"Dylan" (1973): Track-By-Track Discussion

I agree, straight down the line. Dylan is fully emotionally invested in this vocal performance (the choruses remind of his investment in "Rise Again" and "When He Returns"). I love the way he says "No money, no crops, no chance".

 

Sorry, missed that. THANKS!

 

Interestingly, it's just possible that "Oh, Lonesome Me" may have been a contender for "Dylan" if not "New Morning". The Tape Identification Data sheet for the second half of the session on 01 June shows that Take 3 was pulled to a master tape much as the only take of "Ballad of Ira Hayes" had been. "Alligator Man" (Take 6) from that session was also pulled.

We know that "Ira Hayes" was a strong contender for "New Morning" and ended up on "Dylan", and we also know that "Alligator Man" was on the first sequence for "Dylan". The earlier-discussed "Sarah Jane" came from this session, too. What is that word next to Take 4 of "Sarah Jane? "Leadered"? Is that meaning a leader/ lead-in section of tape was added to mark the start of the performance?


It's looking ever more likely, to me at least, that a limited number of tapes were made available to Mark Spector and co. to compile "Dylan" in 1973. He/ they didn't have a lot of time to do it either, it seems to me.

#

 

It also says 'out', so presumably that was cut out from this reel (and put on the master reel?)

 

Wtf is Aligator Man?

 

Sounds about right: Krosgaard has that take or Take 7 as the one on "Dylan".

 

Difficult to envision Dylan doing enough with this trite song to make it worthy of inclusion on ANY album.

 

I do love Bob's version of "Ira Hayes." Yes, it's maybe a little cornier than you would expect from a Dylan "protest" song, but he wrings maximum emotion out of it with the arrangement and a passionate vocal. By taking the country-blues jauntiness out of it, he makes you really HEAR the lyrics, and his delivery is dead serious. And yes, the ladies are put to good use here. This one is very much an outtake that could have made it onto New Morning, if they had decided to mix originals and covers.

 

When I heard "Wig Wam" used in the film The Royal Tenenbaums, it completely made me re-think the song and the album it came from (Self Portrait). Sometimes a little shift in context is all you need to appreciate something.

 

He does.

 

Does anybody reading this thread have the book Mansion On The Hill? It's supposedly all about the dirty business side of music, focusing on Dylan, Springsteen, Neil Young, Geffen, and others. It would seem like the tale of the Dylan LP would be perfect for this book....

 

. Very difficult, indeed.

In a 22-page interview conducted by the late Terry Kelly and published in The Bridge #27 (Spring 2007), Michael Krogsgaard said this:-

"The original version of the "Dylan" album, which was actually made as a matrix, included interesting takes like "Runnin" (from 1969) and "Alligator Man" from the 1970 sessions."

Unfortunately, Terry didn't ask him to expand on his use of the term "interesting"...


I think I know what the word "matrix" means but I'm not sure what is meant by "Dylan" being "made as a matrix". Clues, anyone?

 

I think the lack of Dylan originals on "Dylan" is a crucial point. Regardless of the cost in paying him mechanical royalties, am I right in thinking that he could have stopped them using his songs on an unauthorized release, in the grand bootlegging tradition? Even if Grossman owned half of the songs, the urgency of getting product out before Planet Waves would have discouraged any questionable situations on Columbia's part. The financial power of Dylan's (and most other songwriter's) publishing, especially in those days, cannot be underestimated, as I'm sure we all realise. I think a lot of decisions about his recorded output have been governed by publishing considerations, many more than we'll probably ever know about. The whole Basement Tapes saga for example. (Deep water....)

Back to Sarah Jane - The Scottish Folk Rock group The JSD Band released a version of the song on their "Travelling Days" album on Cube/EMI Records at almost exactly the same time as "Dylan" as I recall. Sounded just as chaotic too.

 

I never bought into the revenge theory. Dylan owed Columbia one more LP to finish off his second Columbia contract. Dylan was it. Dylan couldn't have stopped it. He could have assembled his own version from the outtakes, but he didn't.

I don't think the LP damaged his reputation. I got into Dylan in the late 60's, and it seemed then ever change in direction pissed someone off. Isn't part of Dylan's artist reputation, is he does what he wants. One alledgely bad LP out of 16 released doesn't damages ones reputation.

I believe the big reason for all the cover songs were two fold. One is, he likes the cover songs, he started his career that way and look at all the great ones he covered in The Basement Tapes. Two he had a major falling out with Albert Grossman. Aledgedly over Albert getting a larger share of Bob's piece of the song writing pie, than Bob knew about. Think about it, would Bob want to write songs that he didn't feel he owned all the rights to?

Had Albert been around at the split from Columbia, I believe we would had gotten something different than Dylan.

I view the Dylan LP as look at his sketchbook. He is playing with differen songs, arrangements and ideas. If it fails, it is because it is not Hwy 61 or Blood On The Tracks which we are always salivating for.

 

It may mean it got as far as a test pressing.

 

To my knowledge, "Runnin"" remains unidentified. If the song is as "interesting" as "Alligator Man", we may not be missing much!

 

As I see it, the correct title was More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits (this is definitely true in the UK since I remember buying the album with this title).

In the US it was apparently called Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II.

Sarah Jane - a great fun track sung with gusto after the rather throw away version of Can't Help Falling Off A Log. The female voices should be irritating but for some reason they're not. Bob's vocal is sublime.

Ira Hayes - listening to the other singers' versions posted here you realise what a good job Dylan does with this song. I don't find it too long and the vocal has a certain gravitas which sounds sincere.

 

If I were to compile a single disc of Bob highlights from the seventies, I don't think anything from this album would make the cut - which says more about the brilliance of what was to follow than it does about the lack of the quality here. However, The Ballad of Ira Hayes would come pretty close. I've always regarded it as the centerpiece of the album and one of Dylan's most affective vocals.

When most artists attempt this Luke the Drifter-type material, it comes across as cheesy and forced, but Dylan does it with such expression and sincerity. Some of my favourite Dylan tracks contain portions of spoken word - Sign on the Cross, Long and Wasted Years and my all time favourite, Brownsville Girl. No one sings like Dylan, but no one talks like him either! The fact that this was apparently recorded in a single take, definitely helps the prose sound fresh; if it had have got to take four or five, I doubt Dylan would have been as engaging.

That powerful chorus has a distinct quality that I find lacking in the La Farge and Cash versions (and also the lyric); a sense of empathy. Rather than the matter of fact delivery of earlier versions of the song, Dylan's voice conveys a tragedy. The minimal production and careful use of backing vocalists to add texture but not overwhelm, gives the performance a haunting quality.

The lyrics itself lacks the craftsmanship and persuasiveness of a Dylan original of this kind. It wouldn't stand up particularly well against the likes of Hollis Brown, Hattie Carroll or Only a Pawn in their Game. But the way that Dylan manages to overcome this and draw the listener in as if the song was one of his own, is a real triumph.

 

^^^^^^
Other interesting "spoken" tracks might include "Hezekiah Jones" (studio), "Clothesline Saga," and, to a degree, "TV Talkin":

 

Check out the version by Patrick Sky.
I think it's the definitive interpretation.

 

How many tapes/sessions were used to compile the album?
I agree that either little effort was made to go through the full album sessions for more material, or only a few reels were made available to use. We might find it meaningful that no Dylan originals were included, or the better outtakes that we've heard since, but that might not mean much if the compiler simply never heard them.
The album is also striking in its brevity - at 33 minutes long, it's shorter even than the Pat Garrett soundtrack - only Nashville Skyline was shorter among Dylan's albums. This also suggests a job done in haste, picking just a few songs that came readily to hand.

 

Aside from ownership of the tapes, there were a couple other reasons for Columbia not to release any Basement Tapes at the time: one, they'd reportedly rejected including some of them on Greatest Hits 2 due to the sound quality, so they wouldn't leap at releasing a whole album of demo quality. Also, the Band were on Capitol Records, and Columbia might have been reluctant to put out an album of Dylan originals played by a band that was on another label.

What I wonder is, what '60s material might Columbia have put out if Dylan had not returned to the label? Would they ever have released, say, Carnegie Hall '63 or Manchester '66? Today we might think of archival releases as natural sellers, supporting Dylan's artistic stature; but I'm having a hard time thinking of many archival releases in the '70s by artists who were still making new records. (Anyone?)
With the choice between releasing, say, a ten-year old live album, or a Self Portrait part 2 which might well go gold (as it did), it was a no-brainer for the Columbia suits. The album selection process might have been poor and misguided, but I sense a desire for quick profits rather than spite for Dylan & his record-buyers (even if the two motives are hard to distinguish). Musically some clueless choices may be on the album, but it looks to me like those choices were made to increase immediate sales based on how well Self Portrait had done (a "more of the same" approach, with a bunch of recognizable cover songs), rather than for any artistic reasons.

 

Like other here pointed out Dylan is very good performing songs in a Luke the drifter way. In many ways Dylan the trickster is a brilliant impersonator in this case of Hank Williams. That style suits Ira Hayes well and really hits home when it comes to deliver the tragedy and injustice in the songs lyrics. With that said -for me Johnny Cash s version will always be the definite.