Technical Details
The recording sessions were held at Columbia’s Studio A at 799 Seventh Avenue, in New York. The recording equipment is substantially the same as for the previous albums: a Neumann U67 microphone for voice and a Neumann KM56 for the guitar.
Instruments
Dylan remained faithful to his Gibson Nick Lucas Special for all tracks on the album, but it seems that he played for the first time a Fender Stratocaster for “Outlaw Blues,” probably the same one he played at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. The different harmonicas were tuned C, D, E, and F.
The other musicians’ instruments are not detailed, but the guitar’s amplifiers include a Ampeg Gemini 1 (or 2) and a Fender Twin Reverb, probably belonging to Bruce Langhorne.
DYLAN IN DRAG
At the album’s release, the rumor circulated that the mysterious woman in red on the cover was none other than Bob dressed in drag!
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Among the oddities of the first international pressings, the Netherlands distinguished itself by renaming the album Subterranean Homesick Blues, probably thinking this title would be more commercial. France had, in turn, the excellent idea to print the original lyrics with their French translation. Finally, the Australians made a mistake in the title by writing Bring It All Back Home on the center circle of the disc!
Subterranean Homesick Blues
Bob Dylan / 2:20
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Bruce Langhorne: guitar
Al Gorgoni: guitar
Kenny Rankin: guitar
John Hammond Jr.: guitar (?)
Paul Griffin: piano
Joseph Macho Jr.: bass (?)
William E. Lee: bass (?)
Bobby Gregg: drums; tambourine (?)
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: January 13 and 14, 1965
Technical Team
Producer: Tom Wilson
Sound Engineers: Roy Halee and Pete Dauria
Genesis and Lyrics
In the notes that accompanied Uncut magazine’s January 2005 CD insert “Tracks That Inspired Bob Dylan,” the editors state, “‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ was, in fact, an extraordinary three-way amalgam of Jack Kerouac, the Guthrie/Pete Seeger song ‘Taking It Easy’… and the riffed-up rock ’n’ roll poetry of Chuck Berry’s ‘Too Much Monkey Business.’”37 In an interview given to the Los Angeles Times a year earlier, Dylan said, “It’s from Chuck Berry, a bit of ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ and some of the scat songs of the ’40s.”16 It is true that the rhythm was heavily inspired by Chuck Berry. The song’s first lines—“Johnny’s in the basement / Mixing up the medicine / I’m on the pavement / Thinking about the government”—are directly inspired by “Mom was in the kitchen preparing to eat / Sis was in the pantry looking for some yeast” in “Taking It Easy.”
On the literary side, this song definitely bears the mark of the Beat generation. First off in the title, which Dylan may have found in Kerouac’s The Subterraneans, a novel published in 1958, which was inspired by Notes from Underground, a 1864 novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, an author considered by the Beat poets as one of their inspirations.
Even more revealing of the Beat influence is the corruption of words and images in the text that follows the process of “spontaneous prose,” a writing technique used by Kerouac in On the Road. Also present is the strong intellectual influence from Allen Ginsberg, whom Dylan first met in December 1963.
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” is a kind of surreal nursery rhyme in which Dylan plays with words and their assonance (“candle” / “sandals” / “scandals” / “handles”), borrowed from the poem “Up at a Villa, Down in the City” by British poet Robert Browning. But it is above all a protest song of a new kind, with several shocking sloganlike verses: “Don’t follow leaders / Watch the parkin’ meters,” “You don’t need a weatherman / To know which way the wind blows,” “Twenty years of schoolin’ / And they put you on the day shift.” His goal was to expose changes occurring in contemporary America. The song refers to the civil rights movement, the turmoil over the Vietnam War, and especially the emergence of a counterculture in the 1960s, which sought to break down a narrow-minded establishment through consciousness-expanding drugs. Andy Gill wrote, “Faced with the apparent absurdity of modern life and its institutions, an entire generation recognized the zeitgeist in the verbal whirlwind of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues.’”24
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” had considerable influence on future artists. The American radical-left group the Weathermen (or Weather Underground) got their name from the famous line cited above about the “Weatherman,” while Robert Wyatt sings a similar verse, “It don’t take a weathergirl to see / Where the wind is blowing,” in “Blues in Bob Minor” (Shleep, 1997). Radiohead named one of the songs on their 1997 album OK Computer “Subterranean Homesick Alien.” The best tribute, however, comes from John Lennon, who was so captivated by the song that he did not know how he could write anything that could compete with it.
A Psychedelic Song?
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” was recorded a few months after Bob Dylan had taken LSD for the first time. Paul A. Rothchild, who produced most the Doors’ albums (among others), said that he and Victor Maymudes had given Dylan his first hit in the spring of 1964, after a concert at Amherst College in Massachusetts. “I looked at the sugar cubes and thought ‘Why not?’ Rothchild told Bob Spitz. ‘So we dropped acid on Bob. Actually, it was an easy night for Dylan. Everybody had a lot of fun. If you ask me, that was the beginning of the mystical sixties right here.’”24
Is “Subterranean Homesick Blues” a psychedelic song? What is Johnny preparing in his basement? And what is Dylan doing on the sidewalk thinking about the government? Is he afraid of the DEA? And what are these “No-Doz” pills (actually caffeine)? And why “keep your nose clean”? One thing seems certain: Dylan already believed in the two commandments on which the neuropsychologist Timothy Leary based his writing in The Politics of Ecstasy (1968): “Thou shall not alter the consciousness of thy fellow man” and “Though shall not prevent thy fellow man from altering his own consciousness.”
Production
As the opening track, “Subterranean Homesick Blues” announces the tone of the album: Farewell folk, welcome to rock! The change is radical. Charged with electricity, this piece is heavily influenced by Chuck Berry and not destined for the folk audience, but rather for that of the Beatles and other groups of the British Invasion that launched the rock revolution in which Dylan wanted to participate. After recording solo a very credible acoustic version of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” on January 13 (released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3: Rare & Unreleased, 1961–1991), Dylan resumed work the next day with his new electric band. Three guitarists accompanied Dylan: Bruce Langhorne, who had played on Dylan’s first single in 1962 (“Mixed Up Confusion”); Kenny Rankin, who had a remarkable performing career and had the privilege, at the request of Paul McCartney, of representing John Lennon and McCartney at the 1987 Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where he performed “Blackbird”; and finally, Al Gorgoni, who distinguished himself on “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel in 1965 and “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison in 1967. Two bassists were also present: William E. Lee, who had played on “Corrina, Corrina” in 1962 (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan), and Joe Macho Jr., who later played bass on “Like a Rolling Stone” (Highway 61 Revisited). At the piano was Paul Griffin, a brilliant session musician who also played with Don McLean and Steely Dan, and who was featured on Dylan’s next two albums, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. The drummer, Bobby Gregg, also played on “The Sound of Silence” and had a brief part in the Hawks concert in November 1965. Finally, according to some sources, John Hammond Jr., son of Bob’s first producer, is sometimes cited as a guitarist, although he never confirmed this.
“Subterranean Ho
mesick Blues” is primarily a piece for guitarists. Including Dylan, the tune features no less than four! Bob on the acoustic guitar, Langhorne soloing, Rankin on the rhythm (probably a Fender Stratocaster), and Gorgoni on the saturated guitar (a distorted effect probably obtained with a Maestro Fuzz-Tone pedal, the sales of which exploded a few months later when Keith Richards used one for the riff on “([I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction”). Each adds a distinct part, and the four fit together perfectly.
Bobby Gregg on drums provided the cymbal “ride” accompaniment and certainly played the tambourine attached to his hi-hat pedal. The harmonic structure of “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is classic rock based on three chords. The melody, which mainly focuses on the same note, is reminiscent of Chuck Berry’s style. The song is a real achievement, especially because the musicians had never played together before entering Studio A. Dylan: “Kenny Rankin played on this. I don’t even think we rehearsed it.”12 Just three takes were needed. The first was rejected and the second was a false start.
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” was released as a single (with “She Belongs to Me” on the B-side) on March 8, 1965, and became the first Dylan song to be listed on the Billboard charts, reaching number 39 on May 15, 1965. In the United Kingdom, starting on April 29, the tune reached number 9.
The lyric “Don’t follow leaders / Watch the parkin’ meters” was cited by John Lennon during his last interview with Playboy, published in 1981.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
In Dont Look Back (1967), Dylan says, “Give the anarchist a cigarette” after Albert Grossman tells him that he is being labeled as an anarchist by newspapers. Since then, the phrase has become fashionable and entered popular culture. It is the title of a Dylan bootleg album (Wild Wolf Label, 2002), but also the first song on the album Anarchy (1994) by British alternative rock group Chumbawamba.
THE FIRST PROMOTIONAL FILM CLIP
In addition to the song’s musical influence, it was used as a promotional clip for Scopitone, a “visual jukebox” that played short films to accompany songs. D. A. Pennebaker directed three clips of the song: one in the “Savoy Steps” behind the Savoy Hotel in London, another at the Victoria Embankment Garden behind the Savoy Hotel, and the last clip on the roof of the hotel. This last clip features Tom Wilson wearing a fez for the occasion! It was the first version, filmed in the alley, that was used for the clip, and ranked number 7 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “100 Top Music Videos” in October 1993.
Dont Look Back:
Testimony of the Last Acoustic Tour
Dont Look Back—the spelling is intentional—is a “rockumentary” made by D. A. Pennebaker in 1965, during Bob Dylan’s last acoustic tour of the United Kingdom. Besides Dylan, the film features Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, manager Albert Grossman, road manager Bob Neuwirth, folksinger Derroll Adams, British impresario Tito Burns, former Animals keyboardist Alan Price, father of British blues John Mayall, and the British troubadour Donovan.
The music video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues” opens Dont Look Back, although originally Pennebaker wanted to insert it at the end of the documentary. We see Dylan on the Savoy Steps, a London alleyway just behind the famous Savoy Hotel, holding posters with extracts or key words from the songs in front of the camera. There are intentional misspellings and puns, such as “Suckcess,” throughout the clip. The idea of the cards was Dylan’s. In the background, we see Neuwirth and Ginsberg in conversation. The documentary presents our folksinger touring England, in different hotel rooms, facing reporters, confronted by his fans, in concert at the famous Royal Albert Hall in London, which John Lennon referenced in the song “A Day in the Life.” The documentary also witnesses the disintegration of the romance between Dylan and Joan Baez, set aside during the tour without her knowing the reason. “But it was one of the really most painful weeks in my life because I couldn’t understand really what the hell was going on,” she told Anthony Scaduto in 1971.2 The film Dont Look Back was first presented at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco on May 17, 1967, and premiered in New York City in September.
D. A. Pennebaker pursued a successful career by directing other “rockumentaries,” including Monterey Pop in 1968 and Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1973.
She Belongs To Me
Bob Dylan / 2:48
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Bruce Langhorne: guitar Al Gorgoni: guitar (?)
Kenny Rankin: guitar (?)
John Hammond Jr.: guitar (?) William E. Lee: bass (?)
Bobby Gregg: battery
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: January 14, 1965
Technical Team
Producer: Tom Wilson
Sound Engineers: Roy Halee and Pete Dauria
Genesis and Lyrics
“She Belongs to Me” is the first of two anti-love songs released on Bringing It All Back Home. The songs may be about folk singer Joan Baez, Nico, or Sara Lownds. Several hypotheses have been made. John Cale of the Velvet Underground stated that Dylan was thinking of Nico when he wrote “She Belongs to Me,” just as when he wrote “I’ll Keep It with Mine,” which Nico recorded for the album Chelsea Girls, released in 1967. In Paris in May 1964, Dylan first met Nico, an actress, singer, and German supermodel who had a part in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (a film that Dylan cited in “Motorpsycho Nightmare” on his fourth studio album, Another Side of Bob Dylan). Her real name was Christa Päffgen. Nico accompanied Dylan on his journey across Europe, passing through Germany and ending in Greece.
According to other sources, the artist described in “She Belongs to Me” (“She’s got everything she needs /… She don’t look back”) is Caroline Coon, an avant-garde painter and feminist icon of the sixties underground movement in London (and future mastermind of the 1970 punk scene). Others suggest Joan Baez, since some of the lyrics refer to an Egyptian ring (“She wears an Egyptian ring / That sparkles before she speaks”), and Dylan had indeed given Joan such a ring. The lines “She never stumbles / She’s got no place to fall” alludes to the strong political beliefs of the “queen of folk.” Some argue that the song is only Dylan’s paean to his muse, even on a more symbolic level, before which America should “Bow down to her on Sunday.” It is also possible that Dylan wrote the song in honor of his future wife, Sara, whom he had met a few months earlier. But according to Robert Shelton, Dylan could have simply invented the anti-love song.
The title of the song is ironic, for the heroine belongs to no one. It’s just the opposite: she is a willful and determined woman, as suggested by these lines: “She can take the dark out of the nighttime / And paint the daytime black”; “she’s nobody’s child” and “the law can’t touch her at all.”
Production
Bob Dylan recorded several takes for “She Belongs to Me.” The first two date from January 13, 1965. He played solo acoustic guitar and harmonica. The following day, accompanied by a full rock band that he had worked with before, he recorded three takes. The second of these is the version that appears on the album Bringing It All Back Home.
After the electric and energetic “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” the second title on the album contrasts with its gentleness and style flirting with country music. This ballad in 4/4 time with a classical harmonic style permits Dylan to subtly bring out the irony of his words. This time, he strums on his Gibson Nick Lucas, supported by Bruce Langhorne’s inspired solo phrases. It seems that a third guitarist provides rhythm on the electric guitar. Unfortunately, this is too unclear in the mix to be confirmed. It is surely William E. Lee on the bass—or rather contrabass, for the distinctive sound recalls that of “Corrina, Corrina,” released in 1962. Finally, Bobby Gregg provides the drum part with brush and rim shots conferring the necessary groove. Tom Wilson brings a light rockabilly touch by adding a slight echo “slap back” on Dylan’s vocals and guitar solo, but also on the drum part, which has the effect of brin
ging out the rim shot and giving a country tone to the tune. Ricky Nelson made a highly successful adaptation in 1969. Dylan adapted this song in concert, performing with a pedal steel guitar, an iconic instrument for this musical style. He performed “She Belongs to Me” for the first time on March 27, 1965, at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
The working title listed in the recording session notes was “Worse Than Money” for the session on January 13 and “My Girl” for the following day.
Maggie’s Farm
Bob Dylan / 3:56
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Bruce Langhorne: guitar
Al Gorgoni: guitar
Kenny Rankin: guitar
Frank Owens: piano
Joseph Macho Jr.: bass (?)
William E. Lee: bass (?)
Bobby Gregg: drums, tambourine (?)
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios / Studio A, New York: January 15, 1965
Technical Team
Producer: Tom Wilson
Sound Engineers: Roy Halee and Pete Dauria
Genesis and Lyrics
During a 1969 Rolling Stone interview, Jann Wenner asked Dylan, “Are there any albums or tracks from the albums that you think now were particularly good?” Dylan replied that “Maggie’s Farm” was among his favorites.21 Inspired by “Down on Penny’s Farm,” recorded by the Bently Boys in 1929, the song is about the hard work of farm laborers on the plantations of the South. Two years after singing “Only a Pawn in Their Game” on Silas McGee’s farm (July 6, 1963) at the civil rights/voter-registration rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, the songwriter took another farm as the setting to break free from the traditional folk movement. “Maggie’s Farm” attacks the radical intelligentsia, which had sunk into conformism. The words ridicule and hurt. The middle stanzas describe concert promoters who “[fine] you every time you slam the door” and activist spectators who “say sing while you slave and I just get bored.”
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 20