Roots of Bob Dylan (2): "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (1963)

This is Vol. 2 of my series Roots of Bob Dylan 1962 - 1966. Here I will discuss the original songs from The Times They Are A-Changin' plus some important outtakes.

Please read the

• Introduction

that also includes the necessary credits and a list of the most important literature and online resources used here.

The complete series:

• Vol. 1: Roots of Bob Dylan: "Bob Dylan" & "The Freewheelin'" (1962/63)
  
• Vol. 2: Roots of Bob Dylan: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (1963)
  
• Vol. 3: Roots of Bob Dylan: "Another Side of Bob Dylan" & Bringing It All Back Home" (1964/65)
  
• Vol. 4: Roots of Bob Dylan: "Highway 61 Revisited" & Blonde On Blonde" (1965/66) (coming later)

- The Times They Are A-Changin' (& Paths Of Victory)

Harvey (p. 112) claims that the melody is derived from "Deliverance Will Come" although he also writes (p. 119) that "the distance in terms of melodic development from 'Deliverance Will Come' to 'The Times...' is considerable" . This is a 19th century hymn most likely written in 1836 by The Reverend John B. Mathias. It has also been recorded by Uncle Dave Macon (1926, as "Palms Of Victory") and the Carter Family (1936, as "The Wayworn Traveler").

For more information about the song's history see Hymntime.com, Manfred Helfert's BobDylanRoots.com, Wikipedia and Harvey, p. 84. Here's a printed version from the Church and Sunday school hymnal : a collection of hymns and sacred songs, appropriate for church services, Sunday schools and general devotional exercises, 1902, p. 132 (c/o The Internet Archive):
























Dylan had already used this song as a blueprint for his own "Paths Of Victory" (see Harvey, p. 84-86) but I must admit I can't hear any musical relationship to "The Times They Are A-Changin'".

Recently Dylan himself revealed the source for the melody of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (see this article on the website of Tour Scotland. Thanks to Stew for bringing it to my attention and sending me some more information including some of the links used here): "51st (Highland) Division's Farewell To Sicily" (lyrics: Hamish Henderson (194?), music: "Farewell To The Creeks" by Pipe Major James Robertson (1915). About " Farewell To The Creeks", quoted from: Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion:

Scottish, English, American; Pipe March and Jig. D Major. Standard tuning. AABB. “Farewell to the Creeks” is a well-known north country tune composed by Pipe Major James ‘Pipie’ Robertson of Boyne, Banffshire, in 1915 when he was a prisoner of war in Germany[...] It is the vehicle for Hamish Henderson’s popular song "The Highland Division’s Farewell to Sicily,” also called “Banks of Sicily,” composed while he was Intelligence Officer for the Highland Division in World War II. G. W. Lockhart (in Fiddles and Folk, 1998) relates that Henderson had been viewing the smoke curling from Mt. Etna’s crater in the distance behind the Pipes and Drums of the division’s 153 Brigade, when the band launched into “Farewell to the Creeks.” “Without hindrance,” said Henderson, “the words came flowing to me.”

More info about this song is available on TheSessionOrg : Farewell To The Creeks (including sheet music). It's not so much Henderson who deserves the credit but Major Robertson for his beautiful melody. But Dylan didn't use the whole tune but only a very distinctive musical phrase that he turned into a kind of leitmotif for "The Times They Are A-Changin'"

Henderson's "Farewell To Sicily" was recorded by Ewan MacColl on Barrack Room Ballads (Topic 10T26, ca. 1958?). and then reissued on The Real MacColl (Topic, 1993, see amazon.co.uk for 30 seconds of this song). Hamish Henderson's own recording is now available on A' The Bairns O Adam (Greentrax CDTRAX244, 2003, hear a 30-second snippet at amazon.co.uk).

Richard Farina recorded it with Carolyn Hester and the McEwens on the Scottish EP Four For Fun (1962) and later used the tune as part of his Dulcimer instrumental "Hamish" (on Celebrations For A Gray Day, 1965, see the Richard and Mimi Farina Fan Site). The song was also printed in SingOut! in 1959 and in Norman Buchan, 101 Scottish Songs (1962). Unfortunately I can't use any these recordings here. But there are some more recent performances available at YouTube:

• "Farewell To The Creeks played on a bagpipe
• The McCalmans, Farewell To Sicily (1977)

- Ballad Of Hollis Brown

Based on "Pretty Polly". For the history of this song see the Traditional Ballad Index. It's a simplified variant of the older British ballad "The Cruel Ship's Carpenter" or "The Gosport Tragedy" (printed since 1767 , see also the Traditional Ballad Index). Pretty Polly was first printed in the USA in Loraine Wyman and Howard Brockway, Lonesome Tunes: Folk Songs from the Kentucky Mountains, Volume I (1916), p. 79-81 and first recorded by B.F. Shelton in 1927 (mp3 )

Most later versions seem to derive from Shelton's recording. Dylan himself performed that song in 1961 (mp3: Bonnie Beechers Apartment, May '61) and here the melody already sounds very close to the one used for "Hollis Brown". Harvey (p.13 ) thinks Jean Ritchie's version may have been Dylan's source (although Dylan surely knew Shelton's recording). She has recorded the song in 1959 for Jean Ritchie, Oscar Brand & David Sear, A Folk Concert at Town Hall, New York (Folkways FW 02428) and then later in 1963 for Jean Ritchie And Doc Watson at Folk City (Folkways FW 40005). But of course it could also have been Pete Seeger's recording (on American Ballads, Folkways FW 02319, 1957).


- With God on Our Side

Based on Dominic Behan, "The Patriot Game" (see Wikipedia; Behan's own recording is at the moment available at YouTube). Dylan may have learned it from the Clancy Brothers, who used to perform this song; a live version was released in 1963 . In the USA "The Patriot Game" was also recorded by the Kingston Trio (YouTube) so I presume it was well known among Folk Revivalists. According to Heylin (p. 138) Dylan heard it first from British singer Nigel Denver.

The melody is older ("The Bold Grenadier"/"The Nightingale"/"One Morning In May", "The Lady And The Soldier") and variants have been collected since 1903 (see the Traditional Ballad Index, see also "Song To Woody"). There is also an undated 19th-century broadside in the collection of the Bodleian Library. Behan may have borrowed the tune from a recording of "The Nightingale" by Jo Stafford (1948, YouTube) that seems to be derived from a printed version in Loraine Wyman and Howard Brockway, Lonesome Tunes: Folk Songs from the Kentucky Mountains, Volume I (1916), p. 68-72.

But it also could have been Burl Ives' version of this ballad: "Hear A Nightingale Sing", recorded 1952, issued 1956 on In The Quiet Of The Night , Decca, now available on The Singing Wayfarer, Proper Records. See Harvey, p. 123 for a discussion of this two songs' relationship to "The Patriot Game".


- One Too Many Mornings

According to Harvey (p. 77) Dylan "once again uses 'Deliverance Will Come' as a point of departure [...] He maintains some aspects of [that song] but significantly alters the form and phrase structure [...] the result is unique and fresh, the mark of a maturing composer".


- North Country Blues

[...] the melody derives from the late 19th century Great Lakes ballad 'Red Iron Ore' [...] The song was printed in Franz Rickaby's 'Ballads And Songs Of The Shanty Boy' (1926, p. 161 [here as a Google book , a short comment is on p. 225 ]) from the singing of Michael Cassius Dean of Virginia, Minnesota, 15 miles east of Hibbing [...] Dylan drops the [...] refrain, while retaining the meter, phrase structure, and much of the melodic contour from 'Red Iron Ore'" (Harvey, p. 76f).

This lyrics of "Red Iron Ore" were first printed in Dean's own book Flying cloud, and one hundred and fifty other old time songs and ballads of outdoor men, sailors, lumber jacks, soldiers, men of the great lakes, railroad men, miners, etc (1922, p. 12) Via Rickaby's book - who combined it with a tune, I wonder if that one really was the melody used by Dean - the song found its way into Carl Sandburg's American Songbag (1927, p. 176) and John Lomax, American Ballads And Folk Songs (1934, p. 477):























See also the Digital Tradition Database for a set of lyrics and the melody.

The earliest recordings:

• Bob Gibson, There's A Meetin' Here Tonight, Riverside RLP 111, 1958 (a snippet of this version can be found on allmusic.com )
• Vivien Richman, Sings Folk Songs of West Pennsylvania, FW03568 , 1959
• Alan Mills, Canada's Story In Song, Folkways FW0300 (as "Iron Ore by 'Fifty-Four'" same melody with a new set of lyrics about the building of a railway written in 1954)

- Only A Pawn In Their Game

Original melody, no known precedent. One of the major motifs in "Only A Pawn In Their Game" is the idea that the people are taught racism ("He's taught in his school...", "And he's taught how to walk in a pack..."). The same idea - only expressed in a more universal way - can be found "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" (from South Pacific, 1949) by Oscar Hammerstein and Richard Rodgers:

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

- Boots Of Spanish Leather

See "Girl From The North Country" that has exactly the same melody.

The lyrics are typical Dylanesque patchwork. The "lonesome ocean" may have been borrowed from "Golden Vanity", the "diamonds from the deepest ocean" make me think of Irving Berlin's great classic "How Deep Is The Ocean", "[...] stormy weather" may also be a reference to the famous song by Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler and the "spanish leather" is surely derived from the "Gipsy Laddie/Gipsy Davy" song family where it was an important textual hook that has survived from the earliest 18th century broadsides until today:

She pulled off her high heel'd shoes,
They were made of Spanish Leather.

"My Ship" by Kurt Weill & Ira Gershwin from the 1941 musical Lady In The Dark shares with "Boots Of Spanish Leather" the major motif: all the material things don't mean nothing if I don't get my "own true love" back

My ship has sails that are made of silk
The decks are trimmed with gold
And of jam and spice
There's a paradise in the hold.

My ship's aglow with a million pearls
And rubies fill each bin
The sun sits high in a sapphire sky
When my ship comes in

I can wait the years till it appears
One fine day one spring
But the pearls and such
They don't mean much
If there's missing just one thing

I do not care if that day arrives
That dream need never be
If the ship I sing
Doesn't also bring
My own true love to me

Another closely related 20th century song is "Something To Remember You By" by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz, written in 1930 for the revue Three's A Crowd where Libby Holman sang it to a sailor. This song later became a standard, it was recorded and performed by many singers. In the 40s it was a hit for Dinah Shore, see YouTube for Vera Lynn's version, 1941:

Oh, give me something to remember you by
When you are far away from me, dear;
Some little something, meaning love can not die,
No matter where you chance to be.
Though Ill pray for you, night and day for you;
It will see me through like a charm,
Till youre returning.
So give me something to remember you by
When you are far away from me.

Here the woman asks her sailor to give her a token "to remember you by", "some little something" that should help her during the time when he's away. But - unlike Dylan's song - it's only one side of the story and the listener somehow knows that the sailor won't be back. This is a song that Dylan surely knew well. "Something To Remember You By" may have also been an influence on "Girl From The North Country" where a variant of the line "pray for you, night and day for you" was used. Other related sailor songs from this era are "I Cover The Waterfront" and "Red Sails In The Sunset", both torch songs where a lonesome lover is waiting for a ship to return with the lost love.

Even more songs from this song family were published during the 19th century: a sailor leaves his girl and sails away, she is usually waiting patiently at home, sometimes he comes back, sometimes not. Examples are ballads like: "Sailor and His Bride", "The Gallant Sailor", "Sweet Jenny On The Moor", "Bid Me Good-bye", "Sailor's Bride", "Sailor And His True Love", "Phoebe And Her Dark-Eyed Sailor", Robert Burns' "The Soldier's Return", "Black-Eyed Susan" and many more. Many of them were later collected from oral tradition by 20th century Folklorists, so they must have been really popular.

A very interesting song from this family is "Sailor's Love Letter" (or "The Letter"). The lyrics share some motifs with "Boots Of Spanish Leather". I wonder if Dylan was aware of this one at that time. This ballad (first published ca. 1800) was very popular during the 19th century. There were a lot of broadsides printed in Britain and also some in the USA.

Some examples from Britain (c/o the Allegro Catalogue of Ballads, Bodleian Library):

• Harding B11 (3106) (between 1813 and 1838)
• Firth c.12 (332) (between 1863 and 1885, "The original song")
• Firth c.12(338) (undated)

From the USA:

• a broadside, dated (ca. 1860s) (from America Singing: Nineteenth Century Songsheets, LOC)
• and as as sheet music:The Letter. A Popular Ballad. From the Songs of the Superstions [sic] of Ireland. (undated, "Written and Composed by Samuel Lover, Esqr." [I presume he wrote a new melody]; "as Sung with great Applause by Madame [Maria] Caradori Allan [Italian concert & opera singer, 1800-1865] " (c/o Lester Levy Collection Of Sheet Music).

This is a compilation of all verses used for this song. The versions I know are either missing the first two stanzas or the last two.

Dearest maiden I must leave thee,
Far to sail on the raging sea,
I'll return when Fortune waves me
Back again my love, to thee.
I'll return, and then we'll marry;
-Oh, how happy then we'll be!-
But if I am forced to tarry,
I'll send a long letter back to thee.

Morn is broke and they are parted
Still the bark's in sight of home;
She walks the beach quite broken-hearted;
She can but view the bark alone.
"Adieu," she cried, "let fortune guide thee
O'er the wide and trackless sea;
Pray forget not those behind thee,
And send a letter back to me."

Fare thee well, love, now thou art going,
Over the wild and trackless sea;
Smooth be its waves, and fair the wind blowing,
Though it's to bear thee far from me.
But when on the western ocean,
Some happy home-bound bark you see,
Swear by the truth of your heart's devotion,
To send a letter back to me.

Think of the shore thou'st left behind thee,
Even when reaching a brighter strand,
Let not the golden glories blind thee,
Of that glorious Indian land.
Send me not its diamond treasures,
Nor pearls from the depths of its sandy sea,
But tell me of all your woes and pleasures,
In a long letter back to me.

But while dwelling in lands of pleasure,
Think as you bask in the bright sunshine,
That while the lingering time I measure,
Sad and wintry hours are mine.
Lonely by my taper weeping,
And watching the spark of promise to see,
All for that bright spark my night watch keeping,
For, oh! 'tis a letter back from thee.

To say that soon thy sail will be flowing,
Homeward to bear thee over the sea,
Calm be the waves, and swift the wind blowing.
For, oh! thou art coming back to me.
To say thy heart is as true as ever
Though many fair ones thou hast seen,
But from love's pledge you ne'er shall siver
Till death his dart does pierce so keen.

I can't leave out Irving Berlin's "Kiss Your Sailor Boy Goodbye" (1913, see the sheet music), an amusing parody of these kind of songs. At this time Berlin was experimenting with ballads and he regularly made fun of Victorian values and the romantic ideology in general:

My honey dear, my honey dear
You hear the steamboat whistle blowin'
My honey dear, my honey dear
The whistle means I must be going
Far across the sea
Hear them calling me
It's the Captain's orders
I must go
So

[chorus:]
Kiss your sailor boy goodbye
Now don't you cry
Just dry that tear from your eye, my honey
Don't feel so blue
I'll write to you
If I don't I hope to die
When I'm away
You bet I'll stay
All by my "own-some," real lonesome for you
Honey
Sweet letters I'll be sending
With crosses on the ending
Kiss your sailor boy goodbye

[2nd verse:]
My honey dear, my honey dear
You better save up all your lovin'
Remember dear, remember dear
My heart'll be just like an oven
When my ship comes in
Honey, we'll begin
To make up for lost time
Don't forget
Pet
[chorus:]

Most important in "Boots Of Spanish Leather" is the reversal of the gender roles. The song starts with a male voice singing "Oh I'm sailin' away my own true love" and seems to take the typical path of these kind of stories. But with verse 2 we hear that it is a dialogue between two lovers and only with verse 7 it becomes clear that it is the woman who has left to sail "across the lonesome ocean". This skillful dramartugy gives the song most of its effectivity.

In 19th century songs it was usually the man - a "real" sailor or soldier - who had to leave. 20th century songs like "Something To Remember You By" and "I Cover The Waterfront" had originally been writen for female performers. But when male singers recorded them they already anticipated the reversal of gender roles. One of the major developments in 20th century popular songs was change of female role models. Now the girls became more active and more self-confident and it is often enough the man who has to wait patiently for lost lover.


- When The Ship Comes In

Original melody, no known precursor ("no specific melodic precedent" - Harvey, p. 118).


- The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll

Heylin (p. 166) claims that Dylan has set his lyrics "to the tune of Child Ballad 173 [see also the Traditional Ballad Index], 'Mary Hamilton'". I presume he means one of the melodies (see for example the different tune printed in Child, The English And Scottish Popular Ballads, Vol. 5, 1898, p. 421) used for this ancient ballad, the one that is common today (c/o : Digital Tradition Database):











This is the melody used for example by Joan Baez, who recorded the song in 1960 (here is an early live performance at YouTube; check out a fine recent performance by Raymond Crooke, also at YouTube ). Heylin (p. 168) mentions Jeannie Robertson's "deathless rendition" (first released on The Folk Songs Of Britain: Child Ballads 2, Caedmon TC1146) as a possible inspiration. But I only hear very few echoes of the melody of Joan Baez' version in the refrain of Dylan's song.

Dylan himself once claimed (in the liner notes to Biograph) that "Pirate Jenny" (also called "The Black Freighter", original German title: "Seeräuber Jenny") from the Dreigroschenoper by Brecht & Weill (1928) had served as a model for "Hattie Carroll". Harvey (p. 64) sees "structural, melodic, and lyric connections" to "Hattie Carroll". But I must admit that his analysis doesn't convince me. Here's Lotte Lenya singing the original German version in the movie Die Dreigroschenoper (1931):



In 1962 she performed the English version for the BBC:



I think "Hattie Carroll" owes very little to those two songs and the melody is for the most part Dylan's own work.

But maybe it was another ballad by Brecht that gave Dylan some ideas for the structure of "Hattie Carroll": ín his "Von der Kindesmörderin Marie Farrar" (written 1922, first published 1926 in the "Hauspostille"; engl. "Of The Infanticide Marie Farrar"; see Gray, Encyclopedia, p. 86) the verses close with a short refrain that directly adresses the listener:

[1st verse in German]
Marie Farrar, geboren im April
Unmündig, merkmallos, rachitisch, Waise
Bislang angeblich unbescholten, will
Ein Kind ermordet haben in der Weise:
Sie sagt, sie habe schon im zweiten Monat
Bei einer Frau in einem Kellerhaus
Versucht, es abzutreiben mit zwei Spritzen
Angeblich schmerzhaft, doch ging's nicht heraus.

Doch ihr, ich bitte euch, wollt nicht in Zorn verfallen
Denn alle Kreatur braucht Hilf von allen.

An English translation:

Marie Farrar, born in April,
No marks, a minor, rachitic, both parents dead,
Allegedly, up to now without police record,
Committed infanticide, it is said,
As follows: in her second month, she says,
With the aid of a barmaid she did her best
To get rid of her child with two douches,
Allegedly painful but without success.

But you, I beg you, check your wrath and scorn
For man needs help from every creature born.

- Restless Farewell

This song is of course based on the Clancy Brother's version of "The Parting Glass" (or: "Good Night and Joy Be With You All"). They brought it to America, it was in their live repertoire in the early 60s and they released a live version in 1964 on The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem, In Person At Carnegie Hall (see allmusic.com).

• A19th century broadside.
• A fine performance by Liam Clancy & Tommy Makem (Dublin 1977) at YouTube.
• More about this song on my website: Some Notes On The History Of "The Parting Glass"

-----------------------------------



- Lay Down Your Weary Tune

"I had heard a Scottish ballad on an old 78 record that I was trying to really capture the feeling of, that was haunting me [...] There were no lyrics or anything. It was just a melody [...] I wanted lyrics that would feel the same way" (Bob Dylan, liner notes to Biograph)

Now it is not known what recording Dylan was listening to but the melody he wrote for "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" is surely related to the one used for the Folk revival standard "The Water Is Wide" (see also Harvey, p. 60/61). Here is one variant (thanks to the Digital Tradition Database, from a recording by the Beers Family that is available at the website of the State Archives Of Florida):








Please see my attempt at reconstructing the history of this song that is now available on my website:

• "The Water Is Wide" - The History Of A "Folk Song"

- Percy's Song

This song is based on "The Wind And The Rain", an obscure and very rare variant of "The Two Sisters" (Child No. 10) collected a couple of times in southwestern Virginia (1937, 1941, 1962). Dylan may have learned it from Paul Clayton who "performed three variants of 'The Two Sisters' for the 1963 Newport Folk Festival Saturday morning (June 27) Ballad Workshop" where he was present (Harvey, p. 87, see also Heylin, p. 159)

Melody and lyrics for a version by Dan Tate recorded in 1962 are available at the Digital Tradition Database:

Two loving sisters was a-walking side by side,
Oh the wind and rain.
One pushed the other off in the waters, waters deep.
And she cried, "The dreadful wind and rain."

[...]

The only tune that my fiddle would play,
was Oh the wind and the rain.
The only tune that my fiddle would play, was
And she cried, "The dreadful wind and rain."

Another version of this variant was recorded in 1969 and is available on Kilby Snow, Country Songs And Tunes With Autoharp (Folkways FW 03902)