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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by RayS, Jul 17, 2014.

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  1. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

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    Out of My Element
    Good call - I can absolutely hear "Death Is Not The End" in Hank's song. I can see this being Dylan's inspiration, consciously or unconsciously.
     
  2. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    DINTE has always reminded me of 'Forever Young' more than anything.
     
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  3. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Both about "eternal life," that's for sure.
     
  4. Complier

    Complier Senior Member

    Location:
    Harrisburg, PA
    "Death Is Not The End" was used over the closing credits of last week's "True Blood".
     
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  5. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Not that I think this song is particularly ripe for covering, but I think it would be interesting to hear an upbeat take on it. The lyrics, after all, are expressing good news (Some might even say "THE Good News") - no matter how miserable this life gets there's something much better and more permanent coming later. Yet Dylan sings it as a dirge, and sounds absolutely dour when he talks about "the bright light of salvation".
     
  6. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    And the tune and tempo. You can just about sing FY to the tune of DINTE.

    Plus the lyrics of both emphasize 'you' a lot, i.e, 'When you're sad and when you're lonely and you haven't got a friend'/'May God bless and keep you always, may you're wishes all come true'.
     
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  7. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Yes, absolutely true. Good catch!
     
  8. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

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    Hank: "When you've strayed from the fold and there's trouble in your soul..."
     
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  9. Thrillsville

    Thrillsville Forum Resident

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    While not exactly upbeat, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds covered this song as a sing-a-long with PJ Harvey, Kylie Minogue and Shane MacGowan at the end of an album full of deaths (Murder Ballads, 1996) which made it sound at least redemptive and a little bit... cheerful(?)
     
  10. DmitriKaramazov

    DmitriKaramazov Senior Member

    I have always loved this song, and the unusual performance Bob gives it. It seems heartbreakingly beautiful, to me. Seems like Bob giving us something a little off the wall, but it's great.
     
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  11. jamiesjamies

    jamiesjamies Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leeds, England

    Totally agree!
     
  12. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I like DINTE. I think Infidels was a high point of his 80s output anyway, so no surprise that a leftover turns out to be pretty good too.

    Slightly off topic, but in reference to those folks wondering why a better Infidels outtake wasn't used, perhaps they were already compiling the first release of the Bootleg Series.
     
  13. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Day 5 ... Track 5. "Had A Dream About You, Baby".

    Dylan had agreed to write and record 4 originals for inclusion on the "Hearts of Fire" soundtrack. He managed 2 originals ("Had A Dream About You, Baby" and "Night After Night") and a cover ("The Usual"). As mentioned earlier in the thread, a second cover, of Shel Silverstein's "A Couple More Years", appeared in the film but was not included on the soundtrack album (which also contains songs by the film's other two "stars" - Rupert Everett and Fiona). The soundtrack album bombed as badly as the film and is long out of print.

    Apparently desperate to fill up "Down in the Groove", "The Usual" was slated for inclusion at some point. I suspect that this strategy was rethought - another cover was not going to help boost an album already top-heavy with covers. So "Had A Dream About You, Baby" got the nod (albeit in an alternate mix).

    While the 80's production is a bit grating, this song isn't so bad. It's also not so GOOD either. "Filler" is an overused term, but in this case the shoe seems to fit. "Had A Dream About You, Baby" actually got some live outings during the early stages of the Never-Ending Tour, but then faded into obscurity.

    Thoughts?
     
  14. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Had A Dream About You Baby...As Elvis Presley once said, "That don't move me..." Another example of Dylan's perverse song choices, considering what else he had to choose from. And again, his voice sounds somewhat tired and weak.

    EDIT: Clinton Heylin, whom I don't always admire, called this "possibly" Dylan's worst song ever.

    (As for The Usual, I really prefer John Hiatt's original version.)
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2014
  15. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    "Had A Dream About You, Baby" and "Night After Night" are cut from much the same cloth. Perhaps they both derive from the same composing session, or even both grew out of a single source.

    "Late last night you come a-rolling across my mind" (HADAYB)

    "Night after night, you wander the streets of my mind." (NAN)

    Dylan's worst song ever? Not for me. Of the released canon, I think I'll go with "Peggy Day".
     
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  16. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    I can't add anything worthwhile to your last paragraph. I'll take 'Peggy Day' over it though. And at least Bob had some other good songs to record at that (1969) time. This mid-80's slump is worse than that amnesia, IMO.
     
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  17. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    For me, it's Ballad in Plain D. I've always skipped that track on the 4th LP. (I love the acoustic guitar/dobro/steel guitar work on Peggy Day.)
     
  18. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    I am a "lyrics guy", so no matter how much the instrumentation on "Peggy Day" might be saying "Hey, look over here!", my ears stay peeled to the lyrics as they commit their awful crime.

    While I admit that it would have be nice if he wrote an actual TUNE (or even stole one) to go with the lyrics in "Ballad in Plain D", I can get past that more or less because there are many interesting (if overblown) turns of phrase in the song.
     
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  19. JAuz

    JAuz Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    The Waterboys have a cover of "Death Is Not The End" as well. Recorded for a radio session in January 1986 (before Bob's official version came out), it was released in the late '90s on The Live Adventures Of The Waterboys. It would be interesting to hear a "big music" take on the song, but this is more of a Fisherman's Blues style.

    Did Mike Scott get this song from a boot or from Dylan himself?
     
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  20. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Thanks for the post - I really liked this rendition!



    The song was circulating with Dylan tape collectors long before "Down In The Groove" came out, so he surely could have heard it that way.
     
  21. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I dig the Waterboys and Fisherman's Blues is a real favorite of mine. I'll have to look for the live recording...thanks.

    EDIT: I see Hawkeye RayS already found it.
     
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  22. majorlance

    majorlance Forum Resident

    Location:
    PATCO Speedline
    Such as "The constant scrapegoat, she was easily undone/By the jealousy of others around her"??? :hide:
     
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  23. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Thank you.
     
  24. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    He was simply ahead of his time :)

    scrapegoat
    scrape- to intrude on someone else's private conversation when they are not wanted. If someone is known to 'scrape' often and does it many times they become known as a scrapegoat. Therefore when that person tries to start conversation with a group of people, without actually scraping somebody will tell them they should "scrape out". This mean that anytime the person known as a scrapegoat they are 'scraping even though they might not be, its just everybody takes joy in calling them a scrape.

    (Urban Dictionary)
     
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  25. JAuz

    JAuz Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I came across Mike Scott's description of a Dylan/Waterboys meeting in 1985. I wonder if the song was discussed or even played then (the timeframe would be right), or if that had nothing to do with it and came from a collector's tape as you suggest.

    http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2013/...-the-waterboys-mike-scott-playing-with-dylan/
     
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