“Ain’t Talkin’” is a musical fresco with multiple sonic colors (viola, arpeggiated style on acoustic guitar, upright bass). Dylan is evolving in this musical universe, singing not with a gloomy voice, but in a searching, even resigned tone. And as a message of hope, the last chord of the song is in a major key, suggesting optimism, while the key of the song is minor. There is an alternative version, more rock and laid back, released on The Bootleg Series Volume 8.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
The lines in the chorus “Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’” and “Heart burnin’, still yearnin’” are from “Highway of Regret,” a bluegrass-gospel song by the Stanley Brothers.
Together Through
Life
Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
Life Is Hard
My Wife’s Home Town
If You Ever Go To Houston
Forgetful Heart
Jolene
This Dream Of You
Shake Shake Mama
I Feel A Change Comin’ On
It’s All Good
DATE OF RELEASE
April 28, 2009
on Columbia Records
(REFERENCE COLUMBIA 88697 43893 2 [CD] / 88697 43893 1 [LP])
Together Through Life:
An Album with a Southern Flavor
A Soundtrack
Together Through Life began to form in Bob Dylan’s mind after the popular forty-one-year-old French film director Olivier Dahan asked Dylan to write a handful of songs for the director’s new road film, My Own Love Song (2010). “I was in LA, and I wondered who could perform the title song of the film,” Dahan said. “I thought of Bob Dylan, but being a fan, I told myself that I would never dare to approach him. Finally, I contacted his agent, who told me that he was interested.”163
My Own Love Song recounts the story of Jane, a former singer paralyzed after a serious accident. She receives a letter from her son, Devon, inviting her to his first communion. She has not seen him for seven years, since her accident and subsequent coma. At first she hesitates to go, but her friend Joey persuades her. Thus begins a long journey from Kansas to New Orleans during which she composes the most beautiful love song.
Bob Dylan, had enjoyed the previous film by the young director, La Vie en Rose (2007) starring Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf. He had read the script of My Own Love Song with interest and agreed to write the songs. Olivier Dahan: “He based the songs on the script and the notes I sent him. Love, faith, and friendship with a very simple, not intellectualized, approach. He composed the songs while I was shooting. I could not show him the footage so I made him a short video. But I knew he understood [the story] I wanted to tell from the beginning of the collaboration. We spoke by phone about the themes of the film and its aesthetics. He sent me the sketches during the shooting.” Dahan continues, “The only constraint was to write a song with a very special content, the song that the main character, Jane, sings to her son after seven years of absence, entitled ‘Life Is Hard.’ He wrote many more songs than we needed. He composed instrumentals as well.”163
The Album
The rock critic Dan Engler (Verde Independent) wrote, “Bob Dylan claimed he could feel the presence of Buddy Holly while recording his landmark album Time Out of Mind in 1997. On his latest disc, Together Through Life, you get the feeling the ghost of old Dylan chum Doug Sahm was haunting the recording sessions.”164 Doug Sahm, leader of the Sir Douglas Quintet and then of Texas Tornados (with Augie Meyers), has alone embodied the long history of American popular music, from blues to Tex-Mex. It is to this history that Dylan referred when he composed Together Through Life. The blues is omnipresent, specifically the Chicago blues, from Otis Rush to Willie Dixon, but also country music, Tex? Mex, Cajun, and the “Brill Building” sound.
What connects this disparate blend of genres, as unexpected as it may seem, are the accordion parts played by multi-instrumentalist David Hidalgo of rock band Los Lobos. They bring a special Mexican-Louisianan touch to the album.
REAPPEARANCE
The photograph on the album cover is taken from Dylan’s 2005 documentary No Direction Home, precisely at 19:23.
Dylan drove on this mythical road through the Southern states from Texas to Louisiana and Mississippi. Listening to the album, from “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” to “It’s All Good,” one gets the impression of having traveled back in time to a dance hall in a small town in Texas or New Mexico in the 1930s or driving an old Packard listening to a Memphis or Clarksdale radio station.
The lyrics, written by Dylan and Robert Hunter (with whom Dylan had collaborated on his 1988 album Down in the Groove), are also deeply rooted in the American tradition. “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” refers to the dark atmosphere of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett’s novels, while in “It’s All Good” Dylan and Hunter take matters into their own hands to expose narcissistic and domineering elites. Finally, as always with Dylan, there is the indelible mark of biblical tales.
Together Through Life was released on April 28, 2009, and quickly peaked at number 1 in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom (Dylan’s first number 1 album since New Morning in 1970), Canada, Denmark, Sweden, and Argentina. The album reached number 2 in Germany and Belgium, and number 9 in France. Critics viewed the album favorably: Blender and Uncut gave it five stars out of five, MOJO and Rolling Stone four stars out of five. David Fricke of Rolling Stone wrote, “Dylan, who turns 68 in May, has never sounded as ravaged, pissed off and lusty, all at once, as he does on Together Through Life. It is a murky-sounding, often perplexing record,” while MOJO said, “Together Through Life is an album that gets its hooks in early and refuses to let go. It’s dark yet comforting, with a big tough sound, booming slightly like a band grooving at a soundcheck in an empty theatre. And at its heart there is a haunting refrain. Because above everything this is a record about love, its absence and its remembrance.” Dylan’s thirty-third studio album won universal acclaim! Note that it is the only Dylan album to top both the US and the UK charts.
Together Through Life is available in two versions, as a single CD containing ten songs or as a deluxe three-disc version, two CDs and one DVD. The deluxe set includes the single CD album plus a second CD called Theme Time Radio Hour: Friends & Neighbors, including fourteen songs played during the Theme Time Radio Hour radio program hosted by Dylan from May 2006 to April 2009. The DVD includes an interview with Roy Silver (Dylan’s first manager), unused for the rockumentary No Direction Home, directed by Martin Scorsese.
The Album Cover
The beautiful black-and-white cover photography is the work of legendary photographer Bruce Davidson, taken during the summer of 1959. He took the photo after having met a young Brooklyn group calling itself the Jokers. The young couple is in the back seat of the car going to Coney Island. The shot had inspired the video for “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’,” directed by Nash Edgerton and starring Joel Stoffer and Amanda Aardsma. Davidson’s photograph also serves as the cover of Mississippi writer Larry Brown’s short story collection Big Bad Love. The photograph on the back cover, showing gypsy musicians, was taken in 1968 by another Magnum agency artist, Josef Koudelka.
The design was handled by Coco Shinomiya, an independent artist who went on to work on Dylan’s Christmas in the Heart (2009). The inner sleeve picture is the work of Danny Clinch (Norah Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith).
The Recording
On Together Through Life, Dylan is accompanied by his regular touring buddies, including Donnie Herron (steel guitar, banjo, mandolin, trumpet), Tony Garnier (bass), and George G. Receli (drums), all three of whom had already worked on Modern Times. Two other musicians were called in as well, Mike Campbell (guitar, mandolin) of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and David Hidalgo (accordion) of Los Lobos.
Together Through Life may have been recorded in the studio Dave’s Room in Hollywood, California. The sound engineer David Bianco, the studio’s owner, had recorded numerous artists, includin
g Tom Petty, Mick Jagger, and Ozzy Osbourne. The recording dates from October 2008.
Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
Bob Dylan / Robert Hunter / 3:50
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, organ (?)
Mike Campbell: guitar
David Hidalgo: accordion, guitar
Donnie Herron: trumpet
Tony Garnier: bass
George G. Receli: drums, cowbell, tambourine
Recording Studio
Dave’s Room, Hollywood, California: October 2008
Technical Team
Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan)
Sound Engineer: David Bianco
Genesis and Lyrics
Dylan co-wrote the opening track, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’,” with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, who had already collaborated with Dylan for the 1988 album Down in the Groove. They created a beautiful love story set as a film noir, with abandoned cars lining the boulevards and light from only a few stars and the moon. In the lines, “We’ll keep on lovin’ pretty baby / For as long as love will last,” do Dylan and Hunter have a particular woman in mind? Or is she the songwriter’s muse who has guided him throughout his life? A rather creepy music video for the song was produced by Nash Edgerton, starring Amanda Aardsma and Joel Stoffer.
Production
Musically, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” sounds quite different from anything Dylan has written so far. It has the sound of the modern blues of the 1950s, the Chicago blues, enriched by David Hidalgo’s accordion and Donnie Herron’s trumpet. The song also bears some resemblance to “All Your Love (I Miss Loving),” recorded by Otis Rush in 1958 for Cobra Records and produced by Willie Dixon. The lead guitar part is quite similar in style and sound to that of British blues-rock guitarist Peter Green on “Black Magic Woman” by the rock band Fleetwood Mac (1968), despite a few wrong notes (at 2:25, for example). George G. Receli provides a splendid drum part, with a cowbell that accentuates the Latino side of the music, and is backed by the excellent Tony Garnier on bass. As for Dylan, who apparently was ill during the sessions, he sings this blues song with an exhausted, raspy voice, but one perfectly suitable for the song (with a very prominent delay). It seems that he also played organ.
Dylan performed “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” for the first time onstage in Dayton, Ohio, on July 10, 2009.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’” refers to a quote from the ancient Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE–17/18 CE) that he wrote in exile.
Life Is Hard
Bob Dylan / Robert Hunter / 3:39
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Mike Campbell: mandolin; David Hidalgo: guitar; Donnie Herron: steel guitar; Tony Garnier: upright bass; George G. Receli: drums / Recording Studio: Dave’s Room, Hollywood, California: October 2008 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: David Bianco
Genesis and Production
Bob Dylan told Bill Flanagan, “The only thing [Olivier Dahan] needed for sure was a ballad for the main character to sing towards the end of the movie”—the song Jane sings to her son when she reconnects with him after seven years of separation. The song is “Life Is Hard,” Co-written with Robert Hunter.
The song is a ballad in the same spirit as “Nettie Moore” on Modern Times, in which a sense of sadness and regret predominates. “My dreams are locked and barred,” he sings, feeling the evening breeze and the chilly winds.
With a beautiful melody and arrangements of great finesse, “Life Is Hard” comes as a surprise. The version in Dahan’s film, performed by Renée Zellweger accompanied only be acoustic guitar, is astonishingly beautiful. It is regrettable that Dylan did not sing it with a more limited accompaniment.
My Wife’s Home Town
Bob Dylan / Willie Dixon / Robert Hunter / 3:39
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, organ; Mike Campbell: guitar; David Hidalgo: accordion; Tony Garnier: upright bass; George G. Receli: drums / Recording Studio: Dave’s Room, Hollywood, California: October 2008 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: David Bianco
Genesis and Production
Bob Dylan credited Willie Dixon with the music of “My Wife’s Home Town.” It is an adaptation of Dixon’s 1954 song “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954 and released under the Chess label. The song was a major hit, covered by the Rolling Stones for their 1964 debut album, which elevated the tune to the rank of a blues-rock classic. The lyrics, however, were Co-written by Dylan and Robert Hunter.
It is not pleasant to live in the narrator’s wife’s hometown. Dylan sings with a deep voice, “I just want to say that Hell’s my wife’s home town,” imitating Tom Waits’s vocals. However, as suggested by the laugh near the end (3:53), this is not a song to be taken literally.
Once again, the success of the song lies in the blend of electric guitar and accordion. It is not the zydeco genre, but rather Dylan’s reading of the American idiom. However, Dylan’s rendition lacks aggressiveness and sensuality, compared to Willie Dixon’s version. The arrangements, which are not strong enough and rather too smooth, prevent the song from taking off. Too bad, as Dylan sings just right.
If You Ever Go To Houston
Bob Dylan / Robert Hunter / 5:49
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, organ, guitar (?); Mike Campbell: guitar; David Hidalgo: accordion; Donnie Herron: steel guitar; Tony Garnier: bass; George G. Receli: drums / Recording Studio: Dave’s Room, Hollywood, California: October 2008 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: David Bianco
Genesis and Production
The narrator of “If You Ever Go to Houston” is a skilled marksman who participated in the Mexican-American War and has clear advice for anyone who would be foolhardy enough to go to Texas. Undoubtedly, the narrator has the best memories of Dallas because of the three sisters he seems to have known there.
In writing this song, Dylan and Hunter might have had Leadbelly’s “Midnight Special” (1934) in mind, in which the Texas songster sang, “If you’re ever in Houston, well, you better do the right.”
Musically, “If You Ever Go to Houston” recalls Texas ballrooms of the 1930s. Accordionist David Hidalgo remembers, “It started out like a Jimmy Reed tune and it ended up… Bob was playing organ, he started this riff, and it went from this completely other thing, to what it is now. It was fun to be in the room when it happened.”165 “If You Ever Go to Houston” is far from Jimmy Reed’s blues song with its Tex--Mex atmosphere, brief passages of classical and steel guitar, ubiquitous accordion, and Dylan’s vocal that gives an impression of him in a Stetson with a drink in hand—a solid, unpretentious song.
FOR DYLANOLOGISTS
When someone asked Dylan what the “sinner’s prayer” was, he replied, “One that starts with ‘Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned.’” The sacrament of penance and reconciliation is a rite of the Catholic Church.
Forgetful Heart
Bob Dylan / Robert Hunter / 3:42
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar; Mike Campbell: guitar; David Hidalgo: accordion, guitar (?); Donnie Herron: banjo; Tony Garnier: bass; George G. Receli: drums, tambourine / Recording Studio: Dave’s Room, Hollywood, California: October 2008 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: David Bianco
Genesis and Production
“Forgetful Heart” is the most desperate song on Together Through Life. The main character addresses his beloved, who has “[l]ost [her] power of recall,” and who is content “to let the days go by.” And that is clearly irreversible. He must accept the woman he loves “[l]ike a walking shadow in [his] brain.” The last lines, “The door has closed forevermore / If indeed there ever was a door” implicitly refers to a line from William Faulkner’s 1950 play, Requiem for a Nun, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
“Forgetful Heart” changes the atmosphere; Dylan sings in a deep, hoarse, and pained voice. Mike Campbell finds in the slow blues song a place to play an excell
ent saturated guitar solo. This time Donnie Herron abandons his steel guitar for an Appalachian banjo and Dylan his organ to play, in all likelihood, acoustic guitar. The rhythm section is excellent. George G. Receli plays tambourine in an overdub.
Jolene
Bob Dylan / Robert Hunter / 3:51
Musicians: Bob Dylan: vocals, organ; Mike Campbell: guitar; David Hidalgo: guitar; Donnie Herron: steel guitar; Tony Garnier: bass; George G. Receli: drums / Recording Studio: Dave’s Room, Hollywood, California: October 2008 / Producer: Jack Frost (Bob Dylan) / Sound Engineer: David Bianco
Genesis and Production
In 1973, country singer Dolly Parton released “Jolene,” which became a major hit. Forty years later, Dylan used the same title but for a distinctly different song. Robert Hunter’s and Dylan’s Jolene “make[s] the dead man rise,” and when she holds you in her arms “things don’t look so dark.”
The brilliant riff is a combination of Donnie Herron on steel guitar, Mike Campbell on guitar, and Dylan on organ. It is unusual to hear a riff in Dylan’s songs. The entire band gets into an excellent musical groove, and even if Dylan says there is no place on his songs for solos, there are nevertheless two very convincing ones by Herron and Campbell. A superb piece.
Bob Dylan All the Songs Page 88