One of the songs Bob Dylan and the group that would soon call itself The Band recorded during the “Basement Tapes” sessions in 1967 was an Ian Tyson (of Ian and Sylvia) composition, “The French Girl.”
Was Dylan thinking of Françoise Hardy, who he met in Paris the year before, when he chose to record the song?
During the “Basement Tapes” sessions Dylan and his band did two takes. And then the song was dropped for 20 years until Dylan resurrected it in 1987 during rehearsals with the Grateful Dead in San Rafael, Ca.
I particularly love the “Basement Tapes” version. Dylan’s interpretation of the song is amazing — he turns it into a Bob Dylan song. But the version with the Grateful Dead is a good one too. Jerry Garcia on pedal steel!
Below are a version of the song played with The Band, and a version with the Dead.
Bob Dylan and The Band play “The French Girl,” “Basement Tapes” sessions, 1967:
Video about Bob Dylan rehearsing “The French Girl” with The Band and the Grateful Dead with portions of both versions:
Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead play “The French Girl,” 1987:
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Forty years ago, on January 9, 1974, Bob Dylan and The Band began the first of a two-night run at the Maple Leaf Gardens in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The 1974 tour had begun just six days earlier at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois. The first Toronto show was Dylan’s fifth performance of the tour.
It was, of course, Dylan’s first tour with The Band since they had stormed through Europe together, dismaying many fans with some of the most exciting rock ‘n’ roll ever played on this planet.
Here’s a recording of “As I Went Out One Morning,” from the second night at the Maple Leaf Gardens.
It’s from a bootleg of the show, As I Went Out One Evening.
According to www.bjorner.com this is the only time Bob Dylan has ever performed “As I Went Out One Morning” live. (I’ve included the setlist for the January 9, 1974 show below the video clips.)
Plus here are some covers of “As I Went Out One Morning”:
Thea Gilmore:
Dirty Projectors:
Woven Hand:
Mira Billotte:
January 9, 1974 setlist:
1.
Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
2.
Lay Lady Lay
3.
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
4.
It Ain’t Me, Babe
5.
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
6.
Ballad Of A Thin Man
These next were performed by The Band sans Dylan.
Stage Fright (Robbie Robertson)
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Robbie Robertson)
King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (Robbie Robertson)
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever (Don Hunter – Stevie Wonder)
I Shall Be Released
Up On Cripple Creek (Robbie Robertson)
Dylan returns to the stage:
7. All Along The Watchtower
8. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
9. Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
10. Just Like A Woman
11. Girl From The North Country
12. Wedding Song
13. Nobody ‘Cept You
14. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
The Band again:
Rag Mama Rag (Robbie Robertson)
When You Awake (Richard Manuel – Robbie Robertson)
The Shape I’m In (Robbie Robertson)
The Weight (Robbie Robertson)
Dylan returns:
15. Forever Young
16. Something There Is About You
17. Like A Rolling Stone
18. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Forty years ago, on January 3, 1974, the “Bob Dylan and The Band 1974 Tour” kicked off at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois.
Eighteen thousand, five hundred fans were there to see the historic first show.
This was the only full-bore tour Dylan and The Band did together after The Hawks changed their name to The Band and became major stars themselves.
I saw Dylan and The Band when they played the Oakland Coliseum on February 11, 1974. I was about halfway back, a ways up, but for me it was incredible.
It was my first time seeing Dylan, and while the Oakland Coliseum is big, it’s not that big. The sound was good and I was blown away. I’d seen The Band at the Civic Auditorium in San Francisco previously, but to seem them with Dylan — it was on a whole other level.
I know that Dylan has talked about being on autopilot by the time he got to Oakland, but it sounded damn good to me.
Here’s the only video with Bob Dylan and The Band that seems to be available from the first Chicago show. They started off with a blistering version of “Hero Blues.” Dig it!
Here’s The Band playing “Stage Fright” the next night in Chicago:
Bob Dylan and The Band at Capital Center, Landover Maryland on January 15, 1974 — full show:
Bob Dylan playing “Desolation Row” at St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, Missouri, February 4, 1974:
Bob Dylan, “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” Oakland Coliseum, February 11, 1974:
Bob Dylan, “Gates Of Eden,” Oakland Coliseum, February 11, 1974 (sound is iffy at first but then it’s pretty great):
Bob Dylan and The Band, “Highway 61,” Oakland Coliseum, February 11, 1974:
Bob Dylan & The Band, “Maggie’s Farm,” Oakland Coliseum, February 11, 1974:
Here’s the setlist played that first night in Chicago (from bjorner.com):
Chicago Stadium
Chicago, Illinois
3 January 1974
1. Hero Blues
2. Lay Lady Lay
3. Tough Mama
4. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Robbie Robertson)
5. Stage Fright (Robbie Robertson)
6. Share Your Love With Me (Briggs/Malone)
7. It Ain’t Me, Babe
8. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
9. All Along The Watchtower
Holy Cow (Alain Toussaint)
King Harvest (Has Surely Come) (Robbie Robertson)
10. Ballad Of A Thin Man
Up On Cripple Creek (Robbie Robertson)
11. I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
12. The Times They Are A-Changin’
13. Song To Woody
14. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
15. Nobody ‘Cept You
16. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Life Is A Carnival (Robbie Robertson – Rick Danko – Levon Helm)
The Shape I’m In (Robbie Robertson)
When You Awake (Richard Manuel – Robbie Robertson)
Rag Mama Rag (Robbie Robertson)
17. Forever Young
18. Something There Is About You
19. Like A Rolling Stone
(encores)
The Weight (Robbie Robertson)
20. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)
1-3, 9, 11, 17-20 Bob Dylan (vocal, guitar, harmonica), Robbie Robertson (guitar), Garth Hudson (organ, piano and clavinette), Richard Manual (keyboards), Rick Danko (bass), Levon Helm (drums).
4-5 Bob Dylan (guitar), Robbie Robertson (guitar), Garth Hudson (organ, piano and clavinette), Richard Manual (keyboards), Rick Danko (bass, vocal), Levon Helm (drums).
6 Bob Dylan (harmonica), Robbie Robertson (guitar), Garth Hudson (organ, piano and clavinette), Richard Manual (keyboards), Rick Danko (bass), Levon Helm (drums, vocal).
10 Bob Dylan (piano).
12-16 Bob Dylan (vocal, guitar, harmonica).
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Today being the beginning of this new year, 2014, I was thinking about songs that really get me going in the morning, songs that when I hear them, I feel an energy and I want to get things rolling. Or songs that make me laugh, or smile, or dance around the room.
Bob Dylan has quite a few of those kinda songs, and today I feature a selection of them. Enjoy.
“New Morning” always makes me smile. It’s one of Dylan’s most upbeat songs, a great way to start any day and certainly a great way to kick off the new year:
“Black Crow Blues” off Another Side of Bob Dylan starts off a bit down and out but it’s filled with Dylan’s humor. I dig his honky tonk piano the most, and there’s a drive to it that energizes me:
“Girl From the North Country” off Nashville Skyline always blows my mind because the song itself is a classic and both Dylan and Johnny Cash deliver terrific vocals. Their voices go together so well here. I always smile at the end when they trade off and repeat the line “true love of mine”:
“Country Pie,” also from Nashville Skyline, is a throwaway, but what the hell, it’s upbeat and fun and if I get this one playing in the morning no way can things go any way but right:
“Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” from Bringing It All Back Home false starts with Dylan and his producer cracking up, before Dylan launches in to a shaggy dog story that presents a surreal view of pre-Columbus America. This one nails it on so many levels:
“Romance In Durango” off Desire is a beautiful Spanish-flavored song with a great ragged vocal; this one makes me want to dance around the room:
“Please, Mrs. Henry,” from the “Basement Tapes” is so much fun. How can the new year be anything but great when music this good exists:
“Open the Door, Homer,” another crazy track from the “Basement Tapes” that is more fun than two barrels of monkeys:
“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” off Blonde On Blonde is the perfect way to end this mix of Dylan songs to start off the new year with an oomph. Dig it!
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
It was the fourth and final night of The Band’s four-night stand at the Academy of Music on 14th Street in New York.
Bob Dylan joins the group for a performance of “Like A Rolling Stone.” You’ll hear Dylan say, “We haven’t played this in… six years… 16 years,” and it might have felt like that to both Dylan and the guys in The Band.
Actually, they’d played it two years and four months earlier at the Isle of Wight.
Oh well.
Here’s Dylan and The Band two years earlier at the Isle of Wight, 1969:
Here’s Dylan and The Hawks, Manchester, England, 1966:
Dylan and The Hawks, Liverpool, May 15, 1966:
And three years after the Academy of Music show – Oakland Coliseum, February 11, 1974 – during the 1974 tour:
Elsewhere during the 1974 tour:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Dylan in Columbia Studio A where both versions of “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” were cut.
Along with “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Positively 4th Street,” “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” was one of the first Bob Dylan songs I heard.
I was 12 years old and could totally relate to the anger and bitterness in Dylan’s voice.
The surreal lyrics, which have always reminded me of Salvador Dali and Picasso’s Cubist period, run through both “Like A Rolling Stone” and “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?”
And of course the sound on those records was unlike anything else going on at the time.
Bob Dylan first tried recording “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” on July 30, 1965 while working on Highway 61 Revisited with a group of musicians that included Harvey Brooks (bass), Al Kooper (organ) and Michael Bloomfield (guitar).
There were two takes recorded that day, the second of which was mistakenly released as “Positively 4th Street” on September 7, 1965. I bought that single and have long loved that version of the song.
On October 5th, 1965, Dylan and The Hawks rerecorded the song, and that version was released as a single on December 21, 1965.
I’ve included those versions below, but also a number of interesting covers.
Each of these artists — the Hold Steady, Jimi Hendrix, The Vacels and Transvision Vamp — make the song their own.
I think the Transvision Vamp version is quite good, especially if you don’t try and compare it to the Dylan versions,
Bob Dylan (version that was mistakenly released as “Positively 4th Street”):
Bob Dylan and the Hawks:
The Hold Steady:
Jimi Hendrix – Can You please Crawl Out Your Window (1967)
The Vacels
Transvision Vamp – Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window.flv
A batch of “recently discovered” song lyrics that Bob Dylan wrote in 1967 for the recording sessions in the basement of Big Pink,The Band’s pink house in West Saugerties (near Woodstock), have been turned over to T Bone Burnett by Dylan for the purpose of making a new album.
However, Dylan himself may not appear on the album. In a press release announcing Burnett’s new Electromagnetic Recordings label, the Basement Tapes project was mentioned in a list of recordings Burnett has planned:
The Basement Tapes…Continued: Bob Dylan’s music publishing company recently discovered lyrics Dylan wrote in 1967 for informal sessions with members of The Band that later became known as The Basement Tapes. Dylan has entrusted Burnett with these lyrics, and early next year – nearly 47 years since the legendary original sessions – Burnett will assemble a select group of contemporary recording artists in the famed Capitol Studios to complete the songs and record them as a band. Fans will experience this historic creative collaboration through an album release, as well as a documentary film and book of photography by award-winning filmmaker and photographer Sam Jones (The Wilco documentary, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, and his interview show, Off Camera with Sam Jones). Burnett’s association with Bob Dylan began in 1975 when he became a guitarist on Dylan’s famed Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
Now I’m a big T Bone Burnett fan, but this one makes me wonder. What I love about the original Basement Tapes recordings is the ragged quality, and Dylan’s voice, and how The Band supports the songs, and The Band’s background vocals, which fit perfectly with Dylan’s singing.
That said, there are amazing covers of Dylan’s Basement Tapes songs including The Band’s version of “I Shall Be Released,” and more recently, Jim James version of “Goin’ To Acupulco.” So I guess I’ll wait and see how this turns out.
And who know, maybe Dylan himself will put in an appearance.
But what I’m waiting for is an official release of all the Basement Tapes recordings. What a box set that would make. Some on Sony Legacy! Come on Bob! Come on Jeff Rosen! I’m not the only one waiting.
