Comments on: World Gone Wrong — A Body in Sound

By: Oisin O'Faghain

Oisin O'Faghain — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:42:13 +0000

In a rare moment of foolhardiness virtuoso comment-leaver Oisin O’Faghain made a rash comment on the entire genre of country music and would like to apologise for the afore mentioned. It was unfair and only slightly justifiable. Signed, Oisin O’Faghain B.A, M.D, Ph.D, Chieftan, God-like etc.

By: Oisin O'Faghain

Oisin O'Faghain — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:27:27 +0000

Come now, everybody knows there’s lounge music in hell and its on repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat repeat. Willie has to be there. I’m sorry. Even his bandana will be there. I do like Mr. Nelson, but I find him a bit… awful. My hell (musically) would be Jim Morrison (sorry everybody, he’s not a poet, he’s not a shaman and he’s not a genius and put your goddamn top on you pretentious Val Kilmer look-alike) ,Donovan, The Mammas and Papas and possibly the Byrds. I do honestly like Mr. Nelson, and he’s almost very good, but country is such an awfully repetetive, unexciting and unbeautiful genre that only a few can transcend it (Cash, Cohen etc.). And yes there would be music in hell: BAD music.

By: Eyolf Østrem

Eyolf Østrem — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:28:03 +0000

Donovan, ok, but Willie? Willie?!? Lounge music in hell? You can’t be serious! The greatest country voice this side of eternity (Cash rules supreme on the other side, of course)? With a gig in hell?
Well, what do I know? I’ve never been there, but you’re apparently better informed :)

By: Oisin O'Faghain

Oisin O'Faghain — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:02:24 +0000

Got him. Castrated him first, naturally. Don’t worry about it. He’s spending the rest of eternity in hell listening to Donovan and Willie Nelson. I can do no more.

By: Eyolf Østrem

Eyolf Østrem — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:52:49 +0000

Secondly first: I sure do (take it personally, that is). I have — to the best of my knowledge, which is infallible, hence right — never made a mistake myself. The only possible explanation, therefore, is that someone else, some mad, malevolent personnage, has hacked into the server and, with the sole (evidently, since nothing has been stolen) purpose of putting me in a bad light, introduced this nimble, salacious typo.
I will have it corrected, and I will see to it that the perpetrator is chased after and caught, and hanged by his neck in the morning.
Firstly second: I think that the song in question is played not with the repeated chord change, but ith the number of chords that are indicated in that page. I know that it’s frequently difficult to tell exactly the difference between an F and a Dm7, or between any of those and some ornamentational variant of any of them or some other chords. And I also know that that little bugger of a hacker has been there, ttoo, and compressed all the spaces that would have aligned the chords correctly.
Can’t wait to see him swing.

By: Oisin O'Faghain

Oisin O'Faghain — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:06:27 +0000

Hello Mr. Eyolf, just 2 quick things: on the bootleg version of “I’ll keep it with mine” does the C Dm7 thing on about the third line repeat itself the way the C and F interchange frequently. I think that’s how I play it on the piano but I’m not very consummate at any of the instruments I play, so what thinks ye? And secondly, On your Blind Willie McTell page it says it was RECORDED 1991, a simple, fallacious typo, but ne’ertheless unforgivable as I have never made a mistake myself and hope you take this very personally. B) All the best, O

By: Eyolf Østrem

Eyolf Østrem — Sat, 23 May 2009 22:58:36 +0000

@Steve: I must admit, I haven’t thought about the Supper Club shows in this context, but I will the next time I listen to them. I love those shows, though — I think it’s a shame that they were never released. There are some nice performances on the MTV Unplugged show that sortof replaced them, but on the whole, it’s no match.
@David (and, hence, LillyLee): I don’t really think of myself as a medievalist (and if I say so somewhere, I take that back…), so I can’t really answer, other than that I consider my work as a historian and as an aesthetician, in combination with my work/life as a musician, to be the most relevant background to my analyses of Dylan. So on this one, I’ll have to agree with Lilly. Although, coming to think of it, there is something correct about it too: a medieval musicologist, if he wants to analyse the “music itself”, has to stray away from the trodden paths of classical analysis, because the tools there (functional harmony, the classical formal patterns etc.) don’t work. That, I believe, is also true about Dylan analysis: traditional lyric analysis doesn’t really work, and there is no firmly established tradition for analysing this kind of music either, so the tools have to be made up as one goes. Cf. Analysing Dylan songs.

By: Lilly Lee

Lilly Lee — Sat, 23 May 2009 15:45:08 +0000

David, Get real! ” Perhaps medievalists alone among the commenting class are equipped to think in the world Dylan’s work creates, a world that blends and bends and creates categories in the moments of its articulation. Medievalists are accustomed to working with fluid texts and incredibly complicated streams of influence.” There are others with these abilities…not just Medeivalists,

ps still waiting for your phone call

By: Steve M S

Steve M S — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:47:46 +0000

Oh, and “Mary and the Soldier”! The way he sings, “But oh how cruel my parents must be/Banishing my darling so far from me” and that last half minute. The song would have been a very fine addition,

By: Steve M S

Steve M S — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:38:10 +0000

I felt my original copy of the CD in Brazil to someone who immediately fell in love with this album. He could certainly identify with the riff, if not the words. I bought it again recently.

What do you make of the Supper Club performances of some of the songs here? The Jack-A-Roe (2nd show, 2nd night) and one of the versions of Ragged and Dirty get me to that bodily state I think you’re talking about. Guitar playing sounds terrific but completely different? Also, I believe I read somewhere that Dylan had a female friend/colleague help him with the guitar lines before each recording? I enjoy your analysis.

By: David N. DeVries

David N. DeVries — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:53:32 +0000

I always love reading your words. Greatness generally inspires great commentary and that is certainly the case with respect to your work on Dylan. Of course greatness (and near-greatness and the stuff that has greatness thrust upon it also inspires miles of drivel; but not in this case–Dylan’s unparalleled achievement in a realm he created has created a set of commentary that is itself unparalleled and your work is there). Somewhere in this website I’ve noticed that you describe yourself as a medievalist. Perhaps medievalists alone among the commenting class are equipped to think in the world Dylan’s work creates, a world that blends and bends and creates categories in the moments of its articulation. Medievalists are accustomed to working with fluid texts and incredibly complicated streams of influence. And this essay is an example of what I’m groping toward here. Dylan’s seeminglly unspeakable achievement on this record forces any who would comment upon it to create new categories for critical reflection. I mean unspeakable in a literal way. Of course poetry and music and art cannot be paraphrased, cannot be restated in critical prose that extracts the meaning. This is the sort of thing that can only be experienced. Hence the role of commentary is to render the experience of the thing, not the thing itself. And your position, as a musician, a musicologist, a scholar of many fields, your position presents you with a compelling means of rendering the experience you have had listening to this record.

All of which is a long way to say: thank you.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:07:37 +0000

Jack-A-Roe has always been one of the standouts for me – one of the most convoluted marriage proposals I’ve ever heard!

In that broadside tradition of women dressing up as men and going off to sea, the heart of the song for me is the exchange with the nameless questioner – “Before you step on board sir” to “To see ten thousand fall”. It’s all in the vocal delivery, the growled “Ohhhh”s. And the somewhat unusual Am-E-Am figure.

Agree that Broke Down Engine is a gutteral guitar masterpiece. Have also spent many an hour on that Ragged & Dirty riff! And agree that it’s a fine album.