Bob Dylan / 3:04
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Bruce Langhorne: guitar
Al Gorgoni: guitar
Kenny Rankin: guitar
John Hammond Jr.: guitar (?)
Paul L. Griffin: piano
Joseph Macho Jr.: bass (?) William E. Lee: bass (?)
Bobby Gregg: drums, tambourine (?)
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: January 13 and 14, 1965
Technical Team
Producer: Tom Wilson
Sound Engineers: Roy Halee and Pete Dauria
On this tune, the spiritual son of Robert Johnson has become the younger brother of Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry, possibly just a way to tell the Rolling Stones that the blues is purely American. The lyrics of “Outlaw Blues” are an enigmatic parody of this type of music. Jesse James and Robert Ford, the outlaw who killed James, are mentioned in the text to justify the title and “black tooth” and “dark sunglasses” appear instead of “mojo” and “Blackbone.” The song is satirical. The first verse stands out, and the press has made much of the songwriter’s clever phrase, “Don’t ask me nothin’ about nothin’ / I just might tell you the truth.” The lyrics are obscure, the music bright. However, Dylan seems to have hesitated about the title. He had several working titles before deciding on “Outlaw Blues”: “California,” “Sitting on a Barbed Wire Fence,” “Tune X,” or “Key to the Highway.”
“Outlaw Blues” is definitely Dylan’s first electric song. He set aside his Gibson Nick Lucas Special for a Fender Stratocaster Sunburst, the one he later played at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. This rock song with a lot of R&B beats is far from the acoustic sound in Dylan’s four previous albums. Bob rallied his band behind the riffs of his “Strato.” Langhorne led with his accurate solos as usual; Rankin and Gorgoni played the rhythm with a strong vibrato; Macho Jr. was on bass (often not present), and Gregg played drums and tambourine, ensuring a steady rhythmic pattern with the cymbal ride. Griffin’s piano part is barely audible, covered by the flood of decibels from the others. Dylan’s voice sounds rocklike and hits the pitch in treble without problems. Tom Wilson took care to wrap the song up in a rather long reverb, doubled with a slight delay. Finally, for the first time, Dylan recorded his harmonica as an overdub. This gave him more flexibility in improvising the excellent bluesy parts.
Dylan recorded several acoustic parts on January 13, but the final take was taped the following day after two false starts. To date the songwriter has performed “Outlaw Blues” live in concert only once. This was at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, on September 20, 2007, when he played electric keyboard, not guitar. He was joined onstage by the White Stripes’ Jack White.