Finally! Now I can admit it: Wichita Blues has been bugging me for years. Thanks to a CD from Thomas Romon, and a file from lowgen at the Pool (heartfelt thanks to both!), I’ve finally won the struggle. Turned out it was played in a tuning he has never, to my knowledge, used anywhere else. The tab is from the Cynthia Gooding Tape (Feb/March 1962).
The tab is fairly accurate for the intro and the beginning of the first verse, and all the chord shapes he uses throughout the songs are there.
There is one text line I couldn’t make out. If anyone has suggestions, please help me out.
This comment is not about your blog but about your site. I have been a huge fan of your site for quite some time now… probably about 3 years visiting frequently. You used to have a page posted about all of Dylans guitars and i was just wondering where it went.
The direct link has moved to the right column in the main window, so that only the major sections and the help stuff is left in the left frame. It can also be reached from the “Self Ordained Professors” section, where all my other writing is as well.
That’s fascinating. Could you elaborate on the story more? Why did this CD help? What tipped you off? What was different from the other version(s)? These questions might be pointless, as I’ve never actually heard the song, but I find this “one-off” tuning really interesting.
One tune that has bugged me for a long time now – “Legionnaire’s Disease” – mainly because I’ve never heard it. It’s listed on the officiall Bob Dylan site under Songs, but to my knowledge, no recording of it exists. Any clue as to where one might find this lost work?
One way of hearing it, is to come to Copenhagen, where Billy Cross lives; I’ve heard him play it a couple of times. There is also a recording of it with his Delta Cross Band, but I haven’t heard it — yet. Dylan wrote it for Cross during the 1978 tour.