Bob Dylan (30 page)

Finding it difficult to figure out a drum part for the song as it was being rehearsed in the studio, Buttrey asked Dylan and producer Bob Johnston in turn for ideas, and was given what he considered jive suggestions, Johnston recommending bongoes and Dylan cowbells. Right, thought Buttrey, I'll show you how bad that will sound—and so he got studio janitor Kris Kristofferson to hold the cowbell and bongoes as he played them through the next take. Nobody was as surprised as the drummer when the percussion fit the song like a glove. “I'll be damned!” he exclaimed. “This is the tastiest drum part I ever played!”

The easy-going ‘One More Night' sounds more like a songwriting exercise than anything born out of the fires of inspiration. Certainly, it's the closest Dylan's entire oeuvre comes to the classical country perfection of Hank Williams, both in its confident wielding of simple phrases like “I'm as lonesome as can be” and “the moon is shinin' bright,” and in the way its jocular surface disguises the undertow of roiling emotion, glimpsed in the “dark and rolling sky” that accompanies the singer's misery.

The song is also notable as another example of Dylan's changing attitude towards women: although the reason for the breakdown of his relationship—the singer's inability to be what his lover wants him to be—echoes earlier songs like ‘It Ain't Me, Babe', he acknowledges here that it's not just a lover he has lost, but his best pal. Which, in the context of the permissive but still patriarchal late Sixties, was quite an admission.

Of all of the album's songs, ‘Tell Me That It Isn't True' most sounds like it was written expressly for Elvis Presley. Dylan's delivery even seems suspiciously like a Presley pastiche and the lyric's resolute reliance on the corniest of romantic clichés could have been designed not to frighten off a singer who frequently voiced his mistrust of the younger generation's involvement in more complex political issues.

With organ phrases adding urgency to the song's concern, it's as close as the album gets to being emotionally overwrought—‘I Threw It All Away' may be sadder, but compared with its air of abject resignation, ‘Tell Me That It Isn't True' still holds out hope that the situation may be rescued, a hope which brings a different kind of fretfulness. Dylan admitted to Jann Wenner that the song was one of his favorites on the album, even though it had turned out completely different to the way he had imagined it. “It came out real slow and mellow,” he explained. “I had written it as a sort of jerky, kind of polka-type thing.” The mind boggles.

Another light-hearted filler, ‘Country Pie' does at least have the authentic ring of redneck comedy. Beneath the gastronomic surface, the song is basically a statement of Dylan's love for country music. Bizarrely, however, some of his more imaginative commentators chose this moment of the greatest extension of Dylan's conservatism to claim that the line about saddling up a “big white goose” was a veiled reference to heroin—this is perhaps the most extraordinary interpretation ever placed on one of his songs.

For most fans, however, the truly revealing lines came in the second middle-eight section, where Dylan claimed he wasn't “runnin' any race”—as clear an admission as any that he had ceased to be concerned about the things which used to exercise his imagination, and was now settled into a simpler lifestyle. As if in corroboration, the tricky syntactical gift which had once served to machine-gun elaborate, evocative phrases into cramped spaces in songs like ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues' was now
being used simply to list pie-fillings: “Blueberry, apple, cherry, pumpkin and plum.” To many, this seemed a poor exchange—particularly since, at the end of the song, we are none the wiser as to Dylan's preferred flavors.

Another of Dylan's personal favorites from the album, ‘Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You' has a grace and apparent sincerity which is largely denied to the rest of
Nashville Skyline
. It is one of the few tracks on the album on which he sounds completely at ease with the country-music mode, and where it doesn't sound like he's merely running through genre exercises or pastiches.

Riding a groove whose rolling piano and flowing pedal steel guitar were punctuated by some terse country picking (probably by Charlie Daniels), Dylan's lyric found him—after years of songs in which trains offered the enticing prospect of freedom or a ticket to the future—turning his back on departure and deliberately missing his train in order to stay with his beloved. For Dylan, such a denial of his instinctive wanderlust is surely the greatest possible tribute that he can pay to the woman whose love keeps him here.

In the penultimate verse, a random act of kindness—offering his seat if there's “a poor boy on the street” who might want it—drew an analogy with Dylan's own situation. After almost a decade as the involuntary spokesman for a generation, he has decided he doesn't want to travel that line any more, and if there's any young singer who wants to take up that mantle, well, they are more than welcome to all the hassle that goes with it.

A succession of putative “new Dylans” appeared over the next few years, the best of whom—Loudon Wainwright, Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen—eventually developed personalities of their own. But as the scene which he had revolutionized several times over in the Sixties continued, through the rise of country-rock, to respond to his pioneering work, Dylan remained an elusive, enigmatic figure, perennially out of step with changing musical fashions, a soul alone.

Dylan would go on to record worse albums than
Nashville Skyline
, and a handful which could rank alongside the best of his Sixties work, but he would never again define the zeitgeist the way he did in that decade. Nor, for that matter, would anybody else.

All compositions by Bob Dylan, except where noted.

ALBUMS

BOB DYLAN

RECORDED: NOVEMBER 1961

RELEASED: MARCH 1962

You're No Good (Jesse Fuller)/Talkin' New York/In My Time Of Dyin' (trad. arr. Dylan)/Man Of Constant Sorrow (trad. arr. Dylan)/Fixin' To Die (Bukka White)/Pretty Peggy-O (trad. arr. Dylan)/Highway 51 (Curtis Jones)/Gospel Plow (trad. arr. Dylan)/Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (Rev. Gary Davis)/House Of The Risin' Sun (trad. arr. Van Ronk)/Freight Train Blues(Roy Acuff)/Song To Woody/See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (Blind Lemon Jefferson)

THE FREEWHEELIN' BOB DYLAN

RECORDED: JULY 1962–APRIL 1963

RELEASED: MAY 1963

Blowin' In The Wind/Girl From The North Country/Masters Of War/Down The Highway/Bob Dylan's Blues/A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall/Don't Think Twice, It's All Right/Bob Dylan's Dream/Oxford Town/Talking World War III Blues/Corrina, Corrina (trad. arr. Dylan)/Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (Henry Thomas)/I Shall Be Free

THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

RECORDED: AUGUST–OCTOBER 1963

RELEASED: JANUARY 1964

The Times They Are A-Changin'/Ballad Of Hollis Brown/With God On Our Side/One Too Many Mornings/North Country Blues/Only A Pawn In Their Game/Boots Of Spanish Leather/When The Ship Comes In/The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll/Restless Farewell

ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN

RECORDED: JUNE 1964

RELEASED: AUGUST 1964

All I Really Want To Do/Black Crow Blues/Spanish Harlem Incident/ Chimes Of Freedom/ I Shall Be Free No.10/To Ramona/ Motorpsycho Nitemare/My Back Pages/I Don't Believe You/ Ballad In Plain D/It Ain't Me Babe

BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME

RECORDED: JANUARY 1965

RELEASED: MARCH 1965

Subterranean Homesick Blues/She Belongs To Me/Maggie's Farm/Love Minus Zero—No Limit/Outlaw Blues/On The Road Again/Bob Dylan's 115th Dream/Mr Tambourine Man/Gates Of Eden/ It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)/ It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED

RECORDED: JUNE–AUGUST 1965

RELEASED: SEPTEMBER 1965

Like A Rolling Stone/Tombstone Blues/It TakesA Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry/From A Buick 6/Ballad Of A Thin Man/Queen Jane Approximately/Highway 61 Revisited/Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues/Desolation Row

BLONDE ON BLONDE

RECORDED: JANUARY–MARCH 1966

RELEASED: MAY 1966

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35/Pledging My Time/Visions Of Johanna/One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)/I Want You/Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again/Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat/Just Like A Woman/Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine/Temporary Like Achilles/Absolutely Sweet Marie/4th Time Around/Obviously 5 Believers/Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

THE BASEMENT TAPES

RECORDED: JUNE–OCTOBER 1967

RELEASED: JULY 1975

Odds And Ends/Orange Juice Blues (Blues For Breakfast) (Richard Manuel)/Million Dollar Bash/Yazoo Street Scandal (Robbie Robertson)/ Goin' To Acapulco/ Katie's Been Gone (Robbie Robertson/Richard Manuel)/Lo And Behold!/Bessie Smith (Rick Danko/Robbie Robertson)/Clothes Line Saga/ Apple Suckling Tree/Please, Mrs. Henry/Tears Of Rage (Bob Dylan/Richard Manuel)/Too Much Of Nothing/Yea! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread/Ain't No More Cane (trad. arr. the Band)/Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)/Ruben Remus (Robbie Robertson/Richard Manuel)/Tiny Montgomery/You Ain't Goin' Nowhere/Don't Ya Tell Henry/Nothing Was Delivered/Open The Door, Homer/Long Distance Operator/This Wheel's On Fire (Bob Dylan/Rick Danko)

JOHN WESLEY HARDING

RECORDED: OCTOBER–NOVEMBER 1967

RELEASED: JANUARY 1968

John Wesley Harding/As I Went Out One Morning/I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine/All Along The Watchtower/The Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest/Drifter's Escape/Dear Landlord/I Am A Lonesome Hobo/I Pity The Poor Immigrant/The Wicked Messenger/ Down Along The Cove/I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

NASHVILLE SKYLINE

RECORDED: FEBRUARY 1969;

RELEASED: MAY 1969

Girl From The North Country/ Nashville Skyline Rag/To Be Alone With You/I Threw It All Away/Peggy Day/Lay Lady Lay/One More Night/Tell Me That It Isn't True/Country Pie/Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

Mixed Up Confusion/Corrina, Corrina (March 1962)

The Times They Are A-Changin'/Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (March 1965)

Subterranean Homesick Blues/She Belongs To Me (April 1965)

Maggie's Farm/On The Road Again (June 1965)

Like A Rolling Stone/Gates Of Eden (August 1965)

Positively 4th Street/From A Buick 6 (October 1965)

Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?/Highway 61 Revisited (January 1966)

One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)/Queen Jane Approximately (April 1966)

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35/Pledging My Time (April 1966)

I Want You/Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues (live) (July 1966)

Just Like A Woman/Obviously 5 Believers (September 1966)

Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat/Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine (May 1967)

If You Gotta Go, Go Now/To Ramona (July 1967)

I Threw It All Away/Drifter's Escape (May 1969)

Lay Lady Lay/Peggy Day (August 1969)

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You/Country Pie (December 1969)

Italic page references refer to photographs.

4th Time Around
150

Absolutely Sweet Marie
148-9

All Along The Watchtower
185
,
189

All I Really Want To Do
73-6

Another Side of Bob Dylan
68-85

Apple Suckling Tree
165-6

As I Went Out One Morning
182

Baez, Joan
5
,
8
,
26
,
39
,
47-9
,
58
,
64
,
71
,
81
,
83
,
88
,
92-3
,
95-6
,
98
,
106
,
110
,
115
,
121-2
,
139
,
141
,
152
,
156

The Ballad of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest
184
,
187

Ballad of Hollis Brown
55-6

Ballad In Plain D
51
,
58
,
71
,
82-4

Ballad Of A Thin Man
120-21
,
132
,
189

The Band
82
,
128-9
,
131
,
134
,
137-8
,
150
,
158
,
160
,
164-5
,
168
,
175
,
178-80
,
185

The Basement Tapes
154-175

The Beatles
71
,
88
,
110
,
113
,
150
,
156
,
179

Biograph
27
,
64
,
107
,
118
,
201-2

Black Crow Blues
74

Blonde on Blonde
130-53

Bloomfield, Mike
88
,
116-23

Blowin' In The Wind
26-30

Bob Dylan
6-19

Bob Dylan's
115
th Dream
100-1

Bob Dylan's Blues
34-5

Bob Dylan's Dream
40

Boots Of Spanish Leather
62-3

Bringing It All Back Home
86-107

Broadside
24
,
29
,
33
,
43
,
45
,
50
,
197

Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
128-9

Chimes Of Freedom
76-7

Clothes Line Saga
164

Corrina, Corrina
27
,
40
,
44

Country Pie
203

Crash On The Levee
169