Bob Dylan / 2:26
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, piano, harmonica
Pete Drake: pedal steel guitar
Charlie McCoy: bass
Kenneth Buttrey: drums
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: November 29, 1967
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Johnston
Sound Engineer: Charlie Bragg
At first, hearing “Down Along the Cove” seems out of place among the other songs on John Wesley Harding, most of which have a quasi-mystical worldview. This is not the case with “Down Along the Cove.” The song has an immediacy because it expresses the simple pleasures of life. On the previous track, the song concerned a “wicked messenger.” In “Down Along the Cove,” there is no fatal destiny, but rather “good news” embodied by the beloved. Even better, a mutual love, which is exalted, “Down along the cove / I spied my true love comin’ my way.” Dylan thanks the Lord for his mercy and expresses his true love and joy: “Ev’rybody watchin’ us go by / Knows we’re in love, yes, and they understand.” The message of the song is addressed to Sara, to the couple, to the Dylan family after the birth of son Jesse Byron (January 6, 1966) and then that of Anna Leigh (July 11, 1967).
In a typical Dylan paradox, the song has a country-blues structure—“devil’s music” expressing all the problems of African-American people—but is the most optimistic song on the album. Dylan played piano in a style that is reminiscent of 1950s rock ’n’ roll, in particular Jerry Lee Lewis’s style. The originality lies primarily in Pete Drake on pedal steel guitar, a virtuoso on the instrument. Drake has accompanied the most famous names in Nashville, from Jerry Reed to Doug Kershaw to rock stars including former Beatles Ringo Starr and George Harrison. It is regrettable that his guitar playing is undermixed and a little too reserved. Drake, unfortunately, did not accompany Dylan’s great harmonica chorus (in E) at the end of the song. The rhythm part is excellent. Buttrey and McCoy enjoy playing bass and drums, and they let off some steam providing a rhythm part close to their musical roots. With “Down Along the Cove,” Dylan gave us a hint of his next country-and-western album, Nashville Skyline, released in 1969.
“Down Along the Cove” was recorded during the second session on November 29, 1967, in an unknown number of takes. Dylan performed this song for the first time live at the EMU Ballroom on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, on June 14, 1999. He performed the song with some regularity until its last live performance in Rome in 2006.