Handy Dandy
Bob Dylan / 4:03
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, piano; Waddy Wachtel: guitar; Jimmie Vaughan: guitar; Al Kooper: organ; Don Was: bass; Kenny Aronoff: drums; Paulinho Da Costa: percussion; Sweet Pea Atkinson, Sir Harry Bowens, Donald Ray Mitchell, and David Was: backup vocals / Recording Studios: The Record Plant, Los Angeles: January 6 (?), 1990; Ocean Way Recording, Hollywood, California: January 6 (?), 1990 (Overdubs April 30/May 2–4, 14, 25, 1990) / Producers: Don Was, David Was, and Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Ed Cherney
Genesis and Production
“Handy Dandy,” like many of Bob Dylan’s songs of the 1960s, is inspired by Shakespeare. The song contains references to the conversation in King Lear, act 4, scene 6, between Edgar and the Earl of Gloucester. The hero of Dylan’s song defies rationality: “Handy Dandy, controversy surrounds him”; “Handy Dandy, he got a stick in his hand and a pocket full of money”; he’s “been around the world and back again.”
“Handy Dandy” is one of the first songs recorded for the album. Don Was remembers “just before we recorded ‘Handy Dandy,’ Bob remarked about how, years earlier, he’d been to a Miles Davis session. The band improvised for an hour and then Teo Macero, the producer, took a razor blade to the tape and cut it into a coherent five-minute piece… We decided to try something similar with ‘Handy Dandy.’ It was originally thirty-four minutes long.”146 After careful editing that left off “some amazing solos by Jimmie and Stevie,” the song took shape. With the first notes on the organ Al Kooper takes us back to 1965 and his unforgettable performance on “Like a Rolling Stone,” released on the album Highway 61 Revisited. However, the illusion lasts only as long as the introduction. The chorus, despite being indicated on the liner notes, is inaudible.
Cat’s In The Well
Bob Dylan / 3:21
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, piano, accordion; Stevie Ray Vaughan: guitar; Jimmie Vaughan: lead guitar; David Lindley: slide guitar; Jamie Muhoberac: organ; David McMurray: saxophone; Rayse Biggs: trumpet; Don Was: bass; Kenny Aronoff: drums; Paulinho Da Costa: percussion / Recording Studios: The Record Plant, Los Angeles: January 6 (?), 1990; Ocean Way Recording, Hollywood, California: January 6 (?), 1990 (Overdubs April 30/May 2, 1990) / Producers: Don Was, David Was, and Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Ed Cherney
Genesis and Production
Bob Dylan concludes Under the Red Sky with another children’s nursery rhyme, a replay of “Ding Dong Bell.” Dylan delivers a darker message behind this seemingly innocent story of a kitten. In the third verse, he sings, “The world’s being slaughtered and it’s such a bloody disgrace.” The prediction is clear: humanity must prepare to live its last days. The final stanza contains an explicit allusion to the Old Testament, Psalm 123: “Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.” The narrator believes in the Lord’s mercy: “Goodnight, my love, may the Lord have mercy on us all.” Therefore, there is hope, at least for those who are not conceited and contemptuous.
“Cat’s in the Well” is a superb rock song supported by fantastic musicians. Dylan’s vocal is relaxed, and he provides an oustanding piano part. Similarly, his accompaniment on accordion confers a Cajun aura to the song. David Lindley plays excellent slide guitar solos on his Teisco, and Jimmie Vaughan has a saturated solo at 2:22. For the first time on the album, brass is buried in the mix. “Cat’s in the Well” concludes Dylan’s twenty-seventh album gracefully.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
The line “The drinks are ready and the dogs are going to war” is subject to debate. Is Dylan referring to the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein? On August 2, 1990, three months before the end of the recording of “Cat’s in the Well,” Iraqi forces entered Kuwait.
Good
As I Been
To You
Frankie & Albert
Jim Jones
Blackjack Davey
Canadee-I-O
Sittin’ On Top Of The World
Little Maggie
Hard Times
Step It Up And Go
Tomorrow Night
Arthur McBride
You’re Gonna Quit Me
Diamond Joe
Froggie Went A Courtin’
THE OUTTAKES
Miss The Mississippi
Duncan & Brady
You Belong To Me
DATE OF RELEASE
November 3, 1992 (or October 27 or 30, according to various sources)
on Columbia Records
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA CK 53200 [CD] / COLUMBIA C 53200 [LP])
Good As I Been to You:
A Tribute to Masters of Folk and Blues
On June 3, 1992, ten days after returning from his tour through Hawaii, California, and Nevada, Bob Dylan was back in the studio. He chose to take his guitars to Chicago’s Acme Recording Studio. There he met David Bromberg, former bandleader, multi-instrumentalist, and a virtuoso of bluegrass music and American traditional music. Bromberg had already participated in the sessions for Self Portrait and New Morning (1970).
In about two weeks, Dylan, Bromberg, and Bromberg’s band recorded thirty songs. The album included only traditional songs and covers, with the exception of two tunes written by Bromberg. The LP does not feature any original compositions by Dylan. On June 28, Dylan resumed his Never Ending Tour and left Bromberg to mix the materials. “[Dylan] left me to mix things and he told me before he left, ‘I’ve usually been on every mix I’ve done, but I trust you. Go ahead and mix it.’ And I think I did a bad job. I didn’t understand what he wanted… When he came back and listened to it, he said, ‘That’s awful. Go back and listen to the roughs.’ I went back and listened to the rough mix, and I saw what he was talking about, but he had lost interest. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to mix it together because it might have come out.”126
The Album
Dylan definitively buried the Bromberg sessions. He had already moved on. However, he had, as always, the intention of recording a new album, but in a completely different form. Micajah Ryan, the sound engineer hired for this new project, confided, “Debbie Gold [a long-standing Dylan friend, credited as the producer on Good As I Been to You] had convinced Dylan to record with just acoustic guitar and vocals. She was my manager, and while I was on vacation, she called me to record just a couple of songs for a day or two.”147
The new album was to consist exclusively of covers and be recorded in a small garage studio in Dylan’s Malibu house. With the assistance of Dave A. Stewart, Dylan recorded vocals and only played acoustic guitar and occasionally harmonica. This was, to some extent, a return to the beginning, meaning Dylan’s first albums from Bob Dylan to Another Side of Bob Dylan.
Good As I Been to You has a collection of thirteen traditional folk and blues covers. From the first song, “Frankie & Albert,” to the last, “Froggie Went a Courtin’,” Dylan revisits Australian, Scottish, and Irish folk songs, blues standards, bluegrass, folk blues, and even a child’s nursery rhyme.
Dylan respected the original recordings of his illustrious predecessors and credited them for all the arrangements enriched with his own touch. The acoustic guitar is serviceable. But it is the vocals that take your breath away—deep, sad, and somehow supported by decades of Anglo-Saxon musical tradition. In 1966, in an interview with Playboy, Dylan noted, “Traditional music is based on hexagrams. It comes about from legends, Bibles, plagues, and it resolves around vegetables and death. There’s nobody that’s going to kill traditional music.”144 Ideas he had kept in mind when he recorded this album.
Dylan’s twenty-eighth studio album, Good As I Been to You, was available in stores on November 3, 1992 (or October 27 or 30, according to some sources). It was well received by the critics and the public, much better than the previous album, Under the Red Sky (1990), had been. Some listeners nostalgically found the folksinger of Dylan’s early years, but others heard the album as the humble homage of one of music’s grea
ts to those who had gone before him. The album only reached number 51 in the United States, but peaked at number 18 in the United Kingdom.
The Album Cover
Jimmy Wachtel took the photograph for the cover, a black-and-white shot of Dylan’s profile, unshaven and looking thoughtful. Wachtel had designed album covers for Bruce Springsteen; Crosby, Stills & Nash; and Alice Cooper, among others. The photograph on the back (not credited) shows Dylan onstage with prominent biceps holding a Yamaha L6. The picture was most likely taken during the True Confessions Tour (with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) in July 1986. The art direction and record design were entrusted to Dawn Patrol (Jackson Browne, Motörhead).
The Recording
Dylan recorded the songs for Good As I Been to You in his Malibu studio at the end of July and the beginning of August 1992. Micajah Ryan recalled, “It seemed Bob had a very strong idea of what songs needed to be on the record. My job was to record everything he did. I was very nervous at first. But [producer] Debbie [Gold] had a great working relationship with Bob, so that took some of the edge off for me—and for Dylan as well. He consulted Debbie on every take. He trusted her and she was never afraid to tell him the truth, and, boy, was she persistent, often convincing him to stay with a song long after he seemed to lose interest.”147
Dylan recorded in a way that he had always loved: with minimally invasive technology and production reduced to a minimum. Micajah Ryan recalls Dylan “being concerned with the difference between analog and digital, how digital recording was ruining modern music.”147 At each session, he worked at least two songs, doing as he had always done throughout his career: “several takes in every key and tempo until he felt he got it.” As a result, the record has warmth in the sound, which, according to the engineer, came in part from the intimacy they all shared in the studio. “Only Debbie and I were in the control room when Bob played… I believe that intimacy had a lot to do with the warmth in the sound of his performances.” Ryan went on to have a splendid career as a sound engineer and contributed to many albums, including ones by Guns N’ Roses, Was (Not Was), and Megadeth.
The Instruments
Dylan probably used many Martin guitars on the album, but a document belonging to his guitar technician at the time, the late César Díaz, says that a 1970 Martin D-35 12-string was among those used. Dylan played harmonica in F and A.
Frankie & Albert
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 3:51
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“Frankie & Albert” was inspired by an incident that shocked people in St. Louis in 1899. The song recounts the story of Frankie Baker, who killed her lover, named Albert, after finding him with another woman. This traditional American popular song was copyrighted by Hughie Cannon in 1904. Over the years, the song has had a number of versions. The first great “Frankie & Albert” interpretation is credited to Texan bluesman Leadbelly in 1934. Many other artists covered the tune, sometimes under the title “Frankie & Johnny.” Since the early twentieth century, artists including Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, and Jerry Lee Lewis have recorded more than 250 versions. The story of Frankie and Albert has inspired many movies, including Fred de Cordova’s Frankie and Johnny (1966), starring Elvis Presley as a riverboat gambler. The song was also recorded as a jazz standard by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and others.
The song opens Dylan’s 1992 LP and introduces his new sound. His guitar playing is a bit messy, but he always delivers a magical feeling that overshadows any flaws. Even if he has not refined his guitar technique since the sixties, you can’t help but admire his interpretation. Dylan’s version is somewhere between that of Taj Mahal and Mississippi John Hurt’s version of 1928. Dylan, once again, earns praise for his extraordinary sense of tempo. His voice is soft and perhaps deserves to be more up front in the mix, but overall the song sounds great. “Frankie & Albert” is an excellent return to Dylan’s core sound.
Jim Jones
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 3:55
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“Jim Jones” is a traditional Australian folk ballad, taking its inspiration from a murder case. A British convict, Jim Jones, was found guilty of murder and sent to Botany Bay in Australia. The song recounts the story of his trial and journey to Australia. In the first and second verse, Dylan sings, “I was condemned to sail / Now the jury found me guilty /… And our ship was high upon the sea / Then pirates came along.” “Jim Jones” is a protest song. The condemned is indeed seen as the victim of British society, not the one who broke the rules. For this reason, “Jim Jones” became an anthem of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
This is probably what attracted Dylan, who performs a very emotional version in his home studio in Malibu. More than thirty years had passed between his debut at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village and this beautiful recording; the songwriter is still true to his roots. He strums his guitar and his evocative vocal is excellent.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
A crowd outside Westminster Hall in London sang “Jim Jones” together for the liberation of African-American activist Angela Davis.
Blackjack Davey
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 5:50
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
“Blackjack Davey” is an early eighteenth-century traditional Scottish ballad that became popular across the Atlantic. The song was adapted by a variety of performers under different titles, including “The Gypsum Laddies” (John Jacob Niles, 1938), “Black Jack David” (the Carter Family, 1940), “Gypsy Davy” (Woody Guthrie, 1944), “Black Jack Daisy” (New Lost City Ramblers, 1966), as well as Pete Seeger (1957), Arlo Guthrie (1973), and, more recently, the White Stripes (2003). The tale is oft-told: a rich young woman abandons a life of luxury and her family to run off with the gypsies. Some see a reading of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice; others, a fictionalized evocation of the life of John Fee, a Scottish outlaw in the sixteenth century known as the king of the gypsies.
Almost half a century after Woody Guthrie, Dylan created his own vision of this traditional song. Dylan’s song features the king of the gypsies who “charmed the heart of a lady” in the following exchange: “‘How old are you, my pretty little miss / How old are you, my honey’ / She answered to him with a lovin’ smile / ‘I’ll be sixteen come Sunday, Be sixteen come Sunday’ / ‘Come and go with me, my pretty little miss.’” The interpretation is good despite a few hesitations on guitar (5:07). Unlike his first acoustic recordings, his voice becomes more cajoling despite his coarse intonation. He has stopped singing high notes. Another time, another approach.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
The heroine of “Blackjack Davey” is wearing high-heeled shoes made of Spanish leather. This ballad may have inspired Dylan twenty-eight years earlier to write “Boots of Spanish Leather.”
Canadee-I-O
Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 4:23
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar / Recording Studio: Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu, California: July–August 1992 / Producer: Debbie Gold / Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
Genesis and Production
Like many folk songs originating in England, “Canadee-I-O,” also known as “The Wearing of the Blue” and “Caledonia,” had a second life when the ballad arrived in Canada. It is an unusual love story. A young lady dresses up in sailor’s clothes to follow her lover, who has left to join a ship’s crew; “when the other sailors heard the news, / Well, they fell into a
rage, / And with all the ship’s company” threaten to throw her overboard. The captain rescues her, falls in love, and “when they come down to Canada /… She’s married this bold captain.”
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 79