Bob Dylan: ‘Dylan’

I remember that night going home, getting stoned, putting it on and when it got to that song, after the beginning when that preposterous piano slide comes on, going “what the fuck!?”

I actually liked the ‘Dylan’ album better than I liked Self Portrait.  I love Lily Of The West, and wonder if like the other stuff on Another Self Portrait if there’s a version without the backup singers and the harpsichord.

Joel Bernstein once told me it’s not a harpsichord, but a hammered dulcimer, which is a possibility, but I still think it’s Al Kooper on an electric keyboard with a harpsichord button. 

While the bass is rather rudimentary, Bob’s playing that driving rhythm with great harp and he sings it great. It’s one of the great performances.

I also love Mary Anne which is an old English ballad. I have Peggy Seeger singing it on this album with Alan Lomax singing and playing and also on it is Guy Carawan.  It’s an album that my mother bought when I was a kid, and a longtime fantasy of mine, if I ever interview Bob, is I’d bring it with me becauae he’s done a bunch of songs over the years that are all on this album like The Two Sisters. It also has, sung by Peggy Seeger, “Riding In A Buggy With Mary Jane” which is where the line in Trying To Get To Heaven came from.