Feb 21, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: All Along the Watchtower
Jimi Hendrix Cover: All Along the Watchtower
What you should know about this song: This rock anthem was first issued on Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album before reaching the hands of Jimi Hendrix.
“These songs on the John Wesley Harding album lack the traditional sense of time. ‘All Along the Watchtower’ opens up in a slightly different way, in a stranger way, because we have the cycle of events working in a rather reverse order.” – Bob Dylan, 1968*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Bob Dylan recording All Along the Watchtower in 1967. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis Source: The Guardian
Feb 20, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
Joan Baez Cover: I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
What you should know about this song: Joan Baez included it on her album of Dylan covers, Any Day Now.
“John Wesley Harding was a fearful album – just dealing with fear, dealing with the devil in a fearful way, almost. All I wanted to do was to get the words right. It was courageous to do it.” – Bob Dylan, 1978*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Feb 19, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Tears of Rage
What you should know about this song: “Tears of Rage” was the second major composition Dylan co-wrote with a member of The Band during the “basement tapes” sessions. Richard Manuel was the vocalist on the track and also responsible for writing the melody. It wasn’t until 1989 that Dylan sang the song live.
“Bob came down to the basement with a piece of type-written paper, and said, ‘Have you got any music for this?’ I had a couple of musical movements that seemed to fit, so I just elaborated a little bit, because I wasn’t sure what the lyrics meant. I couldn’t run upstairs and say, ‘What’s this mean, Bob? “Now the heart is filled with gold as if it was a purse”?'” – Richard Manuel*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Rolling Stone Magazine
Feb 18, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: This Wheel’s on Fire
What you should know about this song: Dylan collaborated with Rick Danko on this piece during the so-called “basement Tape” sessions of 1967. It was first covered by Julie Driscoll the following year, and later by Danko himself for a debut LP, Music from Big Pink. Dylan finally released his own rendition in 1975.
“I was teaching myself to play piano. Some music I had written on the piano the day before just seemed to fit with Dylan’s lyrics. Then Dylan and I wrote the chorus together.” – Rick Danko*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Ken Regan
Feb 17, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: You Ain’t Going Nowhere
Phish Cover Version: You Ain’t Going Nowhere
The Byrds Cover Version: You Ain’t Going Nowhere
What you should know about this song: Another legendary “Basement Tapes” released, Dylan originally committed this song to tape with two very different sets of lyrics. The Byrds covered it in 1968 with the more conventional lyrics, making the song a country-rock standard. Dylan included it on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2.in 1971, but it wasn’t until 16 years later that he actually debuted it on the road.
“We were one of the first people to hear his basement tape. That song just jumped out at us. It seemed to fit in perfectly with what we wanted to do when we were cutting that country album Sweetheart of the Rodeo down in Nashville.” – Chris Hillman, The Byrds*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source
Feb 16, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Quinn the Eskimo
Manfred Mann’s Cover Version: Quinn the Eskimo
Grateful Dead Cover Version: Quinn the Eskimo
What you should know about this song: This was another song Dylan released through the “Basement Tapes” recording, which he made with future members of The Band. The song was first brought to public attention by the British pop group Manfred Mann, who had received the “Basement Tapes” version and made their cover that topped the UK charts in early 1968. The next year, Dylan and The Band played “Quinn the Eskimo” at the Isle of Wight festival, the recording of which was included on Dylan’s 1970 release Self Portrait.
“I think Dylan really loved the stuff we did, and in the 60s he said he preferred our versions to anyone else’s. That’s because we treated them with a lack of respect and changed things around, rather than just copying them.” – Manfred Mann*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Don Hunstein
