…When Dylan and Robbie Robertson arrive at their Denver hotel at 3AM, they jam in Dylan’s hotel room for an hour. Shelton tapes the session on his portable reel-to-reel. Although it is just three days after Dylan completed Blonde 0n Blonde, Dylan and Robertson work on three new songs that, had they been given titles and not simply forgotten by Dylan, might have been called “Positively Van Gogh,” “Don’t Tell Him,” and “If You Want My Love.” Dylan then plays “Just Like a Woman” and “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” for Shelton’s benefit, before deciding it is time to get some sleep.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995
Although the sound quality is bad this is wonderful stuff for some of us…
The music can be found on cd #6 in the bootleg “collection”: Jewels & Binoculars (26CD set).
A Hotel Room
Denver, Colorado
12–13 March 1966
Bob Dylan (guitar & vocal) & Robbie Robertson (guitar).
- Most Probably van Gogh/Positively van Gogh (actual name unknown)
- Most Probably van Gogh/Positively van Gogh (actual name unknown)
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When I’d ask why the painting was deadly..
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- Most Probably van Gogh/Positively van Gogh (actual name unknown)
- Don’t Tell Him, Tell Me/Don’t Tell Him (actual name unknown)
- Don’t Tell Him, Tell Me/Don’t Tell Him (actual name unknown)
- Just Like A Woman
- Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
- Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands
Check out:
-Egil
These were all available on the Bootleg Series, Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge exclusively at the BobDylan website in an exhaustive limited-edition set (18 CDs and nine vinyl singles, with 379 tracks and over 20 hours of music, a 170-page large-format book, and copious memorabilia) that will set you back a cool $600. It contains every moment of tape, every fragment and misstep and mumble, no matter how trivial or indispensable. These tracks are on Disc 18 with other “hotel” recordings. I’m not even sure its still available.
Doesn’t look like you can get the Collectors edition no more. Except ebay and such.
As for the Denver tapes. It’s funny that the bootleg “Jewels and Binoculars” has six tracks named Positively Van Gogh (around 10 minutes all told); The Cutting Edge has three tracks (2 minutes).
I refuse to die before I see the complete lyrics to the Van Gogh song, the ones sung after the tape ran out. As far as I know, they haven’t been included in any of the lyric books. Maybe they’re in the Tusla archives. I’d hate to think they were lost in the flood.
Definitely Van Gogh
When I’d ask why the painting was deadly
Nobody could pick up my sign
‘Cept for the cook, she was always friendly
But she’d only ask, “What’s on your mind?”
She’d say that especially when it was raining
I’d say “Oh, I don’t know”
But then she’d press and I’d say, “You see that painting?
Do you think it’s been done by Van Gogh?”
The cook she said call her Maria
She’d always point for the same boy to come forth
Saying, “He trades cattle, it’s his own idea
And he also makes trips to the North
Have you ever seen his naked calf bleed?”
I’d say, “Oh no, why does it show?”
Then she’d whisper in my ear that he’s a half-breed
And I’d say, “Fine, but can he paint like Van Gogh?”
I can’t remember his name he never gave it
But I always figured he could go home
Til when he’d gave me his card and said, “Save it”
I could see by his eyes he was alone
But it was sad how his four leaf clover
Drawn on his calling card showed
That it was given back to him a-many times over
And it most definitely was not done by Van Gogh
It was either she or the maid just to please me
Though I sensed she could not understand
And she made a thing out of it by saying, “Go easy
He’s a straight, but he’s a very crooked straight man”
And I’d say, “Does the girl in the calendar doubt it?
And by the way is it Marilyn Monroe?”
But she’d just get salty and say, “Why you wanna know about it?”
And I’d say, “I was just wondering if she ever sat for Van Gogh”
It was either her or the straight man who introduced me
To Jeanette, Camilla’s friend
Who later on falsely accused me
Of stealing her locket and pen
When I said “I don’t have the locket”
She said “You steal pictures of everybody’s mother I know”
And I said “There’s no locket
No picture of any mother I would pocket
Unless it’s been done by Van Gogh”
Camilla’s house stood on the outskirts
How strange to see the chandeliers destroyed . . .
The first photograph is not Denver!
Џубокс (Džuboks), Issue 3, October 1966 (Dylan on back cover)
Liverpool 1965-05-01
“If you want my love” knocks all these ones out of the park… in my opinion anyways.
What a creative period! Much like his gospel period, where he had TOO much material to get on one album. Amazing.
Great stuff, thanks for posting!
Possibly my favourite unreleased Dylan song….Van Gogh could have been a classic!