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About the Songs -
(what they're about)
BROKE DOWN ENGINE is a Blind Willie McTell masterpiece.
it's about trains, mystery on the rails - the train of
love, the train that carried my girl from town - The
Southern Pacific, Baltimore & Ohio whatever - it's
about variations of human longing - the low hum in meter
& syllables. it's about dupes of commerce &
politics colliding on tracks, not being pushed around by
ordinary standards. it's about revival, getting a new
lease on life, not just posing there - paint chipped &
flaked, mattress bare, single bulb swinging above the bed.
it's about Ambiguity, the fortunes of the privilege elite,
flood control - watching the red dawn not bothering to
dress.
LOVE HENRY is a "traditionalist" ballad. Tom
Paley used to do it. a perverse tale. Henry - modern
corporate man off some foreign boat, unable to handle his
"psychosis" responsible for organizing the
Intelligentsia, disarming the people, an infantile
sensualist - white teeth, wide smile, lotza money, kowtow
to fairy queen exploiters & corrupt religious
establishments, career minded, limousine double parked,
imposing his will & dishonest garbage in popular
magazines. he lays his head on a pillow of down &
falls asleep. he shoulda known better, he must've had a
hearing problem.
STACK A LEE is Frank Hutchinson's version. what does the
song say exactly? it says no man gains immortality thru
public acclaim. truth is shadowy. in the
pre-postindustrial age, victims of violence were allowed
(in fact it was their duty) to be judges over their
offenders - parents were punished for their children's
crimes (we've come a long way since then) the song says
that a man's hat is his crown. futurologists would insist
it's a matter of taste. they say "let's sleep on
it" but theory already living in the sanitarium. No
Rights Without Duty is the name of the game & fame is
a trick. playing for time is only horsing around. Stack's
in a cell, no wall phone. he is not some egotistical
degraded existentialist dionysian idiot, neither does he
represent any alternative lifestyle scam (give me a
thousand acres of tractable land & all the gang
members that exist & you'll see the Authentic
alternative lifestyle, the Agrarian one) Billy didn't have
an insurance plan, didn't get airsick yet his ghost is
more real & genuine than all the dead souls on the
boob tube - a monumental epic of blunder &
misunderstanding. a romance tale without the cupidity.
BLOOD IN MY EYES is one of two songs done by the
Mississippi Sheiks, a little known de facto group whom in
their former glory must've been something to behold.
rebellion against routine seems to be their strong theme.
all their songs are raw to the bone & are faultlessly
made for these modern times (the New Dark Ages) nothing
effete about the Mississippi Sheiks.
WORLD GONE WRONG is also by them & goes against
cultural policy. "strange things are happening like
never before" strange things alright - strange things
like courage becoming befuddled & non-fundamental.
evil charlatans masquerading in pullover vests &
tuxedos talking gobbledygook, monstrous pompous
superficial pageantry parading down lonely streets on
limited access highways. strange things indeed -
irrationalist bimbos & bozos, the stuff of legend,
coming in from left field - infamy on the landscape -
"pray to the Good Lord" hit the light switch!
JACK-A-ROE is another Tom Paley ballad (Tom, one of the
original New Lost City Ramblers) the young virgin follows
her heart (which can't be confined) & in it the
secrets of the universe. "there was a wealthy
merchant" wealthy & philosophically influential
perhaps with an odd penchant for young folk. the song
cannot be categorized - is worlds away from reality but
"gets inside" reality anyway & strips it of
its steel and concrete. inverted symmetry, legally
stateless, traveling under a false passport. "before
you step on board, sir..." are you any good at what
you do? submerge you personality.
DELIA is one sad tale-two or more versions mixed into one.
the song has no middle range, comes whipping around the
corner, seems to be about counterfeit loyalty. Delia
herself, no Queen Gertrude, Elizabeth 1 or even Evita
Peron, doesn't ride a Harley Davidson across the desert
highway, doesn't need a blood change & would never go
on a shopping spree. the guy in the courthouse sounds like
a pimp in primary colors. he's not interested in mosques
on the temple mount, armageddon or world war 111, doesn't
put his face in his knees & weep & wears no dunce
hat, makes no apology & is doomed to obscurity. does
this song have rectitude? you bet. toleration of the
unacceptable leads to the last round-up. the singer's not
talking from a head full of booze.
Jerry Garcia showed me TWO SOLDIERS (Hazel & Alice do
it pretty similar) a battle song extraordinaire, some
dragoon officer's epaulettes laying liquid in the mud,
physical plunge into Limitationville, war dominated by
finance (lending money for interest being a nauseating
& revolting thing) love is not collateral. hittin' em
where they ain't (in the imperfect state that they're in)
America when Mother was the queen of Her heart, before
Charlie Chaplin, before the Wild One, before the Children
of the Sun - before the celestial grunge, before the
insane world of entertainment exploded in our faces -
before all the ancient & honorable artillery had been
taken out of the city, learning to go forward by turning
back the clock, stopping the mind from thinking in hours,
firing a few random shots at the face of time.
RAGGED & DIRTY one of the Willie Browns did this -
schmaltz & pickled herring, stuffed cabbage, heavy
moral vocabulary - sweetness & sentiment, house
rocking, superior beauty, not just standing there - the
seductive magic of the thumbs up salute, carefully thought
out overtones & stepping sideways, the idols of human
worship paying thru the nose, lords of the illogical in
smoking jackets, sufferers from a weak education, pieces
of a jigsaw puzzle - taking stupid chances - being
mistreated only just so far.
LONE PILGRIM is from an old Doc Watson record. what
attracts me to the song is how the lunacy of trying to
fool the self is set aside at some given point. salvation
& the needs of mankind are prominent & hegemony
takes a breathing spell. "my soul flew to mansions on
high" what's essentially true is virtual reality.
technology to wipe out truth is now available. not
everybody can afford it but it's available. when the cost
comes down look out! there wont be songs like these
anymore. factually there aren't any now.
by the way, don't be bewildered by the Never Ending Tour
chatter. there was a Never Ending Tour but it ended in '91
with the departure of guitarist G.E. Smith. that one's
long gone but there have been many others since then. The
Money Never Runs Out Tour (fall of '91) Southern
Sympathizer Tour (early '92) Why Do You Look At Me So Strangely
Tour (European '92) The One Sad Cry of Pity Tour
(Australia & West Coast America '92) Principles Of
Action Tour (Mexico - South American '92) Outburst Of
Consciousness Tour ('92) Don't Let Your Deal Go Down
Tour('93) & others too many to mention each with their
own character & design. to know which was which
consult the playlists.
Bob Dylan
Produced by Bob Dylan
Recorded and mixed by Micajah Ryan
Guitar, Vocals and harmonica performed by Bob Dylan
Mastered by Stephen Marcussen at Precision Mastering, LA
Design - Nancy Donald
Photos by Ana Maria Velez
Back cover photo by Randee St. Nicholas
All songs traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan
(ASCAP), published by Special Rider Music except
"Lone Pilgrim" written by B.F. White & Adger
M. Pace (publisher and performance rights society
unknown.)
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Solo
performer: Bob Dylan (guitar, vocals, harmonica).
WORLD GONE WRONG
won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best
Traditional Folk Album.
In the early-to-mid-'90s, Dylan took a break from
recording original material, releasing two albums of
traditional songs performed solo. When the first, GOOD AS
I BEEN TO YOU, was released, detractors claimed Dylan was
out of ideas and grasping at the straws of his folkie
youth (TIME OUT OF MIND would eventually lay such claims
squarely to rest). His next solo outing, WORLD GONE WRONG,
made it clear that Dylan was simply exercising his power
as a troubadour to find deep, timeless meaning in
traditional material.
Two of the most affecting songs, "Blood In My
Eyes" and the title track, were made
"popular" by the Mississippi Sheiks, an early
country blues group, and these easily rank among Dylan's
finest '90s performances. On mournful tunes like
"Delia," Dylan sounds like a grim spectre,
materializing to whisper his tales compellingly to those
who wander near. On the ragtag blues of "Ragged &
Dirty," he exhibits enough passion and abandon to
definitively scuttle any talk of him succumbing to the
ravages of age.
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