Bob Dylan All the Songs
Page 82
Stack A Lee
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 3:51
Musician
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Recording Studio
Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu: May 1993
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Dylan
Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Lyrics
“Stack a Lee” is another folk song inspired by the criminal history of the late nineteenth century in the United States. The song recounts the story of Lee Shelton, an African-American originally from Texas who worked as coachman in St. Louis. In reality, most of his income came from gambling and other immoral activities. In 1897, Shelton was charged, tried, and convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for killing a man with whom he had a fight in a bar. He was prematurely released in 1909, after receiving a pardon from the governor of Missouri. He returned to prison the following year for killing the owner of a house he was robbing. He was pardoned again in February 1912 but died of tuberculosis in the hospital’s prison. In St. Louis, Lee Shelton was nicknamed “Stack Lee” or “Stagger Lee,” which explains the different titles of the song. In 1925, Ma Rainey (with Louis Armstrong on cornet) recorded “Stack O’ Lee Blues,” followed by Duke Ellington and Frank Hutchison in 1927, and by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928. Woody Guthrie, Lloyd Price, the Grateful Dead, James Brown, and dozens of other performers have covered the song.
Production
The reason Shelton fought with and then murdered a man in the red-light district of St. Louis on a night in December 1895 varies from version to version of the song. Dylan’s version is based on a dispute involving a Stetson hat. Dylan picked up the idea from John Smith Hurt, known as Mississippi John Hurt, but the similarity ends there. Mississippi John Hurt played guitar by flatpicking, while Dylan played by strumming. In the liner notes to World Gone Wrong, the songwriter says that his inspiration came from bluesman Frank Hutchison’s version. “Stack a Lee” is one of the only songs on the album where Dylan respected the original arrangements, even playing, like Hutchison, harmonica in C.
Two Soldiers
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 5:45
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: May 1993 / Producer: Bob Dylan / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
In the World Gone Wrong liner notes, Dylan says he was introduced to “Two Soldiers,” “a battle song extraordinaire” by his friend Jerry Garcia. “Two Soldiers” is a popular English ballad that was brought over to the New World by settlers—all the way to Arkansas in the Deep South. The song was later used to evoke the horrors of the American Civil War. Consequently, it was also known as “The Last Fierce Charge,” as recorded by country musician Carl T. Sprague, sometimes called the original singing cowboy. In 1937, ethnomusicologists Alan and Elizabeth Lomax did a recording of Willard Johnson (later known as Uncle Willie), titled “Two Soldiers.” Mike Seeger’s adaptation for his eponymous album in 1964 was based on Lomax’s version, which later inspired the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band (Ragged but Right, 1987/2010), David Grisman (Garcia/Grisman, 1991), and finally Dylan, who reconnected with this piece through the protest songs of his early days. Dylan’s strength is to tell the story and capture our attention using the intonation of his voice. Note the slight saturation in some passages, especially at 3:49.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
“The Last Fierce Charge” may refer to the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg (December 11–15, 1862), in which the Confederate army, commanded by Robert E. Lee, triumphed over the Army of the Potomac under Ambrose Burnside.
Jack-A-Roe
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 4:56
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: May 1993 Producer: Bob Dylan / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“Jack-a-Roe” is known in Anglo-Saxon countries under different titles, such as “Jack Monroe,” “Jack Went A-Sailing,” and “The Love of Polly and Jack Monroe.” This traditional song, certainly of English origin, is one of the ballads listed by Cecil Sharp in his famous and valuable book English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, published in 1917. “Jack-a-Roe” recounts the tale of a wealthy merchant’s daughter in London who has all the men at her feet, but only has eyes for Jack the sailor, dubbed “Jack-a-Roe.” This song inspired some beautiful adaptations among folksingers, including Tom Paley and Joan Baez. The Grateful Dead also included it in their repertoire (and on the live acoustic double album Reckoning, 1981).
The problem with “Jack-a-Roe” comes from the sound input. This time there is a weakness in Dylan’s vocal. When he sings the lowest notes, he is hard to understand. His guitar playing is perplexing. While there are some “frizzed” strings (3:43), the emotion comes through clearly. Nevertheless, he should have chosen a better take.
Lone Pilgrim
B. F. White / Adger M. Pace / 2:44
Musician
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Recording Studio
Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: May 1993
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Dylan
Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Lyrics
The lone pilgrim in the song is Joseph Thomas (1791–1835), known for preaching in a simple white cassock in eastern Mississippi until he died of smallpox. A few years later, a preacher named Elder John Ellis visited Thomas’s grave in Johnsonburg, New Jersey, and composed a poem that became a song. The music originates in an old Scottish ballad, “The Braes O’ Ballquhidder,” based on a Gaelic song called “Brochun Buirn.” The song was adapted by B. F. White, known for his compilations of songs and melodies in a book first published in 1844 under the title The Sacred Harp. As with most traditional songs, numerous artists have covered “Lone Pilgrim.” One—or rather two—of the most famous interpretations are certainly by Doc Watson in the early 1960s: first with the Watson Family, and then solo at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village.
Production
The last track of the album, “Lone Pilgrim” is another great, solemn, and respectful interpretation, close to that of Doc Watson. In the second verse, Dylan sings, “But calm is my feeling, at rest is my soul / The tears are all wiped from my eyes.” But unlike Watson, who adopts a mild intonation, Dylan’s vocal performance is intimate, almost like he’s telling a secret. He has probably felt deeply the words of this beautiful ballad and he expressed them with his heart. With superb guitar playing and subtle arrangements, he concludes his final foray into tradition—a foray started a year earlier with Good As I Been to You.
World Gone Wrong Outtakes
Several recordings were excluded from the track listing of the album World Gone Wrong: “32-20 Blues,” “Mary and the Soldier,” “Twenty-One Years,” “Hello Stranger,” and “Goodnight My Love.” Only two outtakes were officially released on The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare & Unreleased 1989–2006: “32-20 Blues,” another tribute to Robert Johnson, and “Mary and the Soldier,” a ballad in the purest Irish folk tradition.
32-20 Blues
Robert Johnson / 3:06
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: May 1993 / Producer: Bob Dylan / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare & Unreleased 1989–2006 (CD 2) / Date of Release: October 6, 2008
Robert Johnson, a Delta blues singer and guitarist from Mississippi, included “32-20 Blues” in his repertoire. Johnson allegedly signed a pact with the devil in exchange for his talent and was poisoned by a jealous husband. This diabolical pact and his premature death are the stuff of legend, but are possible, nonetheless. What is certain is that Johnson died at the age of twenty-seven, was elevated to the rank of cursed artist, and, even more
, was praised for his vision of the blues by an entire generation, from Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton to Bob Dylan.
Recorded by Johnson in 1936, “32-20 Blues” is partially based on the Skip James song “22-20 Blues,” released in 1931. The title refers to the 32-20 caliber cartridge of the 1873 Winchester rifle, known as the the gun that won the West, but which was also used for various revolvers. Compared to Johnson’s version, Dylan’s is a little too reserved. There is less emotion than in other songs on World Gone Wrong. That may explain the reason he left it off the album. However, “32-20 Blues” is very well made. Note Greg Calbi’s excellent mastering.
Mary And The Soldier
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 4:23
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: May 1993 / Producer: Bob Dylan / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volume 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare & Unreleased 1989–2006 (CD 2) / Date of Release: October 6, 2008
“Mary and the Soldier,” also known as “The Gallant Soldier,” “The Hieland Sodger,” and “The Highland Soldier,” is an Irish ballad telling the tale of a young girl in love who has decided to run away from her parents’ home and go to war with her gallant soldier. It is a story very similar to “Canadee-I-O,” a ballad recorded by Dylan for his previous LP, Good As I Been to You. Before Dylan, the Irish folksinger Paul Brady sang a very moving version of “Mary and the Soldier.” Dylan’s version contains a magnificent guitar part. He exudes deep emotion in his singing, but this song is not as strong as others retained for the album World Gone Wrong.
Time
Out Of
Mind
Love Sick
Dirt Road Blues
Standing In The Doorway
Million Miles
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
‘Til I Fell In Love With You
Not Dark Yet
Cold Irons Bound
Make You Feel My Love
Can’t Wait
Highlands
THE OUTTAKES
Mississippi
Red River Shore
Dreamin’ Of You
Marchin’ To The City
DATE OF RELEASE
September 27, 1997 (or September 30, according to various documents)
on Columbia Records
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA CK 68556 [CD] / C2 68556 [LP])
Time Out of Mind:
Strolling in the Delta
The Album
Released on September 27, 1997, Time Out of Mind marked the comeback of the songwriter after seven years when he did not release any original material. His previous album, Under the Red Sky, dates back to September 1990. Between these two albums, Dylan recorded two albums of covers, Good As I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993), as well as releasing a recording of his appearance on MTV’s Unplugged (1995), various compilations, and the first volume of the bootleg series, The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991. These releases kept the flame alive, but some feared a lack of inspiration from the most brilliant songwriter who, at fifty-six, had been writing, composing, and singing for thirty-five years.
Like a Hollywood comeback, Dylan unexpectedly released a remarkable album, which reunited him with his former collaborator Daniel Lanois, eight years after the two had worked together on Oh Mercy. Dylan wrote the songs for Time Out of Mind on his farm in Minnesota, during a lonely and snowy winter. The album is one of his major works. In 1997, he said to Robert Hilburn, “I had written these songs, but… I forgot about recording for a while. I didn’t feel like I wanted to put forth the effort to record anything.”20
Musically, the album is a return to the blues, strolling from the Mississippi River Delta to the Louisiana bayous. But not only does the songwriter take inspiration from his glorious predecessors, Charley Patton and Slim Harpo, but in this album the blues is revisited through new technology, one perfectly controlled by the inimitable production work of Daniel Lanois, who recalls, “I listened to a lot of old records Bob recommended… Charley Patton records, dusty old rock ’n’ roll records really, blues records. And Tony Mangurian and I played along to those records, and then I built loops of what Tony and I did, and then abandoned these sources; which is a hip-hop technique. And then I brought those loops to Bob… [a]nd we built a lot of demos around them.”150
A Timeless Odyssey
On a poetic level, Time Out of Mind also marks a pinnacle of Dylan’s career. In this conceptual work, listeners follow the quest of a single character—who might be Dylan himself. Throughout the eleven songs, the passing of time, our inexorable mortality, old age, and disappointed love affairs and betrayals are the recurring themes. The odyssey begins with “Love Sick,” the hero’s mission to find a nameless former lover, and ends with “Highlands,” the possible symbol of what comes after death, darkness for some and heaven for others. An odyssey that perhaps only exists in the mind of the narrator. “Time out of mind,” to borrow the title of the album, is a fantasy. Between these two songs, there is the masterpiece “Not Dark Yet,” which might well be the most moving song ever written about old age and approaching death. The song proved prophetic, since shortly after it was recorded, Dylan was hospitalized with a near-fatal histoplasmosis that worried relatives and fans.
Time Out of Mind revives the blues-rock atmosphere of Highway 61 Revisited (1965) and the introspective approach of Blood on the Tracks (1975). The new LP received mostly positive reviews from the critics and the public. The album was a commercial success, spending twenty-nine weeks on the charts and soon becoming certified platinum in the United States. It experienced similar success in many European countries, including the United Kingdom, France, and others. Another illustration of the impact of his thirtieth solo studio album is that it won three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Best Contemporary Folk Album, and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “Cold Irons Bound.” Finally, it was ranked number 410 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
The Album Cover
The front cover photo shows Dylan holding an acoustic guitar and sitting in the middle of the studio control room, probably Criteria Recording Studios in Miami. The contrast is striking. The idea of an old bluesman aboard a spacecraft to an intergalactic destination comes to mind. On the back cover there is a close-up photo of the freshly shaved songwriter, staring into the lens. On the inside cover, he is sitting at a table smiling. On the CD itself is a reproduction of Columbia Records’ Viva-Tonal label. The photography is credited to Daniel Lanois, Mark Seliger (Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Kurt Cobain), and Susie Q. The art direction is by Geoff Gans, who also worked with Paul Simon and John Fogerty as well as on The Bootleg Series Volume 11: Bob Dylan and the Band: The Basement Tapes Complete (2014).
The Recording
In 1996, Dylan had not planned to record the songs he wrote on his farm in Minnesota, some five or six years earlier. He returned to them and contacted Daniel Lanois, who had produced Oh Mercy. Lanois recalled, “We got together in New York. He just had a stack of lyrics he read me and said: ‘What do you think, Daniel, do we have a record?’ I could hear a record even though I hadn’t heard a note. A lot of philosophical exchanges took place then, about what kind of sound Bob loved.”151
For the first time in his career, Dylan recorded demos before the completion of the actual album. The first sessions were held in the fall of 1996. Lanois shared with his sound engineer, Mark Howard, El Teatro Studios in Oxnard, California. This was an old theater that he had converted into a recording studio. Every day, the songwriter brought old blues records. Howard recalls, “So we’d talk about them being loop-based, and playing on top of them. We brought in Tony Mangurian, who’s a hip-hop drummer.”139
The result of these early demos was very promising. Lanois flew to New York City to rework them. Dylan appreciated the results, and the recording sessions resumed in Oxnard. But the completion of
the recordings took place at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami, because Dylan thought that Oxnard was too close to his home and he preferred to keep some distance between home and work. Howard recalls, “Bob says, ‘I can’t work this close to home. I wanna do it in Miami.’ The furthest point away, right? So I threw most of the gear in the truck and I drove from LA to Miami to set up at the Criteria studio.” To the surprise of all, everyone fell in line with the decision, even if Criteria did not have the desired acoustics. Howard managed to improve them. Lanois hired the musicians, and Dylan asked some acquaintances to perform. The objective was to record live, but the situation quickly became complicated. Howard recalls, “There would come a point where there were like 15 people playing in that room at Criteria at the same time. Three drummers, five guitar players, pedal steel, organ, piano… Dan had put together a band, but then Dylan had put out the call for these people like Jim Keltner, Jim Dickinson, Augie Meyers, Duke Robillard, Cindy Cashdollar. Dylan brought in all these Nashville people.”139 During the sessions, the songwriter settled in a corner of the studio, surrounded by all these musicians who were somewhat disconcerted. Dylan insisted on recording differently. Jim Dickinson described the process this way: “Sometimes, when it was all going on, it would be chaotic, for an hour or more. But then there would be this period of clarity, just five to eight minutes of absolute clarity, where everybody knew we were getting it.”152