Bob Dylan / 3:13
Musicians (New York)
Bob Dylan: guitar
Al Kooper: guitar, organ (?)
David Bromberg: guitar
Hilda Harris, Albertine Robinson, and Maeretha Stewart: chorus
Musicians (Nashville)
Bob Moore: bass (?)
Billy Walker: conductor and arrangement
Rex Peer, Dennis A. Good, and Frank C. Smith: trombones
William Pursell: piano
Gene A. Mullins: baritone horn
Martha McCrory and Byron T. Bach: cello
Gary Van Osdale: viola
Solie I. Fott: violin, viola
Lilian V. Hunt, Sheldon Kurland, Martin Katahn, Marvin D. Chantry, Brenton B. Banks, George Binkley, and Barry McDonald: violins
Recording Studios
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 5, 1970; Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: March 11 and 17, 1970
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Johnston
Sound Engineers (New York): Don Puluse and Doug Pommery
Sound Engineer (Nashville): Neil Wilburn
Right from the opening of Self Portrait, Bob Dylan seems to enjoy covering his tracks. “All the Tired Horses” is only made up of two sentences that are repeated over and over again for some three minutes by a female choir. Dylan was absent, either in singing, on guitar, or on piano. What is meant by “All the tired horses in the sun / How’m I supposed to get any ridin’ done?” The songwriter is probably addressing his public, comparing himself to a burned-out old horse who only wants to rest. In Christopher Ricks’s book Dylan’s Visions of Sin, he states that the first definition of “in the sun” in the Oxford English Dictionary is “freed from any responsibility or burden.”
There is a reason why “All the Tired Horses” opens the album. If Dylan wanted to surprise us, he achieved his goal. It is the first song of his career, not counting the instrumentals, in which he does not sing; a female choir with gospel tones replaces him. This choir, which starts with a fade-in and disappears with a fade-out, gives the listener the strange feeling of an almost surreal apparition. What was curious was that at the time of John Wesley Harding, the songwriter avoided the exaggeration of psychedelic records, which were too ambitious for his taste. Apparently, this was no longer the case. Like the Beatles, who had just released “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” or “I Need Your Lovin’” by Don Gardner and Dee Dee Ford (1962), Dylan reduced his text down to two simple sentences. He wanted listeners to understand and respect his artistic vision, no matter how different is might be.
The recording of “All the Tired Horses” was done in several stages, as were most of the songs on Self Portrait. One session took place in New York on March 5, 1970 (a recording of which one can hear on The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait [1969–1971]). The chorus, made up of Hilda Harris, Albertine Robinson, and Maeretha Stewart, was accompanied by two acoustic guitars (played by either Dylan, David Bromberg, or Al Kooper). After this the tapes were sent to Nashville for the overdubs that began on March 11 with the addition of an organ (Kooper?) and a bass. The musicians were not clearly identified. The choruses were copied over several times in order to lengthen the song.