New Bob Dylan song: Huck's Theme

New song is great and his voice hasn’t sounded this good in, what, 40 years ? I really wonder from which session this was culled

people seem pretty convinced it's a Tempest outtake, I'm not so sure, could be from the Sinatra era ... For a couple tours now, he's been doing spare, piano-led versions of "Girl From North Country" and "Boots of Spanish Leather" that this kind of recalls.

The "for the last 50 years" line would place it in 2013 if you're being strict, but uhhh I think that's a mistake when we're talking about Bob Dylan.

Altho I'm not a fan of Great American Songbook moves (World Gone Wrong and Good As I Been To You notwithstanding) his voice on the recent records has been markedly better. Post quitting smoking, I'm told.

I get a sense of Olympian timelessness from this new song - spectral Bob sifting through the wreckage of the past five decades, picking up a thread here, a fragment there, ruminating.

Very comparable to Neil's "Drifin' Back" in that way.

The main reason I originally mistook it for an Oh, Mercy outtake was that his voice sounded so good.

This is super inarticulate but:

My first thought about this is that it fits so well, thematically, with Tempest. Tempest already has the historical focus, the 50-year intervals, the collective traumas, the whole elegiac vibe, and this sort of slots in next to all that and makes it even stronger.

Like, we've already got "Roll on John," which I always think of as Odysseus visiting Achilles in the underworld - the guy who always survives, who always pays in somebody else's blood, visiting an old acquaintance who wasn't so lucky. It's less a tribute than an acknowledgment of what you lose when you die young in a cloud of glory - you cease to be yourself and become other people's mythic vision of you. I love "Roll on John," it's such a gorgeous stylized lament, and yet it's obviously about an idea rather than a person, and I think that's meant to be the saddest thing about it.

And here we have another elegy, for a death that happened at the very beginning of Dylan's career. And there's something about that flood of musical and cultural references at the end that suggests a long, slow mourning procession. But this isn't Dylan doing American Pie - he's not claiming that JFK's death is when Everything Changed, because this sits alongside the song about the Titanic and the song about John Lennon's death - other moments of collective grief that are just as meaningful. It's like he's showing us that you can put your finger anywhere on the timeline and find a defining trauma, and all the art we make is a way for us to mourn.

Ugh, I now realize that came across super pretentious.

But leaving aside when it's from and what it all means, I'm really charmed and touched that Bob Dylan took the time to think, "Hey, everybody's locked down and scared, what can I do to cheer them?" and I find it super endearing that what he landed on was "release a 17-minute song about the death of JFK."

^^quality posts

Yes, though I would say this is how Dylan does American Pie in a way.

It's like he's showing us that you can put your finger anywhere on the timeline and find a defining trauma, and all the art we make is a way for us to mourn.

this is well said and closer to what I was trying to get at upthread about "meaning"...that increasingly on later records the function of these references seems less denotative and more toward the end of flattening (?) everything—experiences, memories, histories—onto a single plane, in a single category, allowing him the necessary separation from it, the distance from which to eulogize

and to that extent this song isn't really about JFK, its just the lowest common denominator for "loss" and an easy 20th c anchor for the rest, each next thing as sad and as gone as the next, incl. Alicia Keys and the Eagles or whatever

each next thing as sad and as gone as the next

as sad and gone but also as enshrined in myth - which I guess is the "single plane?"

maybe yeah but I think the references are cultural because that makes them common/relatable...like he could write this same song as earnestly but lesser efect w/ private references to friendships, family etc

ten again he has long clearly seen himself in the lineage of e.g. Guitar Slim or Jelly Roll Moton and I guess in that regard those are very personal references too

*to* lesser efect

I've still only listened twice. I'd like to make a list, I'll call it the Gorgeous George List in honor of Memoirs, of the references ordered by how unlikely/bizarre they are. So Lady Macbeth is down near the bottom, Nightmare on Elm Street up near the top.

people seem pretty convinced it's a Tempest outtake, I'm not so sure, could be from the Sinatra era

I'm more and and more convinced it's not from the Tempest sessions, that album was definitely the nadir of his voice, listen to the ballads in that and even in the gentlest moments he's pretty raspy

also something about this song's production doesn't sound like it's from those sessions

agreed it sounds like there's more space and separation than anything on Tempest

each next thing as sad and as gone as the next, incl. Alicia Keys and the Eagles or whatever

But those things live on, don’t they? He’s imploring you to “play” them, that’s how we get through life...

 “This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.”

there's been rumors he's been doing new music.... Triplicate came out 3 years ago, he didn't say "outtake" necessarily

His voice does sound better here, I agree. It just sounds to me like it comes from the same creative place as Tempest, like it's a companion volume to Tempest even if it was recorded later.

“A while back” sounds older than the past 3 years, but who knows. Has Rolling Stone talked to Jeff Rosen or somebody about it yet?

(xpost) Agree. And in that way, it feels very different than "Driftin' Back," where Neil cataloged various things he remembered with disdain. "Murder Most Foul"--the part of it where he's rambling on about all these songs and artists--feels like a sweeping embrace.

xxxp morrisp yeah I totally think that's true, but what I also hear sewn into "play" is raise a glass, pour one out

being in time music is always disappearing as you listen to it :(

If you've been playing the official clip, like I have, there's another one up now with lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkr6TVnGtAM

For the next few minutes, anyway--I think Dylan's organization is one of those with acute copyright radar.

xpost, Triplicate was released March 2017, so probably recorded 2016, I guess I think that could qualify as a "while back"

also could be that they cut original songs during the sessions for the covers records?

xp they are hawks!

this channel always seems somehow to fly under the radar and re-up stuff http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaOZO0lQahdMsROidW4RIZA/videos

I think with Dylan, especially in recent years, there's a real tension between honoring these mythic figures and trying to resist becoming one himself; that's what I was trying to get at with the thing about John Lennon as legend vs. John Lennon as real person who Dylan knew. Like, every artist eventually ends up entombed in the mausoleum of their work, and I think Dylan can see the beauty in that while also being terrified at the sight of those walls rising around him.

But then the sprawl of artists he catalogues at the end of this song, the mix of genres, the high and low culture, suggests something different, a sharing of the burden. Like he's just one of many pallbearers.

You're really insightful when it comes to this song! I've been thinking about posting on Facebook about it--I might quote you, if that's okay.

Thank you! Please do!

It's also weird writing about "John Lennon" as figure when he's been dead longer than he knew him; Lennon can't help but be a statue in the park.

Wasn't "Roll On, John" written in the '80s?

I remembered hearing that, too — but when I went looking for verification the other day, I found this discussion of an even earlier precedent: https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/4595

this song reminds me that dylan once had a (really good!) radio show. dude knows how to tell a story through a playlist.

I put up a post on Facebook, including some of Lily Dale's comments (and repeating stuff I've said here--I do repeat myself).

http://www.facebook.com/phil.dellio/posts/10156574950051534

I prefer concision:

https://youtu.be/o6YWpujfqIg

That's good, I like that. Didn't like Lou Reed's Kennedy song at all (haven't heard it since it came out).

I love the Lou Reed song. How about this one?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ggtyT1TwL8

I love Negativland's "Richard Nixon Died Today." Which is a whole other thing.

So many evocative posts---these
t's like he's showing us that you can put your finger anywhere on the timeline and find a defining trauma, and all the art we make is a way for us to mourn.

this is well said and closer to what I was trying to get at upthread about "meaning"...that increasingly on later records the function of these references seems less denotative and more toward the end of flattening (?) everything—experiences, memories, histories—onto a single plane, in a single category, allowing him the necessary separation from it, the distance from which to eulogize

― Yanni Xenakis (Hadrian VIII) just now (right after waking up) made me think of this----from bobdylan.com:

I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine

Alive as you or me

Tearing through these quarters

In the utmost misery

With a blanket underneath his arm

And a coat of solid gold

Searching for the very souls

Whom already have been sold

“Arise, arise,” he cried so loud

In a voice without restraint

“Come out, ye gifted kings and queens

And hear my sad complaint

No martyr is among ye now

Whom you can call your own

So go on your way accordingly

But know you’re not alone”

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine

Alive with fiery breath

And I dreamed I was amongst the ones

That put him out to death

Oh, I awoke in anger

So alone and terrified

I put my fingers against the glass

And bowed my head and cried
Copyright © 1968 by Dwarf Music; renewed 1996 by Dwarf Music

Believe it or not, the first Dylan song I fell in love with, in 1995, aged 25.

What a great song. Bob had sort of sat out the 2010s, with only one album of original material. But this beats anything on Tempest, in my opinion.

To me the key line is "if you want to remember better write down the names" which he then commences in doing. It's a goodbye to the 20th century, as it fades from view. It reminds me of the last 30 minutes of The Irishman, which touches on the same ideas.

What a strange development. In the midst of a global pandemic, Bob Dylan once again assumes his role at the center of the culture, if only for a day or two.

For what it's worth, Love & Theft was released on 9/11/01, as noted here by monitor Greg Tate:
https://www.villagevoice.com/2001/09/25/intelligence-data/

this is masterful. feels like an entire album's worth of material somehow crammed into one long track. almost too much to take in at once. especially love the violin, which reminds me of astral weeks.

also, i saw someone point out that

Slide down the banister, go get your coat
Ferry 'cross the Mersey and go for the throat

may contain buried references to guy banister and david ferrie, and now i can't unhear it

That's great, missed that.

That's how I appreciate it -- a half-hearted concordance of JFK.

Well...like it or not, I don't hear anything half-hearted there.

Even better, no Kevin Costner.