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25 some frequency (or at least: the things I ask myself once in a while). Some
26 are about specific songs, some are related to playing style, and some are
27 about this site, about tabbing technique etc. None of this is conclusive,
28 it’s just things that keep coming up, that I thought I might do something
29 about, some day. Consider this a first step.</p>
39 <a href="35_gaibty/did_dylan_steal_canadee.htm">Did Dylan steal “Canadee-I-O”?</a> (separate file)
59 <em>I have been trying to find out what the scholars think Dylan meant in
61 criticize all fears.” What would someone be like who criticized all
62 fears, and what would that have to do with a person who prematurely reacted
63 to the unfolding tragedy of that song? Help! </em></p>
69 kind. And it has, as you may have noticed, puzzled the
71 not a Dylan lyric scholar, but if I were to attempt a suggestion, I’d say
72 the clue lies in at least two things. One is the preceding line:
74 purely rational point of view on disgrace and the injustices of society,
75 the ones for whom the Hattie Carroll incident was a racial
78 least for the ones involved: the personal tragedy of Hattie. If one forgets
80 whatever tears one has to shed, will to some extent be dishonest. And
87 text line you quoted perhaps is unclear, the way he sings the song
88 straightens out that unclarity. It may be that the
92 breaks down). But in most live renditions, it is the third verse that
93 carries the song emotionally: that’s both where the fundamental social
94 injustice is outlined, in the very concrete representation of the
95 structural repression (“[Hattie Carroll] never sat once at the head of
97 and the narration of the murder-by-whim is literally hammered down in the
98 singing, which pungently emphasizes the internal rhymes of the text:</p>
115 Zanzingeeeeer.</p>
119 <p>When the final verse concludes that the rational, distanced observer of
120 injustice finally can bring out his rag, that’s in a certain sense an
122 have already seen the real point: that injustice can never be detatched
123 from actual injustices into an abstract system. Besides, with the rag
125 the point anyway. </p>
127 <p></p>
129 <hr />
131 <h3>
139 definitive set of lyrics for this song. </em></p>
142 are no definitive lyrics to that song. Even if it were possible to
144 it would still be hard to turn it into a coherent text which you can
145 analyse and understand. </p>
149 comes closest to language both in medium (sound) and in complexity of
150 structure, yet at the same time the one that least obviously can make
151 claims on a conceptual meaning. This is what gives it the impression of
152 saying something, without actually doing so. The meaning is veiled in the
153 same way as the meaning of an utterance in a language that one does not
154 understand is veiled: there seems to be a meaning there, but it is hidden.
155 </p>
157 <p> Regarded this way, music is experienced in ways that are analoguous to
158 other kinds of experiences that are not understandable, that go beyond the
159 intelligible, but where a meaning is often desired: matters of faith,
160 death, life, emotional and physical experience. </p>
162 <p>This is where the greatness of
164 words and phrases that float by, play into this sphere of things of the
166 combines and recombines in ways that become a play with the boundaries of
167 meaning. I’m not saying that it would not have been a better song hat it
170 meaning that gives the impression of being profound, and profoundly
171 important.</p>
179 <hr />
189 way that actively defies the entire notion of making sense, in a
190 rationalistic sense, anyway), but by doing so approximates the way the
191 assemby of memories, associations, mental constructions and combinations is
192 called forth (mostly unconsciously) every time we think a thought. Thus,
196 someone (anyone), he presents the listener with a possibility to piece them
197 together in a way that is familiar to him. Since the possibilitities of
198 interpretation are kept open, the same song can be understood in many
199 different ways, by different people, or by the same listener at different
202 <p> The long answer is only accessible after years and years of meditiation
203 over the question (and a pile of albums), and will, like a true zen koan,
204 dissolve and prove untrue once it is reached. (Enlightening, huh? :-)</p>
206 <hr />
210 <h3>
217 just as much as you. It’s one of the few Dylan-songs that have never meant
218 much to me. I think I have found the main image (older then – younger now)
219 a bit too blunt, un-double-edged despite it’s seeming double-edged-ness, if
220 you see what I mean.
221 <br />
222 I suppose the song is an expression of the insight that words have
223 power, and the more so the more you isolate them; that things are
224 always (or can always be made) more nuanced; that not complication, but
225 simplification is what is negative. This is reflected both in what is
227 evades a specific meaning – it is always relativized,
228 contradicted even, even to the point where words and phrases become
229 meaningless (such as the first phrase – I mean, come on, what
231 mighty traps” actually mean? Nothing, but it still manages to
232 convey the more general sentiment, that is not tied to the conceptual
233 meaning of each single word or sentence, that meaning is relative).</p>
236 as if a wedding vow”, reveals both the solemnity with which any word
238 and, when opposed by the refrain, the danger of raising single words to the
239 pedestal, either as political slogans or as guidelines for personal
240 ambitions and aspirations: even though the word is held in high esteem, it
241 is nevertheless discarded, together with everything else that belongs to
246 become my enemy / In the instant that I speak”. Words have power, and
247 if you try to pin down their meaning, they will always slip through your
248 fingers. There’s a saying that every word in arabic has four
249 different meanings: the basic meaning, the very opposite, something on a
250 camel and an obscenity.</p>
252 <p>From the foregoing I will have to conclude that I really like the song
253 quite a lot. I think part of my troubles with My Back Pages stems from the
254 fact that English is not my first language, and although I usually feel
255 quite comfortable talking and writing in English, My Back pages is the kind
256 of text that plays on the immediate associations, connotations that go with
257 certain words, and on the clashes that can occur, if not between the direct
258 meanings of words, then between their connotations. I can manage to get a
259 grasp on some of these subtleties after concentrated work with the text,
260 but it doesn’t spring automatically to my mind, as it would had the
261 text been in Norwegian.</p>
265 certainly a central issue. But I still don’t think Dylan either has a
266 clue about what some of the lines mean.</p>
274 <hr />
276 <h3>
281 tell you what I hear in the song, which is no offical opinion at all. I
282 hear it as a love song of some kind, lost, never begun, whatever. The song
283 is full of imagery of frustrated people, not getting in touch with
284 eachother or themselves, or if so, then only violently (riot squad, sexless
285 patients trying to blow it up). I hear the final verse as a reflection of
287 doesn’t say explicitly that the letters are love letters, but
290 <p>Another reason for assuming this, is the similarity with Gates of Eden,
291 which has the same set of figures and surrealistic collages as D-row, and
292 which is also more clearly a love song, and about communication, and which
293 again ends with a stanza which lets the whole thing narrow down to a
294 question of (unattained) love.</p>
297 <hr />
306 Row. I figured out its about WW 2 but I can´t get it all right. Does anyone
307 know more about it? Please send me a personal e-mail, thanks! </em></p>
310 <em>They're selling postcards of the hanging
311 <br />
312 They're painting the passports brown Jews
313 <br />
314 The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
315 <br />
316 The circus is in town
317 <br />
318 Here comes the blind commissioner N.Chamberlain?
319 <br />
320 They've got him in a trance
321 <br />
322 One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
323 <br />
324 The other is in his pants
325 <br />
326 And the riot squad is restless The nazi army
327 <br />
328 They need somewhere to go
329 <br />
330 As Lady and I look out tonight Lady?
331 <br />
332 From Desolation Row</em></p>
336 the lover of Juliet, and see what happens. It may still turn out to be a
337 great set of lyrics… For the metaphorical interpretation, go to (or
339 <p>(For the record: I'm not claiming that any interpretation other than the literal one is <em>wrong</em>, only that it may not be <em>necessary</em>.)</p>
340 <hr />
346 from the early 90s. The story goes as follows: Singer/songwriter James
347 Damiano claims to have brought a number of songs of his to Dylan’s
352 <p> I first thought there was something to the story, and I was about to
353 write a note about it, in Damiano’s favour, when Damiano himself
355 distributed documents from his case to just about every newsgroup on the
356 Usenet. Among the items distributed was the following graph, which
357 was supposed to demonstrate the similarities between the two melodies:</p>
367 relatively small number of structural pitches, without regard for rhythm,
373 was accompanied by the following comment:</p>
376 <em>Doctor Green who graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard University
377 explains in his analysis that “The melodic arc found in both Bob
379 Guitars’ is more than a collection of shared pitches. It seems to
380 embody the melodic shape or character of both songs. When played on
382 Simandle writes” To the ear of this court, there is no substantial
383 similarity in the melody of the two songs.” The record reflects that
384 Judge Simandle has no formal musical education. The record also reflects
387 filing for a copyright registration with the Library of Congress. Bob
400 afraid: A reduced diagram of a melody, stripped of both harmony and rhythm,
402 the music (not even about the original melody, in fact), especially not in
403 a musical language that is based on a formulaic melodic style, such as
406 There is no such general law or principle in harmonic analysis – the
407 wider context will be more decisive. </p>
409 <p> As for the similarity of the melodies (judging from the reduced graph,
410 that is) – they are not as similar as the mathematician has it. The
411 most distinctive features of this little snippet of Dylan’s song
412 (which is the one I know) is the high g’, the descending fifth
413 towards the end of the selection, and the descending third (coupled with
414 the lack of a dominant chord where it would have been expected) at the very
415 end. None of these elements are present in the Damiano song. </p>
417 <p> This is not to say that Dylan may not have been influenced by
419 that this piece of evidence in isolation is hardly worth the bytes that the
420 jpg-file occupy. </p>
427 <em> To those people who have seen the above newsgroup post may I say that
428 Mr. Eyolf Ostrem claims to be a musicologist however he left no e-mail
429 address or contact information. One can conclude from that fact that Mr.
430 Ostream does not even exist. </em></p>
437 existence. In fact, I had serious suspicions yesterday when I woke up and
438 looked in the mirror and I couldn’t see anybody there. (Then I
439 realized: that wasn’t me, that was John Lennon, and besides, it
440 wasn’t a mirror after all, it was a window (but not the one that
442 He may not exist. </p>
447 never discolsed. Through investigation I was told that Dylan”s music
448 expert did not even have a degree and was only a musician. </em></p>
451 <em>Mr. Ostrem also is incorrect when he stated
452 “especially not in a musical language that is based on a formulaic
453 melodic style, such as rock/blues.” What Mr. Ostem does not know
454 is that a study was done on the very melody line and Doctor Green stated
455 in his analysis that ”the melody line is not common in the corpus of
456 popular music”. Mr Ostrem also did not cite his credentials. Nor did
457 he define musicologist. We only know that he is a memeber of the Bob
459 Dylan page at the following address:
460 <br />
461 <a href="http://hem.passagen.se/obrecht/backpages/">http://hem.passagen.se/obrecht/backpages/</a>
462 <br />
464 <br />
465 </em>
466 <em>I think it is only fair to ask Mr. Østrem to kindly list his credentials concerning music theory.</em></p>
469 Dylan himself has ever concerned himself with this case) is stupid or he
470 has more contacts in the music business than among musicologists. Which is
472 </p>
475 attached jpg file, is based on a reduction of the melody to what the
476 analyst considers the essential scale steps of the melody. This method of
477 analysis, at least as utilized in this case, draws on what is called
478 Schenker analysis, which is taught ad nauseam at every american
479 musicological department. One of the main problems with Schenker analysis
480 is that it favors pitch content, and that it tends to conceal details of
481 the music belonging to other parameters, such as rhythm, phrasing etc. The
482 late Bo Alphonse, former professor in musicology at the McGill Univ. in
483 Montreal, has lucidly demonstrated the consequences of this bias, by
484 showing that two pieces that sound completely different (a Chopin prelude
485 and a Beetoven movement, I think it was), are virtually identical already
486 on the first level of reduction (i.e. the level that corresponds most
489 <p> The lesson learned from this, is that all reductive analysis runs the
490 risk of concealing important elements by considering them as surface
492 music is actually sounding; the rest is analysis. </p>
494 <p> As for the melody, in its reduced form it is basically broken g major
496 and common in popular music, I don’t know what is. The broken triad
497 is old as the rocks, and the figure 5-6-1 [<em>g-a-d’</em>] is, I would say, one of the more common
498 cliche’s. Then again, that particular figure is not found in
499 Damiano’s song, judging from the graph. One can hardly say that it is
500 incorrect that the melody at this point is highly formulaic. </p>
502 <p> I welcome comments on my other points, concerning the alleged
503 similarity of the melody, which still disregards some of the most distinct
504 features of Dylan’s melody, and the analytical methods used to
505 monkey-wrench the two melodies into the same mold. I also welcome a serious
506 discussion concerning the content of all this, which I consider more
508 actually acquired since then]) and credentials (I am a doctoral student,
509 soon-to-be doctor, in musicology at Uppsala University, Sweden [I am now a
510 doctor in Musicology]). </p>
513 musicology, but I haven’t been able to find him anywhere. What is his
520 in an updated version has been published in the <em>Swedish Journal of
526 despite the tone of my replies, which was a result of the weird experience
527 of suddenly not existing – I have nothing against Damiano, and
529 his due credits. My point was mainly a musicological one, concerning
530 reductive analysis, and that in
532 support his claims. I have never heard his song, though, nor seen the sheet
533 music; that would give a much better basis for a comparison.]</p>
535 <hr />
537 <h3>
540 <p class="first">An mp3-file is apparently in circulation, where this song is credited to Dylan. It is not a song by Dylan at all, but a 70s’ hit by Stealers Wheel</p>
542 <hr />
544 <h3>
549 <hr />
551 <h3>
555 is that there used to be an exellent TW site, with tabs, info, even
557 was no need. Recently I found that they have been contacted by some
558 copyright holder, and have taken down the whole site. So right now
559 I’m just hoping that it was Harrison or Petty and not Dylan who was
562 <hr />
564 <h3>
575 <hr />
580 <h3>
584 Freewheelin. Your intro to the song is excellent and I have managed to get
585 as far as the start of the lyrics – which took me about a week! I
587 I would really like to learn the rest of the song but am finding it very
588 difficult. Would you happen to have tabbed the rest of the song at
589 al?</em></p>
595 though: just finger the chords and play them finger-picking style. You
596 could use the intro as a model, but the picking is much simpler in the
600 C G Am /g
601 |-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-------------------|
613 you to practice the fingerpicking in general, rather than spending hours
614 and hours on learning specific details in specific tabs (which is why I am
615 not going to supply the tab for the whole song…) :-). In this song
616 there are two things going on. One is the general picking, which is fairly
617 straightforward: just get the thumb moving and the rest comes by itself
620 <p> The other thing is the delicate hammer-on technique, which looks more
621 difficult on paper than it is in reality. You have to get the right hand so
622 fluent that you can play the general picking patterns without thinking
624 TV, speaking with someone, etc. Then you can start doing things with the
625 right hand, and the two things that are difficult here, are (as
626 you’ve of course already noticed) to let the hammering-on finger of
627 the left hand hit the string simultaneously with the thumb-stroke of the
628 right hand, and that to get those shifts fluent, you have to change the
629 whole chord just before the chord changes, so to speak, to avoid doing the
630 same movement twice. An example is the move from G7 to Am between the first
637 <p> The same kind of things occur here and there during the singing too,
638 but to a lesser degree. I’d recommend to work toward a thorough
639 command of the picking-style, then adding that kind of ornaments, if you
640 like to.</p>
650 <hr />
652 <p>
660 it would be possible for you to provide some more information on that
661 particular performance (in particular, getting the right texture for
663 would benefit alot from a little more detail (it’s more down to
668 the simple chords are elaborated with sus4s and hammer-ons, that may not be
669 much of a help for a beginner. On the other hand, there is a difference
670 between a worked-out arrangement (which I find it worth tabbing) and this
671 kind of ornament, which is incidental and might therefore be better placed
672 in a more general description of playing style. Since I haven’t
674 some more details to Hard times. </p>
676 <p> I suspect that Arthur McBride may look a bit intimidating, with the
678 recommend – as an exercise that I think will be quite rewarding,
679 beyond playing this one song – to play the simple chords and try to
680 pick out the melody line, or as much of it that is necessary/possible, on
682 instead of staring blindly at the tab, which records more or less exactly
683 what Dylan plays, it will be more useful for your ear and your playing
685 principle and work out the details for yourself. At least that’s what
686 I think.</p>
694 <hr />
696 <h3>
699 <p class="first">Dylan has a range of standard ways of moving around (and in) his songs, that is truly fascinating and worthy of a more extended study. I also believe that it would be more interesting in such a wider context than just tabbing the details of particular performances – since all those licks go back to improvisational systems that in part are his very own. </p>
701 <p> I could indicate some of those: the two most characteristic signs of his solos and licks are his double stop solos and his two note solos. The double-stops have been mentioned by a lot of musicians with whom he has worked, as something unique to his style. He plays solos that consist of chord shapes that are moved up and down the neck, in quite stylized and fixed ways, which means that it would be a rather manageable task to describe the system(s). You can find samples of it in the tabs (on my site) of Abandoned love, Mozambique and – perhaps more illustrative of his current technique – I’m in the mood for love. Study those and you’ll have a beginning of a grasp of what he’s doing. It’s all very systematic (really) and quite simple (as always with Dylan’s guitar techniques) – “simple” not in the derogatory, but in the Archimedean sense – the Heureka effect.</p>
703 <p> The second area of his solos is the two-note wonders – the way he stubbornly, consistently and at times seemingly un-musically sticks to two notes (typically the tonic – the key note – or the dominant (the fifth note above the tonic) and the minor third below it (i.e. three frets down). In a song in C major that would mean c-a and g-e. Love minus zero [off
706 <p> A third technique, that he has more or less abandoned now, since he stopped playing without the band, but which is very prominent in the period around World Gone Wrong and GAIBTY, i.e. the years around 1990, is his way of picking out the melody of the song while strumming the chords.
707 <a href="00_misc/you_belong_to_me.htm">You belong to me </a>is probably one of the best examples of this technique.</p>
711 <hr />
713 <h2>
716 <h3>
719 <p class="first">The story behind it is that Time out of mind was released in Sweden a few days before it came out in the rest of the world. I had just started working on a Dylan home page – the “Articles” section of the site. I thought it could be fun to have a site with the chords to the newest album, waiting for the world when they could buy it, so I did.</p>
721 <p>Then I started making occasional tabs to the songs that weren’t available elsewhere, or where the tabs were so inaccurate that they did more harm than good. This turned out to be a job without end, since there was always some new live version to incorporate. When I’d passed 200 tabs (I think it was) I just decided that “I’ll do them all.” And that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing since. :-)</p>
725 <hr />
727 <h3>
730 <p class="first">The alternate tunings and the capos are really just a matter of hearing the sound of the chord structures – when you get used to it (and the ear may have something to do with it) you hear a G shape (full bass, high isolated key note on the 1st string), a C shape (full bass again, often with an audible G on the 6th string, no spaces between the notes of the chord, the third (e) on the first string), a D shape (a third on the 1st string (f#), either no deep bass, or a f# in the bass too), etc. All chords sound differently. Once you hear that, where to put the capo is really no problem at all. </p>
732 <p>The same (or basically the same) goes for the open tunings: once you get accustomed to them, you hear those too. The tricky part is the songs with odd, unusual tunings. I sweated over Blackjack davy for a long time, trying out different alt. tunings, then I ended up with a standard tuning in the end…</p>
734 <p>How long it takes to tab a song depends on the complexity of the songs, and on which level of precision I choose. Just taking out the chords is usually the simplest task. The time consuming part is to write out everything, transcribe the lyrics, checking recording dates, author/composer etc., determining the detailed tabs, etc. I get a lot of helpful hints, to the effect of: “I see you haven’t tabbed song x yet – I think it goes in B and uses the chords B, E and F#”. It’s always hard to have to explain that not knowing that, wasn’t really the problem…</p>
736 <hr />
738 <h3>
742 with, but a site where I put up some articles I was writing – as I
743 was writing them. The idea was that an interested audience (”readience”?) could come by once in a while and see how the ideas in a scholarly paper developed from day to day. It didn’t work out so well…</p>
745 <p>One of the texts was vaguely related to the renaissance composer Jacob Obrecht (1458-1505), an old hero of mine, and so I chose that as a username on the Swedish free home page provider Passagen. </p>
747 <p>When I started adding Dylan things, I thought I might put that in some “back pages”, so I added that as a sub-directory. </p>
749 <p>To begin with the focus was on the articles (what’s now the “Self-Ordained Professors” section), and the chords were put in another sub-directory.</p>
755 <p>
756 <a href="http://hem.passagen.se/obrecht/backpages/chords">http://hem.passagen.se/obrecht/backpages/chords</a>.</p>
764 <hr />
766 <h3>
771 <p>
776 <p class="first">One thing is for certain: I’m not as fat as that guy in the picture (and I can’t draw).</p>
777 </div>
778 </body>
779 </html>