonathan Cott that he did not really know if he wrote “Sara” for his wife as she was or as he wanted her to be: “Was it the real Sara or the Sara in the dream? I still don’t know.”
Production
The night Dylan recorded the song in late July 1975, Sara, who was already separated from him, stopped by the studio. Larry Sloman recalls, “Dylan suddenly turned to his wife and said, ‘This is for you,’ and broke into the compelling song he had written for her that summer in the Hamptons. No one had heard it before, but Stone and Scarlet and Wyeth picked up the tempo, Scarlet playing some exquisite fills, underlining the melancholy of the lyrics.”119 Jacques Levy has a similar recollection of Dylan “[singing] ‘Sara’ to his wife as she watched from the other side of the glass… It was extraordinary. You could have heard a pin drop. She was absolutely stunned by it.”13 He sings the lyrics, supported by a superb melody, in a firm tone of voice, almost proud, without tears. The use of reverberation on all instruments, and on the vocals, enhances the slightly Slavic color and melancholy nature of the lyrics. The song is backed by a small orchestra, including acoustic guitar, violin, bass, and drums, enough to make it one of the best tracks in the album.
“Sara” was completed in six takes on July 31. The final one was chosen for the album. Three months later, on October 30, 1975, Dylan sang it for the first time onstage in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Desire Outtakes
“Golden Loom” and “Catfish” were not chosen for the track listing of Desire. Both songs were officially released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 in 1991. The first is based on the instrumental dialogue between violin and harmonica, much like “One More Cup of Coffee.” The second is an acoustic blues song with harmonica that seems to have come from the distant Delta. “Abandoned Love,” which also dates from the sessions for Desire, is the little sister of “Golden Loom.” Dylanologists were able to enjoy its release on the boxed set Biograph in 1985.
Abandoned Love
Bob Dylan / 4:29
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; Scarlet Rivera: violin; Rob Stoner: bass, backup vocals (?); Howard Wyeth: drums / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio E, New York: July 31, 1975 / Producer: Don DeVito / Sound Engineer: Don Meehan / Set Box: Biograph (CD 2) / Date of Release: November 7, 1985
COVERS
The Everly Brothers covered “Abandoned Love” (Born Yesterday, 1986), as did Chuck Prophet (Outlaw Blues, Volume 2, 1995) and George Harrison.
Bob Dylan wrote this song in New York City, just after breaking up with Sara. The narrator makes his mea culpa. He says he is a vain clown and admits that he still loves the one who made him suffer. There are two recorded versions of this song with slightly different lyrics. The studio version is from July 31, 1975. Two takes were recorded on that day, but neither of them was chosen for Desire. Dylan preferred “Joey” for the track listing of the album. “Abandoned Love” did not see any official release until 1985, when the first take went out on the box set Biograph. The song did not make the track listing of Desire. Yet with its slightly rockabilly style, due to its delay and fairly pronounced reverb, it is a small gem among Dylan’s outtakes. Note that the backup vocals are not done by Emmylou Harris but by Rob Stoner.
The live version was released almost a month after the studio version. On July 3, 1975, Dylan was at the Bitter End on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. He came to watch Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. At the end of the show, he went onstage and the two performed three songs together—“Pretty Boy Floyd,” “How Long Blues,” and “Abandoned Love.” Someone in the audience recorded the performance. Those who had the chance to listen to the live version agree that “Abandoned Love” is superior, more moving emotionally, performed live than in the studio version.
Catfish
Lyrics: Jacques Levy and Bob Dylan / Music: Bob Dylan / 2:48
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Erik Frandsen: slide guitar; Rob Stoner: bass; Sugar Blue: harmonica / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio E, New York: July 29, 1975 / Producer: Don DeVito / Sound Engineer: Don Meehan / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991 (CD 3) / Date of Release: March 26
, 1991
COVERS
“Catfish” is one of the songs by Bob Dylan that Joe Cocker included in his repertoire. Cocker’s version appears on the album Stingray (1976).
In East Hampton, Dylan and Jacques Levy isolated themselves, writing intensely in a rewarding intellectual collaboration. In the Bootleg Series liner notes, John Bauldie writes, “In their three weeks there, seven or eight songs were completed, four of which were eventually used on Desire, others—including ‘Catfish’—being destined to remain as outtakes.” He adds that “Catfish” “seems more likely to have been written on Levy’s initiative than Dylan’s.”25 This song is the story of a champion baseball pitcher, Catfish Hunter, who was one of the best starting pitchers in the major leagues during the 1960s and 1970s. In the chorus, Dylan sings, “Catfish, million-dollar-man / Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can.” “Catfish” is a blues song. Three takes were recorded on July 28. Eric Clapton played with Dylan. The following day, two other cuts were made, this time with slide guitarist Erik Frandsen, who performed superbly. Special mention goes to Sugar Blue, a blues harmonica virtuoso, who three years later recorded his first album (Red, Funk ’N Blue) and played in the recording sessions for the Rolling Stones album Some Girls (“Miss You,” “Send It to Me”). “Catfish” is another great song, but may not have found its place on Desire because its very bluesy color does not fit with that album.
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 59
