Bob Dylan / 2:50
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Charlie McCoy: bass
Kenneth Buttrey: drums
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: October 17, 1967
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Johnston
Sound Engineer: Charlie Bragg
Bob Dylan wrote “Drifter’s Escape” for the album John Wesley Harding after seeing the movie The Ox-Bow Incident, directed by William A. Wellman (1943). The movie stars Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, and Anthony Quinn and concerns three men suspected of cattle rustling in a small town in Nevada. They are convicted and hanged. Only one citizen speaks out against the majority to ask, in vain, for a fair trial.
The “weak character” discussed throughout the song is actually quite comparable to the two characters in “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest.” He also tries to escape from a rigid society. However, there are two notable differences. The drifter, like the unfortunate Joseph K. in The Trial (1925) by Franz Kafka, is a victim of a system he does not understand. In the first verse, Dylan sings, “And I still do not know / What it was that I’ve done wrong.” He faces a crowd and a jury bent on revenge and find him guilty, even though the judge is sympathetic but powerless.
The lightning that strikes the courthouse can be seen as divine intervention, the hand of God, or perhaps as a metaphor for the motorcycle accident Dylan suffered on July 29, 1966, resulting in a kind of rebirth. Before the accident, a suicidal Dylan was in search of light, and afterward, an almost mystical Dylan was able to find an answer to his questions, much like the drifter who leaves the courthouse “while ev’rybody knelt to pray.”
“Drifter’s Escape” was recorded on October 17, 1967, and was the first song recorded for John Wesley Harding. It was recorded in five takes. The second take was selected as the master. The song ends with a very fast and steep fade-out, obviously to hide a defect. Dylan’s voice is plaintive and anxious, as are the notes from his harmonica (in D), underscoring the disorder of the vagabond, of the songwriter himself. As a drifter a few years earlier, Dylan did not understand the criticism he received. The high tessitura, probably a deliberate choice, achieves this tense and fragile tone. “Drifter’s Escape” is based harmonically on two chords, which allows many musicians who have recorded the song to exploit its rock side, electric and hypnotic. Dylan performed it in concert in an energetic way, probably influenced by Jimi Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower.” The combination of bass and drums by Buttrey and McCoy is once again excellent. Joey Burns, Calexico’s singer and guitarist, told Mojo he was struck by “Drifter’s Escape”: “The song has this story, and then there’s a moral behind it as well. Then you start getting into the performance aspect: the looseness of his delivery, the band’s playing—which is just phenomenal. It’s not overdone, it’s not over-thought. It’s just very organic and completely beautiful.”76 Dylan interpreted the song in the comedy-drama film Masked and Anonymous, directed by Jeff Rosen in 2003. The film script was written by Bob Dylan and Larry Charles.