"People who suffer together have stronger ties than people who are most content," "We don't do what we believe in, we do what's convenient & then we repent," "Something for nothing is everybody's plan"-- "Knocked Out Loaded" had lines that could've become famous if he'd written them in '66 instead of '86
Danville Girl..Brownsville Girl..is an absolute epic,stand alone anthem...Dylan knew exactly how he wanted this to sound...the passion in his voice both singing and narrating is perfect...they’ll never be another..to me and it would seem many others here..it’s a masterpiece 😎🇨🇦
The added instruments and "wall of sound" contribute to the cinematographic feeling and to the imagery and drama of the lyrics. To me the studio version is a masterpiece. The Chorus is like a Greek Theater Chorus commenting, laughing at and mocking the protagonist.
I like Brownsville Girl with its "wall of sound" also much better than Danville Girl... But I can relate to his position, all the stuff that was added later when he was not there...
Now I've always been the kind of person who doesn't like to trespass much - O if there's an original thought out there I could use one right now - me I'm feeling pretty good but that ain't saying much I could be doing a whole lot better - if you were just here by my side show me how - Guaranteed - if you text that to your girlfriend who isn't familiar with Dylan's works you're going to get an AWW - guaranteed
I have always adored the album version.... It's pure Spectoresque and cinematic, perhaps in homage to Shepard's collaboration.... Anyway, it makes me smile every time we get to the end and he reveals that ...the only thing we knew about Henry Porter is that his name wasn't Henry Porter.... Pure genius, after 11 minutes
I bought this album on cassette when it came it. I thought most of it was brilliance. So many quotable lines in Brownsville Girl. The visual story he paints inside your mind with the rambling tale has always left me wanting more.
Thoughts Words and Actions will endure Actions Words and Thoughts do mature Thoughts into Actions Of Words be sure Words Actions and Thoughts are an allure Thoughts to Words to Actions the cure To Loneliness
Dylan's ability to write this type of song is unsurpassed. Seriously the guy is the greatest singer songwriter ever. I've 'seen' this film tho it's never been filmed.
In my opinion, this song ranks number one on the list of top 3 under appreciated Dylan masterpieces. The other two are "Where are you Tonight" and "Angelina"
Dylan's ability to write this type of song is unsurpassed. Seriously the guy the greatest singer songwriter ever. I've 'seen' this film tho it's never been filmed.
I get that - many have always commented about his guitar playing or his voice but probably like you I always recognized that Bob Dylan did not hear music - Along with his song writing his gift was he heard SOUND -
"I didnt know whether to duck or to run - so I ran" - brilliant -" the only thing we knew for certain about henry porter was that his name wasn't henry porter" feckin unbelievable. This song is a film score - like lily, rosemary and the break of hearts. Bob has taken us on many journeys with his unque stgyle of writng and delivery - who are these guys anyway - I'm just hunting round trying to find the song - love from spain
+stephen martin Sam Shepard, the playwright and movie director, gets co-writer credits on this, their collaboration shows both of their ultra creative influences, apparently harmonizing brilliantly. I didn't realize until just now when i looked him up that Sam Shepard just died, about a week ago, of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease, that's a bad one). He left an amazing body of work behind, one sparkling piece of it being the co-writer on one of Dylan's very best songs. The Gregory Peck/Gunfighter theme is just amazing, imaginative and real. that movie was in the theaters in 1950, Dylan was 9 or 10 then. and his dad used to run a movie theater, among other things he did. i bet Dylan saw that movie when it was out, like it says in the song. No kid would miss a Western with Gregory Peck. The movie has a plot involving a broken hearted man who longs for a past true love, a lonely misunderstood loner, who makes it his life's purpose to re-ignite a love from years before, the only time he was ever happy. That's why he was riding across the desert, to get back to her. typical plot in old movies like that. here is something said in wikipedia about Sam Shepard, i can see why Dylan liked working with him: "Shepard's plays are chiefly known for their bleak, poetic, often surrealist elements, black humor, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society."
This song is amazing! I karaoke to it in my car on repeat and it drives my girlfriend crazy. Once is never enough! Even if it is 11 something mins long.
Everyone has their own interpretation of Dylan's songs. This video is about the technical side of Brownsville Girl but does not go into the poetic side of the song. I will give my poetic interpretation of Brownsville Girl 1986. First off I should note that Brownsville is a town in Texas near San Antonio. The song reminds me of the 1984 movie, Paris Texas which is further north than Brownsville. The movie was adapted from the play written by L. M. Kit Carson and Sam Shepard. A number of years prior to the release of the movie and the song I drove across Texas from East to West. A lot of lonely two lane highways in rolling hills. At night the roads were totally dark except for a rare headlight and on occasion lit up by the stars and moon. A vast expanse of emptiness which is also the feeling you get in the song and in parts of the movie Paris Texas. Life traveled can at times be a vast expanse of emptiness and darkness punctuated with small interludes of something to cling on to.; i.e. the rare headlights on the road. To mean that is what Brownsville Girl is about.
Somebody in this referred to the album version as becoming "sort of a Phil Spector record". Yeah. I like it. Are the Ronettes still around? Love to hear them do Brownsville Girl.
no disrespect but i personally ;perhaps because its the first one i heard ;really love the version on the album .I think Bob wanted it to be grand like a hollywood movie ...staring Gregory Peck
...and this movie..."Can't get it out of my head..." and "Something about that movie though, well I just can't get it out of my head But I can't remember why I was in it or what part I was supposed to play"...he's puzzling over his Oedipal conflict, why always feels guilty and sabotages relationships...
Interesting. I'd love to hear the "clean" version that was there before the "wall of sound". Either way, though, "Brownsville Girl" is a simply marvelous song.
Okay, here is a more stripped down version of "Brownsville Girl" that Bob recorded for the album Empire Burlesque, but it remained among the outtakes. It was called "New Danville Girl" at that time, and there are some lyrical differences here and there. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-V4LftqJUz2M.html
It was an anthem about the times we were living in back then in the 80's. You didn't know who you could trust even if you were sleeping next to her...and about how a man has to live his life by a code of honor especially when there's treason all around...The basic message was You Better Watch Your Back If You're Going To Make It Thru This Life...
And we drove to Amarillo, a sign just out side town read 'welcome to the home of the living dead where even the swap meets are corrupt" how did he know, 1 Dylan lyric sumed it up nailed it.
Woooo, I most of all love that line "Now I know she ain't you but she's here and she's got that dark rhythm in her soul." It's chicken skin stuff, ain't it?
I guess the drums gets too me. And, maybe some of the horns. But I like the professional mix. And the background singers really stand out. And the vocals stand out more in the official version.
Thoughts Words and Actions will endure Actions Words and Thoughts do mature Thoughts into Actions Of Words be sure Words Actions and Thoughts are an allure Thoughts to Words to Actions the cure To Loneliness
The lyrics sound like a connection of circumstances the timing of which have a consistency that make it mathematically impossible that it can be anything else but God - well known scripture verse says God works all things together for those He loves and have been called according to his purpose which was Redemption even before the creation -well the word in the original text for works together is synergy where we get our word symphony - it means that all of human history that is accurately described in the history of ancient Israel was just a roll-out for what was purposed even before creation - synergy/symphony All the parts in sections of all the different instruments playing together in the harmonies that come from the timing of the connections that can only be put together by the Holy Spirit - it happens to me all of the time and it is only in looking back in retrospect that I can see the many pieces and how they were put together -when I tell the story I feel like Tom Hanks sitting on that bench with the 32 different people waiting for the bus - AMAZING Life
you know i think its kinda cool that he mentions Blonde on Blonde because at the time B on B was recorded, Kris Kristofferson (who was born in Brownsville, Tx) had a chance to witness the sound recording, and i believe it had some play in Kristoffersons music career later in life.
I happen to like New Danville version best, but what I really find comical and enjoy is everyone arguing about it. You people do understand that it is differences in taste that make music possible, right? Otherwise we could have quit after the first "best song ever"
No whining.... Brownsville Girl is a great song, the production is a little disconcerting sometimes, but for the most part I like the drama..... and it doesn't sound like a Phil Spector record..... When you're driving across the desert... try it.... you'll understand....
Who the frick are these guys? The song is great. It was Bob's song, it IS a landmark song... "Some female vocalists"?? That song has some of the best back up vocals I've ever heard. Always gives me chills. He can keep his "clean version" I'll sticky with the down and dirty version.
1:54 Who is this guy? He has the chords mixed up..and he's in the wrong key. lol.. He's in G, the song is in A. But if it was G they'd still be mixed up. InG, it's G, C, Am, D Not G, Am, C, D
kerpital I noticed same thing. could be at least one gtr was capoed, or recording pitch shifted? doesn't seem capoed though. seems like it's just in A.... the last chord sounds like the gtr stays on the same voicing (or moves just a little) and bass moves to the fifth making the chord more like E7sus or E9sus. but result seems to be A-D-Bm7-E7sus-A.... and maybe it's played G-C-Am7-D7sus with capo at 2nd fret, or pitch shifted. I will say maybe they rehearsed a different version, or maybe he is playing the minor chord second but bass forces the major sound. I found a live version where the key is G, and second chord does seem to go to the minor first. it's G Am7 D7sus G also,the song does have an intro that is musically not the same exact progression (though it uses the same chords).
@@karlmehltretter2677 True about the key, but the order of the chords is kind of important. Especially if you want to play the song. He doesn't remember.
Dylan knew what the song needed. the original is incomplete. Ira just feels left out because his lead got submerged a bit, but the final version is a masterpiece. i've been playing guitar for 50 years. so, sour grapes.
"That's why he's Bob Dylan. He can do that." Duuuuuuuuuuuuuh. No shit Sherlock! Mess of sound....well that's your concept, but you were a sideman not Dylan, so what would you know. As they say in movie production, When you record your album, you can do it like that, get it? This song is perfect and one of the greatest he's ever done, so we don't need 15 year later quarterbacks.
Why did Dylan do the Danville version and then scrub the Brownsville version from the Internet? I heard the Brownsville version from Greatest Hits Vol 3 on Pandora today and it much better than these Danville versions.
it wasn't Dylan. Sony scrubs ALL of the stuff they own from you tube. If you find anything from a studio album, i'll bet it won't be there for long. This (New Danville Girl) is from an out take for Empire Burlesque. Thank goodness people can at least hear this version, not everybody has the albums and hearing just this song could inspire someone to go out and get the album. Personally, i like this version better of the two, but i love hearing either one, they are different and good in different ways. Dylan liked it the way it is on Knocked Out Loaded. i'm not putting it down, it's great. just personally, i like this version where his voice is more prominent in the mix, and the nuances in his voice, and i like the harmonica sound better than i like the horns. i like fewer back up singers like this one has. i'm glad they both exist, it's not a competition.
Seems like a nice guy and I'm usually interested in hearing opinions and stories from those close to Dylan's recording sessions. But saying that a masterpiece was replaced with a Phil Spector like treatment? C'mon. That takes nerve. I'd love to hear a stripped down version of the song but the all-girl chorus and sax on the released version is priceless.
I just watched a video of the lyrics to Brownsville Girl.Dylan had to have been on a trip when he and Sam Shepherd wrote it.Dylan cooked his brain and each year shows how little is left of it.
