It's a great song that I don't think anyone else could do. Been a fan for 60 years. A genius. The song that you were thinking about where someone was wrongly jailed is probably "Percy's Song". Many if not all of his songs are about real events and people. Listen to "the lonesome death of Hattie Caroll" . I was surprised that it was a true story that happened in the late 1950s. Love your presentations. Thank you.
Glad to see you are feeling the power of Dylan’s lyrics and musical performance. Although he has his share of fun rockers, he is definitely for the more discerning listeners who like a little substance along with their entertainment. Welcome to the club.
Dylan sings with so much conviction and emotion on this song he is almost crying. He feels it to his soul. He knows he will never sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.
Just popping my head in to say I really love your Dylan reactions. So many Dylan reactions out there treat his songs like they're riddles to be solved. They listen with their heads; they "think" his songs. You listen with your heart, so you feel them. That's what Dylan hoped people would do with his songs. He said that "The only important thing about a song is how it makes you feel." (Philosophy of the Modern Song). He said it so many ways, but he also said it in the most central line in one of his most signature songs: "How does it feel?" Thank you for continuing to react to his songs, thank you for continuing to do it with feeling. Of course it's pretty difficult not to respond to this song emotionally, in so many ways, but thank you for sharing yourself that way..
What's amazing about this song is Dylan chose not to include it on the album Infidels at the time. It was on a compilation album. Blind Willie McTell was a blues singer in the 20's to 50's
As a Dylan fanatic, I must say that this is one of his greatest compositions, and a wonderful performance. Mark Knopfler on guitar, Bob on piano. (On the original version, you could hear Bob's dog barking.) Sarah grasps the essence of the lyrics: it's an historical/metaphysical journey. But the music is wonderful. I played this piece on guitar every day for about three or four years straight, and I never get tired of playing it. If know of no better summary of the distance between the American ideal and reality than: "Well God is in His Heaven/ And we all want what's his/ But power and greed, and corruptible seed seems to be all that there is." Forty years later, I'm still annoyed that Bob left this off his "Infidels" album. He could have left the remarkable "Jokerman" as the album's opening cut, and concluded with "Blind Willie McTell." If you have not heard Willie McTell, check him out. Truly one of the great blues vocalists of all time.
Never heard this one before but every other song Dylan wrote is mind blowing, such as Maggie's Farm, Positively 4th Street, The Times They Are 'A Changing and countless others.
Would love for you, Sarah, to respond to some of Dylan's beautiful love songs. Check out Girl From the North Country, Visions of Johanna, Just Like a Woman, Spanish Boots of Spanish Leather.
This song is more about about the horrors of slavery in the United States than Blind Willie Mctell. The imagery that Bob puts into his songs is always amazing, just a masterful songwriter
Yes, I burst out laughing when it messed up: "I'm gazing out the window of the St. James Hotel," which is a reference to the classic, "St. James Infirmary."
