Saturday, June 13, 2015

If I Were a Carpenter

Does my job matter
To you in deciding if
You'll have my baby?

This is a fairly coherent yet still rough version of Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter," recorded with the Band during the Basement Tapes sessions in 1967 and released on the Bootleg Series volume 11. You can tell that they're not taking it too seriously, particularly with the shouts of "yes!" when Dylan asks the boys if they would marry him if he were a carpenter. It's about what it sounds:

- If I were a carpenter, would you marry me and let me make babies with you?
- What if I were a tinker?
- I'd like it if you would do this. I'm lonely and full of sorrows. I'd give you anything.
- What if I were a miller?
- And so on.

Here are versions by Dylan, Bobby Darin (the one that you hear on "The Sopranos"), Tim Hardin and Robert Plant:







1 comment:

  1. Hello Robert, yes another slice of history found down there in the basement. Join us inside Bob Dylan's Music Box http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/289/If-I-Were-a-Carpenter and listen to every version of every song composed or performed by Bob Dylan.

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