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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan other

Bob Dylan: The roots of Sweet Amarillo

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Bob Dylan In 'Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid'

Bob Dylan: The roots of Sweet Amarillo

“Country music has a lot to learn from Bob Dylan” – Ketch Secor (to Rolling Stone Magazine)

So, Old Crow Medicine Show has done it again, taken an old Dylan tune off a bootleg and finished it. In 2003, OCMS completed an old song that Bob Dylan had made a “sketch” of 30 years earlier, with the result being “Wagon Wheel.” Darius Rucker also did his take on the song and had a huge hit.

Read more here: The Roots of Wagon Wheel aka Rock Me Mama

The “new” song, Amarillo,  the melody and some of the lyrics comes from a demo recorded by Bob Dylan during the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid sessions.It is track 12 on the famous bootleg Peco’s Blues, the Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid Sessions.

Peco's Blues (BACK)

Bob Dylan – Sweet Amarillo (1973):

Let us also listen to Old Crow Medicine Show’s version:
The melody has not changed much, but they have added verses and kept the chorus. Both songs are country waltzes. Old Crow medicine show works in the folk tradition that Dylan is definitely a part of, getting parts of melodies and lyrics and adding your own verses.

Donna Terry Weiss and Brenda Patterson have recorded a song with the same name, and it is clearly inspired by Dylan’s song.

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan places

Bob Dylan places/songs: Amarillo – Brownsville Girl

amarillo

Well, we crossed the panhandle and then we headed towards Amarillo
We pulled up where Henry Porter used to live. He owned a wreckin’ lot outside of town about a mile
Ruby was in the backyard hanging clothes, she had her red hair tied back. She saw us come rolling up in a trail of dust
She said, “Henry ain’t here but you can come on in, he’ll be back in a little while”
~Brownsville Girl (from: Knocked Out Loaded)

amarillo map

From Wikipedia:

Amarillo /æməˈrɪlɵ/ is the fourteenth most populous city in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census (105,486 in Potter County, and 85,209 in Randall). The Amarillo metropolitan area has an estimated population of 236,113 in four counties.

Amarillo, originally named Oneida, is situated in the Llano Estacado region. The availability of the railroad and freight service provided by the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad contributed to the city’s growth as a cattle marketing center in the late 19th century. Amarillo is the regional economic center for the Texas Panhandle, and is economically important to Eastern New Mexico and the Oklahoma Panhandle.

amarillo2

The city was once the self-proclaimed “Helium Capital of the World” for having one of the country’s most productive helium fields. The city is also known as “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (as the city takes its name from the Spanish word for yellow), and most recently “Rotor City, USA” for its V-22 Osprey hybrid aircraft assembly plant. Amarillo operates one of the largest meat packing areas in the United States. Pantex, the only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility in the country, is also a major employer. The attractions Cadillac Ranch and Big Texan Steak Ranch are located adjacent to Interstate 40. U.S. Highway 66 also passed through the city.

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Bob Dylan – Amarillo

Bob Dylan PG recording sessions

1. Recording sessions from February 1973:

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