Poll: Dylan - "Meet Me in the Morning" or "Call Letter Blues"

Both recorded 9-16-74. Dylan had two sets of lyrics for the same tune and recorded both. Bob picked "Meet Me in the Morning", and "Call Letter Blues" sat in the can until The Bootleg Series came along. What's your pick?

 

Dylan's folks are really good at keeping his released material off of YouTube. So here's a cover of "Call Letter Blues".

 

And here's an alternate take of "Meet Me in the Morning"

 

Though I loved Call Letter when I first heard it on the Bootleg Series all those years ago, I must go with Bob's decision for the Meet Me...lyrics.

Fifty siiiiix and Wabashaw...love it.

 

Meet Me In the Morning really takes me back to Blood On the Tracks when I was young and sure that Dylan KNEW.

 

Wow, never really thought about this! MMITM seems somehow slighter lyrically, but I'm guessing that Dylan thought twice about releasing lyrics like "Well, the children cry for mother/I tell them, 'Mother took a trip'” while his marriage was disintegrating.

 

Personally this is a no-contest for me. "Call Letter Blues" by a landslide. I always considered "Meet Me in the Morning" as the slightest song on "BOTT", and I loved "Call Letter Blues" at first listen. Just a deeper, more emotional song, and one much more cut from the same cloth as the other BOTT songs, to me.

 

Ditto. Surprised by the results so far...

Edit: a relevant poll result from way back...
Round 2: which Dylan recordings are better? Originals or Bootleg Series?

 

I love that lead guitar tone on Meet Me in the Morning. It's the only time I've heard it ever used on a Dylan track, and it reminds me of Jimmy Page's tone on the solo in You Shook Me. It just sounds raw and awesome. Anyone know who plays it?

 

Wow!
Can't believe Call Letter Blues is
behind in this poll!
It's so much better!
So much more visceral
with better lyrics to.

...oh ya......IMO

 

CLB easy.

 

Call Letter ~
Absolutely, more raw energy and a real sense of immediacy.
Good call Ray...

 

"Morning" for purely musical reasons; the vocal melody is superior as well as the arrangement. That guitar tone mentioned upthread is fantastic.

 

I thought Call Letter Blues was one of the biggest revelations on The Bootleg Series. I agree with the post discussing the line about the children cry for mother and how much pain and blame it directs. It is a very powerful song and would have complimented If You See Her, Say Hello and You’re A Big Girl Now.

 

"Call Letter Blues" was and is one of my favorite songs on the Bootleg Series. Nothing against "Meet Me in the Morning," but I do prefer "Call Letter Blues".

 

Meet Me In The Morning. While I think Up To Me should have been included on the album, leaving Call Letter Blues off in favor of Meet Me In The Morning was the right thing to do in my opinion.

 

It's pedal steel guitarist Buddy Cage, a longtime member of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, probably going through some kind of distortion box or other signal processing. Of course, Cage also appears on the New York version of "You're a Big Girl Now."

 

The acoustic MMITM is the best of all for me

 

Call letter.
Perhaps Dylan felt it too personal, thus "meet me" was spun.
The alternate take posted is great stuff.

 

The trouble with picking a favorite among the three circulating versions of the song is that they were all released so many years apart from each other. The BOTT version probably has less interesting lyrics, but the vocal performance is really something, and it does blend well with the other MPLS tracks on the record; likewise, the RSD solo acoustic take, which has that NYC flavor; "Call Letter Blues" was kind of a shocker when it came out, with those raw, stinging lyrics, and is, truly, quite a different type of song.

I can't really choose, so I'm gonna punt instead -- here's Freddie King's bluesy version of Meet Me In The Morning.