Every song Bob Dylan wrote or performed can be distilled in a haiku. NOTE FOR READERS: All posts from 2010 to 2014 should be considered out of date. Please disregard them. There are, or will be, new versions of each haiku.
Showing posts with label The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006. Show all posts
This is a song by Ralph and Carter Stanley, one of those high-and-lonesome bluegrass tunes about abandoned love.
In short:
He sits on the river banks, accompanied by the lonely wind and the high water. He's too lonely to cry and has no one to love or kiss him goodnight because the woman he loves left him this morning. Once they swore to each other that they would stay together and be happy forever. Then she fell in love with someone else.
Here's another song of trains, shadows, sunlight, loss, the memory of sweet days and the reality of the cold present. The singer goes through several kinds of lament for the former, and obviously current object of desire.
1. Hope rides away on a train. Joy and love have faded. Hills dark, falling stars. He pretends he's not sad, but his heart's miles away. He can't escape from her memory.
2. Why does he suffer? He did no wrong.
3. She didn't behave well. She wasted her power, withered like a flower, played the fool. She tried to bring him down. He's not sad or sorry like he said he was before.
4. Actually, he IS sorry. They should have lasted forever, they had lovely days together, they had good times. Now she's with someone else, God knows who, and still, he can't escape from you.
Gonna shoot my gal.
My gun's bigger than hers is.
(She has a new boyfriend)
The "32-20 Blues" is about a gun, which of course an angry man uses to shoot his woman because he's upset with her yet again. It's based on the "22-20 Blues" about the same thing. Robert Johnson performed the former, Skip James the latter. Bob Dylan's version appears on the eighth volume of the Bootleg Series. If I send for my baby and she don't come If I send for my baby man, and she don't come All the doctors in Hot Springs sure can't help her none And if she gets unruly thinks she don't wan do If she gets unruly thinks she don't wan do Take my 32-20 now and cut her half in two She got a 38 special but I believe its much too light She got a 38 special but I believe its much too light I got a 32-20, got to make the camps alright If I send for my baby and she don't come If I send for my baby man, and she don't come All the doctors in Hot Springs sure can't help her none I'm gonna shoot my pistol, gonna shoot my Gatlin gun I'm gonna shoot my pistol, gotta shoot my Gatlin gun You made me love you now your man has come Ah-oh baby where you stay last night Ah-ah baby where you stayed last night You got your hair all tangled and you ain't talkin right Got a 38 special boys, it do very well
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?"
Boy pines for a girl
Who said she was not for him.
He never forgets.
This sweet, sad song was never released on any one of Bob Dylan's studio albums, but it did end up on volume 8 of the Bootleg Series, a compilation of alternate versions and unreleased songs from 1989 to 2006. This one is about a girl who as you guessed is from the Red River shore. The singer fell in love with her, despite all the pretty maids all in a row lined up outside his cabin door. He wooed and courted her, but she said to him "Go home and lead a quiet life." He never ended up with the girl, and even though the dream of having her died a long time ago, he has never been able to shake her loose from his mind. The problem is that there is no way for him to be happy except to be with her, so when he returns to the old town to find her, everyone says that they don't know who he is talking about. He then tells this story: "Now I heard of a guy who lived a long time ago A man full of sorrow and strife. That if someone around him died and was dead, He knew how to bring 'em back to life. Well, I don't know what kind of language he used Or if they do that kind of thing anymore. Sometimes I think nobody saw me here at all, Except the girl from the Red River Shore." That leaves me wondering if he's the ghost or she is... or if they both are.
He'd rather be home
On the big river with you
Than in the city.
This is an old Bill Halley song made famous by Jimmie Rodgers in 1932. Bob Dylan recorded it in 1992, but it didn't appear until volume 8 of the Bootleg Series, which compiles hard-to-find, unreleased and live tracks that Dylan performed between 1989 and 2006. I'm growing tired of these big city nights Tired of the glamour and tired of the sights In all my dreams, I am roving once more Back to my home on the old river shore I am sad and weary, far away from home Miss the Mississippi and you, dear. Nights are dark and dreary Everywhere I roam Miss the Mississippi and you. Rolling this wide world over Always alone and blue, blue Nothing seems to cheer me Under heaven's dome Miss the Mississippi and you Memories are bringing happy days of yore Missing Mississippi and you Mockingbirds are singing around the cabin door Miss the Mississippi and you Rolling this wide world over Always alone and blue, so blue Longing for my homeland Muddy water shore Miss the Mississippi and you
The song has been done by plenty of famous singers. I've included Dylan's version first, then Jimmie Rodgers's, then Crystal Gale's.
She will go to war
Because she loves her soldier.
First they get married.
Remember the scene in "History of the World, Part One" when Madeleine Kahn makes her selection of Roman studs for an evening of partying with the Vestal Virgins? Mary of "Mary and the Soldier" pursues her quest for a man with similar elan. Bob Dylan's version appears on the deluxe edition of volume 8 of the Bootleg Series: Come all you lads of high renown that will hear of a fair young maiden And she roved out on a summer's day for to view the soldier's parading They march so bold and they look so gay The colours fine and the bands did play And it caused young Mary for to say "I'll wed you me gallant soldier" She viewed the soldiers on parade and as they stood at their leisure And Mary to herself did say: "At last I find my treasure But oh how cruel my parents must be To banish my true love away from me Well I'll leave them all and I'll go with thee Me bold and undaunted soldier" "Oh Mary dear, your parents' love I pray don't be unruly For when you're in a foreign land, believe you rue it surely Perhaps in battle I might fall From a shot from an angry cannonball And you're so far from your daddy's hall Be advised by a gallant soldier." "Oh I have fifty guineas in right gold, likewise a hearth that's burning And I'd leave them all and I'd go with you me bold undaunted soldier So don't say no but let me go And I will face the daring foe And we'll march together to and fro And I'll wed you, my gallant soldier" And when he saw her loyalty and Mary so true-hearted He said: "Me darling, married we'll be and nothing but death will part us And when we're in a foreign land I'll guard you, darling, with my right hand And hopes that God might stand a friend With Mary and her gallant soldier" I can't find Dylan's version so I'll give you this excellent one by Paul Brady:
Now that he's been dumped,
He's going to the city.
No girl? Try plan B.
This song has never done much for me, though I can't say I didn't like it. It's not a bad track, but it doesn't give me much on which to hang my haiku. It has nice gospel chord progressions though. The result is that I'm disappointed in what I've produced. Anyway. Here it is. Here are the lyrics. The song is available on volume 8 of the Bootleg Series. Well i'm sittin' in church in an old wooden chair I knew nobody would look for me there Sorrow and pity rule the earth and the skies Looking for nothin' in anyone's eyes Once I had a pretty gal, did me wrong Now I'm marching to the city and the road ain't long Snow flakes are fallin' around my head Lord have mercy, it feel heavy like lead I been hit too hard, seen too much Nothing can heal me now but your touch Once I had a pretty gal, she did me wrong Now I'm marching to the city and the road ain't long Loneliness got a mind of its own The more people around, the more you feel alone I'm chained to the earth like a silent slave Trying to break free out of death's dark cave Once I had a pretty gal, done me wrong Now I'm marching to the city and the road ain't long Boys in the street beginnin' to play Girls like birds flyin' away I'm carryin' the roses that were given to me And I'm thinkin' about paradise wonderin' where it might be Once I had a pretty gal, she done me wrong Now I'm marching to the city and the road ain't long Go over to London, maybe gay Paris Follow the river you get to the sea I was hopin' we could drink from life's clear streams I was hopin' we could dream life's pleasant dreams Once I had a pretty gal, but she done me wrong Now I'm marching to the city and the road ain't long Well the weak get weaker and the strong stay strong The train keeps rollin' all night long She looked at me with an irresistable glance With a smile that could make all the planets dance Once I had a pretty gal, she did me wrong Now I'm marching to the city and the road ain't long My house is on fire, burnin' to the skies I thought the rain clouds, but the clouds passed by When I'm gone you'll remember my name I'm gonna win my way to wealth and fame Once I had a pretty gal, but she did me wrong Now I'm marching to the city and the road ain't long
A queen in Bob's deck
Might make a good hand, but he
Folds early and leaves.
I don't care much for movies and songs about baseball, horse racing, boxing, billiards and cards. I know that there are exceptions, but these are worlds outside my area of interest, at least in entertainment. I also don't care much about gambling. "Huck's Tune" is a song that rests, in the end, on a deck of cards, and was used in a movie about poker, "Lucky You," with Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore and Robert Duvall. My aversion to all these things got in the way of my enjoyment of "Huck's Tune," and if the haiku comes off as uninvolved, that's probably not an accident. The song, at least to me, gets lost in the midst of gentle country sway that fills up most of volume 8 of the Bootleg series. Anyway, here are my thoughts: Rolling hills of symbolism, as identified verse by verse: - Desert of stone. Wandering. Dreaming of future wife. Sword in hand. Life IS death. Plate and cup are up. Kiss your lips, honey drips, but "I'm gonna have to put you down for a while). (These are almost certainly tarot symbols.) - I see you on the street, looking good. All sizes of people come to the ball. I do too, regularly. Something to see behind the tree. Big river. Been with you twice, but you can't be nice. So... - Nurse/money/purse. Ladies and men. You bet all your money on cards while I'm getting a tan in the sand. You knock me dead. But... - I'm not crying over the past and what I lost. I like nature. You're fine like wine, and I'm serious, but... - No faith. I'm blue. Gonna have to put you down again...
Go with Greenbriar gal?
You'll be sorry, Mama said.
She wasn't lying.
This song, which I think was performed first by the Carter Family, is the simple tale of what happens when a boy chooses a girl against his mother's wishes. Dylan performed the song live in 1992, and you can find it in volume 8 of the Bootleg Series. 'Twas in the year of '82, In the springtime of the year, I left my mother and a home so dear 'Twas in the year of '82, In the springtime of the year, I left my mother and a home so dear All for that girl on the Greenbriar shore. My mother, she says, "Son, don't go. Don't leave me here alone. Don't leave your mother and a home so dear. Never trust a girl on the Greenbriar shore." But I was young and reckless too, And I craved a reckless life. I left my mother and a home so dear And I took that girl to be my wife. Her hair was dark and curly too And her lovin' eyes were blue; Her cheeks were like the red red rose That girl I loved from the Greenbriar shore. The years rolled on and the months rolled by; She left me all alone. Now I remember what my momma said, "Never trust the girl on the Greenbriar shore."
Brady wants to kill,
But Duncan gets the first shot.
Too bad for Brady.
Brady the cop is looking for someone to kill. He goes to the bar and decides Duncan's the man, but Duncan shoots first. These events apparently are true, and have remained consistent over most of the versions of the song performed since the incident occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1890. Here are Dylan's lyrics, which aren't terribly altered from the original: Twinkle, twinkle, little star 'Long comes Brady in his 'lectric car Got a mean look right in his eye Gonna shoot somebody jus' to watch him die He been on the job too long Duncan, Duncan was tending the bar 'Long came Brady with his shiny star "Duncan," said Brady, "you are under arrest" Duncan shot a hole right in Brady's chest He been on the job too long. Old King Brady was a big, fat man Doctor looked down, and took hold of his hand reached for his pulse, the doctor said "I believe to my soul, king Brady, you're dead" He been on the job too long Up upon the hillside, eight hundred at hand, vases of roses standing around (horses and a rubber-tired hack bring him down to the graveyard, it won't bring him back. He been on the job too long When the women all heard King Brady was dead, They went home and they'd be re-ragged in red *) Slippin' and a-slidin', shuffelin' down the street, In their big mother hubbards and their stockin' feet. He been on the job too long "Brady, Brady, Brady, you know you done wrong breakin' in here when this game's goin' on Bustin' down the window, tearin' down the door Now you lyin' dead on the barroom floor You been on the job too long." Twinkle, twinkle, little star 'Long comes Brady in his 'lectric car Got a mean look in his eye Gonna shoot somebody jus' to watch him die He been on the job too long. He been on the job too long. Here's Dave van Ronk's version of the song:
Dignity: it's more
Than a word. Everyone knows,
But really, they don't.
"Dignity" is the great Bob Dylan anthem that wasn't. Like Sam Peckinpah's movies "The Osterman Weekend," "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" and "Major Dundee," I don't think there's one finished version that matches what Dylan was searching for in this song. Dylan and producer Daniel Lanois intended the song to appear on 1989's "Oh Mercy" album, but repeated takes failed to produce what they were looking for. In Dylan's book, "Chronicles, Vol. 1," he says everyone eventually got fed up and abandoned the track. I heard it first on the 1995 "MTV Unplugged" album, and then on a single featuring various edits. You can hear a version on the "Greatest Hits Vol. 3" album as well as other versions on volume 8 of the Bootleg Series. The song, as far as I can tell, focuses on the antics of various characters as they search for the one trait that eludes them as well as Bob. Who's looking for dignity and in which ironic places he or she looks: - Fat man/blade of steel - Thin man/last meal - Hollow man/cottonfield - Wise man/blade of grass - Young man/passing shadows - Poor man/painted glass - New Year's eve party (somebody was murdered just after dignity phoned for a cab) - Bob/city-town-midnight sun - Bob/the police - Blind man/trance/pockets of chance/circumstance like pocket lint - Bob/Mary Lou's wedding (She has a deadly secret and an aversion to being seen with Bob) - Bob/Where the vultures feed - Bob/asking the maid while the house is on fire, his gets go unpaid and the cold winds blow - Drinking man/crowded room with obscured mirrors/lost forgotten years - Bob/Prince Phillip at the house of blues (he speaks on condition that he gets paid and can speak off the record. He has a bone to pick with dignity) - Bob/sons of darkness and sons of light in the bordertowns of despair - Bob/in a river on a boat reading a note - Sick man/doctor/masterpieces of literature - Englishman/in the wind - Unidentified person with a photograph that he claims is dignity, but Bob says no one has taken a picture of dignity - Bob/the red and the black and the valley of dry bone dreams - Bob/the edge of the lake (he gives up here)
I've never been a big fan of Civil War movies, though to pan them for poor quality, especially when they are the Ted Turner-produced giant productions, is to take a churlish stance. They are more impressive than affecting to me, mainly because they expect the viewer to feel that unique feeling that Americans are supposed to have watching noble, proud tragic figures from one country shoot, hack and bomb each other to death in the name of preserving and overthrowing traditions both proud and base. Civil War buffs are a funny gang, and I've never understood or reacted to the feeling that they seek. I know there's pride, tragedy and a view toward the epic in any war, but reverence for the events that killed more than half a million people of the same country starts to look like Dungeons and Dragons fans embarking on their next dress-up adventure with the half orcs. I feel the same way about Bob Dylan's song "'Cross the Green Mountain," which appeared on the 2003 soundtrack to the film "Gods and Generals," and made its commercial appearance under Dylan's name on the eighth volume in the Bootleg Series a few years later. It's a song about the tragedy and waste of war, and is affecting and moving, but it leaves me unmoved even as I write this. It also makes the unfortunate choice of relying on the marcher's drum roll and a few of those melodic quirks of songs of the time that Robert Burns did to death on his documentary. There's a world of people out there who react to that fake nouveau 19th century Americana melancholy sound with great pleasure; I'm not one of those people. To me it's cliche. But wow, those last two verses... they're the only lines that show the emotion and beauty:
I'm ten miles outside the city And I'm lifted away In an ancient light That is not of day They were calm, they were blunt We knew them all too well We loved each other more than We ever dared to tell
There must be a bottomless barrel of songs about cocaine use in the pop and blues worlds. "Cocaine Blues," which Bob Dylan performed in 1961 and 1962, and again in 1997 on the Aug. 24th show at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia (a show that I attended, so I remember this song well), is a song with endless variations too. There are more recordings out there of Dylan doing this song in concert in the late 1990's, but the 1997 recording is available commercially on volume 8 of the Bootleg Series.
The Reverend Gary Davis popularized the song, and according to the Wikipedia entry, said he learned it in 1905 from a traveling carnival musician named Porter Irving. It spread through the folk scene where plenty of musicians including Dylan learned it. Possibly the biggest-selling cover of the song would be Jackson Browne's, which he recorded for the 1977 live album "Running on Empty."
The lyrics are straightforward about the drug being a big kick and a hell of a monkey to shake off your back. There are three sets of lyrics that Dylan sang for the song. I'll paste the 1997 lyrics here because they're short and get to the point:
Everytime my baby and me go up town police come and they knock me down Cocaine all around my brain Hey baby, better come here quick. This old cocaine is making me sick. Cocaine all around my brain. Yonder comes by baby, she's dressed in red She's got a shot-gun, says she's gonna kill me dead. Cocaine all around my brain Early one morning, half past four cocaine came knockin' on my door. Cocaine all around my brain Cocaine's for horses and it's not for men Doctor said it kill you, but he don't say when. Cocaine all around my brain.
This is a difficult song from "Under the Red Sky," an album that underwhelmed many listeners. It's not hard to see why. Dylan veers between childish/childlike rhymes, songs about why TV is bad for you, and the usual assortment of enigmatic songs about enigmatic people. In "Born in Time," he sings to a woman that her vision is coming to his mind in the middle of the night, that whatever relationship they had failed in some way, and somehow she remains on his mind. He makes repeated references to how they were "born in time," but whether that means they were born on schedule, born in some more general temporal measure or whatever else he might have been thinking, the meaning goes slipping by.
You can see what I mean about ambiguity....
You're blowin' down a shaky street
You're hearing my heart beat
In the record breaking heat
Where we were born in time
Not one more night, not one more kiss
And not this time babe, no more of this
Takes too much skill, takes too much of will
It's too revealing
You came, you saw just like the law
You married young just like your ma
You tried and tried, you made me slide
You left me reeling with this feeling
Here's a version of the song that was recorded for the album preceding "Under the Red Sky," "Oh Mercy." It was dropped and later released on the eighth volume in the Bootleg Series.
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