Category Archives: Bob Dylan – The songs he didn’t write

Bob Dylan: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)





bob dylan leonard cohen

I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

“He said, ‘I like this song you wrote called Hallelujah.’ In fact, he started doing it in concert. He said, ‘How long did that take you to write?’ And I said, ‘Oh, the best part of two years.’ He said, ‘Two years?’ Kinda shocked. And then we started talking about a song of his called I And I from Infidels. I said, ‘How long did you take to write that.’ He said, ‘Ohh, 15 minutes.’ I almost fell off my chair. Bob just laughed.”
~Leonard Cohen (quoted in Telegraph 41, p. 30)

This is one of my fav Leonard Cohen songs.

Released December 1984
Recorded June 1984
Genre Folk rock
Length 4:36
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Leonard Cohen
Producer John Lissauer

Hallelujah” is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album Various Positions(1984). Achieving little initial success, the song found greater popular acclaim through a cover by John Cale, which later formed the basis for a cover by Jeff Buckley. It is the subject of the book The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah” (2012) by Alan Light. In a New York Times review of the book, Janet Maslin praises the book and the song, noting that “Cohen spent years struggling with his song ‘Hallelujah.’ . . . He wrote perhaps as many as 80 verses before paring the song down.” Many cover versions have been performed by many and various singers, both in recordings and in concert, with over 300 versions known. The song has been used in film and television soundtracks, and televised talent contests. It is often called one of the greatest songs of all time.

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Continue reading Bob Dylan: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

Bob Dylan: Matchbox (Carl Perkins) (Videos & Audio)

bob dylan carl perkins

Well I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
Yeah I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
I ain’t got no matches, but I got a long way to go
I’m an ol’ poor boy and a long way from home
I’m an ol’ poor boy and a long way from home
Guess I’ll never be happy, eveything I do is wrong, yeah

He [Carl Perkins] really stood for freedom. That whole sound stood for all degrees of freedom. It would just jump off the turntable… we wanted to go where that was happening.
~Bob Dylan (note from Dylan @ Carl Perkins funeral)

Wikipedia:

Released 1957
Format 7″ Vinyl
Recorded December 4, 1956
Genre Rockabilly
Length 2:10
Label Sun Records
Writer(s) Carl Perkins
Producer Sam Phillips

carl-perkins-matchbox-sun-78

Matchbox” is a rock and roll and rockabilly song written by Carl Perkins and first recorded by him at Sun Records in December 1956 and released on February 11, 1957 as a 45 single on Sun Records as Sun 261. It has become one of Perkins’ best-known recordings. Perkins’ “Matchbox” has been followed by many cover versions, notably by the Beatles.

com-carl-perkins-and-sam-phillipsCarl Perkins & Sam Phillips

 

After recording “Your True Love”, Carl Perkins’s father Buck suggested that he do “Match Box Blues”. Buck knew only a few lines from the song, either from a 1927 recording by Blind Lemon Jefferson, or from the version by country musicians The Shelton Brothers (who recorded the song twice in the 1930s, and again in 1947). As Perkins sang the few words his father had suggested, Jerry Lee Lewis, who was at that time a session piano player at Sun Studios, began a restrained boogie-woogie riff. Carl began picking out a melody on the guitar and improvised lyrics. On December 4, 1956 Carl Perkins recorded the song called “Matchbox”. Later that day, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and session pianist Jerry Lee Lewis were all in the Sun studio with Sam Phillips. The impromptu group formed at this jam session became known as the Million Dollar Quartet.

Perkins maintained that he had never heard Jefferson’s “Match Box Blues” when he recorded “Matchbox”. Jefferson’s song is about a mean spirited woman; Perkins’ was about a lovelorn “poor boy” with limited prospects.

Other notable versions

Carl Perkins – live TV Performance 1957:

Jerry Lee Lewis – live Star Club Hamburg 1964:

Continue reading Bob Dylan: Matchbox (Carl Perkins) (Videos & Audio)

Bob Dylan: Two live versions of Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home” (audio & video)





bob dylan_merle haggard_buck owens

Merle Haggard passed away on his birthday, yesterday.

Check out: R.I.P. Merle Haggard

Sing me back home with a song I used to hear
Make my old memories come alive
Take me away and turn back the years
Sing Me Back Home before I die

Bob Dylan has only covered 2 Merle Haggard songs; Sing Me Back Home & Branded Man.

Continue reading Bob Dylan: Two live versions of Merle Haggard’s “Sing Me Back Home” (audio & video)

Bob Dylan covers Dwight Yoakam – Happy Birthday Mr. Yoakam!

bob dylan 1999

In West Palm Beach, Florida, September 2, 1999 at Coral Sky Amphitheatre Bob Dylan threw in a surprise performance of Dwight Yoakam’s song, The Heart You Own.

From a review at Boblinks:
written by Matt Stroshane

“The biggest surprise followed when Dylan pulled out Dwight Yoakam’s “The
Heart that You Own.” Larry played pedal steel and Bob had some good vocals.
The song was performed well and Bob seemed really into it. It was also
interesting that no one I spoke to around me knew what song it was, though
everyone definitely liked it.”

A nice nod to Dwight Yoakam.

Happy Birthday Dwight Yoakam!

Bob Dylan – The Heart that you own (Yoakam):

 

Hallgeir