Too Many Mornings

In an effort to balance out that last post, I'll talk about something that is probably of marginally more interest to people but still sort of galvanizing: Bob Dylan.

He's famous among his fans or rock fans or music fans or something for recording many (at times very) different versions of his songs, and I've had one of those songs that keeps popping up in his repertoire over the decades stuck in my head, so I thought I'd use that as an example. Here's the original, from The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964). It's got a nice simple melancholy to it, which is pretty much how most of the album feels. It's probably only his second best acoustic album, after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but still leagues better than Another Side, which is pretty weak in my opinion. This is probably one of the best tracks from the album, which says something for an album that contains THE LONESOME DEATH OF HATTIE CARROLL - a favorite track of IWU roommates.

Folk fans everywhere were saddened when Dylan abandoned this sound and started hanging out with the guys who would become The Band, but he didn't forget this number and mixed it up to fit their "thin, wild mercury" sound. You have to fast forward a bit to get to the song. I would have thought this would have been an easier version to find, since it is on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4, but I guess not.

After the whole electric thing, he went back to recording acoustic stuff, famously making a short but sweet country album called Nashville Skyline, a favorite of Dan's if I recall correctly. While recording for that album, I believe, he ran into Johnny Cash, and they recorded duets of some of each of their songs as well as some others. This is one of them. It's got a very simple Johnny Cash sound to it, with Dylan using his country crooner voice. Not my favorite, but not terrible.

Just a few years later, we get a collaboration with another famous Dylan friend, George Harrison. I believe this was recorded around the time of New Morning, but I'm not sure. I kind of like it, but I've got a soft spot for that album. Overall it's not that good a version and seems highly out of character for the lyrics, but it's worth a listen, at least.

A few years later we get to painted face, cowboy hat wearing, going a bit crazy Rolling Thunder Revue Dylan, which is one of my favorite eras. This version is from Hard Rain, a live album much maligned for being listless and not as good as the first half of his tour with the RTR. I think that is part of the charm of it; the RTR was a big, energetic last push by Bob before he seems to have lost it all for a decade or so, and here we get to see Dylan rough around the edges, basically yelling into mic, breathing new life into the song.

Quite a far cry from this. Leather pants?

Alright, well, that's about it. You can dig up some more versions of it on YouTube if you want.