Bob Dylan All the Songs

by Philippe Margotin

  The Cover

  The photograph of Dylan taken by Barry Feinstein (instead of by Don Hunstein) showed him looking like Woody Guthrie, which was totally different than his image walking with Suze Rotolo on his arm on a street in the West Village (on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan). This picture was in black and white, the face of the songwriter was closed, and his look was dark—as though, at age twenty-two, Dylan already seemed to be carrying a cross, this heavy burden of the violence and injustice he witnessed every day and of which he was sometimes the victim.

  The paths of Barry Feinstein and Bob Dylan crossed again in 1966 and 1974, since Feinstein followed him throughout his world tours. His work with other artists stood out, namely George Harrison, whose photo he took for the cover of All Things Must Pass (1970), and Janis Joplin, for the cover of Pearl (1971). He passed away in 2011 at the age of eighty.

  The Recording

  The Times They Are A-Changin’ was recorded in six sessions at Columbia Studio A in New York, broken down into three in August (6, 7, and 12) and three more in October (23, 24, and, 31). The album contained ten songs, but Dylan also recorded fourteen others, most of which were found on official compilations (The Bootleg Series and Biograph).

  The main difference between the sound of this album and the preceding one lies in the fact that Tom Wilson became the full-time producer. His vision of the recording was felt right from the first songs, as the color was more cutting and brilliant. The soft tones used by John Hammond were no longer there. Wilson preferred more aggressive guitar work, a more clearly defined voice and harmonica with more echo. The sound recording was different, as the producer moved the location of the mics around either to make the image more obvious (in “The Times They Are A-Changin’”) or more diffused (in “Boots of Spanish Leather”). Even the sound of the guitar varied from song to song. In “Ballad of Hollis Brown,” it had a medium intonation that vaguely sounded like a dobro. Wilson, who had experience in jazz, did not intend to stick to one sound. This made it possible for Dylan to diversify his sound.

  Technical Details

  It seems there was not much difference in the recording hardware from the previous album (see The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan).

  The Instruments

  In 1963, for some unknown reason, Dylan lost his Gibson J-50. This loss remains one of the great mysteries of rock ’n’ roll. He immediately replaced it with another Gibson, the famous Nick Lucas Special he purchased at Fretted Instruments, a store belonging to Mark Silber in New York. But it seems that most of the sessions for The Times They Are A-Changin’ were recorded on his Gibson J-50, while the Nick Lucas was only used at the end of the year as well as for the two following albums. As in the preceding album, he used four harmonicas in different keys (C, E, G, and A) for different songs.

  FOR DYLANOLOGISTS

  The French version of this third work only came out in 1965 and was very different than the original. It was now called Mister Bob Dylan, and on the back cover there was a photo of the songwriter in 1965 with an electric guitar. The “11 Outlined Epitaphs” had disappeared. A cultural difference?

  LINER NOTES

  Unlike the first two albums, The Times They Are A-Changin’ did not include any liner notes on the back cover, but rather “Outlined Epitaphs” that read like a long poem in the style of Beat writers. Bob Dylan discussed his childhood in Hibbing, his arrival in New York, and, of course, Woody Guthrie.

  Tom Wilson,

  An Electric Producer

  Manager Albert Grossman decided that Tom Wilson would replace John Hammond as Bob Dylan’s producer during the last session of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (April 23, 1963). Thomas Blanchard Wilson Jr. (1931–1978) is considered one of the great producers of the sixties and seventies. His career was remarkable. Having come from an African-American family that played a pioneering role in the education of youth among the black community in Texas, he fought militantly against segregation within the Republican Party while studying at Harvard. His motto was that one should not feel sorry for oneself and instead move forward. Being an active militant, he was also a great music fan, especially fond of jazz. So in 1955, after co-directing the Harvard New Jazz Society and hosting a radio show on WHRB, he borrowed a few hundred dollars and founded the Transition label in New York, through which he wished to promote the big names of jazz, including Sun Ra. He was afterward appointed artistic director successively at Savoy, United Artists, and Audio Fidelity.

  An African American in Columbia

  In 1963, Goddard Lieberson, who was then the CEO of Columbia, noticed Wilson during a convention held by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, where Wilson had replaced Quincy Jones as artistic director (artists and repertoire). Lieberson offered him a position at Columbia, where he became the first black producer at that recording company.

  However, David Kapralik, who was in charge of the A&R department, suggested he work for Bob Dylan. Although folk music was not his cup of tea and he was not impressed with Dylan’s musical ability, Wilson was stunned when he heard him sing: “I was flabbergasted! I said to Albert Grossman, who was there in the studio, I said, ‘If you put some background to this you might have a white Ray Charles with a message.’”24 In 1965, his dream came true: under his influence, Dylan was already thinking of switching to rock and began playing electric. But their collaboration ceased soon after the recording of “Like a Rolling Stone,” when Bob asked Grossman in a prophetic manner, “Maybe we should try Phil Spector.”24

  The other writers in his stable at Columbia included Simon & Garfunkel (Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, 1964). It was Wilson’s idea to add folk-rock orchestration to “The Sound of Silence,” which made it the duo’s first number 1!

  In 1966, Tom Wilson left Columbia for Verve, and launched two groups that had a lasting impact on the rock scene: Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention with Freak Out! (1966) and the Velvet Underground with The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967). Other accomplishments of this visionary producer were Absolutely Free (1967) and We’re Only in It for the Money (1968) by the Mothers, White Light/White Heat (1968) by the Velvets, Projections (1966) by the Blues Project, Chelsea Girl (1967) by Nico, and the eponymous first album of the Soft Machine (1968). In 1968 Wilson was also one of the co-founders of the famous Record Plant Studio in New York and convinced Jimi Hendrix’s manager, Chas Chandler, to come and record the album Electric Ladyland there. His production slowed down as he approached the end of his life. He diversified his activities, for instance working for Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. He died of a heart attack on September 6, 1978, in Los Angeles. Strangely, on his tombstone it says 1975 instead of 1978.

  The Times They Are A-Changin’

  Bob Dylan / 3:14

  Musician

  Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica

  Recording Studio

  Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: October 23 and 24, 1963

  Technical Team

  Producer: Tom Wilson

  Sound Engineers: George Knuerr and Pete Dauria

  Genesis and Lyrics

  Bob Dylan wrote “The Times They Are A-Changin’” in the fall of 1963, inspired by old Irish and British ballads. Contrary to “Masters of War” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’” did not deal with any specific topic. The song instead expressed a feeling, a shared hope that the sixties would transform society.

  Once again, Bob Dylan harkened back to biblical narratives to express his universal message. Even the title of the song referred to chapter 1, verse 3 of the book of Revelation: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” Also, the line “For the loser now will be later to win” evoked chapter 10, verse 31 of the Gospel according to Mark: “But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.” Dylan’s discourse had more impact because it was not exclusionary. The fact that the songwriter
tried to compose a hymn addressed to the younger generation is fairly obvious, although in 1965 he denied trying to turn young people against their elders: “That’s not what I was saying. It happened maybe those were the only words I could find to separate aliveness from deadness. It has nothing to do with age.”20 Dylan was nevertheless aware of the impact of his words. “I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, ya know, with short concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way,” he said to Cameron Crowe.12

  Beyond this, it was a poetic invitation to gather “writers and critics,” “senators and congressmen,” “mothers and fathers,” as Dylan sang in the first verse, hoping his call would be heard. We know, however, that Bob Dylan was not heard: less than one month after the recording, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, and soon afterward, large numbers of GIs left for Vietnam. The very next day after this tragedy, Dylan reluctantly gave a concert in New York. “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was the first song he performed. “It became sort of an opening song and remained that way for a long time,” he explained in the Biograph booklet.12 In those circumstances, he feared the public would reject him. To his great surprise, the song received a standing ovation. He confided to biographer Anthony Scaduto in 1972, “I thought, ‘Wow, how can I open with that song? I’ll get rocks thrown at me.’ But I had to sing it, my whole concert takes off from there. I know I had no understanding of anything. Something had just gone hay-wire in the country and they were applauding the song. And I couldn’t understand why they were clapping, or why I wrote the song. I couldn’t understand anything. For me, it was just insane.”2

  But Dylan is an unfathomable person. He has since given permission many times for this important song to be used in television commercials and in Watchmen in 2009, a movie about superheroes! The Times They Are A-Changin’…

  Production

  Apart from its title being used for the album, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was one of Dylan’s favorite songs, as he confirmed in 1969 to journalist Jann Wenner. In 1985, in the booklet of Biograph, he explained where he found his inspiration. “This was definitely a song with a purpose. It was influenced of course by the Irish and Scottish ballads… ‘Come All Ye Bold Highway Men,’ ‘Come All Ye Miners,’ ‘Come All Ye Tender Hearted Maidens.’”12 Musically, this kinship stood out when he used a three-beat rhythm signature that gave the song a refrain that was almost hypnotic. The tone also reinforced this “folk ballad” aspect: Tom Wilson, who was now solely in charge, chose to give the guitar a brilliant sound that was much clearer and more aggressive than what John Hammond wanted. As for Dylan, he was more skilled at studio techniques, and no major flaw could be identified. It might be mentioned that the rhythm was perhaps less rigorous than in his first two albums. But the emotion is predominant, and the voice and harmonica (in G) were perfectly mastered. However, before reaching these results, it took no less than eight takes to record it, seven of them dated October 23 (including two complete takes, two unfinished, and three false starts), and one more the next day (the master). When Dylan recorded the demo of his song for his editor Witmark & Sons (on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964), he sang it while playing the piano. This version was astounding for its quality and the emotion it conveyed. Since it had slightly richer harmony, it was too bad he did not officially record it.

  He performed it onstage for the first time on October 26, 1963, in the large room of Carnegie Hall in New York, which confirmed his status as a new international star. In 1978, after dropping it for thirteen years, he played a sad version in Tokyo (on At Budokan), no doubt revealing the failure of an entire generation… “The Times They Are A-Changin’” came out as a single in 1965 in the United Kingdom (with “Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance” on side B), where it reached ninth place on the hit parade on March 25.

  FOR DYLANOLOGISTS

  Dylan’s world inspired his peers so much that in 2006 a musical comedy titled The Times They Are A-Changin’ was presented in San Diego by renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp. Unfortunately, unlike the song with the same name, this musical comedy was not successful.

  On January 24, 1984, during the annual shareholders’ meeting of Apple, Steve Jobs began his speech by introducing the original Macintosh with the second verse of “The Times They Are A-Changin’.”

  FOR DYLANOLOGISTS

  On December 10, 2010, in New York, the original manuscript of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was sold at an auction for the sum of $422,500. Sotheby’s, which was in charge of the transaction, had estimated its value between $200,000 and $300,000. This manuscript, written in pen without musical annotations, belonged to Kevin Krown, a friend of Dylan’s who introduced him to the music scene in Greenwich Village, and to whom in 1961 Dylan had already offered his own acoustic guitar—the legendary Martin 00-17 from 1949.

  Ballad Of Hollis Brown

  Bob Dylan / 5:04

  Musician

  Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar

  Recording Studio

  Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: August 6 and 7, 1963

  Technical Team

  Producer: Tom Wilson

  Sound Engineers: Stanley Tonkel and Pete Dauria

  Genesis and Lyrics

  “Ballad of Hollis Brown” is based on “Pretty Polly,” a traditional English folk song that later became an Appalachian ballad, among other things. The original story is about a pretty young woman who is lured into the forest, killed, and buried. In another variation of the story, Polly is murdered by her suitor, a ship’s carpenter who is haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate young woman until he confesses his crime. Dylan used the martyrdom of Pretty Polly as a canvas for a factual account of an entirely different order: the daily reality experienced by Hollis Brown, a South Dakota farmer living in abject poverty and debt who, in despair, kills his wife, children, and himself.

  When Dylan recorded a demo at the end of 1962 at the request of his publisher Witmark & Sons, the exact title was “The Rise and Fall of Hollis Brown: A True Story.” While the song consists of only eleven verses in the official version, he includes an additional verse (after the second), and there are some significant differences between the two texts. The originality of Dylan’s writing lies in the way he addresses the protagonist in the second person, present tense; this is contrary to what is normally done in a ballad, where there is a distance between the narrator and the figure in the tale (or protagonists in the story). Curiously, the tragic death of the desperate farmer who commits the unthinkable can awaken a sense of compassion. It is undoubtedly, once again, Woody Guthrie who guides Dylan’s inspiration. But this is one of the last songs inspired by Guthrie. The darkest images are reserved for the conclusion: “Bad blood it got your mare / The rats have got your flour… Your grass is turning black / There’s no water in your well… A cold coyote calls… Your baby’s eyes look crazy… Your babies are crying louder now…” Dylan also plays on the repetition of the number seven: “There’s seven breezes a-blowin’ / All around the cabin door,” “Seven shots ring out,” “There’s seven people dead,” “There’s seven new people born.” Does Dylan refer to the seven deadly sins, seven years of bad luck, or the seven archangels of the Apocalypse? Opposing the death of seven people to the birth of seven people, is he speaking about reincarnation, hope, or fate?

  Production

  On September 22, 1962, at Carnegie Hall, New York City, Dylan performed “Ballad of Hollis Brown” for the first time. He recorded it more than ten months later on August 7, 1963. Why such a delay, especially because he recorded the song on November 14, 1962, for his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan? When Dylan entered the studio on August 6, 1963, “Ballad of Hollis Brown” was the first recording for his third album. The sound had changed. Tom Wilson had set up the studio in a different way. He positioned the microphones differently and thus obtained a color previously unknown to Dylan. The guitar sounds mediocre and sounds somewhat like the do
bro. Slightly restrained, the emphasis is on the voice, which with a discreet reverb is more pronounced and more intimate. The interpretation is simple and perfectly underscores the purpose of the singer. Close to the traditional ballad “Pretty Polly,” on which Woody Guthrie based his “Pastures of Plenty,” “Ballad of Hollis Brown” is a blues song that Dylan plays on an acoustic guitar in double-dropped D tuning using a capo on the first fret. The interpretation sounds “rooted,” and the performance on the guitar is very compelling, even if, from time to time, we can hear a few “slight” bumps between strings (listen to 3:55 and 3:57). Dylan attempted for the first time a short solo on his six-string guitar (or variation) which is well done (4:23), and he provides a perfect rhythmic regularity. The only surprise comes at the end of the interpretation, where Dylan feels close to making an error, which is immediately camouflaged by a quick fade-out (4:59). Clearly, the song lacks a musical conclusion. After four takes recorded on August 6, the fifth take dates from the following day and was selected as the master.