Bringing It All Back Home Outtakes
“Farewell, Angelina” and “If You Gotta Go, Go Now,” were recorded during the first sessions for Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. They did not make the final cut, and were subsequently released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991. Nevertheless, both tunes were sung to acclaim by Joan Baez and the British folk-rock band Fairport Convention.
 | If You Gotta Go, Go Now Bob Dylan / 2:54 |
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica; Bruce Langhorne: guitar; Al Gorgoni: guitar; Kenny Akin: guitar; Paul Griffin: electric piano (?); Frank Owens: electric piano (?); Joseph Macho Jr.: bass; William E. Lee: bass (?); Bobby Gregg: drums, tambourine (?); Unknown: backing vocals / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: January 15, 1965 / Producer: Tom Wilson / Sound Engineers: Roy Halee and Pete Dauria / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991 (CD 2) / Release Date: March 26, 1991
“If you got to go, it’s all right… or else you gotta stay all night” is the message of this song. We cannot be more direct: “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” is to Dylan what “Let’s Spend the Night Together” was for the Rolling Stones in 1967. It is also a way for the songwriter to hide his double image as a protest singer and a tormented poet.
Bob Dylan performed this song on acoustic guitar a dozen times between his concert at Symphony Hall in Boston on October 24, 1964, and at the Royal Albert Hall in London on May 9, 1965. He probably used the melody to provide some needed relief between two other serious and long compositions, “Gates of Eden” and “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding).” The song was recorded four months before his concert in London. On January 13, Dylan recorded it solo in one take. He recorded it again accompanied by a band on January 15. It was the last song worked on for the album and was done in four takes.
The list of musicians differs among the sources. Dylan was probably accompanied by four guitarists, including Bruce Langhorne. For the first time on the album, there is an electric piano (Wurlitzer and Hohner Pianet) played by Paul Griffin or Frank Owens. Finally, the rhythm part was provided by Bobby Gregg and a priori by Joseph Macho Jr. It is, as always, effective. But the recording was not complete, since on May 21 producer Tom Wilson brought several unidentified musicians to overdub backing vocals to support the chorus. Seven takes were made. It is also quite possible that Bob recorded his harmonica part, which sounds too strangely clean to have been recorded live with the band.
Even though “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” was recorded during the sessions for the album Bringing It All Back Home, it was not included on the LP. However, the song was released as a single in the Netherlands in 1967 with “To Ramona” on the B-side. This is the same version found on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, released in 1991. Long before being released on the bootleg series, this song was covered by the British bands Liverpool Five in July 1965 and Manfred Mann two months later. This later version reached number 2 on the UK charts. Johnny Hallyday’s version is called “Maintenant ou jamais” (“Now or Never”).
| Farewell, Angelina Bob Dylan / 5:27 |
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: January 13, 1965 / Producer: Tom Wilson / Sound Engineers: Roy Halee and Fred Catero / Set Box: The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991 (CD 2) / Release Date: March 26, 1991
According to some sources, Bob Dylan wrote “Farewell, Angelina” in 1964 for his album Another Side of Bob Dylan. But John Bauldie, the author of the booklet for the boxed set The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, claims that the song dates from early 1965.
“Farewell, Angelina” marks a step forward in Dylan’s writing style. If he sings of the coming birth of a new world from the ashes of the old one—a subject common to many of his songs, such as “When the Ship Comes In” and “Desolation Row”—his poetic approach is here both symbolist and surrealist. “The jacks and the queens / Have forsaked the courtyard / Fifty-two gypsies / Now file past the guards.” He gives listeners the impression of a dying world through the resonance of the lyrics, and by the sadness of his monotonous voice singing about the solitude of the central character and the broken heart of the narrator who leaves to fulfill his duty. As Jim Beviglia noted, “The sky over the world of popular song was certainly on fire, and Bob Dylan was the one holding the torch.”58
Bob Dylan recorded “Farewell, Angelina” on January 13, 1965, during the first session for his album Bringing It All Back Home, under the working title “Alcatraz to the 5th Power.” If the tune was not selected for the album, it was simply because the songwriter had given it to Joan Baez, who named her 1965 album Farewell, Angelina. Dylan’s interpretation is a model of its kind: a few chords on acoustic guitar and his voice in multiple variations, intensely emotional. However, at 4:32, he hits the strings of his Gibson Nick Lucas and the last verse seems to be from a different take, even though the session register mentions only a single take. The sound is not the same. Obviously there was a problem in the recording.
Even if Bob Dylan never performed “Farewell, Angelina” onstage, the melody has inspired many others, including Joan Baez, Jeff Buckley, French singer Hugues Aufray, and Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. Pierre Delanoë’s adaptation was translated into French under the title “Adieu Angelina.” All these versions have a common point, the deletion of verse six: “The camouflaged parrot, he flutters from fear / When something he doesn’t know about suddenly appears / What cannot be imitated perfect must die / Farewell Angelina, the sky is flooding over and I must go where it is dry.”