Track Talk 109: Nettie Moore

one big lie · **Joined:** Fri October 23rd, 2009, 11:41 GMT **Posts:** 20

I really like the TTS version of Ain't Talkin' as well, although it desperately misses that rising bass line in the chorus...

Dead Eternity

i've glorified this song before. but i'm newfoundly curious: does nobody like the verse melody?
that's my favorite thing about it. beside the first half of the lyrics.
the goosebumps started going bananas after the first two chords when i first heard it.

feet_of_a_harlot

Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump, insert lyrics here.

Mr. Tambourine Man

I've always thought that lyrics have little to do with a song's power compared to music. There's nothing that good about the lyrics in Nettie Moore, except for the chorus which is really nice. It's the sound of this one that makes this the best track on MT. The music and the vocals. I love the hypnotizing drum beat.

Crayolasmith · **Joined:** Fri June 5th, 2009, 18:11 GMT **Posts:** 551

strangely enough, i was just getting ready to write how much i love that chorus. ..then i read your post, tambo.

one of the times i actually believe what he's saying. . .this part is coming from his heart. . .he's not just writing something snarly to hide his real feelings. (not that that kind of thing isn't interesting in it's own right too though!!)

(biography compared to lyrics embarrassment alert!! i've always heard that chorus as being about losing suze. and the verses saying some things about what might have been had he chosen another path in life. . .away from joan and the notoriety/fame, the string of relationships that followed. he gives us so much of himself with his songs and so forth. ..but you can't help but wish he could have had a more a quiet, private life.)

(aside to swedie's "goosebumps going bananas" : aww. ..yeah. i can see why it would. :wink:

)

Cropduster

smoke wrote:

Not sure why but I didn't like this on Modern Times, it was the live versions that brought me around.

Same here, it works really well live, lacks energy on record...

Still a great, great song however...

BigFrank · **Joined:** Fri January 2nd, 2009, 23:13 GMT **Posts:** 138

feet_of_a_harlot wrote:

The lyrics are interesting but the song itself is plodding, just as overrated as Red River Shore.

Spot on about NM.

More or less right about RRS, too. Latter was and is "quite a nice cowboy type song" but certainly no masterpiece.

steinbeckmeister · **Joined:** Thu November 5th, 2009, 04:03 GMT **Posts:** 61

I love Nettie Moore, one of my favorites on MT.

Lone Pilgrim wrote:

Yes...anyone who bypasses 'Ain't Talkin'' when listening to MT needs their heads examined. It is simply one of the greatest songs Bob Dylan ever cut.

I won't say one needs a head exam, but yes, I can't understand bypassing Ain't Talkn.

tellmemomma1966 · **Joined:** Tue June 23rd, 2009, 10:29 GMT **Posts:** 64

OH ITS GOOD. i actually cry a little most times i hear nettie moore.
recently, ive been very partial to the chasing a shadow version

jamespadden81 · **Joined:** Thu April 9th, 2009, 12:10 GMT **Posts:** 252

CShoe wrote:

Lone Pilgrim wrote:

I like it. But what is wrong with me that I don't love it as much as everybody else?

Because you're not an impressionable sheep?

Just kidding.

It's the most respectable song on Modern Times, but not even half as good as songs like Mississippi and Standing in the Doorway. The lyrics are, as you say, half-wonky, and the percussion is rather mind-numbing.

Mind numbing percussion?

I find the percussion wonderful on this track, the whole arrangement is delicate and nuanced. One of his best recordings full stop. The best track on MT, yes. MT a great album, yes.

Something Clever · **Joined:** Wed April 25th, 2007, 18:08 GMT **Posts:** 287

Crazy, perverse Bob.

He goes to all the trouble with that "o'er" rhyme scheme on the chorus and then pronounces her name "Nettie Moor," like the Crusades.

Woody

Something about this song seems very old, in a good way - like the narrator is a Civil War-era romantic.

One of my favorites from Modern Bob.

carnap

That's interesting. My recollection is I once thought it has some sort of an Irish connection to a time maybe a couple hundred years ago.

ShoreGirl

marker wrote:

Wow that version from Dusseldorf is simply stunning.
For me, it's the Mississippi of Modern Times. A true song, one from the heart. It's Bob Dylan in 2006, and an accounting of the loves and troubles that pre-occupy his thoughts. What is so beautiful about that version from Dusseldorf is the amazing intimacy Bob's sharing with the audience. At its best, the song is a journey through the past, a series of musical movements. Its delicacy is balanced upon both the underlying rhythmic pulses of the music and Dylan's prophetic deliveries of these lines. What I love about the song is its rawness, his fearlessness in conveying exactly what he wants to say in his own language.

Don't know why my baby never looked so good before
Don't have to wonder no more
She been cooking all day, gonna take me all night
I can't eat all that stuff in a single bite

I always smile when I hear it. It's classic Bob. Playfully sexual, evoking a bygone time while creating a wholly modern creation. And yet, this woman is not Nettie Moore. Nettie Moore is missed, long gone, a love of the past. And as with many of Bob's latter day songs, there is a conflict between the verse and the chorus a didactic quality, but by song's end, we hear that the present is a constant reminder of the happier past and vice versa, forever invoking and reminding one of the other.

When I heard them do it live in Seattle this year with Charlie, I realized there was something amiss. it did not gel. There is very little economy or discretion with the way Charlie plays and this song requires that. I fear that that is a bit of a sacrifice where Charlie is concerned. The finest version I've heard yet is from the concert I saw last year in Santa Monica. Easily the highlight of the night, the version is a brilliantly paced crescendo, it builds in intensity throughout until that final line
'I wish to God that it were night' which Bob practically screams out. And then the band takes the song into a brave new place, finding places for sounds that elevate the song into avant-garde territory. Denny finds a pattern and Stu picks it up on fiddle (I've always loved his playing on this song), Bob finds it on organ and responds emotionally in voice. It's such a unified performance, I always feel like this is all just an extension of Bob's quixotic brain. I remember thinking throughout that version in Santa Monica that it was the closest I had ever heard Bob get to a John Cage composition.
An overwhelming memory, I still get chills when I think of it.

Here she is.
Santa Monica CA
September 3 2008
http://www.sendspace.com/file/jg26gp

Thanks for such a great review and for the link. :wink:

jamespadden81 · **Joined:** Thu April 9th, 2009, 12:10 GMT **Posts:** 252

Mr. Tambourine Man wrote:

The best performances came from Fall 2006, no doubt. It had the magic.

Nov. 12
http://www.humyo.com/F/164399-53226037

Damn, that one's good.

That is a great rendition. As per the album version, just he sings a little more rather than speaking the lines...and he does it really well.

Thanks!

Expecting Rain

Track Talk 109: Nettie Moore

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