When I Got Troubles

Begone, my troubles.
I'm gonna swing them away
And leave them behind.

I think that "When I Got Troubles," from 1959, is Bob Dylan's first "solo" recording, though I think there's also an earlier one with him and some of his high school friends. From 1957, perhaps. Anyway, this is the earliest one that appeared on a commercially released album under his name, so it's available for inclusion in the haiku series. It appears on volume 7 of the Bootleg Series, the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's Dylan documentary, "No Direction Home."

Well I got trouble
Trouble's on my mind
Yep, when I got trouble
Trouble's on my mind
Well, I'm gonna forget my trouble
Leave my trouble behind, behind

I'm gonna swing it up
Swing it down
Got the fever, then wham, wham wham!

Well, swing your troubles
Swing your troubles away
Yeah, well, swing baby
Swing your troubles today

Yea, yea, yea, yeah!

This Land Is Your Land

This land is our land,
Never mind what the records
At City Hall say.

This is one of Woody Guthrie's most famous folk songs. Bob Dylan's version appears in volume seven of the Bootleg Series, which is the soundtrack for the Martin Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan, "No Direction Home." In this recording, he does not sing the two lines about Guthrie's disdain for private property and his line of doubt about the USA being for everyone when he sees people waiting in bread lines.

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island; 
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters 
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway, 
I saw above me that endless skyway: 
I saw below me that golden valley: 
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps 
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts; 
And all around me a voice was sounding: 
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling, 
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, 
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: 
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there 
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." 
But on the other side it didn't say nothing, 
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, 
By the relief office I seen my people; 
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking 
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me, 
As I go walking that freedom highway; 
Nobody living can ever make me turn back 
This land was made for you and me.

Tell Ol' Bill

Bob's beset by doubts.
He can't sleep, she's not helping.
Someone's after him.

This is a dark and stormy night song, which was included on volume 8 of the Bootleg Series, which collects unreleased and alternate track recordings from 1989 to 2006. I can't get at the heart of what this song is about, and I wonder if it even has a center. It appeared on the soundtrack to "North Country," starring Charlize Theron.

- River whispers, heavens near, body glowing, not a penny.
- I sing to myself, wondering if the tempest will drown me. (Feels like a nod to Prospero)
- Stranded in a foreign place, can't sleep, can't find a smile.
- Why do you torture me?
- Remember me. I wish we could share our emotions.
- You trampled me and left me a cold comfort kiss. But I'm not afraid anymore so I have no reason to talk to you.
- I can't sleep. I walk by tranquil lakes and streams.
- The ground's hard and the stars cold as you speak. It's going to be a long night.
- Bleak rocks, bare trees, iron clouds, snow, gray and stormy sky.
- Sundown. Dark woods, dark town, you're going to get dragged down.
- Tell ol' Bill (a reference to another song, recorded by Dylan as "This Evening So Soon") that anything is worth trying, and that Bob isn't alone. It's time to do or die.
- "All the world I would defy, Let me make it plain as day, I look at you now and I sigh: How could it be any other way?"

Rambler Gambler

Leave me alone if
You don't like me. Write to me
If you should need me.

This is an old song in the Dylan catalogue, apparently the second one that he recorded as a solo artist. It's from 1960. It begins with the chorus that anyone who has spent a drunken evening at an Irish bar will know: "I'm a rambler, I'm a gambler, I'm a long way from my home. If the people don't like me, they can leave me alone." He doesn't include the rest, though: "I eat when I'm hungry and I drink when I'm dry, and if the moonshine don't kill me, I'll drink till I die." 

The rest of the song contains these elements:
1. Come sit beside me, I love you boldly.
2. I'll write to you when you're in Wyoming. If you run into trouble, write to me.
3. I had a 16-year-old lover who was a flower of velvet and the rose of Celine.
4. Her parents didn't approve, which meant that eventually, she didn't either. "If I writ on your book, love, just you blot out my name."
5. Lovely verse: "Oh there's changes in the ocean, there's changes in the sea, there's changes in my true love, ain't no change in me."

The song is available on the seventh volume of the Bootleg Series, called "No Direction Home." It's the soundtrack album to the Martin Scorsese documentary on Dylan.

I Was Young When I Left Home

He rambled while young.
While boozing, he hears Mom died,
But he can't go home.

Bob Dylan recorded this song on the famous and widely bootlegged "Minnesota Hotel Tape" on December 22, 1961, in Minneapolis. It made its first commercial appearance in volume 7 of the Bootleg Series, the soundtrack album to Martin Scorsese's 2005 documentary on Dylan, "No Direction Home." It's a story about just what you think. 

- Guy leaves home, never writes to his parents.
- Collects his pay, runs into a guy who tells him his mother's dead and his sister's "all gone wrong," and dad needs him home immediately.
- He doesn't have enough money, clothes and, apparently, reputation to do this.
- You can gauge how far he is from home by the sound of the train whistle.
- He needs to pay his debt to the commissary, pawn his watch and chain, and go home.
- He misses his mother. He doesn't like being out in the windy plains, even though he thought he would before he went out roaming.

Handsome Molly

When Molly leaves you,
You'll be sorry, just like the
Next fellow will be.

Fiddler Gilliam Banmon Grayson and guitarist Henry Whitter brought us the song "Handsome Molly," which was the b-side to their hit single "Train 45." I don't know if they wrote it. The song appeared in 1927 or 1928. Grayson died at the age of 43 in a car accident rural southwestern Virginia in 1930. "Omie Wise" and "Little Maggie" are two other songs that Grayson recorded that found their way into Dylan's repertory.

The lyrics are pretty simple:

- I wish I were a sailor, and while I sail, I'd think of Molly.
- Molly left me after accepting my offer of marriage.
- My heart's broken, she should go with whom she pleases
- She has a roving eye now. I saw it when I went to church last Sunday.
- I go out at night when everyone's asleep and cry for Molly at the riverbank.

Dylan performed the song at the Gaslight Cafe in 1962. The album of this performance came out in 2005.

Well, I wish I was in london,
Or some other seaport town
I'd put my foot on a steamboat
I'd sail the ocean 'round.

While sailing 'round the ocean,
While sailing 'round the sea
I'd think of handsome molly
Wherever she might be.

Don't you remember, molly
You gave me your right hand?
You said whenever you'd marry
I would be the man.

But you broke your promise
Go with whom you please
My poor heart is aching
You are at your ease.

I went to church last sunday
Molly came ridin' by
I could tell her mind was changin'
By the rovin' of her eye.

I go down to the river
Though everyone's asleep
I think of handsome molly
An' I begin to weep.

So I wish I was in london,
Or some other seaport town
I'd put my foot on a steamboat
I'd sail the ocean 'round.