Almanac Music: Dylan Cover Songs – Every Song Vol.4: May – October 1963 PLUS Bob Dylan In Concert album

In this fourth edition of the ‘Every Song’ series, we will reveal the thirteen new songs written by Dylan between the release of his Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album (27 May 1963) and his sold-out solo concert at Carnegie Hall (26 October 1963). Along the way we will get a glimpse into recording royalties, romantic intrigue, a coronation, Martin Luther King Jnr’s dream and an album that almost made it into Dylan’s catalogue.

But, before all that, let’s recap:

The main aim of this ‘Every Song’ series is to track, chronologically, every one of the 600+ songs that Dylan has written and published throughout his illustrious career – and where possible, to showcase the song with an interesting and unfamiliar cover song. A by-product of this series will be to sketch out the storyline of Dylan’s career and the major events and influences that have underpinned his songwriting.

In the first three ‘Every Song’ articles, we explored Dylan’s career from January 1961 (when he first arrived in New York) until May 1963 (when his 2^nd studio album Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was released). During that period, Dylan wrote and published 52 original songs – although only sixteen of these songs would end up on an officially released studio album.

Dylan’s creative output, up to the release of Freewheelin’, had generated minimal income and he relied entirely on his parents and friends (up to August 1962) and his manager, Albert Grossman, (post August 1962) to provide the resources that would allow him to concentrate on his songwriting. Without this financial support, Dylan could have easily faded into the background and simply been a footnote among a plethora of half-forgotten 1960’s Greenwich Village folk singers – along the lines of Tom Paxton, Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, Eric Von Schmidt, Paul Clayton, Eric Andersen, Patrick Sky, Phil Ochs, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott or Dave Van Ronk.

Finally, before we return to the story, a brief word about Dylan and Joan Baez: Contrary to the storyline in the ‘Complete Unknown’ Dylan biopic – Dylan & Baez were not attracted to each other musically or romantically until mid-1963. In fact, it was Baez’s manager (Manny Greenhill) who cajoled Baez to listen to early acetates of Dylan’s Freewheelin’ album and the song ‘With God On Our Side’ for Baez to realise that folk had moved beyond ‘Mary Hamilton’ into social and political issues relevant to the times and that Dylan may be worth having on her side as well as by her bedside.

 

May 1963

Ten days before the release of the Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album, Dylan was invited to perform at the first ever Monterey Folk Festival, held between 17-19 May 1963. This was Dylan’s first-ever West Coast performance and he was introduced as ‘the new face of folk music’. Other artists to appear at the festival included: Peter, Paul & Mary (headline act), Barbara Dane, The Andrews Sisters, Joan Baez, Mike Seeger, The New Lost City Ramblers plus 21 year old Jerry Garcia and 20 year old Janis Joplin.

On Saturday 18^th, Dylan performed a four-song set: ‘Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues’; ‘Masters Of War’; ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall;’ and ‘With God On Our Side’ (with Joan Baez singing harmony). This was the first time Dylan and Baez shared a stage and for several days before and after the festival, Dylan stayed at Baez’s home in Carmel, California, where they shared each other.

Moving forward, Dylan increasingly split his time and his affections between:

•  Suze on the East Coast; and
•  Baez on the West Coast.

For Dylan to think that this cosy and convenient arrangement could last shows a complete lack of respect towards both women, but especially to Suze. Certainly the image of Dylan and Suze, arm in arm and ‘in love’, that would soon herald the arrival of Dylan’s 2^nd album, was beginning to look awkward, embarrassing, unwise, cruel, misguided.

On May 27 (three days after Dylan’s 22^nd birthday and a mere 2 years 4 months since arriving in New York as a complete unknown), Columbia Records released Dylan’s 2^nd studio album Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. The album contained 11 original songs, including ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’; ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right’; ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’; ‘Masters Of War’; ‘Girl From The North Country’. A complete re-creation of the album – cover song style – can be found here.

The album initially achieved moderate success in the USA, entering the Billboard album charts in September and peaking at #22. The album ultimately received platinum status – i.e. over one million album sales. Somewhat belatedly, in 1965, the album peaked at #1 on the UK charts.

As with previous major events in his career, Dylan returned to Minnesota in late May to share his creative talents with family and friends. There is no doubt that giving Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan a spin on the turntable would have been an extraordinary experience to share, especially for his college friends who doubted Dylan’s ability to make it in New York.

Track 53 – ‘Eternal Circle’**

One of the songs that Dylan performed for friends while in Minneapolis was a new song titled ‘Eternal Circle’ – the 53^rd track in Dylan’s songwriting chronology.

 

June 1963

A brief overview about Peter, Paul & Mary (PP&M) and Albert Grossman:

• During 1961, Albert Grossman individually auditioned and pieced together PP&M for the sole purpose of generating wealth by bringing modern folk music to the masses;
• For his management services, Grossman received a premium 25% commission;
• In mid-1962, Grossman became interested in Dylan, especially after hearing the first studio take of ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’. By August 1962, Grossman became Dylan’s manager – receiving 20% commission of all earnings PLUS (unbeknownst to Dylan) 25% of recording/publishing rights income;
• Grossman encouraged PP&M to cover ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, knowing that the musicality of the group would resonate with middle America and middle everywhere else in the world;
• Grossman managed to minimise Dylan’s public performances of ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ between the recording of the song (July 1962) and its release on the Freewheelin’ album in May 1963. In this way, the song was refreshingly new and untarnished when it was released by PP&M.

In mid-June, PP&M released their ‘one-take’ single cover version of ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’. The single peaked at #2 on Billboard charts, selling 300,000 copies in its first week and ultimately over one million copies. The single also charted in the UK #13; Canada #25; NZ #2 and Australia #11. In 1964, the single received a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording.

Note: Dylan released his own single of ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ in August 1963, but not surprisingly, it failed to chart. Clearly Grossman knew what he was doing when picking commercial winners. The success of PP&M’s cover generated significant sales income for Peter, Paul and Mary; healthy recording rights income for Dylan (estimated at the equivalent of US$51,000 in 2024 terms); and even higher returns for Grossman from PP&M’s commission, Dylan’s commission and Grossman’s own recording rights income from Dylan covers.

Track 54 – ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’

In response to the murder of black civil rights activist Medgar Evers on 12 June 1963, Dylan wrote his 54^th original song: ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’. Dylan recorded a studio version in August and the song featured on his 3^rd studio album, the 1964 The Times They Are A-Changin’.

 

July 1963

On 6 July, at the invitation of Pete Seeger, Dylan attended the Greenwood Mississippi Rally – a rally aimed at encouraging people of colour to register to vote. At this rally, Dylan performed ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’ for the first time. A brief segment of Dylan’s performance is available here:

 

 

26 – 28 July: Newport Folk Festival

In the previous ‘Every Song’ article, there was mention of Grossman’s grand plan for Dylan – and the Newport Folk Festival was always going to be a pivotal component of that plan. Much like Baez was crowned the queen of folk music at the 1959 Festival, the time was now right to dethrone Pete Seeger as the king of folk music and hand the crown to Dylan – who Grossman dubbed ‘the spokesman for a generation’.

The crowd of over 45,000 mostly young college and high school students, lugging guitars and banjos, were drawn to the festival by the new voice of Dylan. Dylan performed a five-song solo set on 26 July as well as joining Baez, PP&M, Seeger and others for the evening finale of ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ and ‘We Shall Overcome’.

On 28 July, Baez performed her own five-song solo set including Dylan’s ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’. With Suze in the audience, Baez introduced the song with: ‘This next song is a Bobby Dylan song. The only thing he’s protesting in this song is probably a love affair that’s lasted too long’. Very nasty indeed! Then, to add insult to injury, following her five-song set, Baez invited Dylan on stage to duet on ‘With God On Our Side’.

 

August 1963

Despite various self-imposed personal dramas, Dylan maintained critical momentum on his recording output. With Tom Wilson retaining the producer role, Dylan entered Columbia Studios on 6^th, 7^th & 12^th August and laid down six songs that would appear on The Times They Are-Changin’ album.

Four of those songs have been previously mentioned in this series of articles: (‘Ballad Of Hollis Brown’; ‘Boots Of Spanish Leather’; ‘With God On Our Side’; and ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’).

Two further songs had only recently been completed and can now be added to Dylan’s anthology:

Track 55 – ‘North Country Blues’

Track 56 – ‘One Too Many Mornings’

All six of these songs will be discussed more fully when a future ‘Every Song’ article takes a look at the entire The Times They Are A-Changin’ album.

A brief overview of Baez’s status as a folk singer:

• Joan Baez was born at Staten Island, New York in January 1941, a mere four months before Bob Dylan (aka Robert Zimmerman) was born in Duluth, Minnesota;
• In July 1959, at the age of 18, Baez performed at the first ever Newport Folk Festival and was ‘crowned’ the queen of folk music by popular acclamation;
• In 1960, Baez released her first self-titled studio album. The album contained thirteen traditional folk standards and peaked at #15 in the US and #9 in the UK;
• Two further albums of traditional folk standards were released in 1961 and 1962; both sold over 500,000 units and charted in the US top 20 albums.
• On 23 November 1962, a painting of Baez featured on the cover of Time Magazine with an accompanying article placing Baez at the centre of the burgeoning folk music scene;
• By 1963, Baez could fill major concert venues as a solo performer and had enough wealth to contract a John H Gamble designed ‘iconic glass house’ on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the artistic community of Carmel, California.

Within this setting, Baez didn’t need Dylan to enhance her professional reputation or her financial coffers. Her interest in Dylan was to bring his songs to a wider audience and in doing so, to feed on his genius. For Dylan’s part, he leaned in on Baez’s fame until such time as his own fame surpassed hers (i.e. about 12 months). As for romance – sure, there seemed to be plenty; as for love – perhaps that was a one-way street that flowed from Baez to Dylan.

In between and following the aforementioned Columbia recording sessions, Dylan joined Baez (at her invitation) on a mini tour, that took in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts and culminated on the 17^th at the 13,000 seat Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York. After a 15-song solo set, Baez introduced Dylan on stage and they performed four songs together: ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’; ‘With God On Our Side’; ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’; and ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’. It is believed that despite his minor role (performance and reputation wise), Dylan was paid a fifty percent share of concert earnings.

Track 57 – ‘When The Ship Comes In’

As observed throughout his career, Dylan seemed quite capable of maintaining momentum on multiple levels, and he not only completed his 57^th original song ‘When The Ship Comes In’ around mid-August, but he also decided to debut the song at the upcoming March on Washington.

Dylan would also record this song in the studio in September and it would feature on The Times They Are A-Changin’ album.

March on Washington For Jobs And Freedom

On 28^th August, over 250,000 people gathered in Washington DC from across the USA to peacefully protest and put pressure on the Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act. The occasion is best remembered for the closing ‘I Have A Dream’ speech by Martin Luther King Jnr.

Earlier in the day, a number of folk musicians were invited to perform including established acts: Mahlia Jackson, The Freedom Singers, Joan Baez, Odetta, PP&M and Len Chandler; along with the emerging voice of Bob Dylan. Dylan & Baez performed a duet of Dylan’s recently written ‘When The Ship Comes In’, before Dylan sang a solo version of ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’.

Although ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game’ was highly relevant to the occasion, with Mrs Evers (the widow of the murdered Medgar Evers) giving the address on behalf of the Negro Women Fighters For Freedom, video of the event suggests that the contribution from Dylan was largely lost on the 250,000 scattered across The National Mall. Although Freewheelin’ had been released some three months earlier, it had not yet entered the Billboard charts and it was unlikely that Dylan’s reputation had yet echoed beyond college dormitories and into the loungerooms of the vast majority of American households.

 

September 1963

Tiring of Dylan’s infidelities and over possessiveness, Suze vacated the West 4^th Street apartment she had shared with Dylan for the past 20 months (less the 7 months she was overseas in Italy) and moved in with her older sister Carla.

Dylan’s response was to spend more time at Woodstock, upstate New York where Grossman and Peter Yarrow each had getaway retreats; or visit Baez in Carmel, Ca. where he could focus on songwriting and romance; or become a virtual resident at Carla’s apartment where Suze was now living, which simply amplified his possessive nature and fuelled ongoing antagonism between Dylan and the entire Rotolo clan.

Oddly enough, despite Dylan now receiving substantial income from the sales of Freewheelin’ (some estimates suggest $2500/month), plus recording royalties and concert performance payments, Dylan maintained his small dingy $60/week one bedroom rental apartment in Greenwich Village – even though he no longer wished to live there on his own.

Meanwhile, the month delivered three new songs, although nothing that would upset the make-up of the next studio album. Rather, these were added to all the other songs written by Dylan and recorded at Witmark & Sons’ studio as demoes for publishing right purposes.

Track 58 – ‘Gypsy Lou’**

Track 59 – ‘Troubled And I Don’t Know Why’**

Track 60 – ‘Guess I’m Doin’ Fine’**

 

October 1963

For several weeks in early October, Dylan stayed with Baez in Carmel Ca. Away from the noise and conflict in New York, he focused on songwriting and sharing the stage with Baez at her major Hollywood Bowl concert on 12 October. From all reports, sections of the Hollywood crowd found Dylan’s voice terrible and starting booing (for not the last time in Dylan’s career!).

Undeterred by events in his life, Dylan re-entered Columbia Studios on the 23^rd, 24^th & 31^st and laid down four new songs that would feature on The Times They Are-A- Changin’ album as well as two outtakes (marked ^^) that will feature on the Bob Dylan In Concert album showcased at the end of this article.

Track 61 – ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’

Track 62 – ‘Percy’s Song’^^

Track 63 – ‘The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll’

Track 64 – ‘Lay Down Your Weary Tune’^^

Track 65 – ‘Restless Farewell’

‘When The Ship Comes In’, which Dylan premiered at The March On Washington, was also recorded at this session.

The four unmarked songs will be discussed more fully when a future ‘Every Song’ article takes a look at the entire The Times They Are A-Changin’ album.

Elsewhere in the Grossman stable, PP&M released their 3^rd studio album In The Wind, containing three Dylan covers (‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’, ‘Quit Your Low Down Ways’). The album reached #1 on the US Billboard albums chart as well as #1 in Canada and #11 in the UK.

Grossman’s grand plan was working overtime – with rich rewards for all the players (PP&M, Dylan and himself). As a sign of his business acumen and success, it was around this time that Grossman acquired a vintage 1953 Silver Dawn Rolls Royce.

Carnegie Hall Concert

On the 26^th, Dylan performed his most prestigious solo concert to date – the 2900 seat Carnegie Hall in New York. The venue was sold out and Dylan had invited his parents (Abe and Betty) to witness the event.

Dylan’s set list included nineteen songs – five from Freewheelin’, eight from the upcoming Times They Are A-Changin’ and six from studio outtakes.

A couple of interesting insights regarding the concert:

• Despite her generosity in allowing Dylan to share the concert stage with her over the past four months, Baez was noticeably absent from Dylan’s stage;
• The concert was professionally recorded and four previously unreleased songs were earmarked for a potential Bob Dylan In Concert album;
• Within four months (i.e. February 1964), an emerging British group called The Beatles would perform two sell out concerts on the one night at Carnegie Hall. Unlike the Dylan concert where the hushed audience hung off every syllable sung before bursting into rapturous applause as each song concluded; the Beatles concerts were filled with screaming and fainting fans with little or no regard to the actual songs being performed – the times were definitely about to change.

 

Bob Dylan In Concert album.

It was common practice for folk singers to have an ‘In Concert’ album released early in their careers. For example:

• Harry Belafonte – An Evening With (1957);
• Odetta – At The Gate Of Horn (1957); At Carnegie Hall (1960); At Town Hall (1962);
• Pete Seeger – At The Village Gate (1960);
• Joan Baez – In Concert (1962) and In Concert Vol. 2 (1963, with liner notes by Dylan);
• Peter Paul & Mary – In Concert Vol.1 & Vol 2 (1964).

For Columbia Records to propose that Dylan have an ‘In Concert’ album so early in his career was not remarkable. In addition to the 26 October Carnegie Hall concert recording, Columbia Records also had a high-quality recording of Dylan’s 24-song 12 April 1963 Town Hall, New York concert.

What was unusual, however, was for an In Concert album to consist entirely of unreleased original songs – yet, given Dylan’s extraordinary output of quality original songs during 1962/63 and his engaging stage craft, that is exactly what the proposed Bob Dylan In Concert album was aiming to do.

With Dylan, it is always interesting to remember that the songs that follow were captured before this lad from the remote mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota had celebrated being 22½ years of age. Furthermore, his songwriting career had been active for less than three years – so, what we have before us is, in my mind, an amazing achievement.

Without further ado, here is the proposed Bob Dylan In Concert album – cover song style:

Side 1:

Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie

This seven minute/190 line poem was performed by Dylan on only one occasion – at the Town Hall on 12 April 1963. The poem pays tribute to Woody who had been suffering from Huntington’s Disease from the mid 1950’s and was a patient at Brooklyn State Hospital. The genesis of the poem is that Dylan had been invited to write a short 25-word piece on ‘What Woody means to you?’ for an upcoming book, but ended up writing five pages. It is highly likely that Dylan wrote this poem within a few days prior to this performance.

Dylan’s live version was eventually released on the 1991 Bootleg Series Vol.1-3 boxset.

The cover selected to showcase this poem is by P.P. Arnold – from her 2019 The New Adventures Of P.P. Arnold album.

 

 

Note 1: PP Arnold has an extraordinary career in her own right. In 1965, she was an ‘Ikette’ with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue and provided back-up vocals on ‘River Deep, Mountain High’. By 1967, PP had moved to London. One of her early UK ‘gigs’ was to provide back-up vocals on The Small Faces hits ‘Itchycoo Park’ and ‘Tin Soldier’. Subsequent back-up vocal contributions can be heard on the original 1970 UK version of Jesus Christ Superstar; Nick Drake’s ‘Poor Boy’; Graham Nash’s ‘Military Madness’; ‘Electric Dreams’ (1984); and Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’.

Note 2: There have only been a couple of covers of this poem. US singer-songwriter Jack Johnson and Bendigo/Melbourne two-piece Timbakat both do shortened versions in ‘song style’. Seth Bro, a Missouri-based artist, does an honourable spoken version on a 2006 compilation tribute album (Million Dollar Bash – Missouri Salutes Bob Dylan).

 

Lay Down Your Weary Tune

Dylan wrote this song in early October 1963 while spending time with Baez in Carmel, Ca.. Consistent with Dylan’s modus operandi up to this point in his songwriting career, the tune was ‘borrowed’ from a Scottish ballad, most likely ‘The Water Is Wide’.

Dylan seemed very keen on this new song and recorded a studio version on 24 October for possible inclusion of The Times They Are A-Changin’ album. It was subsequently left off the album, but eventually released on the 1985 Biograph boxset.

Dylan’s keenness for the song remained intact and he included it in the set list for his Carnegie Hall concert on 26 October.

The cover selected to showcase this song is by Coulsen Dean McGuinness Flint – from their 1972 Lo And Behold album.

 

Note 1: Coulsen Dean McGuinness Flint (better known as McGuinness Flint) were a rock band formed in the UK in 1970. They had minor success in the UK and less minor success in Australia, despite solid musical apprenticeships with Manfred Mann and John Mayall.

Note 2: There have been over 30 covers of this song. Apart from the first released cover by The Byrds on their 1965 Turn! Turn! Turn! album, the remaining cover artists are largely unknown on Australian shores.  

 

Dusty Old Fairgrounds

Dylan wrote this song around March/April 1963 – an exuberant, imaginary, life on the road, fairground caravan tale. This song is, however, so rare in Dylan’s canon, that there is no studio version and the only recorded version (i.e. the Town Hall concert on 12 April) has not appeared on any of Dylan’s official compilation, boxset or bootleg series of albums.

The cover selected to showcase this song is by Blue Ash – from their 1973 No More, No Less album.

 

 

Note 1: Blue Ash was a US rock band, formed in 1969 and based in Ohio. In 1973, they released their debut album (No More, No Less). Despite being highly regarded and (now) highly collectible, the album did not generate enough sales and the band struggled along until finally disbanding in 1979. What is most intriguing is that the debut album contained ten original songs and two covers: The Beatles’ – ‘Anytime At All’ and Dylan’s – ‘Dusty Old Fairgrounds’.

Given that there was no official or demo recording of ‘Dusty Old Fairground’, it becomes a mystery as to how the band discovered the song and why it decided to include it on their debut album. It is highly unlikely that any member of the band moved in circles remotely related to the ‘Dylan universe’, and thus the only other option would be that the band discovered ‘Dusty Old Fairground’ through unofficial Dylan bootlegs circulating at that time. Why, of all the Dylan material that the band would have had access to in 1973, they chose a completely unknown Dylan song to feature on their debut album, is a question only they can answer. For the purposes of this article, I am simply glad they did.

Note 2: Apart from the 1973 Blue Ash cover, there have only been two other covers. These were not released until 2003 and 2014, and both by ‘average quality’ self-release artists that have taken a shine to releasing multiple Dylan covers, simply because they can.

 

John Brown

One needs to go back to Dylan’s 27^th original song – written way back in October 1962, while Suze was still in Italy – to find this anti-war song. The melody is based on the well-known ‘900 Miles’ but the lyrics are 100% original.

Dylan recorded two studio versions. Firstly, for Folkways Records in February 1963 and this was released on the 1963 Broadside Ballads Vol.1 album under his Blind Boy Grunt pseudonym. Secondly, in August 1963, as a demo under his Witmark publishing contract.

It was the latter version that was eventually officially released on the 2010 The Bootleg Series Vol.9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962-64.

For the proposed Bob Dylan In Concert album, Columbia Records included Dylan’s performance from the Town Hall concert.

The cover selected to showcase this song is by The Staple Singers – from their 1967 Pray On album.

 

Note 1: The Staple Singers were a US gospel and R&B group, formed in Chicago in the 1950’s. The group consisted of patriarch (Roebuck ‘Pops’) and 4 children (Cleotha, Pervis, Mavis and Yvonne) and is best known in Australia for the 1971 song ‘Respect Yourself’.

Note 2: As with most songs that didn’t make it onto a Dylan studio album, there have been minimal covers (in this case, only seven) and none of those seven covers are by mainstream artists.

Side 2:

When The Ship Comes In

This song was written by Dylan in August 1963 as he was accompanying Baez on her mini-tour through the US mid-Atlantic states. There is some conjecture, supported by Baez’s own account, that he wrote it one night after being refused a hotel room due to his unkempt appearance, until Baez vouched for his good character.

The live version proposed for the In Concert album was recorded at Carnegie Hall on 26 October.

The cover selected to showcase this song is by The Pogues – from their 1995 Pogues Malone album. This is the only time that The Pogues have honoured the Dylan songbook with a cover.

 

 

Note 1: Of the nine songs scheduled for inclusion on this In Concert album, ‘When The Ship Comes In’ is the only one that appeared on a studio album (i.e. The Times They Are A-Changin’).

Note 2: With over 50 cover, ‘When The Ship Comes In’ ranks in the top 40 most covered Dylan songs of all time. Notable artists who have covered the song include: PP&M, The Hollies, Arlo Guthrie, The Clancy Brothers, The Waterboys, Billy Bragg.

 

Who Killed Davey Moore?

Written in April 1963, this is the 46^th song in Dylan’s anthology. The song uses the structure adopted in the children’s rhyme ‘Cock Robin’ to explore who was responsible for the death of boxer Davey Moore – who died on 25 March 1963 as a result of injuries suffered in the unsuccessful defence of his world featherweight crown to Sugar Ramos four days earlier.

Dylan performed this song live at both the Town Hall and Carnegie Hall concerts. It was the Carnegie Hall version that Columbia Records selected for the proposed In Concert album. It was also this latter version that was officially released on the 1991 Bootleg Series Vol.1-3 boxset.

The cover selected to showcase this song is by R. Stevie Moore – from his 2016 Lids & Blankets: A Covers Collection, Vol.2 album.

 

Note 1: R Stevie Moore is certainly a ‘character’. A singer-songwriter in his own right and mind, Stevie has pioneered ‘lo-fi’ or ‘DIY’ home recording since the mid-60’s. While there has been active debate and research into how many albums Stevie has released in the past 60 years, the best estimates put the number somewhere between 300-400.

Note 2: While there have only been nine covers of this song, several artists to do so may be of interest, including: Australian Gary Shearston (of ‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’ fame) and Sebastian Cabot (British actor who had a lead role in the 1960’s US-sitcom ‘A Family Affair’).

 

Percy’s Song

This song was written by Dylan in October 1963 while hanging out with Baez at her home in Carmel Ca.. The melody is based on the 17^th Century English ballad ‘The Twa Sisters’ which morphed into the 20^th Century ‘The Wind And The Rain’. While the lyrics of ‘Percy’s Song’ are Dylan’s, the phrase ‘wind and the rain’ is used in every verse, except that the nouns are in reverse order. The one thing that remains unanswered to this day is ‘who is Percy’?

Dylan recorded a studio version of the song in late October 1963 as a potential inclusion on The Times They Are A-Changin’ album, but it failed to make the cut. The song was eventually released on the 1985 Biograph boxset.

Dylan performed the song live on only one occasion – at Carnegie Hall on 26 October  – and this version was captured and selected for the proposed In Concert album.

The cover selected to showcase this song is by Arlo Guthrie – from his 1970 Washington County album.

 

Note: There have been less than ten covers of this song, with Arlo’s version being the most notable.

 

Bob Dylan’s New Orleans Rag

This song was written around April 1963, when Dylan and Suze were hanging out in his West 4^th Street apartment, awaiting the release of the Freewheelin’ album. Why Dylan’s songwriting persona would take a mind journey to New Orleans and a potential encounter with a prostitute is any one’s guess. There is no evidence that Dylan had ever been to New Orleans when this 49^th song in his anthology was written, and I wonder how Suze critiqued the lyrics when Dylan played it to her for the first time?

This song is rare as far as Dylan’s canon is concerned, with no studio version and the only recorded version (i.e. Town Hall concert on 12 April) not appearing on any of Dylan’s official compilation, boxset or bootleg series of albums.

Fortunately, Dylan’s live version has been captured and is available to showcase not only this rare song but also his engaging stage craft before he became more guarded:

 

 

Note: There is only one publicly available cover of this song, although it is sung in Norwegian and the ‘vibe’ of the song has been lost in translation.

 

Seven Curses

Dylan wrote this song – the 51^st of his career – in April 1963. It was marginally too late to be considered for his Freewheelin’ album and somewhat ‘thematically out of place’ to be included on The Times They Are A-Changin’.

A studio version, recorded in August 1963, was eventually released on the 1991 The Bootleg Series Vol.1-3 boxset.

Dylan performed this song live on only two occasions – at the April 1963 Town Hall and October 1963 Carnegie Hall concerts. It was the Carnegie Hall version that Columbia Records selected for the proposed In Concert album.

The cover selected to showcase this song is by Show Of Hands – from their 2012 Wake The Union album.

 

 

Note 1: Show Of Hands are an English acoustic/roots/folk duo formed in 1986 by Steve Knightley and Phil Beer. They have released over 20 albums in the past 35 years with the occasional dip into Dylan’s anthology.

Note 2: There have been around 20 covers of this song, but none by recognised artists.

 

So, why was the Bob Dylan In Concert album (catalogue no. CL-2302, CS-9102) never released?

Columbia Records decided not to release the ‘Bob Dylan In Concert’ album primarily because the material was deemed ‘out of date’. This decision was made despite the fact that in early 1964, promotional materials, including cover slicks and posters, had been distributed to record stores in New York.

I would further suggest that the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963 called for the ‘spokesman of the generation’ to offer up The Times They Are A-Changin’ rather than a rag-tag ‘In Concert’ album.

There may well have been some concern by Columbia Record executive about the impending February 1964 US tour by an emerging UK group known as The Beatles. If what had happened elsewhere around the world was replicated in the USA, then the face of music would be refashioned beyond recognition. Accordingly, if Dylan was to survive the impending tsunami wave, his strongest work (i.e. The Times They Are A-Changin) was most likely to offer the best resistance.

Concluding comment:

In 1973/74, aged 17/18, I would regularly travel into Sydney to Lawson’s second-hand record shop to acquire Dylan bootlegs from ‘under the counter’. One of my purchases was a blue coloured vinyl LP with the title Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been. The plain white album cover had a ‘Trade Mark of Quality’ sticker with a picture of a well-fed farmyard pig. The song list was identical to that listed above for the Bob Dylan In Concert album.

This bootleg album has been as familiar to me as any other official Dylan album. There was a time when I could quote the entire 190 lines of ‘Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie’. I am pleased that this ‘Every Song’ series has allowed me to replicate, in cover song style, the abandoned In Concert album.

Final note: the four songs marked ** within this article (i.e. ‘Eternal Circle’, ‘Gypsy Lou’, ‘Troubled And I Don’t Know Why’, ‘Guess I’m Doin’ Fine’) will join seven outtakes/unreleased songs from previous articles in a special ‘Every Song Outtakes’ edition next time the ‘Every Song’ bandwagon rolls into town (i.e. late September 2025).

Special bonus: (for those who have made it to the end of this article): PP&M’s version of ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ was prevented from reaching #1 on the Billboard charts in mid-1963 by a 13 year-old Stevie Wonder and his song ‘Fingertips – Pt 2’. Stevie’s reputation at this time was given a significant boost when he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on 3 May 1963. Intriguingly, one week later, Dylan refused to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show when they required him to perform another song other than ‘Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues’. One wonders (no pun intended) whether Dylan performing ‘’Blowin In The Wind’ on The Ed Sullivan Show would have given the PP&M’s version the extra nudge to see it peak at #1 on the Billboard charts?

For those interested in this piece of music trivia, Stevie’s Ed Sullivan Show performance can be viewed here:

 

 

 

 

More from Karl Dubravs can be read Here.

 

 

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