"Subterranean Homesick Blues"

Bob Dylan - "Subterranean Homesick Blues" (1965)

Producer Tom Wilson was an African American who cut his teeth producing Sun Ra in the 50s but really came into his own in the 60s, producing Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, The Mothers of Invention, The Animals, and The Velvet Underground. His influence on Rock and Roll can not be denied. He died of a heart attack in 1978.



The title is a reference to a Kerouac novel The Subterraneans, the lyrics reference Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger's song "Taking it Easy", the guitar lick and lyric rhythm is a take on a Chuck Berry tune called "Too Much Monkey Business". Add to that the fact that this was Dylan's first "electric" single, his first single to hit the top 40, and one of the earliest examples of a "music video" and you can see why this song made the list of 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die.

The song is a very repetitive acoustic folk guitar and basic drum set chugging away. On top of that, we get an electric guitar and an almost dirty fuzzy bass. There is also a cleaner bass playing the same walking line. Or something like that, I swear you can hear a clean bass and a fuzz bass on some parts. There's also a harmonica playing a lot of the time that Bob isn't singing. What's he singing about you ask? It's very stream of conscious, doesn't really man anything, and therefore everybody has an opinion. Jet took the name of their first album Get Born from one of the lines, and radical leftist group The Weathermen took their name from another.

There have been numerous covers, way to many to list, but some noteworthy ones include pop singer songwriter Harry Nilsson, known for "Everybody's Talkin'" "Coconut" and "Me and My Arrow" doing a surprisingly heavy rock version produced by John Lennon. The Red Hot Chili Peppers put a seriously new spin on it. There a a few Reggae covers to be found, this one is by Sizzla. The funniest take on it is Weird Al's classic spoof "Bob". He even gets friends to play Allen Ginsberg and Bob Neuwirth in the back of the video. About the video, sorry about the copy up above, it sounds fine, but it's the only one on the Internet that hasn't been taken down, so you only get a small version. If you are looking for something really different as far as "covers" go, check out Julez Santana Featuring Yelawolf. Their "Mixin' Up The Medicine" uses the song as a starting point. It's rap, and full of cursing and crude language, so consider yourselves warned away.

"No Rain"

Blind Melon - "No Rain" (1992)

Where have you gone Bee Girl? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.



Taking just the song, we get an acoustic electric feeling alt folk retro number that grooves. The bass is really ringing and bottom heavy, but not at all dominant in the mix. There's enough of it to bounce the song along, but not to make the song feel heavy. The drums are kind of shuffling with cabasa and brushes on snare drum not cymbals and bass drum. The guitars are layered and sit on top of that bouncing bass line sometimes loud sometimes background, but always friendly and happy and leading you further into the song. Vocalist and primary songwriter Shannon Hoon has an unpolished sound and the echo sound effects that show up a few times in the song really give it that trippy edge of almost retro psychedelia.

The video is one of the most memorable of the nineties, and while I usually don't talk about the videos, I feel this one is due. No matter how out of place you felt, no matter how much you thought that no one understood you, and no one wanted to be with you, this video made you feel OK. The Bee Girl was all of us on the day we gave it our all and they laughed at us anyway. The audition you thought you nailed, the interview that went great, the girl you finally talked to; but it all went wrong somehow? That's the first part of this video. But by the end, she has found family and friends, and for my money that's more important that talent, desire, hope or faith in the face of adversity. Not to mention she's got stick-to-itiveness; that goes a long way.

"Like a Rolling Stone"

Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone (1965)

The six minute single.




Just five days before his notorious "electric set" at the Newport Folk Festival during the summer of 1965 Bob Dylan released this six minute long rock song to the American airwaves. No one had released anything so long to the pop charts. Between the rock sound contrast to his earlier folk ways and the length no one expected it to be a hit. It hit number 2 on the charts, and has become one of his most known and covered songs.

Lyrically, the song came from a long poem that Dylan composed while on tour. Cut down and set to music it is an angry take that against a young woman who came from wealth and privilege and has fallen down to earth. People have interpreted as about a specific woman, or Dylan himself; I think it's about American culture in general and its youth specifically. Forced to face a future that included a ground war in Vietnam, an assassination of a President, and an ending of the "feel good" era of the 50s; the American people, and in particularly its youth were not seeing everything come up roses anymore. Pop songs were usually about love, possibly lost love, but small scale things. Folk music was about the political side of things, but it wasn't as popular. Dylan was big enough to bridge the gap and with this song he made America look at itself and asked "/How does it feel/to be on your own/with no direction home/".

The recording included a number of great performers. On guitar, Mike Bloomfield of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. On drums, Bobby Gregg, who would play with Dylan on many of his mid sixties recordings. On tambourine, Bruce Langhorne, whom Dylan wrote Mr. Tambourine Man about. On piano, Paul Griffin, who played session piano on dozens of well known tracks, including several of Bob Dylan's, The Isley Brother's Twist and Shout, and Don McLean's American Pie. The most interesting story about the recording session is about the young organist Al Kooper. Kooper showed up as a guest of producer Tom Wilson (who effectively gave the world Simon and Garfunkel but we'll tell that story another time) but really wanted to play on a Dylan recording. He brought his guitar, but upon hearing Bloomfield warm up he hung back in the recording booth. Later in the day, after a few takes, Griffin, who had been playing organ, moved to piano for a change. Kooper jumped at the chance, and against Wilson's judgment sat in on organ. He was not really a great keyboard player, but no one stopped him so he played. On hearing the playback, Dylan's only comment was "turn the organ up" so Kooper got to stay on.

The organ is simple, but recognizable in the song. Mostly chords that come in just behind the beat, the story is that Kooper was trying to make sure he hit the right notes. The piano part is kind of a honky tonk/tack piano sound. Griffin just rolls all over on the song never really letting his hands sit in one place very long. The tambourine is fairly loud in the mix, and because it covers that sound, the drums focus on bass drum and toms, and mostly avoid loud cymbal crashes. The song does start on a snare hit, but the drums are so quiet in the mix, that the guitar, piano and keyboard coming in a beat later blow it away. Dylan's own harmonica make a few appearances, but mostly he focuses on the slightly sneering vocal performance. The guitar is the hardest part for me to pick out, but he does get some great segues into the choruses. It still surprises me that a six minute long song fades out instead of having a proper ending, but who am I to question?

Withered and Died

Richard and Linda Thompson - Withered and Died (1974)

The book gives us three paragraphs of at least 4 sentences each. Only one of them is actually about the song. The rest is about the group, the drama surrounding them, and the rest of the album.

This sounds like an old English ballad; this version just the latest in a long line of people covering an old Child Ballad, this time with a hint of American country music. In fact it is an original song, written in 1973 by guitarist Richard Thompson. His wife Linda takes singing duties here, giving this brand new tune an air of timeless desperation. The tone of this song is so down, but her voice makes us long to hear a hope, a "better" ending. Alas, it is not to be. It is a very good, and very sad song.

Richard's guitar playing has some of that "twang" that we've come to associate with cowboy country and even has some slide guitar in the background. The solo in the middle of the song definitely has a country feel. The other distinctive instrument is the concertina. I suppose it could be an accordion, the liner notes list John Kirkpatrick as playing both instruments on the album, but it sounds high pitched to me, so I'm guessing concertina. In fact, Richard and Linda are both English, and this is considered to be an important album in the English folk rock genre. So set aside all your previously held assumptions about where the song came from, or what genre the song fits into. Just listen to it, enjoy it, and go have a good cry in your tea for a while.

"Please Read the Letter"

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Please Read the Letter (2007)

Originally a Page & Plant track.

I don't think I have ever heard Robert Plant's voice so mellow. Not that he's not earnest, but I would never have guessed this was Robert Plant if you just played me this song blind. Alison Krauss provides a lot of the plaintive in the tone of the song. I kind of wish she had gotten a verse herself, instead of all backing.

I really like the drums in this song. Really sparse use of cymbal. Lots of tom-tom. You could do 95% of the drums on this song with a bodhran and your boot kicking a chain during the fiddle solo. It's so stripped down until the final repeat of the chorus and the outro. Yet it is the key part of why the song keeps driving forward. The bass is an upright, and a nice touch, but it and the rhythm guitar are nothing special, they just give a steady stage for the performers to show on.
The lead guitar parts are accents; the fiddle solos in the middle and at the end are nice, but ultimately what makes this song so solid is how great the two voices sound together.

I think a nice version of this song could be done with the drum I mention, and one acoustic guitar playing very simple chords while these two really good voices join together to be better than the sum of their parts.

"Working Class Hero"

John Lennon - Working Class Hero (1970)

Lennon's first post Beatles album produced few hits, but this folk style song still gets covered.

Just a poet and an acoustic guitar. Channeling Dylan channeling Guthrie, Lennon here tells of the plight of the working man. He snears, and sings, and speaks, and beats on the guitar to get his point across. At the time, most of the press on the song made a lot of the fact that he curses twice. I didn't even notice. I did notice that the guitar, and his voice sound a little different around 1:26. then back around 1:48.

"Mr. Tambourine Man"

The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)

The less said of Shatner, the better.

Lots of interesting trivia on this one. Bob Dylan wrote and recorded this song, but it was The Byrds that took it to Number 1. Upon hearing their version, Dylan excitedly became interested in "going electric", which he did later that year. The band was not interested in recording it, even after changing up the beat and making it rock. The song is considered one of the prototypical songs of the Folk Rock style. Jangling guitars, poetic lyrics, all that 60s swirl coming together. Even though The Bird would eventually go on to be on of the most respected bands of the 60s, at the time, their record company didn't really trust them. For this, their first single, The only member of the band playing an instrument was Roger McGuinn on his 12 string guitar. The rest of the instruments were played by studio session extraordinaries, The Wrecking Crew. The vocals are all members of The Byrds.

The recording is in Stereo. The bass lives in the left side with the guitars coming out of the right. The tambourine also only shows up on the left side. Drums and vocals are mixed in the middle. The lead and harmony vocals are "soft". I don't mean quiet I mean they feel like a warm blanket, or something like that. They are the opposite of edgy. Most of the song is a relaxed folky thing, but the drum runs at 1:30 and 1:47 as well as the lead guitar and bass duo at the beginning and ending of the song give a hint to the edge that the 60s had as well.

"Sister Morphine"

Marianne Faithfull - Sister Morphine (1969)

Best I can tell, this is the original 1969 single version mentioned in the book.

Written by Faithfull, Richards and Jagger, at least according to the credits; but Keith doesn't play on this version, so I wonder if he really wrote it at all. Best I can figure it, on the Faithfull single, they were all three credited, but only Mick and Marianne really wrote it. Richards and Jagger were almost always credited together in those days, just like Lennon/McCartney. The single was pulled when the big wigs at Decca figured out that the song was about a man who was begging for relief as he lay dying in hospital from a car accident. The single died of course without support from the record company. Later, The Rolling Stones recorded the song for their 1971 classic album Sticky Fingers. Keith Richards played guitar on that version, and he and Jagger were the only credited songwriters on the album version. People claim that they were protective of royalties, others claim that they were trying to keep Faithfull's manager from getting any money, but payed Marianne on the sly. Richards was instrumental (according to Faithfull's autobiography as well as his own) in getting her the credit for the song that she deserved.

Musically the song is a organ heavy blues. Jagger is playing acoustic guitar, and Ry Cooder adds the slide guitar that makes it sound so country blues. The drums are really understated, (that's a Charlie Watts trademark) letting the rest of the instruments shine. Faithfull's voice here is unlike everything she was known for in the late 60s. She always sang quiet safe and melodic tunes. This would have really broken her out of that label had it ever really seen the light. The most crazy messed up couplet in the song: What am I doing in this place? Why does the doctor have no face?

"Dog Days Are Over"

Florence & The Machine - Dog Days Are Over (2009)

A song, based on a text installation piece by Ugo Rondinone seen here.

The more instruments get added to the mix, the darker and more unhinged the song gets. When it's just Florence, or Florence and a ukulele, or some percussion, the song is almost a children's song. As we get a backing choir and the piano comes in, I am suddenly worried about what exactly happens when the dog days are over. I do love the false ending. Everything drops out, then she gives a a bit of a coda-sounding bit before launching back into the uproarious bacchanalia. Then the piano and chimes drop out for four measures leaving us with just the thudding percussion (at least part of that sound is said to be Florence hitting the wall in the studio) then everything drops out for almost a measure.

I really like her voice, it's strong and not whisper thin. She sings with full belted on confidence and it's sexy. The multi-layered instruments starting with ukulele and finishing with chimes, piano, hand claps, wall, and everything else comes to us courtesy of the songs co-writer, Isabella Summers; and indie producer of Arctic Monkeys, James Ford.

"The Weight"

The Band - The Weight (1968)

"...it's just ol' Luke and Luke's waitin' on The Judgement Day..."

I am so biased in favor of this one folks. This song has been playing on stereos in my house for as long as I can remember. It was on a mix tape that we always played when we were on the road as well. I think it was a live version though, I remember slight differences. I also remember asking and asking my Dad, 'what does it mean?' 'Is it real?' 'Why does everyone tell him no?' The lyrics follow a traveler as he drives into Nazareth PA, looking for a bed. He runs into a number of interesting characters.

Musically we've got acoustic guitar giving the song it's distinct folk song feel. The bass is not very pronounced, and is doubled on piano for the most part. The drums are laid back, almost behind the beat. It makes us feel like a 'weight' is sitting on us, slowing us down. Then you've got a Honky Tonk tuned piano playing almost grandiose licks. Good stuff man. I haven't even mentioned the harmony that The Band employs during the whole song. Two men trade verses, and you get three part harmony during the best parts.

"America"

Simon & Garfunkel - America (1968)

A road map of America from the Midwest to the Big Apple. A dense complex arraignment with so much going on you're sure to miss something. As is pointed out almost every time the song is mentioned it is a popular song with no rhyme scheme. It's more like flashing pieces of a short story set to music. Two people set off together, convinced that love will be everything they need other than a few pies and some cigarette. They laugh and play together, goofing on the other people riding the bus until one falls asleep. Then the one left awake has to struggle with their own sense of alienation, then finally being overwhelmed into silence as they pass onto the New Jersey Turnpike as he sees more people than they ever have in one place.

During the song we hear organ, strings, soprano sax, and of course, acoustic guitar and drums. As the humming intro of the song starts we can just make out the trailing edge of the ominous organ and subway steam hiss of Save the Life of My Child, a song that brings into the light some of the darkness that lives in cities. So we the audience already have an inkling of what the pair in America are heading into. The first verse is guitars and toms plus a little snare and high hat for time keeping. It instills in us the longing that the young have to find something bigger than themselves. These two have found each other, and buoyed by that success are now off on one of the great hunts of the late 60s, to look for America. The second verse adds a high organ that we'll hear all throughout the song. As the verse continues, we build to a big organ sound and louder lead vocals. The third verse features a soprano sax noodling along, reinforcing the fun goof off verse, but then getting a little melancholy, preparing us for the later verses. Verse four is back to the stripped down instrumentation of the first verse. The fifth and final verse brings us back the high organ of verse two. After the loud repeated vocal outro we get a organ solo over timekeeping drums that could represent the hope of the future, or just the twinkling lights of the big city.

"Wide Open Road"

The Triffids - Wide Open Road (1986)

A song I've never heard by a band I've never heard of; and again, it's an Australian band.

It's a road song, but not a freeing road song like we do in America. It's more of a sense of being overwhelmed. The droning bass, angry drums, and haunting whistling instrument really make me not want to get on this particular wide open road. It's a really repetitive song. The singer really does say It's a Wide Open Road like 50 times in this 4 minute song, and the bass, drums and whistling instrument sound like they are on a loop. These all together does give you a sense of driving a barren wasteland of a highway though; which I'm guessing is the point.