Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 2:02
Musicians (New York)
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
David Bromberg: guitar
Musicians (Nashville)
Charlie McCoy: guitar (?), ukulele (?)
Bob Moore: bass
Kenny Buttrey: bongos, brushes
Recording Studios
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 3, 1970; Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: March 11 and/or April 2, 1970
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Johnston
Sound Engineer (New York): Don Puluse
Sound Engineer (Nashville): Neil Wilburn
Unlike “In Search of Little Sadie,” “Little Sadie” is an adaptation of a traditional Appalachian song first recorded by Clarence Ashley in 1929. The song was also recorded by other music pioneers and known as “Bad Man Ballad” (Willie Rayford), “Cocaine Blues” (Billy Hughes, long before Johnny Cash), and “Bad Lee Brown” (Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston). This “murder ballad” took back its original name, “Little Sadie,” with recordings by Doc Watson, John Renbourn, Hank Williams III, the Old Crow Medicine Show, and Norman Blake (the original soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou?).
Dylan recorded a faithful cover of the recording by Clarence Ashley—not the 1929 version, but the version recorded by Doc Watson and released in 1963. The second verse, about gents and gamblers who take Sadie to the burying ground, does not appear in either version. Presumably Dylan, like Ashley and Watson a few years earlier, did not want us to believe that “little Sadie” may have been a prostitute. Possibly for the same reason Woody Guthrie sang, “I cried, Lord in heaven, have some mercy on me / I’ll be here for the rest of my life / All I done was kill my wife” in “Bad Lee Brown.”
Bob Dylan and David Bromberg alone recorded the base tracks for “Little Sadie” on March 3 in New York. Dylan was on vocals (his voice a blend of old and new intonation) and acoustic guitar, and Bromberg solo on acoustic guitar. Later, in Nashville, Charlie McCoy added what appears to be a ukulele or perhaps a nylon-string guitar with a capo placed high on the neck. Bob Moore played an effective bass line, and Kenny Buttrey was on bongos and a snare drum played with brushes. “Little Sadie” is a good song, except for the lyrics that have nothing to do with “In Search of Little Sadie.”
Bob Dylan / 2:07
Musicians (New York): Bob Dylan: guitar; David Bromberg: guitar; Al Kooper: organ, piano (?) / Musicians (Nashville): Charlie Daniels: guitar; Bubba Fowler: guitar; Ron Cornelius: guitar; (?): brass; Charlie McCoy: bass; Kenny Buttrey: percussion (?); Karl T. Himmel: drums / Recording Studios: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 3, 1970; Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: March 13 and 17, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer (New York): Don Puluse / Sound Engineer (Nashville): Neil Wilburn
Bob Dylan was probably thinking of the music he used to listen to during his childhood in Minneapolis on local radio stations when he composed “Woogie Boogie.” This piece was characteristic of the music heard in Southern barrelhouses or house-rent parties during the Great Depression, which spread afterward to the entire United States. What motivated Dylan to write this instrumental, the third one so far, which uses a banal blues-rock line played by thousands of novice musicians? Did he have a particular idea in mind? Was it music to accompany a documentary film or just the desire to satisfy an adolescent dream?
The musicians must have been surprised when they discovered “Woogie Boogie.” Each one of them did his job without a problem, but also without any conviction, except perhaps the excellent sax solo.
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 2:30
Musicians (New York): Bob Dylan: guitar; David Bromberg: guitar / Musicians (Nashville): Charlie Daniels: guitar; Fred Carter Jr.: guitar; Bob Moore: bass; Kenny Buttrey: drums (For details on orchestra musicians, see entry for “All the Tired Horses,” page 326. Note there are only strings on this song; there is no brass and no chorus.) / Recording Studios: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 3, 1970; Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: March 12, 17 and 30, 1970 Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer (New York): Don Puluse / Sound Engineer (Nashville): Neil Wilburn
Like Alan Lomax in the United States, MacEdward Leach (1897–1965) collected a multitude of traditional songs during his trips along the Atlantic coast of Canada, which can be found in his work MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada. “The Blooming Bright Star of Belle Isle” was one of them. It refers to Belle Isle, which was discovered by French explorer Jacques Cartier north of Newfoundland. The song is a Canadian version of an old Irish ballad called “Loch Erin’s Sweet Riverside.” In it, a young man comes back home after a long trip and tests his loved one before revealing to her who he really is.
The original version of “Belle Isle,” recorded with just Dylan and Bromberg in New York and found on The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait, has a power and charm that were ruined by the overdubs in Nashville. The bass and the drums are superfluous, the second guitar solo is off key (listen after 1:30), and the orchestra makes the whole song too heavy.
Bob Dylan / 2:43
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Charlie Daniels: guitar; Pete Drake: pedal steel guitar; Robert S. Wilson: piano; Charlie McCoy: bass; Kenny Buttrey: drums; June Page, Dolores Edgin, Carol Montgomery, Millie Kirkham, and Dottie Dillard: chorus / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: April 24, 1969 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Neil Wilburn
The lyrics of “Living the Blues,” which, despite the title is not a blues song, were vaguely inspired by “Singing the Blues,” written in 1954 by Melvin Endsley. However, musically, Dylan bases his melody more clearly (for the first two lines of each verse) on “Blue Monk” by Thelonious Monk, recorded in 1957. Dylan sings “I’ve been living the blues ev’ry night without you,” but it is hard to believe his sarcastic tone of voice. Dylan delights in his text and may just use the song as an excuse to sing in the style of Elvis. After all, he recorded it in the King’s home territory, right?
Six takes were made, and the third was selected for the album. In style, Dylan creates a bridge between the blues and the Nashville sound. He adopted the voice of a crooner. The vocal harmonies, however, are curiously reminiscent of the American vocal quartet the Jordanaires, best known for providing backup vocals for Elvis Presley. The piece features Pete Drake’s pedal steel guitar and Charlie Daniels’s guitar. Daniels provided a guitar solo in the purest tradition. “Living the Blues” truly sounds like Elvis.
Alfred Frank Beddoe / 3:36
Musicians (New York): Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; David Bromberg: guitar, dobro; Al Kooper: organ / Musicians (Nashville): Charlie Daniels: guitar (?); Charlie McCoy: vibes (?); Bob Moore: bass (For details on orchestra musicians, see entry for “All the Tired Horses,” page 326. Note there are only strings and chorus on this song; there is no brass.) / Recording Studios: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 3, 1970; Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: March 13, 17, and 30, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer (New York): Don Puluse / Sound Engineer (Nashville): Neil Wilburn
There are different opinions about the origins of this song. Albert Frank Beddoe says that he wrote it in 1953 as part of the folk opera Go Lightly, Stranger. According to Pete Seeger, however, it is a folk song dating back to the California gold rush of 1849. Others call it a Mexican tune from the early nineteenth century or even a German song. “Copper Kettle” refers specifically to the whiskey tax imposed by the US federal government in 1791 and the resultant “whiskey rebellion” that followed. The precious beverage was distilled in a copper kettle, which came to symbolize rebellion against President George Washington and his tax inspectors. It is a humorous song in which the narrator says that his father and his grandfather distilled whiskey and have not paid tax on it since 1792.
Dylan gives us an extraordinary interpretation. The song is clearly one of his favorites. His voice gains in intensity and emotion. Regrettably, he has some difficulty staying in key. Once again the original New York version, released on The Bootleg Series Volume 10: Another Self Portrait, is much better than the rearranged Nashville version. The female backup vocalists and lush arrangements with strings do not contribute anything to the song. This is unfortunate, because Dylan invested his whole soul in the melody.
Paul Clayton / Larry Ehrlich / David Lazar / Tom Six / Bob Dylan / 3:09
Musicians (New York): Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; David Bromberg: dobro; Al Kooper: guitar (?); Stu Woods: bass; Alvin Rodgers: drums; Hilda Harris, Albertine Robinson, and Maeretha Stewart: chorus; Musicians (Nashville): Charlie McCoy: (?); Kenny Buttrey: congas, tambourine / Recording Studios: Columbia Recording Studios / Studio B, New York: March 5, 1970; Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: March 13, 1970 / Producer: Bob Johnston Sound Engineers (New York): Don Puluse and Doug Pomeroy / Sound Engineer (Nashville): Neil Wilburn
The singer and guitarist Billy Wayne Grammer scored a big hit with “Gotta Travel On.” The song made it onto both the country and pop music charts, reaching, respectively, numbers 5 and 4 in 1959. The same year Grammer became a regular performer at the Grand Ole Opry. Paul Clayton, a folksinger and friend of Bob Dylan’s since the Greenwich Village years, wrote the song with Larry Ehrlich, David Lazar, and Tom Six. The lyrics were somewhat modified from the original version. In the original version, “Johnny can’t come home… cause he’s been on the chain gang too long” with the “high sheriff and police riding after me.” In Dylan’s version, the young hero simply has the soul of a traveler: “There’s a lonesome freight at 6:08 coming through the town / And I feel like I just want to travel on.”
“Gotta Travel On” is a very good country-rock song, showcasing once again Dylan’s excellent vocal performance and sowing the seeds for his future albums. In addition to a very strong rhythm part, David Bromberg provides an excellent and distinctive dobro part (Bromberg was a disciple of Reverend Gary Davis and future partner of Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Willie Nelson, Carly Simon, and Jerry Garcia).
Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers / Bob Dylan / 2:31
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Charlie Daniels: guitar (?); Norman Blake: guitar (?); Fred F. Carter: guitar (?); Robert S. Wilson: piano; Doug Kershaw: violin; Charlie McCoy: bass; Kenny Buttrey: drums; Hilda Harris, Albertine Robinson, and Maeretha Stewart: chorus / Recording Studio: Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: May 3, 1969 / Producer: Bob Johnston / Sound Engineer: Neil Wilburn
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart together wrote twenty-eight musicals and over five hundred songs between late 1910 and the first half of 1940. “Blue Moon” became one of their most famous songs throughout the world. Originally written for the musical comedy Hollywood Party (1934), with Jimmy Durante and the duo Laurel and Hardy, the song had undergone various transformations before being recorded by Connie Boswell in January 1935, then by Billy Eckstine (1949), Mel Tormé (1949), Elvis Presley (1956), and the Marcels (1961).
Both a standard jazz song and a pop ballad, “Blue Moon” became “Dylan’s song” during the session of May 3. Is it a tongue-in-cheek reference to all those who brought him to the top? The song throws off many. Apparently, no overdubs followed this session. Besides Dylan, it is difficult to identify the other guitarists. Note the beautiful violin solo by Doug Kershaw and Charlie McCoy’s bass.