Bob Dylan / 5:22
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, keyboards
Mick Taylor: guitar
Ted Perlman: guitar
Richard Scher: synthesizers
Robbie Shakespeare: bass
Sly Dunbar: drums
Carol Dennis, Queen Esther Marrow, and Peggi Blu: backup vocals
Recording Studios
The Power Station / Studio A, New York: April 25 or 26, 1983 (Overdubs January 15, 1985)
Shakedown Sound Studio, New York: (Overdubs February/March 1985)
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Dylan
Sound Engineers: Josh Abbey (The Power Station) and Arthur Baker (Shakedown)
Remix: Arthur Baker
“Tight Connection to My Heart” was a new version of “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart,” recorded during the 1983 LP Infidels sessions but excluded from that album. Between April 1983 and January 1985, the lyrics were entirely transformed. “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart” is rooted in the mystical depths of biblical texts, while “Tight Connection to My Heart” refers to the Hollywood movie industry of the 1950s. The song includes references to lines from two classic Humphrey Bogart movies. In the 1951 movie Sirocco, Bogart says, “I’ve got to move fast: I can’t with you around my neck.” In the song, the line becomes, “Well, I had to move fast / And I couldn’t with you around my neck.” The second verse begins with two lines taken from The Maltese Falcon from 1941: “‘We wanna talk to you, Spade.’ ‘Well, go ahead and talk.’” In Dylan’s song, they become, “You want to talk to me / Go ahead and talk.” Further on in the song, Dylan sings a line almost straight from the movie Sirocco: “I can’t figure out whether I’m too good for you / Or you’re too good for me.” As Dylan confided to Scott Cohen of Spin in December 1985, “‘Tight Connection to My Heart’ is a very visual song. I want to make a movie out of it… Of all the songs I’ve written, that’s the one that’s got characters that can be identified with.”
“Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart” was not included in the final track listing of Infidels, released in October 1983. With new lyrics, he took one of the versions he had recorded at the Power Station in New York on April 16, 25, or 26, 1983, accompanied by Mark Knopfler, Mick Taylor, Alan Clark, Robbie Shakespeare, and Sly Dunbar. One of the April 25 takes could be the version released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991.
“Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)” is the opening track on Empire Burlesque and Dylan’s embrace of technology’s digital sound: the new generation of digital synthesizers (Yamaha DX7), digital multi-effect processors (Yamaha SPX-90), and remixes to adapt to FM radio and the nightclub. “Tight Connection to My Heart” is a good song, brilliantly done, but Dylan seems to lack benchmarks, even surrounded by excellent musicians. There is a real disparity between his language and the style of the mid-1980s. Only Mick Taylor succeeds in connecting these two musical approaches.
“Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)” was also released as a single with “We Better Talk This Over” on the B-side, a song extracted from 1978’s Street Legal that failed on the American charts.