Bob Dylan All the Songs
Page 86
“High Water (For Charley Patton)” is based on the 1927 Mississippi flood, which led to the destruction of nearly 150 dams and flooded about 27,000 square miles of land, killing over two hundred people and displacing tens of thousands of others. This disaster inspired blues singers from the second half of the 1920s, ranging from Memphis Minnie (“When the Levee Breaks”), to Blind Lemon Jefferson (“Rising High Water Blues”), Big Bill Broonzy (“Southern Flood Blues”), and Lonnie Johnson (“Broken Levee Blues”). Dylan takes up this theme, probably making a parallel with the Great Flood in Genesis. Dylan’s lyrics contain an allusion to the Second Letter of Paul to Timothy (4:2) (“I’m preachin’ the word of God”) and, indeed, show that humanity is nothing compared to the elements (“You’ll never be greater than yourself”).
Production
For Love and Theft, Dylan initially “wanted to face the corner of the room and sing into it, kind of like that Robert Johnson album cover.”161 However, after a few attempts he quickly abandoned the whole idea, except for two songs, “High Water (For Charley Patton)” and “Po’ Boy.” The instrumental arrangements of this country-rock song highlight the two banjo parts provided by Larry Campbell and the rhythm section on accordion by Augie Meyers. Percussion added by David Kemper (timpani, shaker, and tambourine overdubs) are also prominent. Finally, in each verse, there is an unidentified high-pitched voice far back in the mix. Dylan’s splendid vocals make “High Water (For Charley Patton)” one of the best pieces on the album. The Bootleg Series Volume 8 includes a live version.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
In the second verse, Dylan mentions Bertha Mason. This could be Charley Patton’s wife, Bertha Lee. Bertha Mason is also a character in Jane Austen’s novel Jane Eyre. She is Edward Rochester’s first wife, who suffers from dementia.
Moonlight
Bob Dylan / 3:23
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, piano; Larry Campbell: guitar; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Tony Garnier: upright bass; David Kemper: drums / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
“Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?” was drawn from the prisoner’s song “Meet Me by the Moonlight,” recorded by the Carter Family in 1928. The rest of the song is 100 percent Dylan. The narrator in the song sings, “I’m preachin’ peace and harmony” in a strange world, or “The clouds are turnin’ crimson,” or “Purple blossoms soft as snow.”
Sound engineer Chris Shaw told Damien Love for Uncut, “It’s really gorgeous, and I think the take that’s on the record is the second take, the whole thing is completely live, vocals and all, not a single overdub, no editing, it all just flowed together at once, and it was a really beautiful moment.”161 Only one tiny problem occurred in the take—when Dylan made a mistake in the line “The branches cast their shadows over stone.” He sang stadows instead of shadows at 1:36. The rest of the take was excellent, and he wanted to keep the rough mix. Shaw made a small edit. He found a shh sound from another word on Dylan’s vocal track, cut the st sound of stadows, and replaced it to create shadow without leaving a trace.
Honest With Me
Bob Dylan / 5:49
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Larry Campbell: guitar; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Tony Garnier: bass; David Kemper: drums; Clay Meyers: bongos / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
“Honest with Me” in some ways is reminiscent of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” (Highway 61 Revisited). The narrator finds himself “stranded in the city that never sleeps / Some of these women they just give me the creeps.” Over the verses, however, the plot evolves. The overall mood is still strange, even horrific, but the main character seems to have some feelings for a woman, who, however, cares only for “tossin’ a baseball bat in the air.” There is only one solution: take the Southern Pacific leaving at nine forty-five.
Except for the introduction, which varies between rock and disco, “Honest with Me” is an authentic blues-rock song. Dylan’s interpretation is wild; he sings with a harsh and hoarse tone of voice. The musicians are not left out. Charlie Sexton’s slide guitar supports every phrase with a riff that would have been a credit to Elmore James, and the rhythm section is incredibly stong. Tony Garnier is a great bass player, whether on upright bass or electric bass. This is also the second appearance of Clay Meyers on bongos.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
The line “I’m not sorry for nothin’ I’ve done / I’m glad I fought—I only wish we’d won” in “Honest with Me” is drawn from the Confederate song titled “I’m a Good Old Rebel.”
Po’ Boy
Bob Dylan / 3:06
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Larry Campbell: guitar; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: piano (?); Tony Garnier: upright bass; David Kemper: drums / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
Like so many of Dylan’s songs, the text of “Po’ Boy” is littered with various references. The title refers to “Poor Boy Blues,” which was sung by the pioneers of the genre from Gus Cannon to Mississippi John Hurt, Bukka White, and Howlin’ Wolf. The line “Calls down to room service, says send up a room” is taken from Room Service (1938), a small comic masterpiece directed by William A. Seiter and starring the Marx Brothers. Two characters from Shakespeare also appear in this unusual song: Othello, the Venetian general, and his young wife, Desdemona.
Dylan finds his style for singing “Po’ Boy” between vaudeville and swing jazz. It is the second song after “High Water (For Charley Patton)” in which his microphone faces a corner of the studio. The interpretation is excellent. Dylan never stops mixing styles from the beginning of the album. The piece is entirely acoustic, including two exquisite and subtle guitar parts by Sexton and Campbell, and also Garnier’s upright bass, which he plays with a bow at the end of the song. A piano is heard far into the mix, surely played by Augie Meyers. “Po’ Boy” is a beautiful ballad in a rather surprising style, like many others on Love and Theft.
Cry A While
Bob Dylan / 5:05
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Larry Campbell: guitar; Charlie Sexton: dobro (?); Augie Meyers: piano (?); Tony Garnier: bass; David Kemper: drums / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
Here is another nice tribute to the biggest name in blues. The penultimate line, “I might need a good lawyer, could be your funeral, my trial,” is obviously a nod to the masterful “Your Funeral and My Trial,” recorded in 1958 by Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller) with Willie Dixon and Otis Spann, an iconic song for Chess Records and the Chicago blues in general. Similarly, “Feel like a fighting rooster—feel better than I ever felt” is quoted directly from “Dope Head Blues,” recorded by Victoria Spivey (with Lonnie Johnson, 1927).
Dylan decided to innovate on this album, and “Cry a While” is no exception to the rule of alternating ternary and binary measures for this classic blues song. But the effect is happy, and the musicians once again give a quality performance. Note that one of the guitarists plays a dobro (Sexton?).
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
In this tribute to the biggest name in blues, Don Pasquale makes an odd appearance. He is the title character in the three-act comic opera of the same name by Gaetano Donizetti.
Sugar Baby
Bob Dylan / 6:41
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Larry Campbell: guitar
Charlie Sexton: guitar
Augie Meyers: keyboards, accordion
Tony Garnier: upright bass
Recording Studio
Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001
Technical Team
Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan)
Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Lyrics
The title of the last track, “Sugar Baby,” is drawn from an old recording by Moran Lee “Dock” Boggs, a white five-string banjo player and bluesman from the Appalachian Mountains. The line “Look up, look up—seek your Maker—’fore Gabriel blows his horn” is taken from the folk song “The Lonesome Road,” a ballad by lyricist Gene Austin with music by Nathaniel Shilkret, performed by Austin in 1927 and later covered by Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke, and Bing Crosby.
“The Lonesome Road” is one of those songs from Tin Pan Alley, influenced by the folk songs and blues of the South, that emerged with the development of radio all over the United States. Apparently, this atmosphere attracted Dylan for the conclusion of Love and Theft.
The narrator talks with mixed feelings about a woman who haunts him. The “baby” in question has broken many a heart, including the narrator’s, and has the rare ability of “tearing the world apart.” But love is stronger than everything else.
Production
“Sugar Baby” is an amazing ballad and probably the most original song on the album. The arrangement, with fewer instruments and an ethereal atmosphere, is reminiscent of Daniel Lanois’s approach. The acoustic guitar added to the chorus of a flanger, a reverberated electric guitar with a pronounced vibrato, an upright bass, an accordion, and background keyboards are enough to make the song one of the gems of Love and Theft—not to mention Dylan’s stunning performance. It is also the only song on the album without drums and percussion.
Modern
Times
Thunder On The Mountain
Spirit On The Water
Rollin’ And Tumblin’
When The Deal Goes Down
Someday Baby
Workingman’s Blues #2
Beyond The Horizon
Nettie Moore
The Levee’s Gonna Break
Ain’t Talkin’
DATE OF RELEASE
August 29, 2006
on Columbia Records
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA 82876 87606 2 [CD] / 82876 87606 1 [LP])
Modern Times:
A Return to the Past
The Album
Bob Dylan’s work is marked by artistic trilogies. The first one includes the three standard albums from the counterculture movement of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde. The second is the Christian years, 1979 through 1981, which yielded Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot of Love. Finally, the third at the end of the twentieth century, the so-called trilogy of rebirth, includes Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, and Modern Times. Dylan’s thirty-second studio album, Modern Times still takes its inspiration from African-American music, but with this album he enters the modern age of digital recording.
The album contains numerous references to other music, which resulted in a series of claims of plagiarism. But Dylan does more than just revisit the cultural heritage of the pioneers, as was common in the folk and blues tradition. Even though the sources of his inspiration sometimes seem obvious, he rebuilds and reshapes old styles and references to create original works. This process recurs throughout his career. In Modern Times the references are numerous and clear: Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Merle Haggard, Bing Crosby, and many others. All serve as elements in Dylan’s own creation.
The lyrics of this album are also drawn from various sources. They contains references to biblical texts, which is consistent with Dylan, but also many lyrical lines taken from the work of nineteenth-century poet Henry Timrod, who praised the rebellious life force of the Confederacy. The title of the album refers directly to Charlie Chaplin’s cinematic masterpiece Modern Times. But who cares? Others did it before him, including Al Stewart in 1975 and Jefferson Starship in 1981. Dylan channels the cultural capital at his disposal, transforms it with his own talent, and then sends it back out to the world.
Poetry above All
Dylan’s worldview is always poetic and mystical; he has a genius for creating exacting and evocative images. On this album are some of Dylan’s great works, such as “When the Deal Goes Down,” which probably refers to his conversion to Christianity in the second half of the 1970s, and even “Ain’t Talkin’,” where, as a solitary pilgrim, staff in hand, he walks with a bleeding heart to the edge of the world, seeking answers he will never find—walking into the Garden of Eden, abandoned by the gardener. In 2006 he told Jonathan Lethem, “I wrote these songs in not a meditative state at all, but more like in a trancelike, hypnotic state.”136
Modern Times was released worldwide on August 29, 2006, by Columbia Records. The album was praised as major new work. At the Grammy Awards in 2007 it won two awards: Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best Rock Vocal Performance for the song “Someday Baby.” Rolling Stone and Uncut gave the album five stars—the highest rating—while critic Robert Christgau in Blender said it radiated “the observant calm of old masters who have seen enough life to be ready for anything” and compared Dylan to William Butler Yeats and Henri Matisse.
The public agreed. The album became Dylan’s first number 1 album in the United States since Desire in 1976. It also reached number 1 in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Denmark, and Switzerland. The success was global, except in France where it only reached number 17. With Modern Times, at age sixty-five, Dylan became the oldest artist honored by the charts during his lifetime.
The Album Cover
The cover shows Ted Croner’s 1947 photograph Taxi, New York at Night. Croner was one of the most influential members of the New York School during the 1940s and 1950s. An odd choice for the album, as Dylan told Edna Gundersen of USA Today: “There’s no nostalgia on this record, pining for the past doesn’t interest me.” On the back cover is a portrait of the songwriter taken by Kevin Mazur, who had already provided the back cover of Love and Theft. Similarly, Geoff Gans worked as art director.
The Recording
As he did for Love and Theft, Dylan self-produced the album under the pseudonym Jack Frost. Modern Times was recorded with Dylan’s touring musicians, except Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell, who both left to pursue other projects. The band included Denny Freeman and Stu Kimball on guitar; Donnie Herron on steel guitar, mandolin, and violin; Tony Garnier on bass and cello; and George G. Receli on drums and percussion. Dylan worked once again with sound engineer Chris Shaw, who chose Sony Music Studios in New York City to digitally produce the new LP. The rehearsal sessions were held in late January and early February 2001 at the 1869 Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York. The sessions were extended over the remaining three weeks of February. According to Chris Shaw, the process took a little longer than for Love and Theft: “The studio, recording, for [Dylan] is sort of a necessary evil—I mean, he enjoys it, but he hates the time it takes… He would talk about how immediate it sounds, how raw and vital it sounds… So, we’re always trying to get that sound with modern techniques. Which is always a struggle. And he understands it all, he’s not ignorant of modern technology. He just hates how records sound today. But he has said, ‘I really wanna try doing a record with a microphone.’… But, for him, a recording is just a document of the song at that moment in time.”161
Technical Details
Modern Times is Dylan’s first album using the new technology of recording on computer instead of on tape recorders. According to Chris Shaw, that is the reason “Modern Times sounds so good… it was recorded using this new technology, ProTools, but we used an old desk, old microphones, old pre-amps.”161 During the sessions, Chris Shaw introduced Dylan to brilliant software that could run without interruption and, therefore, record and preserve everything without difficulty. It also permitted editing at a speed heretofore impossible, all the while preserving optimal sound quality.
Thunder On The Mountain
Bob Dylan / 5:55
> Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, piano; Stu Kimball: guitar; Denny Freeman: guitar; Donnie Herron: steel guitar; Tony Garnier: bass; George G. Receli: drums / Recording Studio: Sony Music Studios, New York: February 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
Trying to decipher a Dylan text often requires immersion in the Bible. Thus, “Thunder on the Mountain” could be seen as a metaphor for the Jewish people being led by Moses in Exodus. This “mountain” could be Mount Sinai, where the divine revelation took place, or perhaps “Thunder on the Mountain” is an allusion to the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus spoke to his disciples and the people about his belief in nonviolence. The song may also refer to Dylan’s comeback after his conversion to Christianity (“I been to St. Herman’s church and I’ve said my religious vows”), or perhaps to his divorce from Sara (“She ain’t no angel and neither am I”). In any case, this song contains a lot of derision, especially when the narrator talks of looking for Alicia Keys in Tennessee.