Track Talk 180: Lonesome Day Blues

Mez

This is one bad ass tune! Absolutely love it thru & thru. The MEZ is shocked this hasn't been covered yet in the "Track Talk Series". Can't wait to hear the favorite dates, renditions, posts for this monster of a tune. I hope most agree about the excellence of this track! MEZ

Nappy

Possibly Bob's best blues song.

Rochester 2004 is THE definitive version in my book. He sounds possessed.

The performance I witnessed at Brixton Academy in 2005 was pretty amazing. About a third of the way through, Bob got in a groove and it became a totally different song. Wonderful.

Hal Jones · **Joined:** Tue March 27th, 2007, 21:24 GMT **Posts:** 7725

The version on TTS is great too.

telltale

My favourite Dylan blues as well - properly stomping live.

shitjoy · **Joined:** Sat June 2nd, 2007, 19:29 GMT **Posts:** 10994

How could anybody not love this song? It's great!!! The studio version, though, isn't my favorite. It wasn't until I heard it live (on a boot I can't remember) that I really started to dig this tune.

Here are a few vids from youtube:

Philadelphia - November 2001: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEbvSd3f ... re=related

Cardiff - May 2002: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxPg5DMt ... re=related

Illinois - October 2004: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKzIjMf50hc

TheTruthIsObscure · **Joined:** Mon January 8th, 2007, 20:59 GMT **Posts:** 251

My favourite version is from Warszawa, 7.6.2008:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ca5i2j

shitjoy · **Joined:** Sat June 2nd, 2007, 19:29 GMT **Posts:** 10994

TheTruthIsObscure wrote:

My favourite version is from Warszawa, 7.6.2008:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ca5i2j

Can't believe I forgot about this one.. That entire show is great, though I wasn't too impressed with "I Shall Be Released" from that night.

Untrodden Path

There are times when Lonesome Day Blues does very little for me... and there are times when it blows open the doors of my mind... exploding with energy, images, and raw blues power. And for the life of me, I can't figure out why I experience it so differently. When it strikes a chord with me, I absolutely love it. And when it doesn't... it kind of like, "Oh, that's a decent song."

But that would be my problem. It's not Bob or the song...

Warren Peace

That's the thing with Blues shuffles, the entire band has to be into it for them to work. The arrangement is generic so it all hangs on how many interesting improvisations you can form. If even one member doesn't care that night, the energy goes out of the whole song. But if they're on, it can achieve greatness. It's a fine line.

lostintherain65 · **Joined:** Sat January 3rd, 2009, 19:12 GMT **Posts:** 596

definately one of those songs where the live versions are a hundred times better than the studio versions, love the warszawa version!

Solo Teem

I don't know, lost, I like turning up David Kemper

J.D.

Isn't some of this song from The Aeneid? Any song that mixes Virgil and the blues is badass as far as I'm concerned.

But my favorite lines are these:

Quote:

I’m forty miles from the mill—I’m droppin’ it into overdrive
I’m forty miles from the mill—I’m droppin’ it into overdrive
Settin’ my dial on the radio
I wish my mother was still alive

Something about the way that last line almost pops up out of nowhere is like a gut punch. So touching, and in a hard-nosed song no less. I've had that same sentiment strike me at an odd time, just like that.

telltale

J.D. wrote:

But my favorite lines are these:

Quote:

I’m forty miles from the mill—I’m droppin’ it into overdrive
I’m forty miles from the mill—I’m droppin’ it into overdrive
Settin’ my dial on the radio
I wish my mother was still alive

Something about the way that last line almost pops up out of nowhere is like a gut punch. So touching, and in a hard-nosed song no less. I've had that same sentiment strike me at an odd time, just like that.

Yeah, and here the sentiment feels so different to the slightly blithe, certainly resilient : "Well my Pa he died and left me, my brother got killed in the war ...". It's as if that sad thought "I wish my mother was still alive" has just struck him right then that very moment and he's interrupted the song to tell us.

J.D.

Exactly.

Hal Jones · **Joined:** Tue March 27th, 2007, 21:24 GMT **Posts:** 7725

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37691

Hal. Jones on April 16, 2009 wrote:

But he doesn't consistently say the "I wish my mother was still alive" line. I've heard it substituted with:

"Well I've never felt more alive", "I hope to God I'm still alive", "I'm telling myself, I'm still alive", "I think I'm still alive"

And they all seem to work equally well.

CShoe · **Joined:** Mon July 6th, 2009, 22:29 GMT **Posts:** 1221

Warren Peace wrote:

That's the thing with Blues shuffles, the entire band has to be into it for them to work. The arrangement is generic so it all hangs on how many interesting improvisations you can form. If even one member doesn't care that night, the energy goes out of the whole song. But if they're on, it can achieve greatness. It's a fine line.

Has it occurred to you that this is all basically nonsense? That's the problem with you, Warren. You just say stuff.

J.D.

I haven't listened to many of the live versions, but the fact that he doesn't say "I wish my mother was still alive" as he does on the album cut just makes the line stand out more for me. I'm sure it sounds great on the other versions, regardless of what he sings--as I said, the whole song is badass--but the fact that he doesn't always sing that particular line seems appropriate--as if the narrator of the song doesn't want to cheapen such a line by repeating it at a time when it hasn't just occurred to him.

Warren Peace

CShoe wrote:

Has it occurred to you that this is all basically nonsense? That's the problem with you, Warren. You just say stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection

:lol:

Still waiting for the day when you make an actual point about something instead of just devising long ways to say "everything (Warren Peace likes) sucks!"

CShoe · **Joined:** Mon July 6th, 2009, 22:29 GMT **Posts:** 1221

Warren Peace wrote:

Still waiting for the day when you make an actual point about something instead of just devising long ways to say "everything (Warren Peace likes) sucks!"

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=49183&p=768210

slocastro wrote:

At least CShoe is constructing well-stated responses and not simply calling someone a troll and adding absolutely nothing to the discussion.

Warren Peace, sole inhabitant of some kind of parallel universe.

CShoe · **Joined:** Mon July 6th, 2009, 22:29 GMT **Posts:** 1221

Oh yeah, Lonesome Day Blues, one of the stronger latter-day blueses, was very reliable live right up through 2004.

Untrodden Path

I haven't heard one since 2004 that I care to save for posterity. Anything from 2004 and prior will dependably be great.

telltale

Hal Jones wrote:

:arrow:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37691

Hal. Jones on April 16, 2009 wrote:

But he doesn't consistently say the "I wish my mother was still alive" line. I've heard it substituted with:

"Well I've never felt more alive", "I hope to God I'm still alive", "I'm telling myself, I'm still alive", "I think I'm still alive"

And they all seem to work equally well.

I'm enjoying the intertwining of the threads! - but I don't think the substitutions work anywhere nearly as well. At the Isle of Wight Dylan sang "save me a son" instead of "kill me a son", and I can imagine that it may be pretty tricky to sing that line about his mother every time as well.

Untrodden Path

At the Berlin 2002 show he sang, "I wish my parents were still alive." Its the first variation I remember hearing. It really struck me because of the way he sang it.

Warren Peace

CShoe wrote:

[

slocastro wrote:

At least CShoe is constructing well-stated responses and not simply calling someone a troll and adding absolutely nothing to the discussion.

Alright, you're really gonna start freaking this guy/gal out if you keep obsessing over him like this. I know someone sticking up for you is a rare thing, but you gotta let it go. Or else, Slo might start thinking badly of you. And you couldn't bear that.

Keep chasing Moby, Dick. I mean, Ahab. Maybe you'll get me some day! I just make you sooooooooooo mad! That Warren Peace... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr can't stand it!

Also, Lonesome Day Blues has one of the best endings to a Dylan song ever.

CShoe · **Joined:** Mon July 6th, 2009, 22:29 GMT **Posts:** 1221

You do not make me mad. I do not have strong feelings towards you apart from the strong feeling that you drank the Kool-Aid.

Expecting Rain

Track Talk 180: Lonesome Day Blues

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