Sunday, August 16, 2015

Rocks and Gravel (Solid Road)

How to build a road.
This lesson followed by: how
To find my girlfriend.

Bob Dylan recorded "Rocks and Gravel" during the 1962 sessions for "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," but the song remained unreleased other than a live performance from that year (This is not entirely true. See below for why). The studio take appeared on the rare "50th Anniversary Collection" for copyright extensions in 2012. It also appeared on the TV show "True Detective" in the first season. It's a short song, and it contains the following pieces:

1. To build a solid road: you need rocks and gravel. 
2. To satisfy my soul: you need a good woman.
3. By the way: have you ever been down on the Mobile and K.C. line? If so, have you seen my girlfriend?
4. And here is a refrain that he took and altered for the song "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" -- "Don't the clouds look lonesome shining across the sea? Don't my gal look good when she's coming after me?"

The version of this song that I've presented here is incredibly rare. Here's why.




1 comment:

  1. Hello Robert, yes another interesting analysis from Bob Dylan's Music Box http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/527/Rocks-and-Gravel Come inside and join us to listen to every version of every song composed, recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, plus all the great covers, free, legally and without Ads.

    ReplyDelete