Love
And Theft
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Mississippi
Summer Days
Bye And Bye
Lonesome Day Blues
Floater (Too Much To Ask)
High Water (For Charley Patton)
Moonlight
Honest With Me
Po’ Boy
Cry A While
Sugar Baby
DATE OF RELEASE
September 11, 2001
on Columbia Records
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA CK 85975 [CD] / C2 85975 [LP])
Love and Theft:
An Eclectic Album
The Album
Four years after Time Out of Mind, Bob Dylan stepped back into the spotlight with twelve new songs on the album Love and Theft. The title of the album was presumably inspired by the historian Eric Lott’s book Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, published in 1993, in which he analyzed the phenomenon of minstrel shows. These were shows created at the end of the nineteenth century in which white actors blackened their faces with charcoal to perform skits mocking African-Americans, portraying them as stupid, superstitious, ignorant, and only skilled in music and dance. The minstrel shows, as mocking and racist as they were, paradoxically contributed to the spread of black American music, which quickly captivated white artists. There was indeed a “love” of white artists for this black music, and a “theft” by white artists who shamelessly drew on the musical heritage of the Delta.
This thirty-first studio album, which could be seen as a tribute to the blues pioneers of American ballads, is, according to Dylan in an interview with Mikal Gilmore in December 2001, an album “autobiographical on every front”: “The album deals with power, wealth, knowledge and salvation… it deals with great themes.”1 With it Dylan continues the work he began in the 1990s with the blues-folk albums Good As I Been to You and World Gone Wrong, and then Time Out of Mind. All three together testify to the enormous artistic debt contemporary musical artists owe to the pioneers of American popular music.
A Successful Eclecticism
The album includes twelve songs with various references and influences, including Charley Patton, Blind Willie Johnson, Gus Cannon, the Carter Family, and even Bing Crosby. These twelve songs also mark Dylan’s return to humor, abandoned since the sixties, and an unrestrained and warm tone. The twelve songs are surprisingly eclectic, but successful.
On the sonic level, Love and Theft is radically different from Time Out of Mind. This time, Dylan decided to produce the album himself, again using the pseudonym Jack Frost. “I would’ve loved to have somebody help me make this record, but I couldn’t think of anybody on short notice. And besides, what could they do? For this particular record, it wouldn’t have mattered.”20
Love and Theft was released on September 11, 2001, the day the whole world, stunned, watched the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York City and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Despite these apocalyptic events, Dylan’s thirty-first studio album was a great success. In the United States, it reached number 5 on the US Billboard Top 200 and became certified gold. In the United Kingdom, the album climbed to number 3. It was also a critical success, reaching number 385 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” In 2009, Glide magazine ranked it the best album of the decade. It won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. A great success for an album that Dylan himself called “a greatest hits album… Without the hits.”160
The Album Cover
The photograph on the cover was taken by Kevin Mazur, who had worked with Sting, U2, and Michael Jackson, among others. It shows Bob Dylan with a fine mustache, standing with a kind of Mexican look. The back cover photograph, shot by David Gahr (Miles Davis, Muddy Waters, Bruce Springsteen), conveys the same atmosphere. The art direction was the responsibility of Geoff Gans, who had already worked on Time Out of Mind.
The Recording
For Love and Theft, Dylan hired a new team. Among the new musicians on the album were two excellent musicians, guitarist Charlie Sexton (Arc Angels, David Bowie, among others) and banjo player and violinist Larry Kemper (Levon Helm, Donald Fagen, among others). Chris Shaw was hired as sound engineer. Dylan and Shaw had worked together for the song “Things Have Changed” (a single from the Soundtrack of the 2000 movie Wonder Boys). Shaw recalls, “[A]t first, Bob’s manager wasn’t too sure if he’d want to work with me, because I’d worked with Booker T and Jeff Buckley, he thought I might be like an old-school style engineer. But then he heard that I got my start doing Public Enemy records, and he got very interested.”161
Dylan and Shaw agreed on the sound of the album. Shaw: “On Love and Theft, Bob really wanted to get the live sound of the band he had at that time, which, in my opinion, is the best band he’s ever had. Charlie Sexton, Larry Campbell, David Kemper, Tony Garnier, and we had Augie Meyers in playing organ. His idea was just, basically, get the whole band in the room and get them playing. You can never, ever know or predict exactly what it is that Bob wants.”161 Dylan is always in search of spontaneity and hates to repeat himself, as Augie Meyers can testify. “[Dylan] said, ‘I want you to play what you feel.’ One time, though, I played a note, I did a little run on my keyboard, and he gave me a look while we were recording. When we got through, he said, ‘I’ve heard that sound, on “Like a Rolling Stone.”’ And I said, ‘Yeah. That’s where I came from.’ He said, ‘Yeah, well, we gotta do something different.’”162
The recording sessions for Love and Theft were held during May 2001, between the eighth and the twenty-sixth, at Clinton Recording Studios in New York City, with the exception of “Mississippi,” which was recorded at Sony Music Studios. Chris Shaw recalls, “Love and Theft, I think there’s twelve songs on that record, and we did twelve songs in twelve days, completed. Then we spent another ten days mixing it, and I think we mixed four of the songs in one day… And I’d say about 85 percent of the sound of that record is the band spilling into Bob’s microphone because he’d sing live in the room with the band.”161
Technical Details
Chris Shaw recorded Love and Theft using a superb Neve 8068 console. The vocals were recorded using a Shure SM7 microphone with a Millennia HV-3D preamplifier, a Neve 1073 console module, and an Empirical Labs EL8 distressor compressor.
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Bob Dylan / 4:46
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Larry Campbell: guitar; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Tony Garnier: bass; David Kemper: drums; Clay Meyers: bongos / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
Bob Dylan borrowed the title of this song from an eighteenth-century English children’s nursery rhyme. This, in turn, may have been inspired by an epigram by poet John Byrom in which two fictional characters, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, are in constant rivalry. The rhyme about the two rivals was enshrined in literary history in 1872, when Lewis Carroll incorporated them into his novel Through the Looking Glass. Dylan not only passed through Carroll’s looking glass to write this song, but also borrows the line “a childish dream is a deathless need,” from A Vision of Poesy by an obscure American Civil War poet, Henry Timrod.
Dylan opens Love and Theft with a kind of “jungle music,” a musical farce sung by the vaudeville actor Buster Keaton, known for his deadpan manner. The song is absolutely fantastic, with a riff straight from the duo Johnny & Jack’s “Uncle John’s Bongos” (1961), probably played by Larry Campbell. Charlie Sexton follows on his six-string guitar, generating a great dynamism between the two. The rhythm section of David Kemper and Tony Garnier gives the song a strong locomotive groove. However, it is Clay Meyers’s bongos and Augie Meyers’s organ that create the true tone of the piece, half jungle, half circus. Dylan’s voice hovers above it all, creating an excellent piece.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Bob Dylan w
as not the only one to be inspired by Lewis Carroll. The Scottish pop band Middle of the Road released their own composition titled “Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum” in 1971.
Mississippi
Bob Dylan / 5:21
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Larry Campbell: guitar, mandolin; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Tony Garnier: bass; David Kemper: drums / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
Like “Cold Irons Bound,” “Mississippi” has as a likely starting point “Rosie,” an African-American work song sung by inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. The name “Rosie” is quoted in the fifth verse: “I was thinkin’ ’bout the things that Rosie said / I was dreaming I was sleepin’ in Rosie’s bed.” Here, the narrator regrets coming to Mississippi (“Stayed in Mississippi a day too long”) and is a prisoner of his own past—an allusion to a woman he still loves, saying, “I’m gonna look at you ’til my eyes go blind.” The piece is hardly optimistic. At the end, Dylan sings, “Well, the emptiness is endless, cold as the clay.”
“Mississippi” was initially recorded during the sessions for Time Out of Mind and then dropped from the album. Various sessions were conducted between the first demos made in Oxnard, California, at the end of 1996 and the sessions at Criteria Recording Studios in January 1997. Three outtakes left over from the previous album officially appear on The Bootleg Series Volume 8.
The alternative version on Love and Theft, reworked at Sony Music Studios in New York, is quite far from the version recorded at Criteria. Dylan returned to a more country-rock interpretation. Larry Campbell can be heard playing mandolin in the introduction and during various breaks. With a hoarse but confident voice, Dylan interprets the text emotionally. “Mississippi” is one of the triumphs of Love and Theft.
COVERS
Before recording the song “Mississippi,” Dylan offered the tune to Sheryl Crow, who recorded it for her 1998 album The Globe Sessions.
Summer Days
Bob Dylan / 4:53
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, piano (?); Larry Campbell: guitar; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: piano (?); Tony Garnier: bass; David Kemper: drums / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
The title of this song may refer to Delta blues pioneer Charley Patton’s “Some Summer Day,” but Dylan’s theme and music sound like a return to the cheerful 1950s, when gleaming Cadillacs cruised endless American highways. Meanwhile, he laughs at himself, especially when he sings, “The girls all say, ‘You’re a worn-out star.’” And, as always, he handles derision well: “My pockets are loaded and I’m spending every dime” or “Why don’t you break my heart one more time just for good luck.”
This is the first time that Dylan wrote in an authentic rockabilly style, reminiscent of guitarist Brian Setzer. The band, playing live in the studio, creates an infectious swing. The guitars are absolutely stunning, particularly Charlie Sexton’s excellent solos. His riff in the introduction is close to Big Joe Turner’s “Roll ’em, Pete.” Augie Meyers seems to play the piano part, but it may be that Dylan plays it himself. He gives an excellent vocal, tinged with humor and lightness—light-years away from the dense atmosphere of Time Out of Mind.
Bye And Bye
Bob Dylan / 3:16
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, piano (?); Larry Campbell: guitar; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: organ; Tony Garnier: upright bass; David Kemper: drums / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
For the fourth track’s title and message, Bob Dylan takes inspiration from African-American music. Reminiscent of “Bye and Bye I’m Goin’ to See the King,” recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in New Orleans in 1929, the song also recalls “By and By,” a traditional song recorded by Elvis Presley for the gospel album How Great Thou Art (1967). Moreover, as often Dylan does, the song is based on biblical texts, especially the Gospel according to Matthew (3:11). In the final verse, Dylan sings in a serious tone, “Well the future for me is already a thing of the past.”
After the rockabilly style of the previous track, Dylan revisits the jazz repertoire with “Bye and Bye,” which would have easily found its place on the track listing of Shadows in the Night, released in 2015. With the voice of a crooner, swing guitars, rhythm with brushes, walking bass, and organ, Dylan and his musicians create a superb piece. The songwriter has always admired Frank Sinatra, and he proves it here.
Lonesome Day Blues
Bob Dylan / 6:05
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Larry Campbell: guitar, violin, banjo; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: piano; Tony Garnier: bass; David Kemper: drums / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
A discarded lover, a former mistress with a new life, a father and a brother killed in the war, and a sister who ran off and got married… Such are the characters of the blues, and like those in this song they are almost always victims of fate. Dylan places these characters onstage and at the same time anchors the music deeply in the Mississippi Delta. He sings of the pain of loneliness, as did Blind Willie McTell before him. McTell, along with his wife Kate McTell (Ruby Glaze) recorded a song under the same title in 1932.
“Lonesome Day Blues” demonstrates how easily Dylan can sing the genre. His harsh voice takes on the atmosphere of Muddy Waters’s electric period. The support of his musicians is extraordinary and shows remarkable unity. The recording is exemplary. Chris Shaw himself said, “‘Lonesome Day Blues’ really set the mood for that whole record.”161 Only one regret—the song could have used a harmonica solo. “Lonesome Day Blues” has been performed more than 130 times since the concert at La Crosse, Wisconsin, on October 24, 2001. The Bootleg Series Volume 8 has a live version.
Floater (Too Much To Ask)
Bob Dylan / 5:00
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Larry Campbell: guitar; Charlie Sexton: guitar; Augie Meyers: piano (?); Tony Garnier: bass; David Kemper: drums / Recording Studio: Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Production
The line in the penultimate verse “I left all my dreams and hopes / Buried under tobacco leaves” perfectly summarizes “Floater (Too Much to Ask).” The narrator nostalgically evokes his past, an imagined golden age. He said he never saw his parents arguing even once and recalls his grandfather, a duck trapper, and the “ring-dancin’ Christmas carols on all of the Christmas Eves.” Two shadows loom over this nostalgic song. Dylan borrows two lines from the Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga, published in 1991: “My old man, he’s like some feudal lord” and “I’m not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound.” On the musical level, “Snuggled on Your Shoulder,” a composition by Carmen Lombardo and Joe Young immortalized by Bing Crosby in 1932, could also have been a source of inspiration.
An almost new Dylan performs “Floater (Too Much to Ask)”—a rather retro Dylan. “Floater” offers a good ground for a rhythm guitar to perform a kind of gypsy “pump,” and Campbell’s violin creates the illusion of grandeur of the French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. In “Floater (Too Much to Ask),” Dylan combines different types of music, and he does it with skill.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
Rather than prosecute Dylan for plagiarism, Junichi Saga was honored that Dylan had drawn inspiration from his book.
High Water (For Charley Patton)
Bob Dylan / 4:05
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Larry Campbell: banjo
Charlie Sexton: guitar
Augie Meyers: accordion
Tony Garnier: bass
David Kemper: timpani, cymbal, shaker, tambourine
(?): backup vocals
Recording Studio
Clinton Recording Studios, New York: May 2001
Technical Team
Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan)
Sound Engineer: Chris Shaw
Genesis and Lyrics
For the second time on Love and Theft, Bob Dylan refers to Delta blues pioneer Charley Patton, who died in 1934. Not only is his name mentioned in the song, but Dylan also takes his title from “High Water Everywhere,” one of the most famous recordings of the bluesman. Throughout “High Water,” Dylan quotes characters or places directly related to the history of the blues. Big Joe Turner was a blues shouter who started his career in Kansas City before participating in one of the two famous “From Spirituals to Swing” concerts held in 1938 at Carnegie Hall in New York City under the leadership of John Hammond. He later contributed to the beginning of rock ’n’ roll with “Shake, Rattle and Roll” (1954). George Lewis might be the clarinetist from New Orleans, himself a pioneer of the genre. The city of Clarksdale, Mississippi, was home to many blues musicians, including Bukka White, Son House, and John Lee Hooker. Robert Johnson was said to have signed his diabolical pact there, and Muddy Waters called it home.
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 85