Bob Dylan - "Down In The Groove" Song-By-Song Discussion Thread

Bob and Bruce are good buddies, I know...I remember at the RNR HOF show when Bob brought on Springsteen and told the crowd "All right, everybody say Brooooce!"

And IIRC, Dylan and Springsteen were the only two singers to be invited back to Frank Sinatra's house after Frank's last big tribute show (them, and not any of the Frank wannabees like Harry Connick Jr.)

 

DOWN IN THE GROOVE is so misunderstood. I think it's a minor masterpiece. There's some wonderful music on there.

 

Try a post over in the Visual Arts forum -- those people find everything!

 

I agree with the third sentence in your paragraph. <s>

 

Can we talk about "When Did You Leave Heaven?" yet? I really like it! The combination of old song, Bobs voice and almost dreamy synth is really something different.

 

Sure, it's practically tomorrow in England ... go for it!

 

I just took a whirlwind YouTube tour of When Did You Leave Heaven... I didn't know it was such an old standard. Apart from the jazz/big band/crooner recordings, it appears that Big Bill Broonzy did a popular version, which was later emulated by Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood and others.

I don't have the remastered version of DITG, but the sample of ...Heaven on amazon sounds much, much better than it did on the old LP. I might have to reconsider this track as a "keeper."

 

I got into Dylan through the Traveling Wilburys, and "Under the Red Sky" was my first Dylan album. However, "Down in the Groove" was never my cup of tea. "Silvio" sits well on "Greatest Hits 3" so I don't need the album.

 

OK, Bob doing an old standard backed by synths...that is a filler.

 

I don't have anything against this song, per se, but I really dislike this recording and its production. I definitely prefer the live Never-Ending Tour versions that don't have synthesizer and processed/fake percussion.

 

I somewhat like the opening synth, it's not obnoxious like a lot of the ilk of that time. Dylan slows the tempo of the song to make it almost unreconizible with the versions by Big Bill Broonzy and the run thru that Eric Clapton does on the Rolling Hotel. Not anything major in his canon but I do like this version and play it on occasion. For me Dylan's voice really seems to connect with what he's singing.

 

The original?

 

Onwards to Track 3. Yet another cover, drawn from the same era and genre as "Let's Stick Together".

"Sally Sue Brown" was Arthur Alexander's first single.



Opinions?

 

No luck finding a YouTube link, but I prefer Elvis Costello's cover of "Sally Sue Brown" from the "Adios Amgio" Arthur Alexander tribute album over Bob's version.

 

I'd never heard that Arthur Alexander cut before -- I have his greatest hits CD, with so many fantastic performances, but that song isn't on it. Too bad, it's a great, great version -- I love that bluesy acoustic guitar lick, and I have to say I prefer Arthur's recording over Dylan's cover.

But it immediately brought to mind another song (sorry to digress):

 

Interesting. I had never heard "Kiddio" before, but the song that IT immediately brought to mind wasn't "Sally Sue Brown" for me:

 

I love that song, Elvis' and the Drifters/Clyde McPhatter original. The song(s) borrows from the old Hootchie-Cootchie Man (Muddy Waters) riff, that's for sure. (Also used in No Money Down by Chuck Berry and dozens of other songs.)

Dylan's version of Sally Sue Brown is marred, I believe, by a thin, weak vocal, and also by the female harmony part. If he would have done a rougher, straight R&B take, it might have been a keeper for me.

 

Re Dylan's vocal, I certainly agree. It doesn't have a great deal of punch to it, is too low in the mix, and the harmony vocal doesn't really help. We don't have access to studio documentation to tell us, but this sounds like a one take deal that would have benefited from another go.

 

This is going fast...........
I don't love the studio version of "When Did You Leave Heaven".......dislike the synth at the beginning. Seems to rushed/thrown together I saw him play it live in 1989 in a slowed down acoustic based version..........was much better.

"Sally Sue Brown" could've used more takes.

 

I'm guessing we were at the same "When Did You Leave Heaven" show - Holmdel 7-21-89. When G.E. kicked off the show with the riff from "Trouble" I almost fell over

 

Day 4, Track 4 ... "Death Is Not The End".

The first Dylan original on the album turns out to be a 5 year old outtake from the "Infidels" sessions. Tapes of "Death Is Not The End" had been circulating already at this time, but the "Down in the Groove" version added overdubbed backing vocals, courtesy of Dylan's Columbia label mates Full Force. Overdubbed backing vocals were also added to another "Infidels" outtake, "Tell Me", apparently at this time- that version eventually released on "Bootleg Series 3".

"Death Is Not The End" was the final song recorded during the "Infidels" sessions, done in one take, but quickly fell out of contention for a place on the album. The lyrics, to me, seem more at home in 1979-1980 than 1983. The tune, well ... there's not much going on here musically (it reminds me a bit of the [non]tunes behind some of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" songs). I enjoy the fire and brimstone lyrics of '79-'80, so I find sufficient redemption in the lyrics to make this an interesting track. "When the cities are on fire with the burning flesh of men" ... Bob means business here. I also like the crack in Dylan's voice mid-song - very human and very real. Despite my personal belief that death is most assuredly the end, I enjoy this track. It certainly feels out of place after 3 secular cover songs, and its previous circulation can't help but make it feel a bit like leftovers for dinner, however.

A cover:

 

Excellent summary and background.

Death Is Not The End wouldn't have sounded out of place in the Basement Tapes, near Sign on the Cross, or on one of Bob's gospel LPs, as you note. I can also hear it as an old Carter Family hymn. But for some inexplicable reason, this song came to mind when listening to the cover you posted:

 

I love this album

 

Yep......"Trouble" caught me by surprise too.

"Death Is Not The End" - great write up. One of the best songs on the album.