Feb 9, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Rainy Day Women #12 and #35
What you should know about this song: The recording for this hit single in 1966 was apparently quite a rowdy one, the pinnacle of which included Charlie McCoy playing bass guitar and trumpet simultaneously! Lyrically, I found this song to be incredibly profound, and I love what Dylan has to say about it:
“‘Everybody must get stoned’ is like when you go against the tide. You might in different times find yourself in an unfortunate situation and when you do what you believe in, some people just take offense at that. You can look through history and find that people have taken offense to people who come out with a different viewpoint on things. And ‘being stoned’ is just a way of saying that.” – Bob Dylan, 1986*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Bob Dylan signing a poster at The Olympia Hotel, Paris, France, 1966
Photo Source: Barry Feinstein
Feb 8, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
What you should know about this song: “One of Us Must Know” is an emotional confession that truly highlights Dylan’s mastery of poetic lyrics. There is a ting of sadness as the song carries through and Dylan recalls the misunderstandings and apologies he shared with someone who seemingly slipped away. The song was written as a single in 1966 and included on his classic Blonde on Blonde album, but it was over a decade later that Dylan chose to perform this song in concert.
“This friend of mine used to keep playing Blonde on Blonde. I could hear something there that was really powerful. I realized he was truly making a crossover. It was very powerful.” – Eric Clapton*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Lisa Law
Feb 7, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Visions of Johanna
What you should know about this song: Some people say this was Dylan’s greatest song. Rolling Stone Magazine referred to is as “a tour de force, a breakthrough not only for the writer but for the very possibilities of songwriting.” The song was originally titled “Freeze Out,” and Dylan had already performed this song before it appeared on Blonde on Blonde in 1966.* As Rolling Stone puts it, the song is truly “Dylan’s masterpiece of obsession” (Issue 1131).
“It’s extraordinary. He writes this whole song seemingly about this one girl, with these remarkable description soy her, but this isn’t the girl who’s on his mind! It’s someone else!” – Bono (Issue 1131)
“I still sing that song every once in a while. It still stands up now as it did then. Maybe even more in some kind of weird way.” – Dylan (Issue 1131)
“‘Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues’ – it’s just a great observation. He’s commenting on it in a way that nobody had done, and yet was very contemporary. He came out of that tradition of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac – the road, hitch-hiking, that long line of male guitar-slingers hitch-hiking with guitars over their back, and that was related to the hobo tradition. You knew that the ‘highway blues’ were, but your parents didn’t!” – Loudon Wainwright III*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source
Feb 6, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Positively 4th Street
What you should know about this song: This non-album hit single was one of the most vocal pop songs ever written up to that point in 1967.* Many speculate “4th Street” refers to New York’s 4th Street in Greenwich Village where Dylan once lived (and the heart of the 1960’s folk music scene), or possibly the 4th Street at the University of Minneapolis in Minnesota where Dylan also lived and played. People also presume that the song is primarily ridiculing Greenwich Village residents who criticized Dylan for leaving traditional folk styles and embracing the electric guitar and rock music (source).
Lucinda Williams, who wrote the review of this song for Rolling Stone Magazine, wrote,
“I love the theme of this song: jealousy over artistic success… I heard he wrote the song when he started getting famous and he was still living in the Village. Nobody wants to admit that that stuff goes on, and of course nobody knows what it’s like to be Bob Dylan. There’s only one of him. He’s so damn good at that.” (Issue 1131)
Joni Mitchell also commented on the song, saying:
“This particular song showed me – I remember thinking, ‘The American pop song has finally grown up. You can sing about anything now.’ When he sang, ‘You got a lot of nerve to say you are my friend’, just in that statement was a different song than any I had ever heard.” *
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Rolling Stone Magazine
Feb 5, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Desolation Row
What you should know about this song: One word really describes this song: epic. This 11-minute finale to Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited album is an incredible ensemble featuring Michael Bloomfield on guitar and has been a cornerstone of his live show repertoire ever since. Mick Jagger hit it right on the head when he wrote about this song for Rolling Stone Magazine, saying:
“‘Desolation Row’ is so simple musically – just three chords for 11 minutes, with a minimal amount of accompaniment – yet so effective… Dylan’s delivery is recitative, almost deadpan, but he engages you. What’s wonderful about the lyrics is all these characters that he inveighs on our imaginations… It’s a wonderful collection of imagery – a fantasy Bowery – that really gets your imagination working.” (Issue 1131)
I love this quote from Bob Dylan, too:
“I do know what my songs are about. Some are about four minutes, some are about five, and some, believe it or not, are about 11 or 12.” – Bob Dylan, 1966*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Don Hunstein
Feb 4, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
What you should know about this song: People aren’t quite sure whether Bob Dylan ever visited Mexico prior to writing this interesting take on the border town, but nevertheless the song has long been regarded as another gem from the 1965 album. This song was conceived out of a creative session during the recording of Highway 61 Revisited on 2 August 1965, and Dylan took it for a live spin a month later in New York. It is most famous from Dylan’s dramatic rendition at the 1966 UK tour.*
“I was attracted by the imagery, which I thought was spectacular. Bob’s manager, Albert Grossman, was an old friend of mine, and he introduced me to Bob. And Bob in turn used to play me his new songs, if he thought there was something that would be suitable for me to record. I was in the fantastic position of being able to hear these songs at first-hand, straight from the creator’s mouth. It was wonderful.” – Judy Collins*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Don Hunstein
