May 2011 sees the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan. To celebrate, we're taking you on a journey through the lesser celebrated avenues of his back catalogue. A journey down Highway 61 that won't stop off at 'Blowin' In The Wind', 'All Along The Watchtower' or 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' but will call by...John Brown (1963)
Here’s one of the genuine lost treasures in the back catalogue, a song that was attributed in its day to the Dylan alias Blind Boy Grunt through the pages of Broadside Magazine and the 1963 Folkways LP ‘Broadside Ballads Vol.1’. It’s a testament to Bob’s prolific output in the early 60s that songs like this could fall by the wayside, never to end up on an album proper. It did eventually surface in 1995 on the ‘Unplugged’ album but the version that’s really worth the effort in finding is the one recorded for Broadside when the song was freshly written. That too became more easily obtainable in 2000 with the release of the superb box-set ‘Best of Broadside 1962-1988’. That’s the recording where the sarcastic slap of the medals dropping into Brown’s mother’s hand is most venomously delivered by the songwriter, letting off an agonised primal howl at the end in a manner that Dylan only turns to occasionally. Admittedly as Dylan tales go it’s straightforward, possibly explaining why he never rated it as top drawer himself. But a great story is no lesser beast just because it’s told with frank clarity. In fact that’s exactly what makes this so gripping, the zoning in on the relationship between John Brown and his misguided Mother who sought satisfaction and pride in him going off and fighting “a good old fashioned war”.
This version of ‘John Brown’ is performed by James Luther Dickinson. It is of course a shame that the ‘Columbia Recording Artist Bob Dylan’ has put such large restraints on his own records being streamed over various internet sites but we can work within those limits. Indeed Dylan has never lost sight of the ideal that a great songwriter welcomes interpretation of his work by other performers and he’s contributed to that trade off regularly with a never ending flow of covers in both live and recorded settings. Luckily, we’ve found enough audio of the man himself for anyone craving those trademark vacuum-cleaner vocals in amongst the many cover versions over 30 days. Dickinson’s track comes from the 1972 album ‘Dixie Fried’; he was an Atlantic Records associate more recognised as a producer and session man. Listen carefully for you might be able to pick up the sound of Dr John and an un-credited Eric Clapton on guitar.
No comments:
Post a Comment