The English folksinger Nic Jones recorded a version for his album Penguin Eggs (1980). Twelve years later, Dylan adopted the same style in his interpretation, although he plays by strumming the guitar, a style very different from Jones’s. This ballad gives him the opportunity to vary his vocal intonation, which is both powerful and fragile.
Sittin’ On Top Of The World
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 4:31
Musician
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Recording Studio
Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992
Technical Team
Producer: Debbie Gold
Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis
“Sittin’ on Top of the World” is difficult to attribute to any particular composer. The guitarist and member of the Mississippi Sheiks, Walter Vinson, claimed to have composed this folk-blues song one morning after a party in Greenwood, Mississippi. However, on their album recorded for the Okeh label in 1930, only Bo Carter and Walter Jacobs are credited as composers. A 1920s song composed by Ray Henderson, Sam Lewis, and Joe Young and later popularized by Al Jolson has a very similar title, “I’m Sitting on Top of the World.”
Since the time of the Mississippi Sheiks and Charlie Patton, this folk-blues song has become one of the great standards of American popular music. Dozens of artists, from Howlin’ Wolf to Ray Charles, Chet Atkins, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Doc Watson, and Jack White—and, of course, Bob Dylan—have included it in their repertoire. Since the lyrics were little changed over time, the theme remained the same: the confessions of a man whose mistress left him and whose daily work is hard; he is worried, but sitting on the top of the world.
Production
Bob Dylan had definitely listened to the Mississippi Sheiks and Howlin’ Wolf before recording his version of “Sittin’ on Top of the World.” Thirty years earlier, Dylan was involved in a recording session for Victoria Spivey’s version with Big Joe Williams, for which he contributed harmonica and backup vocals (Three Kings and the Queen, 1962). This is a version more energetic than the one found on Good As I Been to You, with a more lively harmonica part. Alone on acoustic guitar, Dylan recorded the tune at his home studio. His version is more serene, more lamenting and painful. His harmonica part (in A) has the same force as his voice, full of emotion. Since Dylan first discovered Robert Johnson during his years of apprenticeship, the blues has been one of the musical expressions that he reproduces best.
DYLAN COVERS
Dylan covered two other titles by the Mississippi Sheiks, including “World Gone Wrong,” which he used for his 1993 album of the same name.
Little Maggie
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 2:55
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“Little Maggie” is a traditional song from the heart of the bluegrass tradition. Little Maggie gives her boyfriend a hard time. With a glass in her hand she is always courting other men. But she is more attractive than ever (“Just to see them two blue eyes, / Shinin’ like some diamonds / Like some diamonds in the sky”), even though there can be no future for the couple (“And to know that you’ll never be mine”).
The ballad was written in 1929 by the duo Grayson and Whitter. “Little Maggie” allows banjo and violin players to give outstanding performances. Dylan’s version is rather nervous and very bluesy. He accompanies himself on acoustic guitar, creating a song very different from the Kingston Trio’s or the Stanley Brothers’ version. His performance, both vocal and on guitar, is excellent. He may have been inspired by Tom Paley’s 1953 album Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. In 1958, Paley, along with John Cohen and Mike Seeger, founded the New Lost City Ramblers.
COVERS
Robert Plant covered “Little Maggie” in a different style for his tenth solo album, Lullaby and… the Ceaseless Roar, released in 2014.
Hard Times
Stephen Foster / 2:55
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1864) was from Pennsylvania and is known as the father of American music. He wrote many songs about the Southern states, which he visited only once—for his honeymoon. Among the best known are “Oh! Susanna” and “Swanee River.” “Hard Times” (or “Hard Times Come Again No More”) is also a well-known work in Foster’s repertoire. Written in 1854 and published the following year, it was recorded for the first time on a wax cylinder by the Edison Manufacturing Company in 1905. Many artists, including Emmylou Harris, Bruce Springsteen, and Johnny Cash, have since covered the song.
Dylan was sensitive to the message of the song, encapsulated by the lines, “The sigh of the weary / Hard times, hard times, come again no more.” His vocal is deep, and his singing is plaintive. It is surprising that an artist so famous for so many years can express so much suffering in his interpretation.
Step It Up And Go
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 2:58
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“Step It Up and Go” is a variant of “Bottle It Up and Go,” written by Charlie Burse and recorded by the Picaninny Jug Band in 1932, and then two years later by the Memphis Jug Band and other groups. In 1937, blues harmonica player John Lee Curtis, known as “Sonny Boy” Williamson, accompanied by Big Joe Williams and Robert Nighthawk on guitar, also recorded a version as “Got the Bottle Up and Go” for the Bluebird label. In 1939, Delta bluesman Tommy McClennan released his version with the title “Bottle It Up and Go.” This song has since been performed and recorded by numerous artists, including Blind Boy Fuller and Leadbelly (1940), the duo Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (1942), B. B. King (1952), and John Lee Hooker (1959), among others.
The words of the main character of the song follow the long tradition of the blues. The narrator’s girlfriend, Ball, is not the type to do nothing and to be pushed around (“Give a little bit, she took it all”). What is she doing behind the closed doors of her room with the curtains pulled down? “Front door shut, back door too / Blinds pulled down, whatcha gonna do?”
Dylan used the boogie-woogie style for his acoustic version of “Step It Up and Go,” an interpretation quite similar to Blind Boy Fuller’s. Once again, Dylan’s metronomic rhythm is as regular as on his first albums. It seems he played on a Martin 12-string, the superb D-35 of the 1970s.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
This blues song is packed with humorous lyrics full of sexual innuendos. “Make a livin’ by puttin’ on airs” can suggest someone “earning his living by playing the flirt.”
Tomorrow Night
Sam Coslow / Will Grosz / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 3:43
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“Tomorrow Night” was written by Sam Coslow and Will Grosz, singer and pianist, respectively. The song became a hit in 1939 with a version by the conductor Horace Heidt. However, it is bluesman Lonnie Johnson who made the song a crossover hit in 1948 for the label King Records, started by Syd Nathan in Cincinnati. Johnson’s version peaked at number 1 on the R&B charts for seven nonconsecutive weeks and number 19 on the pop charts. “Tomorrow Night” has inspired a long list of performers, including Elvis Presley in 1954. It is a beautiful love story. “Your lips are so tender,” the narrator says to the heroine, “your heart is beating fast.”
Dylan followed in the footsteps of Lonnie Johnson to give a performance full of feeling. This time Dylan is a crooner and infuses the song with romance, making it one of the successes of the album. His voice is relaxed, his guitar played with grace, and he delivers an excellent performance on harmonica (in F) in this feel-good piece.
Arthur McBride
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 6:22
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
This Irish folk song, composed in the seventeenth century, evokes the “Glorious Revolution” that shook England from 1688 to 1689. It put an end to the religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants and established a parliamentary monarchy.
“Arthur McBride” is a pacifist or anti-enlisting song. While McBride and his cousin, two Irishmen, are walking on the shore, they are approached by three Englishmen who want them to enlist. McBride tells them, “I wouldn’t be proud of your clothes,” indicating that he has no intention of enlisting and fighting with them. The tone rises between the protagonists, who end up throwing swords and a drum into the sea. The most famous versions of this song are credited to the Irish folk band Planxty, who released their first solo album in 1973, and to the Irish folksinger Paul Brady (live version, 1977).
For a good cause, Dylan picks up his pilgrim’s staff. From the first notes on his guitar, he takes us some thirty years back to the mood of The Times They Are A-Changin’ and Another Side of Bob Dylan. His voice is less sententious than in the past, probably because of the weight of experience. But Dylan has amazing charisma, and he definitely holds the attention of his listeners, even if the intonation of his voice is more nasal than before.
You’re Gonna Quit Me
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 2:48
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“You’re Gonna Quit Me” is a folk-blues song immortalized by Blind Blake in 1927 for Paramount Records. Mance Lipscomb covered it in 1960 for the album Texas Sharecropper and Songster on Arhoolie Records. Both were brilliant guitarists who played both blues ballads and gospel and, in a style of ragtime guitar (finger-picking), conferred sensuality on their interpretations. The song tells the story of a man whose luck seems forever gone. He is sentenced to six months in a chain gang. “Jailhouse ain’t no plaything,” sings Dylan. He took the title of this, his twenty-eighth album, from a line in this song: “You’re gonna quit me, baby / Good as I been to you, Lawd Lawd.”
Dylan delivers a splendid interpretation. He plays and sings clearly and with serenity, and sounds happy. The difference is striking when compared with his first blues song, “You’re No Good” (Bob Dylan, 1962), sung with a rushed intonation in his voice.
Diamond Joe
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 3:17
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
There are two versions of “Diamond Joe.” The origin of the first version is unknown, although the narrator might be calling a steamboat operator: “Diamond Joe, come and get me.” There are two superb recordings, one by Georgia Crackers (1927), the other by Charlie Butler (1937). The second version, which has nothing in common with the first, has as a central character a farmworker who complains about the treatment he receives at the hands of a landowner named Diamond Joe. Dylan added this version to his repertoire for Good As I Been to You. The song might have been written by Cisco Houston in the 1950s and was covered by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.
Dylan gives a wonderful interpretation of “Diamond Joe.” He repeated it for the film Masked and Anonymous, Co-written by Dylan and Larry Charles (2003), in which we see Dylan playing the song with a band.
COVER
A year before Dylan’s version of “Diamond Joe,” the bluegrass singer and violinist Laurie Lewis recorded a version of “Diamond Joe” (with the Grant Street Band) for the album Singin’ My Troubles Away (1990).
Froggie Went A Courtin’
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 6:23
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“Froggie Went a Courtin’” dates back to the mid-sixteenth century under the title “The Complaynt of Scotland.” In 1580, it was listed by Edward White as “A Moste Strange Weddinge of the Frogge and the Mowse.” Whether of Scottish or English origin, this folk song mocked Queen Elizabeth I of England, who had a curious habit of calling her ministers or people she met by animal names.
The British historian and musicologist David Highland has collected some 170 verses of “Froggie Went a Courtin’.” The story, however, can be summarized in a few words. A frog with a sword and a pistol in his belt is madly in love with the lovely Miss Mouse and would like to marry her. The young mouse is willing to accept, but must ask permission of her uncle Rat. Once asked, Uncle Rat runs into town to buy his niece a wedding gown. The wedding feast will take place in a hollow tree, and the guests include a flying moth, a june bug, a bumblebee, a cow, a black tick, a black snake, and an old gray cat.
In all likelihood, this sweet nursery rhyme crossed the Atlantic with the children of British settlers and flourished in the New World. In 1955, it appears in an episode of the Tom and Jerry cartoon “Pecos Pest.” Many performers, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Tex Ritter, Mike Oldfield, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Bruce Springsteen, have recorded the song.
Dylan, thus, concluded his twenty-eighth LP with a children’s nursery rhyme. The interpretation is not a problem. Voice and guitar match perfectly in this farce that would have pleased Jean de La Fontaine, who wrote many fables about animals. “Froggie Went a Courtin’” is another example of Dylan’s eclecticism. Louis Menand, journalist at the New Yorker, rightly pointed to Dylan’s performance as proof of the words of the Irish playwright William Butler Yeats, who said, “We can refute Hegel, but not the Saint or the Song of Sixpence.”
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Dylan used the melody of this children’s nursery rhyme for “Apple Suckling Tree” (The Basement Tapes).
The Bromberg Sessions and Good As I Been to You Outtakes
In early June 1992, Dylan and his friend David Bromberg recorded thirty songs with a bluegrass spirit for a new album. From these sessions, recorded at Chicago’s Acme Recording Studio, no records were made because Dylan was disappointed with Bromberg’s mix. He abandoned the project shortly afterward. It is not until the release of The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare & Unreleased 1989–2006 in 2008 that some of the songs from these sessions, known as the Bromberg Sessions, became known. Two months later, Dylan recorded new songs, completely different in style, at his home in Malibu. These were almost all used for his twenty-eighth album, Good As I Been to You; a few are outtakes.
You Belong To Me
Pee Wee King / Redd Stewart / Chilton Price / 3:09
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan / Album: Original soundtrack to Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone / Date of Release: August 23, 1994
“You Belong to Me” is a romantic pop song written by three famous names in country music of the 1950s, Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, and Chilton Price. Since the recording by Sue Thompson in 1952, this ballad was soon covered by other artists, including Patti Page and, especially, Jo Stafford, both in 1952. Stafford’s version became a major hit
, topping the charts in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Forty years after Stafford, Dylan recorded his version of “You Belong to Me.” The guitar and vocals are absolutely stunning. Dylan brilliantly masters the song. It is regrettable that it was left off the album Good As I Been to You. Michael Bublé recorded a cover very similar in spirit for his 2002 album Dream. Only two years later, “You Belong to Me” appeared on the soundtrack to the 1994 film Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone. Other songs on the Soundtrack included “Waiting for the Miracle” by Leonard Cohen and “Sweet Jane” by Lou Reed.
Miss The Mississippi
Bill Halley / 3:22
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; David Bromberg: guitar; Glen Lowe: guitar; Dick Fegy: fiddle, mandolin (?); Jeff Wisor: fiddle, mandolin (?); Christopher Cameron: keyboards; Peter Ecklund: trumpet; John Firmin: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Curtis Linberg: trombone; Robert Amiot: bass; Richard Crooks: drums / Recording Studio: Acme Recording Studio, Chicago: June 3–5, 1992 / Producer: David Bromberg / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare & Unreleased 1989–2006 (CD 2) / Date of Release: October 6, 2008
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 80
