Bob Dylan's surprising awesomeness, had no idea...

Westerly Wood

Venerated Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2007
Messages
13,323
Reaction score
6,496
Guild Total
2
I been digging this Byrds song called You Aint Going Nowhere. Come to find out it is a Dylan song he wrote when he was in Woodstock out of the public eye and recovering from the motorcycle accident:

https://youtu.be/zuuJ_6xGHeo

crazy. he was just an amazing song writer.
 

Guildedagain

Enlightened Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2016
Messages
8,999
Reaction score
7,160
Location
The Evergreen State
Who played the riffs?

Not to veer so sharply right out of the gate, but Dylan's guitaring had some mojo that propelled him to stardom.

Originally, he'd come to New York, Greenwich Viillage (I probably got this all wrong like everything else), trying to be somebody and find himself. He found Dave Van Ronk among others that had an influence on him, Van Ronk I remember saying that Dylan maybe ripped off his style a little bit, or a lot.

Somehow he emerged as a pretty damn compelling singer songwriter guitar player.

His guitar playing caught my ear, and in some ways I probably don't even know yet, influenced me.
 
Last edited:

shihan

Senior Member
Gold Supporting
Joined
Jan 18, 2013
Messages
1,540
Reaction score
796
Location
Ventura CA
I think that’s the first song I ever learned how to play. My buddy and I drove everyone crazy playing it over and over.
Will always have a soft spot for that song.
 

merlin6666

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2014
Messages
1,173
Reaction score
305
Location
Canada .... brrr
Nice, I have this one on the list for tonight's open mic with 12-string, and for my gig at the Old Folks Home with ukulele tomorrow afternoon.

And I will stick with the Byrds/Baez version, though I love those quirky Dylan lyrics:

Clouds so swift, the rain falling in
Gonna see a movie called Gunga Din
Pack up your money, pull up your tent, McGuinn
You ain't goin' nowhere

Ooh-wee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day that my bride's a-gonna come
Ooh-wee, are we gonna fly
Down into the easy chair

Genghis Khan and his brother Don
Couldn't keep on keeping on
We'll climb that bridge after it's gone
After we're way past it

Ooh-wee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day that my bride's a-gonna come
Ooh-wee, are we gonna fly
Down into the easy chair

Buy me some rings and a gun that sings
A flute that toots and a bee that stings
The sky that cries and a bird that flies
A fish that walks and a dog that talks

Ooh-wee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day that my bride's a-gonna come
Ooh-wee, are we gonna fly
Down into the easy chair

Ooh-wee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day that my bride's a-gonna come
Ooh-wee, are we gonna fly
Down into the easy chair
 
Last edited:

crank

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
1,227
Reaction score
859
We play that one in my acoustic project. Kind of a repetitive pattern, but that makes it good for jams too. Goes over well at a pickin' party I sometimes attend.
 

Nuuska

Enlightened Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2016
Messages
7,668
Reaction score
6,028
Location
Finland
Guild Total
9
Aah - like so many other Dylan songs - you have many variations on lyrics - and they're mostly right.
Suppose when you're on that eternal tour you get tired of repeating same words and substitute them - keeping original meaning more or less the same.
 

dapmdave

Enlightened Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2009
Messages
7,612
Reaction score
24
I recently added that to my jam list. In doing that I was surprised that the Byrds version (the one I remembered) lyrics were so different from Dylan's original.
 

dreadnut

Gone But Not Forgotten
Gone But Not Forgotten
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Messages
16,082
Reaction score
6,442
Location
Grand Rapids, MI
Guild Total
2
I've done this one with my buds for years!

Thanks for that link, Wood, I haven't seen that one. Great story.
 

Westerly Wood

Venerated Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2007
Messages
13,323
Reaction score
6,496
Guild Total
2
I recently added that to my jam list. In doing that I was surprised that the Byrds version (the one I remembered) lyrics were so different from Dylan's original.

yeah Dave and i was reading on wiki re the song, Dylan was not happy about McGuin changing the lyrics of

pick up your money, pack up your tent to pack up your money, pick up your tent...

i guess they took digs at each other for a while over it.

i never heard this song before, and i is really cool and groovy sounding to me. gonna go play it tonight on the Br. the byrds version.

my favorite part of the video is david hoffman talking about Earl and how he left early cause roger was being a jackass to hoffman. pretty good stuff.
 

Westerly Wood

Venerated Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2007
Messages
13,323
Reaction score
6,496
Guild Total
2
I've done this one with my buds for years!

Thanks for that link, Wood, I haven't seen that one. Great story.

yeah dread, good stuff. i bet this one would be fun to do for elderly music. real easy on the ears. i have to admit, i have never heard the song before a few days ago, so i was like, wait, what song is that!???!!!
 

adorshki

Reverential Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2009
Messages
34,176
Reaction score
6,789
Location
Sillycon Valley CA
The Byrds owe Dylan big time for making them popular covering his songs! They should have been happy to sing his lyrics as they were written!

walrus
Hmmm, according to Wiki sounds more like it should have been the other way around:

"In early 1964, McGuinn, Clark, and Crosby formed the Jet Set and started developing a fusion of folk-based lyrics and melodies, with arrangements in the style of the Beatles.[50][54] In August 1964, the band's manager Jim Dickson acquired an acetate disc of "Mr. Tambourine Man" from Dylan's publisher, featuring a performance by Dylan and Ramblin' Jack Elliott.[1][50][55][56] Although the band members were initially unimpressed with the song, they eventually agreed to begin rehearsing and demoing it
In an attempt to make it sound more like the Beatles, the band and Dickson elected to give the song a full, electric rock band treatment, effectively creating the musical subgenre of folk rock.[40][56][57] To further bolster the group's confidence in the song, Dickson invited Dylan to hear the band's rendition.[59] Dylan was impressed, enthusiastically commenting, "Wow, you can dance to that!" His endorsement erased any lingering doubts the band had about the song.[59] "


The rest, as they say, is history, and I got a sneaking suspicion far more people heard the Byrds version of Tambourine Man before Dylan's.
I know as a kid out here on the West Coast I never even heard Dylan's version on top 40 radio as a kid.
Now the big question is:
Did Dylan get any songwriter royalties from all that airplay of the Byrds' version?
If not, I could see that as a pretty significant source of irritation later on down the road.....back then it was entirely possible the publishing company got all the royalties and Dylan never saw a penny.
Which ain't the Byrds' fault, but still...
It's why bands started forming their own publishing companies, when they got hip to the "scam".
This is all before we consider the Wrecking Crew's role in making the single with only McGuinn on 12-string and the Byrds providing only vocals.
And the Crew, being Union, got paid scale.
No royalties.
 
Last edited:

wileypickett

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
4,964
Reaction score
4,489
Location
Cambridge, MA
The acoustic guitarist on many early Dylan sessions (in addition to Dylan) was multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Bruce Langhorn. He was also the the guy who inspired (and was) “Mr Tambourine Man,” composed the fabulous soundtrack (and played all the instruments) to Peter Fonda’s *The Hired Hand*, and in his late years invented a damn nice barbecue sauce.

Died a few years ago.
 
Top