Production
When Dylan began working on “What Good Am I?” with Lanois, he had only a vague idea of the melody he wanted. After some work, it slowly began to emerge. They recorded the basic rhythm track on March 7 in eight takes, the seventh being retained. The vibe is ethereal; few instruments are involved. Dylan’s superb interpretation is highlighted by his Telecaster, Lanois’s dobro, and Burn’s keyboards. Burn added bass (overdub on June 27 or June 28), Lanois an acoustic guitar solo (overdub in July), and Dylan piano (overdub on March 29). There is the discrete presence of a bass drum, probably programmed on the TR-808. Although the result is a success, Dylan found the rhythm too slow; he “liked the words, but the melody wasn’t quite special enough—didn’t have any emotional impact.”1 Since the concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on October 10, 1989, Dylan has regularly performed this song onstage.
Disease Of Conceit
Bob Dylan / 3:44
Bob Dylan: chant, piano, orgue; Mason Ruffner: guitare; Brian Stoltz: guitare; Tony Hall: basse; Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, piano, organ; Mason Ruffner: guitar; Brian Stoltz: guitar; Tony Hall: bass; Willie Green: drums / Recording Studio: The Studio, New Orleans: March 8, 1989 (Overdubs March–July 1989) / Producer: Daniel Lanois / Sound Engineers: Malcolm Burn and Mark Howard
Genesis and Lyrics
To whom are the lyrics of “Disease of Conceit” addressed? Who committed the sin of pride? The songwriter wrote in Chronicles that he was certainly influenced by the Pentecostal pastor Jimmy Swaggart, who was defrocked by the Assemblies of God after scandals involving a prostitute. Dylan, however, did not accuse him. On the contrary, he defends the pastor, quoting Hosea the prophet, who, at God’s command, married the prostitute Gomer and had children with her.1 In his song, he shows compassion for a “whole lot of people struggling tonight / From the disease of conceit.” The conceited person can be “controlled and manipulated completely if you know what buttons to push,” Dylan writes. “So in a sense, that’s what the lyrics are talking about.”1
Production
“Disease of Conceit” is another song with an evocative atmosphere, ethereal with long reverberations, particularly on Ruffner’s and Stoltz’s guitars. The solo by one of the two at 2:59 is just beautiful. Tony Hall’s prominent bass and Willie Green’s almost nonexistent drums give the piece an inner strength comparable to a gospel song. A funeral march of sorts, it could have been recorded with a New Orleans brass funeral band.
Dylan said, “‘Disease of Conceit’ was cut as a weeper blues with an insistent beat… Arthur Rubinstein would have been the ultimate [piano] player.”1 This is the only song on the album on which Daniel Lanois did not play. Listening to the take recorded on March 8 (of four takes, the third was retained) and completed by various overdubs (guitars, bass), Lanois recognized that the song was right just the way it was.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Jimmy Swaggart, who might be the subject of “Disease of Conceit,” was not only a televangelist, but also a musician and, incidentally, the first cousin of rock ’n’ roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis.
What Was It You Wanted?
Bob Dylan / 5:03
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; Daniel Lanois: dobro; Mason Ruffner: guitar; Malcolm Burn: bass; Cyril Neville: percussion; Willie Green: drums / Recording Studio: The Studio, New Orleans: March 21, 1989 (Overdubs March–April 1989) / Producer: Daniel Lanois / Sound Engineers: Malcolm Burn and Mark Howard
Genesis and Lyrics
Dylan wrote in Chronicles that, “‘What Was It You Wanted?’ was also a quickly written one. I heard the lyric and melody together in my head and it played itself in a minor key.”1 The text is an uninterrupted series of questions with no answers. The songwriter explained, “If you’ve ever been the object of curiosity, then you know what this song is about. It doesn’t need much explanation. Folks who are soft and helpless sometimes make the most noise. They can obstruct you in a lot of ways.”1 Was he directing these lyrics at a public that always wanted more, constantly raising questions? Or the critics always ready to release their venom?
Production
“What Was It You Wanted?” was recorded quickly. After two takes on March 8, Dylan and the full band spent all of March 21 on this song. Four takes were made, and the first was subsequently embellished with overdubs (guitars, vocals). For the recording, each musician is at his instrument, playing live. Dylan is simultaneously on vocals, guitar, and harmonica (in E). The song has a throbbing groove, penetrating and hypnotic, about which Dylan confirmed, “The way the microphones are placed makes the atmosphere seem to be texturally rich, jet lagged and loaded—Quaaludes, misty.”1 He added that the use of all the technology allowed Daniel Lanois to produce “a sonic atmosphere [that] makes it sound like it’s coming out of some mysterious, silent land.”1
Shooting Star
Bob Dylan / 3:15
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Daniel Lanois: Omnichord
Brian Stoltz: guitar
Tony Hall: bass
Willie Green: drums
Recording Studio
The Studio, New Orleans: March 14, 1989 (Overdubs April–July 1989)
Technical Team
Producer: Daniel Lanois
Sound Engineers: Malcolm Burn and Mark Howard
Genesis and Lyrics
“Shooting Star” and “Man in the Long Black Coat” were the last songs Dylan wrote for Oh Mercy. He wrote “Shooting Star” in New Orleans after a long ride on a Harley-Davidson on the roads of Mississippi with his wife Carolyn. “The song came to me complete, full in the eyes like I’d been traveling on the garden pathway of the sun and just found it. It was illuminated. I’d seen a shooting star from the backyard of our house, or maybe it was a meteorite.”1
This song is open to interpretation. Always fascinated by biblical texts, Dylan may be referring to the star that guided the three kings from the East to Bethlehem after the birth of the Christ. It is also possible that this star announces the end of the world, as the songwriter sings, “It’s the last temptation, the last account” and the “last radio is playing.” In the third verse, “The last time you might hear the Sermon on the Mount” refers to the primary expression of the Christian religion as described in the Gospel according to Matthew. But there is another, more temporal, explanation: “Shooting Star” is the evocation of love lost. Before his beloved, the lover asks himself, “If I was still the same,” “If I ever became what you wanted me to be.” In this case, “Shooting Star” is a symbol of the fantasy of love, ephemeral or inaccessible. Dylan could have also been influenced by the playwright Anton Chekhov (a shooting star played a role in Chekhov’s story “The House with the Mezzanine” [1896]).
Production
Dylan remembers the recording: “I would have liked to have played combination string stuff with somebody else playing the rhythm chords, but we didn’t get it that far. In this song, the microphones were pinned up in odd places. The band sounded full.”1 He regretted not having been able to add brass to the piece. He feared that when it was finished the piece did not sound cohesive, not like a full orchestra. But his doubts were soon dispelled when, in the mix, Lanois “hyped the snare and captured the song in its essence.” Dylan was reassured. “It was frigid and burning, yearning—lonely and apart.”1
For this last track of the album, the producer played a curious instrument, the Omnichord. This is, according to Dylan, “a plastic instrument that sounds like an autoharp.”1 Dylan played guitar and harmonica. Eight takes were recorded on March 14. The seventh was selected for the overdub sessions between April and July.
Dylan has played “Shooting Star” more than one hundred times since a concert at East Troy in Wisconsin on June 9, 1990. A special mention goes to the version appearing on MTV’s Unplugged (1995).
Oh Mercy Outtakes
The distinctive atmosphere of New Orleans and the close collaboration between Bo
b Dylan and Daniel Lanois brought out the creativity of both. They recorded more songs than could fit on the album Oh Mercy. A few years after the release of the album, two outtakes, “Series of Dreams,” a typical Dylanesque song, and “Dignity,” became public. Two other songs recorded at the same time, “Born in Time” and “God Knows,” turned up on the next album, Under the Red Sky. A fifth song, “Three of Us Be Free,” is still only known to the musicians who recorded it with Dylan and Lanois on March 14, 1989.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
The composer James Damiano sued Bob Dylan and Columbia for plagiarism. According to Damiano, “Dignity” was copied from his own “Steel Guitars.” Damiano lost at trial in 1995 and on appeal in 1998.
Dignity
Bob Dylan / 5:58
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, piano; Brian Stoltz: guitar; Tony Hall: bass; Cyril Neville: percussion; Willie Green: drums / Recording Studio: The Studio, New Orleans: March 13, 1989 (Overdubs March 28, 1989) Producer: Daniel Lanois / Sound Engineers: Malcolm Burn and Mark Howard / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare & Unreleased 1989–2006 (CD 2) / Released: October 6, 2008
In Chronicles, Dylan writes about “Dignity”: “The dichotomy of cutting this lyrically driven song with melodic changes, with a rockin’ Cajun band, might be interesting.”1 It’s a plea to people who are tempted to indulge their vain impulses, rather than pursuing “what it’s gonna take to find dignity.” Dignity is seen as the supreme value, both for the “Hollow man lookin’ in a cottonfield” and for the one who “went down where the vultures feed.”
Also in Chronicles, Dylan explained that a very successful first demo had been made with Brian Stoltz and Willie Green. “The demo with just me and Willie and Brian had sounded effortless and it flowed smooth.” But Lanois was not finished and insisted on rerecording a version accompanied by Rockin’ Dopsie and his Cajun band, the same band that played on “Where Teardrops Fall.” “We recorded it a lot, varying the tempos and even the keys, but it was like being cast into sudden hell,”1 wrote Dylan. The song was abandoned and left off Oh Mercy. “Dignity” was officially released on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume 3 (1994) and The Bootleg Series Volume 8 (a demo version on piano and a group version).
Series Of Dreams
Bob Dylan / 5:53 / 6:26
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Daniel Lanois: guitars, percussion (?); Mason Ruffner: guitar; Rick DiFonzo: guitar; Peter Wood: keyboards; Glenn Fukunaga: bass; Cyril Neville: percussion; Daryl Johnson: percussion (?); Roddy Colonna: drums / Recording Studios: The Studio, New Orleans: March 23, 1989 (Overdubs March 30, 1989) / Messina Music Studios, New York (Overdubs January 1991) / Producer: Daniel Lanois / Sound Engineers: Malcolm Burn and Mark Howard Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991 (5:53) (CD 2); The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare & Unreleased 1989–2006 (6:26) (CD 2) / Date of Release: March 26, 1991 / October 6, 2008
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
During an interview broadcast on Chicago FM radio, Lanois told Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot that he thought of opening the album Oh Mercy with “Series of Dreams.” The working title of this song was “Oh Mercy.”
Is Dylan’s “Series of Dreams” nothing but a bridge between his unconscious and reality as he sees it? If this is the case, the image in the first verse, “where nothing comes up to the top” could mean that the songwriter still has a long way to go, particularly as he says in the fourth verse that he “wasn’t looking for any special assistance.” In this song, there is a temporal dimension—the concept of time is absent in the world of dreams—and a mystical one seen in the second and third verse: “And there’s no exit in any direction”; “And the cards are no good that you’re holding / Unless they’re from another world.” We will unravel these mysteries only when we pass through the gates of paradise.
Dylan remembers, “although Lanois liked the song, he liked the bridge better, wanted the all song to be like that.” However, after thinking about it, Dylan said, “I felt like it was fine the way it was—didn’t want to lose myself in thinking too much about changing it.”1 The song was released with two entirely different mixes on two distinct bootlegs: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (1991) and The Bootleg Series Volume 8 (2008). The first mix is very far from the airy ambience so dear to Lanois. Moreover, the two sound engineers working on the remix chose, with Dylan’s blessing, to add a rhythm guitar and an organ. The second version is closer to the spirit of the Canadian producer. He probably turned up the percussion a little too high in the mix, and it quickly became invasive. It is still surprising that Dylan decided at the last moment to remove the song from the track listing. “Series of Dreams” can easily compete with the other tracks on the album.
Under
The
Red Sky
Wiggle Wiggle
Under The Red Sky
Unbelievable
Born In Time
T.V. Talkin’ Song
10 000 Men
2 × 2
God Knows
Handy Dandy
Cat’s In The Well
THE OUTTAKES
Most Of The Time (pour CD promotionnel)
DATE OF RELEASE
September 11, 1990
on Columbia Records
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA C 46794 [LP] / CK 46794 [CD])
Under the Red Sky:
The Underrated Album
The Album
In the fall of 1989, having just returned from the Never Ending Tour, Bob Dylan began gearing up for a new album. He wrote several songs during the fall, and some others were already done. The songwriter wanted the album to be different from the previous one, Oh Mercy, produced in the steamy atmosphere of New Orleans by Daniel Lanois. He settled on studios in Los Angeles, close to his property in Malibu. In order to go in a different direction, production responsibilities were assigned to Don and David Was. These two, born Donald Fagenson and David Weiss, were musicians and former high school friends. Ten years earlier they had founded the band Was (Not Was). Don had produced records for, among others, Carly Simon in 1985 and Bonnie Raitt in 1989. Dylan also participated in the production of Under the Red Sky, under the pseudonym Jack Frost.
Under the Red Sky is dedicated to Gabby Goo Goo, which was the nickname of Dylan’s then-four-year-old daughter Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan. The record has a handful of tracks rooted in Anglo-Saxon children’s nursery rhymes. However, the light tone and structure of the children’s songs mask serious, intense ideas: childhood in Minnesota, biblical themes (“2 x 2,” “Cat’s in the Well,” “Wiggle Wiggle,” and “God Knows”), materialism (“Unbelievable”), misinformation circulated by the elites and media (“T.V. Talkin’ Song”), and melancholy (“Born in Time”).
The Album Cover
The black-and-white photograph on the cover portrays Dylan squatting and pensive in a bleak landscape. Is this his idea of the world after a nuclear holocaust? The photograph was taken in the Mojave Desert, in California, and is credited to Camouflage Photo. In reality, the photographer is none other than Dylan himself.
The Recording
By choosing Don Was as producer, Dylan was probably looking for a less tortured climate for his new album than working with Daniel Lanois. When they met, Dylan asked Was to produce a new version of “God Knows,” an outtake from Oh Mercy. After booking a studio, the two men got to know each other. “We never discussed anything about ideas. Bob never played us any of the songs in advance, we never told him who the musicians were gonna be… ‘God Knows’ was our audition. You should’ve seen the room that day. Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan on electric guitars, David Lindley on slide, Kenny Aronoff on drums, young Jamie Muhoberac on B3, Bob played piano and sang. I played bass. Nobody knew the song. Bob played it for us once then we cut it. The modus operandi was immediately established: listen to Bob and respond sympathetically.”43 At that time, Don Was had relatively little experience with production, which he subsequently reg
retted: “I probably could have been a better producer for Bob but who knows.”143 However, the sound engineer, Ed Cherney, had worked for big names in the music scene, such as Sting, the Rolling Stones, and Michael McDonald, among others.
Cameos and Guest Stars
Under the Red Sky was recorded with rock celebrities, including George Harrison, Slash (Guns N’ Roses), Elton John, the Vaughan Brothers, Robben Ford, Al Kooper, Bruce Hornsby, and David Crosby, a symbol of the California spirit. The number of musicians involved was twenty-two! The producers’ idea was that, at each session, different guests would accompany Dylan. Dylan later regretted this, saying, “To make that record the brothers had a different band in the studio for me every day. Musicians from Bruce Hornsby to Elton John to Slash, the guitar player. Anybody who had some kind of recognizable name in the music industry. I just played along in that situation and did the best I could.”144
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 77
