Redirecting to a newer version of this post….
Electric version:
Released version:
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@#6 on my list of Bob Dylan’s top 200 songs.
Both versions are brilliant, but If I must choose (and I do) I’ll give the electric version a nod.
Facts
Wikipedia
“Blind Willie McTell” | |
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Song by Bob Dylan from the album The Bootleg Series Volume 3 | |
Released | March 26, 1991 |
Recorded | May 5, 1983 |
Length | 5:52 |
Label | Columbia Records |
Writer | Bob Dylan |
Composer | Bob Dylan |
Producer | Mark Knopfler |
“Blind Willie McTell” is a song by Bob Dylan, titled after the blues singer Blind Willie McTell. It was recorded in 1983 but left off Dylan’s album Infidels and officially released in 1991 on the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. The melody is loosely based on “St. James Infirmary Blues”. For the song, Dylan, seated at the piano and accompanied by Mark Knopfler on the twelve-string acoustic guitar, sings a series of plaintive verses depicting allegorical scenes which reflect on the history of American music and slavery. Each verse ends with the same refrain: “Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell”.
Known studio recordings:
- Studio A – Power Station Studios, NYC, April 11, 1983 – 21 takes
– - Studio A – Power Station Studios, NYC, April 18, 1983 -2 takes; The “Electric version” is probably from this session.
Bob Dylan (vocal, harmonica
keyboards & guitar)
Mark Knopfler (guitar)
Mick Taylor (guitar)
Alan Clark (keyboards)
Robbie Shakespeare (bass)
Sly Dunbar (drums)
Produced by Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan.
– - Studio A – Power Station Studios, NYC, May 15, 1983 -2 takes; Released on “The Bootleg Series Volume 3” 26 March 1991.
Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)
Mark Knopfler (guitar)
Produced by Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan.
Live:
- First known live performance:
Du Maurier Stadium
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
5 August 1997
– - It has been performed 232 times live, last known performance: Marktplatz, Lorrach, Germany – 16 July 2015.-
- Top year’s 2013 (51 times), 2011 (17 times) & 1997 (17 times)
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Lyrics
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Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, I heard that hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents
The stars above the barren trees
Were his only audience
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
See them big plantations burning
Hear the cracking of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming
See the ghosts of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moaning
Hear that undertaker’s bell
Nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
There’s a woman by the river
With some fine young handsome man
He’s dressed up like a squire
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand
There’s a chain gang on the highway
I can hear them rebels yell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s His
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell
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Live versions
Here are 7 wonderful live versions:
Filene Center
Wolf Trap Farm Park For The Performing Arts
Vienna, Virginia
24 August 1997
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Wembley Arena
London, England
6 October 2000
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Manchester Evening News Arena
Manchester, England
9 May 2002
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Hollywood Palladium Theater 12 January 2012 (Video)
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HMV Hammersmith Apollo
London, England
20 November 2011
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Columbia, Maryland
Merriweather Post Pavilion
July 23, 2013
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Moon & Stars Festival
Piazza Grande
Locarno, Switzerland
July 15, 2015
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Sources
- Michael Gray – The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia
- Clinton Heylin – Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2, . 1974-2008
- Paul Williams – Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986
- Wikipedia
- Olof’s – Still On The Road
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-Egil
I certainly could be wrong, but there is an “old St. James Hotel” in Red Wing, Minnesota, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that Dylan has stayed there, gazing out the window at the Mississippi River, and was alluding to that in this wonderful song. The Walls of Red Wing are not far from there, too. Sometimes people look too hard for meanings behind lyrics, in my opinion, when in reality Bob might have simply been working on meter and rhyme.