Bob Dylan in America
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6 “Deep on the palms”: “Africa,” in The Complete Works of William Billings, ed. Hans Nathan (Boston, 1977–90), vol. 2, 46–47.
7 “my gift in speaking”: Thomas quoted in P. J. Kernodle, Lives of Christian Ministers (Richmond, 1909), 80.
8 “uncontrollable power”: Joseph Thomas, The Life and Gospel Labors of Joseph Thomas, Minister of the Gospel and Elder in the Christian Church (1812), cited in Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven, Conn., 1989), 79.
9 “purely calculated”: Joseph Thomas, The Pilgrim’s Hymn Book, Consisting of Hymns & Spiritual Songs Designed for the Public and Private Worship of God (1816; Winchester, Va., 1817), vi.
10 “a full and faithful testimony”: Joseph Thomas, The Life, Travels, and Gospel Labors of Eld. Joseph Thomas, More Widely Known as the “White Pilgrim” (New York, 1861), 87.
11 “the sweetest strains”: The Reverend H. B. Hayes quoted in Kernodle, Lives, 82.
12 “bloody whips”; “the poor are rich”: Joseph Thomas, “State of Ohio, Mad River, August 10th, 1817,” in The Life of the Pilgrim Joseph Thomas, Containing an Accurate Account of His Trials, Travels, and Gospel Labours, up to the Present Date (Winchester, Va., 1817), 370–71.
13 “Let me arise”: Joseph Thomas, “The Allurements of the World Forsaken,” in Life, Travels, and Gospel Labors, 164.
14 “eerie and enticing”: Robert Christgau, review of World Gone Wrong, www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name+bobdylan.
15 “exceptional”: Clinton Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: Take Two (London, 2000), 679.
16 “It’s a spooky record”: David Gates, “Dylan Revisited,” Newsweek, Oct. 6, 1997, www.newsweek.com/id/97107.
17 “I think we were”: Interview with Murray Engleheart, Guitar World and Uncut, March 1999, reprinted in Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews, ed. Jonathan Cott (New York, 2006), 405.
CHAPTER NINE: THE MODERN MINSTREL RETURNS
On early blackface minstrelsy, see the book whose title Dylan plainly borrowed, Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (New York, 1993); but also see Dale Cockrell, Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World (New York, 1997), from which Dylan also seems to have borrowed (see the note for p. 291) and which presents a view of minstrelsy somewhat different from Lott’s book. See also Lott’s commentary on “Love and Theft” in the Cambridge Companion volume cited above under general reading.
A comprehensive history of George Wein’s Newport Folk Festival—which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2009—is long overdue. Wein devoted a chapter to the festival in his memoir, written with Nate Chinen, Myself Among Others: A Life in Music (2003; New York, 2004). (Most of the book concerns Wein’s exploits in jazz, including his invention of the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954.) There is also a good deal of information about the festival in Eric Von Schmidt and Jim Rooney’s excellent mixture of memoir and history, Baby, Let Me Follow You Down: The Illustrated Story of the Cambridge Folk Years (1979; Amherst, Mass., 1994).
Dylan’s rock-and-roll performance in 1965—on the final evening bill immediately following the traditional country folksinger Cousin Emmy—has been the subject of endless debate and fascination. So charged was Dylan’s appearance among the folk-song lovers—and especially among the festival’s old guard—that contradictory stories abound, sometimes from the same person. Part of the problem is that music which appeared to some as offensive to certain folk sensibilities in 1965 went on to win acclaim as well as popularity, leading some participants to revise their stories. Pete Seeger, for one, has flatly denied that Dylan’s new style upset him; and he has often claimed, as he does in Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home, that he objected vehemently not to the music but to the excruciating volume and distortion of the sound system. Yet a memo that Seeger wrote to himself at the time tells a different story, of a reaction to Dylan’s new music in 1965 not unlike the traditional Popular Front outrage that Irwin Silber expressed the previous year in Sing Out! magazine, about Dylan’s turn from the political to the personal. “Last week at Newport,” Seeger wrote, “I ran to hide my eyes and ears because I could not bear either the screaming of the crowd nor some of the most destructive music this side of Hell.” See David King Dunaway, How Can I Keep from Singing? The Ballad of Pete Seeger (New York, 2008), 306. George Wein’s memoir affirms that “at the sound of the first amplified chords, a crimson color rose in Pete’s face, and he ran off. The rest of us [on the festival’s official board] were just as shocked and upset … This was a sacrilege, as far as the folk world was concerned” (332–33).
In lieu of any thorough study of Newport, and of Dylan’s performances there, see the two excellent documentary films by Murray Lerner, both available on DVD: Festival! containing general footage from 1963 through 1965; and The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963–1965.
A Face in the Crowd, directed by Elia Kazan, is available on DVD from Warner Home Video.
1 “U.S. go home!”: Clinton Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: Take Two (London, 2000), 258.
2 “ ‘Nigger’ singing with them”: Walt Whitman, “True American Singing,” Brooklyn Star, Jan. 13, 1846.
3 “Faith is the key!”: Bob Dylan, liner notes to John Wesley Harding (1968), bobdylan.com/#/music/john-wesley-harding.
4 “the brilliant, and the warm-blooded”: The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler (New Brunswick, 1953), vol. 1, 278.
5 “COMPLICATED”; “An I got nothin”: Bob Dylan, “For Dave Glover,” in the Newport Folk Festival program, 1963, posted on the site Dylan’s Miscellany, homepage.mac.com/tedgoranson/BeatlesArchives/dylanwritings/Dylan_s_Miscellany/For_Dave_Glover10.html.
6 “hyper Zen”: Ray quoted in liner notes to Koerner, Ray, and Glover, Lots More Blues, Rags, and Hollers (1964).
CHAPTER TEN: BOB DYLAN’S CIVIL WARS
1 “the emissary from a reinvented yesterday”: Jon Pareles, “The Pilgrim’s Progress of Bob Dylan,” New York Times, Aug. 20, 2006.
2 “I had some vague idea”: Melville to Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Jan. 8, 1852, in Herman Melville, Correspondence, ed. Lynn Horth (Evanston, Ill., 1993), 219.
3 “the dark princes”: “(Masked and Anonymous) Screenplay by Sergei Petrov & Rene Fontaine Revised Draft 5/21/02,” 4, collection of the author.
4 “cupidity [and] corruption”: Ibid., 88–89. The omitted speech, spoken to Jack Fate and the others gathered at the caudillo’s deathbed, contains the following lines:
Let me say we no longer have any cause to fear danger from abroad. Our strength and power is well known throughout the civilized world. It is from amongst ourselves, from cupidity, corruption, disappointed ambition, and inordinate thirst for power that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs that we especially have to guard ourselves. Whatever disguises the actors may assume, we have the highest of human trust committed to our care.
Compare this with Jackson’s Farewell Address, delivered in 1837, including the line about disguised actors (emphasis mine):
You have no longer any cause to fear danger from abroad; your strength and power are well known throughout the civilized world, as well as the high and gallant bearing of your sons. It is from within, among yourselves, from cupidity, from corruption, from disappointed ambition, and inordinate thirst for power, that factions will be formed and liberty endangered. It is against such designs, whatever disguise the actors may assume, that you have especially to guard yourselves. You have the highest of human trusts committed to your care.
In Masked and Anonymous, Edmund delivers a rather different version of the speech at the film’s conclusion. It is unclear why the filmmakers decided to drop the Jacksonian original.
5 “masked and anonymous”: Dale Cockrell, Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and Their World (New York, 1997), 122.
6 “just be another song”: Television press confe
rence, KQED (San Francisco), Dec. 3, 1965, in Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews, ed. Jonathan Cott (New York, 2006), 65.
7 “like a great Bob Dylan song”: Charles in Shelley Cameron, “Interview with Larry Charles,” Reel Movie Critic.com, July 2003, www.reelmoviecritic.com/20035q/id1996.htm.
8 “for they were employed”: 1 Chronicles 9:33.
9 “Gratitude”: Christopher Ricks, Inaugural Lecture as Professor of Poetry, University of Oxford, Times Literary Supplement, Feb. 25, 2005, 13.
10 “death, God and the universe”: Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One (New York, 2004), 81.
11 “He sang his songs”: Ibid., 14.
12 “Just keep playing”: Levon Helm with Stephen Davis, This Wheel’s on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of the Band (New York, 1993), 134.
13 “back betty”: Bob Dylan, Tarantula (New York, 1971), 12.
14 “The world”; “if you were born”: Dylan, Chronicles, 28–29.
15 “It was said”: Ibid., 30.
16 “How much did I know”: Ibid., 75–76.
17 “A political poem”: Ibid., 38.
18 “cast off gloomy habits”: Ibid., 56.
19 “tied to the circumstances”: Ibid., 76.
20 “even in a simple, melodic”; “to change over”: Ibid., 83.
21 “After a while”: Ibid., 85.
22 “Back there, America”: Ibid., 86.
23 “one where actions”: Ibid., 235–36.
24 “printing away”: Ibid., 103.
25 “If someone were to ask”: Ibid.
26 “One night”: Ibid., 165.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: DREAMS, SCHEMES, AND THEMES
My thinking in this chapter has been sharpened by Roy Kelly’s challenging article “A Shiny Bed of Lights: Bob Dylan’s Modified Versions,” The Bridge, no. 28 (Winter 2007), 19–68.
1 “a link”: Seeger quoted in David King Dunaway, How Can I Keep from Singing? The Ballad of Pete Seeger (New York, 2008), xii.
2 “information collage”: Jon Pareles, “Plagiarism in Dylan, or a Cultural Collage?” New York Times, July 12, 2003.
3 “possible plagiarism”: Robert Polito, “Bob Dylan: Henry Timrod Revisited,” Poetry Foundation Journal (2006), www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=178703.
4 “immature poets imitate”: T. S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood and Major Early Essays (New York, 1997), 72, originally published in 1920.
5 “The age”: Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One (New York, 2004), 86.
6 “I find the religiosity”: Dylan quoted in Clinton Heylin, Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: Take Two (London, 2000), 719–20.
7 “Thanks everybody!”: Dylan remarks at State Theatre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, March 25, 1992, transcribed as BobTalk on Olof Bjorner’s site, Olof’s Files, www.bjorner.com/DSN12860%20-%201992%20Australian%20Tour.htm#DSN12860.
8 “I had ambitions”: Dylan transcribed from No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, directed by Martin Scorsese (Spitfire Pictures, 2005).
9 “Aw Ratso”: Dylan quoted in Sloman, liner notes to Tell Tale Signs (2008).
10 “it looks like things”: Dylan remarks at Northrop Auditorium, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Nov. 4, 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVfvLEhWmbA.
11 “the fourth part of the day”: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, trans. David Wright (New York, 2008), 113.
DISCOGRAPHY
All but one of Dylan’s albums are available on compact disc and may be downloaded as MP3s on the Internet. Dylan, the Columbia “revenge” album released in 1973, never made it to CD in the United States, although a CD has appeared in Europe under the knowing title Bob Dylan (A Fool Such as I). The album may also be downloaded, if a listener is determined enough to find it. A complete list of the albums, and the lyrics to “George Jackson,” which only appeared as a 45 rpm single, appear at www.bobdylan.com.
There are numerous compilations and tribute albums, the latter consisting mainly of other artists playing Dylan’s songs; Dylan has also appeared on albums paying tribute to the music of others, including Jimmie Rodgers and the Stanley Brothers. My favorite of all the compilations—the one I find most illuminating as well as enjoyable—is a selection of Dylan’s “Christian period” songs, Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan, released by Sony/Columbia in 2003. Featuring major artists such as Shirley Caesar and Aaron Neville, as well as groups such as the Mighty Clouds of Joy, the album also includes an amusing back-and-forth between Dylan and Mavis Staples, preceding their duet performance of “Gonna Change My Way of Thinking.” The album’s excellent liner notes, written in part by Tom Piazza, link each song to a Bible passage, underscoring how Dylan’s engagement with Christianity as well as with American sacred song did not end in the early 1980s and how it continues to this day.
However unfair to artists and their record companies, bootleg recordings, especially of concerts, are now a fact of life. Dylan and Sony/Legacy have responded by issuing an “official” bootleg series, which allows listeners to have the best-possible-quality recordings of some important outtakes and concerts without robbing the creators of compensation. Still, without access to some of the illicit variety, my own work would have been constrained. And so, without endorsing any illegality, I can recommend what I have found to be the best Web site for descriptions and reviews of Dylan bootlegs, www.bobsboots.com.
Bob Dylan in America cites numerous commercial recordings by other artists, some dating back to the 1920s. The following list includes those that loom the largest in the book. Rather than group them together by chapters or relevant themes, I have presented a simple list of titles, arranged alphabetically by the artists’ last names. I have also included a few items not cited, in order to give readers additional leads on various lesser-known genres of American music. In every case, I have endeavored to include in the listings those versions of the songs that are readily available for purchase. When possible, I have also included original recording information. Many, if not most, are now available for downloading as MP3s, either through the usual Internet book and music store sites or through specific labels.
Roy Acuff, “Wait for the Light to Shine,” Old Time Barn Music, LP, Columbia, 1951; The Essential Roy Acuff, CD, Sony/Legacy, 2004.
The Allman Brothers Band, “Statesboro Blues,” At Fillmore East, LP, Capricorn, 1971; CD, 1997.
Barbecue Bob [Robert Hicks], “Barbecue Blues,” 78 rpm, Columbia, 1927, and “Mississippi Heavy Water Blues,” 78 rpm, Columbia, 1927; both on Barbecue Bob [Robert Hicks], Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 1, 25 March 1927 to 13 April 1928, CD, Document, 1994.
Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan, “I Cried for You,” Count Basie/Sarah Vaughan, LP, Blue Note, 1961; CD, 1996.
Dominic Behan, “The Patriot Game,” Songs of the I.R.A. (Irish Republican Army), LP, Riverside, 1957; The Rocky Road to Dublin: The Best of Irish Folk, CD, Castle Music, 2006.
Marc Blitzstein, The Cradle Will Rock, original 1937 cast recording on Marc Blitzstein, Musical Theater Premières, 2 CDs, Pearl, 1998.
Dock Boggs, “Sugar Baby,” 78 rpm, Brunswick, 1927; Dock Boggs, Country Blues: Complete Early Recordings, CD, Revenant, 1998.
Paul Brady, “Arthur McBride and the Sergeant,” Andy Irvine and Paul Brady, LP, Mulligan, 1976; CD, Green Linnet, 1993.
———, “The Lakes of Pontchartrain,” Welcome Here Kind Stranger, LP, Mulligan, 1978; CD, PeeBee, 2009.
David Bromberg, “Dehlia,” David Bromberg, LP, Columbia, 1971; CD, Wounded Bird Records, 2007.
The Brothers Four, “I Am a Roving Gambler,” B.M.O.C. (Best Music On/Off Campus), LP, Columbia, 1961; The Brothers Four, Greatest Hits, CD, Sony, 1990.
Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, “St. James Infirmary,” 78 rpm, Brunswick, 1930; Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, The Early Years, 1930–1934, CD, JSP Records, 2001.
Johnny Cash, “Delia’s Gone,” American Recordings, CD, American, 1994.
———, “Delia’s Gone,” The Sound of Johnn
y Cash, LP, Columbia, 1962.
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, “Eileen Aroon” and “The Parting Glass.” Both of these songs appear on various collections, but my favorite versions appear on the 2-CD set In Person at Carnegie Hall: The Complete 1963 Concert, Sony/Legacy, 2009.
Sam Collins, “Yellow Dog Blues,” 78 rpm, Gennett, 1927; Sam Collins, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, 1927–1931, CD, Document, 2005.
Martha Copeland, “The Dyin’ Crapshooter’s Blues,” recorded in 1927; Martha Copeland, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 1, September 1923 to August 1927, CD, Document, 2000.
Aaron Copland, The Copland Collection: Orchestral & Ballet Works, 1936–1948, 3 CDs, Sony, 1991. Set includes Billy the Kid, Rodeo, selections from the score to Of Mice and Men, Lincoln Portrait, Fanfare for the Common Man, and Appalachian Spring.
———, Piano Variations, Piano Music of Aaron Copland, CD, Albany Records, 2008.
Bing Crosby, “Snuggled on Your Shoulder,” 78 rpm, Brunswick, 1932; Bing Crosby, A Musical Autobiography, 4 CDs, Avid, 2005.
———, “Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day),” 78 rpm, Brunswick, 1931; Classic Crosby (1930–1934), CD, Naxos Nostalgia, 2000.
Gary Davis, “Delia,” Delia—Late Concert Recordings, 1970–71, CD, American Activities, 1990.
———, “Devil’s Dream,” The Guitar & Banjo of Reverend Gary Davis, LP, Fantasy/Prestige, 1964; CD, Original Blues Classics, 1990.
Reese Du Pree, “One More Rounder Gone,” 78 rpm, OKeh, 1924; reissued on Male Blues of the Twenties, Volume 1, 1922–1930, CD, Document, 1996.
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, “Roving Gambler,” Jack Elliott, LP, Fontana, 1964; CD, Vanguard, 2007.
Sleepy John Estes, “Someday Baby Blues,” 78 rpm, Decca, 1935; Sleepy John Estes, Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volume 1, 24 September 1929 to 2 August 1937, CD, Document, 1994.