Bob Dylan / 4:37
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, harmonica
Mac Gayden: guitar (?)
Wayne Moss: guitar
Hargus Robbins: piano
Wayne Butler: trombone
Charlie McCoy: trumpet
Henry Strzelecki: Hammond organ pedals
Al Kooper: tambourine
Kenneth Buttrey: drums
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: March 9 and 10, 1966
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Johnston
The inspiration for “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” came when Phil Spector and Dylan heard Ray Charles’s “Let’s Go Get Stoned” on a jukebox in Los Angeles. The song was written by Nickolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson, and Josephine Armstead, and first recorded by the Coasters in May 1965. Ray Charles’s single reached number 1 on the “Hot R&B” singles charts in June 1966.
This song has divided scholars of Dylan’s work. For some it is about drug use (as a means of escaping material world); others see instead evidence of Dylan’s talent for double meaning. To “stone” is simply to throw rocks at someone until they are dead. “To get stoned,” however, means not only to be hit by rocks but also to get drunk and also to get high on drugs. In May 1966, Dylan responded to the controversy by announcing during his performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, “I never have and never will write a ‘drug song.’ I don’t know how to. It’s not a ‘drug song,’ it’s just vulgar.”24 Did he tell the truth? On the recording, there is laughing in the background, and Dylan laughs while singing. An article in Time on July 1, 1966, stated by mistake that in the jargon of drug addicts, a “rainy-day woman” was a marijuana cigarette: “In the shifting, multi-level jargon of teenagers, to ‘get stoned’ does not mean to get drunk, but to get high on drugs… a ‘rainy-day woman,’ as any junkie knows, is a marijuana cigarette.”
The opening song of the album, “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” was recorded during the last recording session for the album and contrasts from a musical point of view with what Dylan had previously recorded. This is the first Dylan song recorded with brass instruments, which gives the piece its singular atmosphere, as do the circumstances of the actual recording. Bob Johnston recalls, “He played me the song and I said, ‘That sounds like it’s for a damn Salvation Army band.’ He [Dylan] said, ‘Can you get one?’ and I told him, ‘Probably not, but I can try.’”61 Dylan needed the sound of brass. Johnston asked McCoy to find brass players quickly. He called his friend Wayne Butler, a trombone player. Al Kooper remembers, “They called him in the middle of the night, and in half an hour he was there, in a shirt and tie and suit, immaculately groomed! He played twenty or thirty minutes, and then graciously left.”24 To smooth out the sound of the trombone, McCoy played trumpet and Dylan harmonica. For the rhythm, Johnston asked Kenneth Buttrey to dismantle his drum kit. “I put a drum around Kenneth Buttrey’s neck and had him bang it while marching around the studio. That was the first time I ever heard Dylan truly laugh.”61 On the recording, cymbals (hi-hat) and a bass drum are heard. Who played—Buttrey—or other musicians? Al Kooper switched from keyboard to tambourine, Wayne Moss played bass, and Henry Strzelecki lay on the floor with his hands playing Kooper’s organ! The main harmonic support of the song comes from the extraordinary piano part played by the legendary blind pianist Hargus Robbins, known as “Pig.” Dylan was too embarrassed to use his nickname. Kooper recalls that to overcome this embarrassment, he asked someone else to tell him his comments. Producer Bob Johnston recalled “all of us walking around, yelling, playing, and singing.”
By listening to “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” it is difficult to say whether or not other instruments also give color to this piece. No guitar is heard, although guitarist Mac Gayden claims to have been present, but there seem to be two trombone parts: one plays a melodic riff, and the second trombone overdubs the bass line playing “the pump.” Finally, at his request, Dylan was accompanied by all musicians laughing and shouting in the background to create a festive atmosphere. Satisfied with this unorthodox performance, Dylan laughs at 0:48 and 1:32. There has been some speculation that musicians were “under the influence.” However, Al Kooper later insisted that none of the musicians were stoned. In 2012 at a conference at Belmont University in Nashville, he stated, “These were really professional people, and they wouldn’t do anything like that.”18
“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” was recorded in one take on the night of March 9–10, 1966, initially under the working title “A Long-Haired Mule and a Porcupine Here.” The song follows the harmonic structure of a simple blues song. A shorter version of the song was released as a single a month later, omitting the third and fourth verses, and with “Pledging My Time” on the B-side. “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” banned by some American and British stations because of the line in the chorus, “Everybody must get stoned,” reached number 2 on the US Billboard singles chart, and number 7 on the UK singles chart. The live performance at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31, 1969, with the Band was released on the The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) in 2013. Bob Dylan has performed “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” nearly a thousand times.