Tag Archives: Charlie Mccoy

April 9: Bob Dylan Released Nashville Skyline in 1969

Bob dylan nashvilleskyline

Well, Jann, I’ll tell you something. There’s not too much of a change in my singing style, but I’ll tell you something which is true… I stopped smoking. When I stopped smoking my voice changed… So drastically, I couldn’t believe it myself. That’s true. I tell you, you stop smoking those cigarettes (laughter)… and you’ll be able to sing like Caruso.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner Nov 1969)

Anyway, on Nashville Skyline you had to read between the lines. I was trying to grasp something that would lead me on to where I thought I should be, and it didn’t go nowhere – it just went down, down, down.
~Bob Dylan (to Jonathan Cott, Sept 1978)

Released 49 years ago, it surely is one of his most controversial albums.. “Embracing” classic Country music &  kicking off the “Country Rock” genre.

I’ve always liked this album… not a masterpiece, but a solid Dylan album.

#1 – Girl from the North Country (with Johnny Cash)

Continue reading April 9: Bob Dylan Released Nashville Skyline in 1969

March 9: Bob Dylan’s 10th (and final) Blonde On Blonde recording session in 1966





blonde on blonde

The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on individual bands in the Blonde on Blonde album. It’s that thin, that wild mercury sound. It’s metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up. That’s my particular sound.
~Bob Dylan (to Ron Rosenbaum – Nov 1977)

He had a piano in his room at the hotel and during the day I would go up there and he would teach me a song. I would be like a cassette machine. I would play the song over and over on the piano for him. This served a double purpose. One, he could concentrate on writing the lyrics and didn’t have to mess with playing the piano; two, I could go to the studio early that night and teach it to the band before he even got there, so they could be playing the song before he even walked through the door.
~Al Kooper (talking about BoB recording sessions)

bob dylan al kooper 1966

Columbia Music Row Studios
Nashville, Tennessee
9-10 March 1966

Produced by Bob Johnston

Songs:

Continue reading March 9: Bob Dylan’s 10th (and final) Blonde On Blonde recording session in 1966

Feb 14: Bob Dylan- Third Recording Session for “Nashville Skyline” in 1969

bob dylan nashville skyline

This new album is country Dylan, a collection of unaffected and highly tuneful love songs, riding comfortably cushioned on the Nashville sound, which sometimes, as in “To Be Alone With You” or “One More Night,” is pure Country and Western, but which for the most part is just a relaxed get-together of expert musicians who seem to know each other’s – and Dylan’s – moves as if they were playing at the Grand Ole Opry.
~Hubert Saal (March 1969)

The third recording session for ‘Nashville Skyline’ took place on February 14, 1969. This time around he managed to pull out 4 master versions: “Peggy Day”, “Tell Me That It Isn’t True”, “Country Pie” and “Lay Lady Lay”.

Continue reading Feb 14: Bob Dylan- Third Recording Session for “Nashville Skyline” in 1969

Feb 13: Bob Dylan – 2nd Nashville Skyline session in 1969

bob dylan nashville skyline

Well, Jann, I’ll tell you something. There’s not too much of a change in my singing style, but I’ll tell you something which is true… I stopped smoking. When I stopped smoking my voice changed… So drastically, I couldn’t believe it myself. That’s true. I tell you, you stop smoking those cigarettes (laughter)… and you’ll be able to sing like Caruso.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner Nov 1969)

Anyway, on Nashville Skyline you had to read between the lines. I was trying to grasp something that would lead me on to where I thought I should be, and it didn’t go nowhere – it just went down, down, down.
~Bob Dylan (to Jonathan Cott, Sept 1978)

The first recording session for “Nashville Skyline” was held on February 12, 1969 – but no recordings sheets are available from this session. The second session took place the day after – February 13, 1969. Dylan landed 3 master versions this evening.

Continue reading Feb 13: Bob Dylan – 2nd Nashville Skyline session in 1969

Bob Dylan – 6th & last recording session for Highway 61 Revisited – 4 August 1965

Bob_Dylan_-_Highway_61_Revisited

“I never wanted to write topical songs,…. Have you heard my last two records, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61? It’s all there. That’s the real Dylan.”
~Bob Dylan (to Frances Taylor – Aug 1965)

“If you had to sum up Highway 61 Revisited in a single sentence, suffice it to say that it is the album that invented attitude and raised it to an art form. Just take a look at the cover. Nobody from Johnny Rotten to Eminem has done it better to this day.
~Nigel Williamson (The Rough Guide To Bob Dylan)

Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York
4 August 1965
The 6th & last Highway 61 Revisited session, produced by Bob Johnston

Overdub session with Bob Dylan (guitar) and Charlie McCoy (guitar, bass).

One final session was held on August 4, again at Studio A. Most of the session was devoted to completing “Desolation Row”. Johnston has related that Nashville musician Charlie McCoy was visiting New York, and he invited McCoy to play guitar at the session. According to some sources, seven takes of “Desolation Row” were recorded, and takes six and seven were spliced together for the master recording.McCoy holding a microphone onstage

Nashville sessions musician Charlie McCoy’s chance visit to New York resulted in the guitar flourishes accompanying “Desolation Row”, the last track on the album.

~Wikipedia

Songs:

  1. Desolation Row
  2. Desolation Row
  3. Desolation Row
  4. Desolation Row
  5. Desolation Row
  6. Desolation Row
    6 and 7 edited into one track and released 30 August 1965


  7. Desolation Row
  8. Tombstone Blues

Recorded 1-4 pm.

bd 1965_10

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References:

-Egil