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A lovely song recorded for (but left out of) the brilliant album “Desire” in NYC, July 31, 1975. It was later released on Biograph in 1985.
The only live version of the song is even better.
Studio E
Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York
31 July 1975
5th Desire session, produced by Don DeVito.
A mid-Seventies castoff, with Scarlet Rivera’s fiddle carving up the melody across a loose, bouncy country two-step. The lyrics, however, are no tea dance: a chain of couplets that keep cinching tighter as they chart a destroyed relationship in cutting detail. “Everybody’s wearing a disguise/To hide what they’ve got left behind their eyes,” Dylan wails. “But me, I can’t cover what I am/Wherever the children go I’ll follow them.” Recorded in 1975, it was dropped from the Desire LP in favor of “Joey.” But “Abandoned Love” eventually surfaced on Biograph, where it was revealed as one of Dylan’s most tortured, heartbroken recordings.
–rollingstone.com
And “Abandoned Love,” with its related but dissimilar sound (not so basso mournful, all that trebly acoustic guitar stronger for once than the violin keening), weaves magnificently in and out of these other three lyrically, tying up all threads and opening every end:
I can see the turning ofthe key.
I’ve been deceived by the clown inside of me.
I thought that he was righteous but he’s vain
Oh something’s telling me, I wear the ball and chain.
Isn’t this amazing? Precisely the self-insight and self-indictment of “Like a Rolling Stone,” but so calm, straightforward, mockingly humorous, painfully honest. There’s anger in the song, and we canhear it in the “Other End” version, but in the studio, with Sarapresent, Dylan deadpans brilliantly, pushing through to a level of bitter, loving self-awareness (and relationship awareness) beyond irony, beyond anger, resting finally on nothing more than the reality of the two opposing concepts side by side: love and abandonment. How it is possible to walk away but still feel it, how it is possible to feel it but still walk away. And not only possible, necessary.
-Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986
Live version:
I can hear the turning of the key
I’ve been deceived by the clown inside of me
I thought that he was righteous but he’s vain
Oh, something’s a-telling me I wear the ball and chainMy patron saint is fighting with a ghost
He’s always off somewhere when I need him most.
The Spanish moon is rising on the hill
But my heart is telling me I love ya still.I come back to the town from the flaming moon
I see you in the street, I begin to swoon.
I love to see you dress before the mirror
Won’t you let me in your room one time before I disappear?Everybody’s wearing a disguise
To hide what they’ve got left behind their eyes.
But me, I can’t cover what I am
Wherever the children go I’ll follow them.I can’t play the game no more, I can’t abide
by their stupid rules which kept me sick inside
They’ve been made by men who’ve given up the search
Whose gods are dead and whose queens are in the church.I march in the parade of liberty
But as long as I love you I’m not free.
How long must I suffer such abuse
Won’t you let me see you smile before I cut you loose?Send out for Saint John the Evangelist
All my friends are drunk, they can be dismissed.
My head says that it’s time to make a change
But my heart is telling me I love ya but you’re strange.So step lightly, darling, near the wall
Put on your heavy make-up, wear your shawl.
Won’t you descend from the throne, from where you sit?
Let me feel your love one more time before I abandon it.
Studio version:
I can hear the turning of the key
I’ve been deceived by the clown inside of me
I thought that he was righteous but he’s vain
Oh, something’s a-telling me I wear the ball and chainMy patron saint is a-fighting with a ghost
He’s always off somewhere when I need him most
The Spanish moon is rising on the hill
But my heart is a-tellin’ me I love ya stillI come back to the town from the flaming moon
I see you in the streets, I begin to swoon
I love to see you dress before the mirror
Won’t you let me in your room one time ’fore I finally disappear?Everybody’s wearing a disguise
To hide what they’ve got left behind their eyes
But me, I can’t cover what I am
Wherever the children go I’ll follow themI march in the parade of liberty
But as long as I love you I’m not free
How long must I suffer such abuse
Won’t you let me see you smile one time before I turn you loose?I’ve given up the game, I’ve got to leave
The pot of gold is only make-believe
The treasure can’t be found by men who search
Whose gods are dead and whose queens are in the churchWe sat in an empty theater and we kissed
I asked ya please to cross me off-a your list
My head tells me it’s time to make a change
But my heart is telling me I love ya but you’re strangeOne more time at midnight, near the wall
Take off your heavy makeup and your shawl
Won’t you descend from the throne, from where you sit?
Let me feel your love one more time before I abandon it
—
The Everly Brothers:
George Harrison:
Paul Rodgers & Nils Lofgren:
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-Egil
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