It has been awhile since I spent a Sunday in church, and the last time I visited, the preacher spent more time talking about politics than about faith. But I do love to hear beautiful gospel songs. You do not need to be religious to open yourself up to these songs, which at the heart, are really love songs. In this three-part series, we are discussing the Best Gospel Songs by Pop Singers. We start off with songs by Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan.
Nearer to Thee, Sam Cooke
Yes, I’m cheating. The Soul Stirrers were a gospel group. But this song is featured because their lead singer Sam Cooke, who is one of my favorite singers, went on to popular secular success on his own.
The song builds gradually with the hypnotic background vocals and Cooke’s fantastic voice. On this recording you can hear Cooke gradually working up the crowd, slowly, slowly, building . . . building . . . building . . . toward release and salvation. Beautiful.
Although Cooke recorded many great popular songs as a secular artist, few reached the intensity of “Nearer to Thee.” The one secular song that reaches a similar frenzy is his live version of “Bring It On Home to Me,” available on One Night Stand: Live at the Harlem Square Club 63.
Pressing On, Bob Dylan
I was too young to notice when Bob Dylan first became a phenomenon, but I do remember when everyone was surprised that he became a born-again Christian in the late 1970s. His music from this period includes a number of outstanding original gospel songs, including “Gotta Serve Somebody.”
One song from this period that is less well-known than some others is “Pressing On.” As Sam Cooke did in “Nearer to Thee,” Dylan effectively uses repetition. He repeats “I’m pressing on” throughout the song to provide a hypnotic quality not unlike a moving church service.
Here is the version of “Pressing On” by John Doe that was featured in the very good movie “about” Bob Dylan, I’m Not There (2007). Doe, founder of the punk bank X, does an excellent cover.
In this scene, Christian Bale does a great job of playing the singing Dylan and capturing the hypnotic nature of the song. Critic Greil Marcus wrote that the Doe-Bale combination is the place where the song found its voice. (“Themes from a Summer Place,” New West, July 28, 1980).
Another great gospel song by Bob Dylan, and perhaps his greatest, is “Every Grain of Sand.” For other great gospel songs by popular artists, check out upcoming posts in this series of Best Gospel Songs by Pop Singers. ..
What are your favorite gospel recordings by popular artists? Leave a comment.
The above two songs have two things in common. First, they are two covers of Bob Dylan songs admired by Dylan. Second, they both were inspired by Suze Rotolo, Dylan’s former girlfriend who died several days ago at the age of 67 from lung cancer. Rotolo began a three-year relationship with the young Dylan in summer 1961 when she was 17, and she participated in a 1963 photo shoot with Dylan and ended up on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album. A few years ago, Rotolo wrote a memoir about the 1960s and her time with Dylan called, A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties
Although you never may have heard her voice, Rololo appears on one of the most famous album covers of all time and inspired some classic songs. In 1962, Dylan was not happy that she was in Italy for several months, inspiring him to write the songs “Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “Boots of Spanish Leather.” By late 1963, Rotolo and Dylan were done, as she felt increasingly isolated from Dylan and his world of growing fame. In 1967, she married and later had a son.
Rotolo inspired other Dylan songs too. While she worked in the Civil Rights Movement, she told Dylan about Emmett Till’s 1955 murder, leading him to write “The Death of Emmett Till.” After a fight with Rotolo and her sister, Dylan wrote the angry “Ballad in Plain D,” leading him to apologize for the lyrics years later: “My mind it was mangled, I ran into the night. / Leaving all of love’s ashes behind me.” She inspired other songs to varying degrees, as songwriters incorporate various feelings and experiences.
The first song posted above is “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” one of the songs Dylan wrote while Rotolo was in Italy in 1962. Dylan did not want her to go on the eight-month trip, and as you can tell from his song, he was angry about it. When Rotolo returned to Greenwich Village, several of Dylan’s folk-singer friends were mad at Rotolo, who they felt should not have abandoned Dylan for the trip. When she was around, they would make a point of singing Dylan’s angry songs about her, including “Don’t Think Twice.” The song lists each offense of a former lover, and then dismisses the offense and the lover with the great passive-aggressive line, “Don’t think twice, it’s all right.”
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind, You could have done better but I don’t mind. You just kinda wasted my precious time, But don’t think twice, it’s all right.
In Dylan’s version, and I’m sure in the versions Rotolo heard from Dylan’s friends upon her 1963 return to Greenwich village, the song is an angry song, like so many of Dylan’s great songs. You can feel the sting she must have felt at hearing the song going around. But Ramblin’ Jack Elliott finds the heartache underlying the song. Dylan recorded the song in his early 20’s, an age when we are full of passion and anger at the world and those who offended us. Ramblin’ Jack, though, sings the song as an old man, looking back with loss, regret, and wisdom. One time Dylan was so moved by Ramblin’ Jack’s performance of the song, he reportedly told the singer something to the effect of “Take the song, it is yours.” The recording above is off of the soundtrack to The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack, an excellent documentary.
The other song above is “Tomorrow Is A Long Time,” which Dylan also wrote while Rotolo was in Italy. Unlike “Don’t Think Twice,” it is not angry and tells of missing a lover: “But no one and nothing else can touch the beauty / That I remember in my true love’s eyes.” This version of “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” is sung by Elvis Presley from his From Nashville To Memphis- Essential 60’s Masters box set.
Dylan once said that that Presley’s version of “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” was his favorite cover of all of his songs. Because Dylan is not one who regularly heaps praise on artists who cover his songs, it is interesting that he admired cover versions of these songs inspired by Rotolo’s 1962 absence. Perhaps he liked that the other artists brought something new to the songs besides the anger and the pain he felt, or perhaps he believed their distance allowed them to capture the emotions better. Either way, they are great songs in both Dylan’s versions and these covers. Although the singer in “Don’t Think Twice” tells the lover that she wasted his precious time, through the lens of time, it is clear that Rotolo did not waste anybody’s time.
What do you think about Rotolo’s influence and these songs? Leave a comment.
Rumors are circulating that Bob Dylan will perform at tonight’s Grammy Awards with Eminem. If true, it is almost guaranteed to be an exciting collaboration. [Update 2/14/10: It turned out not to be true. Dylan ended up playing with Mumford and Sons and the Avett Brothers. See video toward end to see where Dlyan joins the bands for “Maggie’s Farm.” It’s a fun performance.]
It will be hard to top Eminem’s collaboration at the Grammy Awards on February 21, 2001. Was it really a decade ago?! At the 2001 show, Eminem performed with Elton John. In light of homophobic lyrics in some of Eminem’s songs, it was great to see the two perform together and hug at the end, reinforcing Eminem’s claim that the offending lyrics in his recent CD, The Marshall Mathers LP, should not be taken seriously.
The 2001 performance was certainly a classy act, especially on the part of Elton John, who showed us that the best force against hate, ignorance, and prejudice is usually a little love. It is the kind of force we saw in action this week, when peaceful protesters were able to topple a corrupt dictator in Egypt. Of course, the 2001 performance by Eminem and Elton John did not change the leadership of the country and did not end prejudice in general or homophobia specifically. And it did not necessarily undo damage Eminem had done with his songs. But it did show the power of music to heal a little bit. It was a lesson the U.S. would need again less than nine months after the 2001 Grammys.
Eminem and John have remained friends through the years, and the rapper even turned to John for help when he was dealing with a prescription drug addiction. Also, in the decade since the Grammy performance, views on issues such as gay rights, civil unions, and gay marriages have progressed in the U.S., especially among the younger generations. Did the 2001 performance have a little to do with that? I don’t know, but I like to think so.
On February 4, 1961, Lenny Bruce performed before a full house at a midnight show at Carnegie Hall. Outside that cold night, a blizzard was blowing through the city, and there was also something powerful going on inside.
The Carnegie Hall Performance
Although Lenny Bruce’s career had been slowly building, the performance at Carnegie Hall launched him further into a career of breaking comedy and language barriers that would bring fame, legal troubles, and ultimately his death on August 3, 1966.
Below is the beginning of his performance at Carnegie Hall.
Persecution and Death
Before the end of the year, Lenny Bruce was arrested in San Francisco for obscenity for one of his performances. Although he was acquitted in that case, police officers in other cities began monitoring him more closely.
Here is part 2 (and you may continue listening to the concert on YouTube):
The close scrutiny led to other similar arrests and arrests for drug possession. In 1964 after a performance in New York, Bruce was again charged with obscenity. This time, he was sentenced to four months in a workhouse.
While out on bail during the appeals in 1966, he died of an accidental overdose. Phil Spector said it was an “overdose of police.”
Five years after Lenny Bruce’s death, a similar story would be repeated. Another star would face an indecency conviction, dying while the appeal was pending from an apparent death by drugs: Jim Morrison, who died in exile in Paris on July 3, 1971.
It would be almost 50 years after Bruce’s death before New York Gov. George Pataki pardoned Bruce in 2003.
Lenny Bruce’s Influence
Lenny Bruce influenced many performers who came after him. Richard Pryor said, “Lenny changed my life,” noting that “[i]t was him who said comedy wasn’t about telling jokes – it was about telling the truth.”
George Carlin has often discussed how Lenny Bruce was his hero. One may see the Bruce connection to Carlin’s famous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bruce also has been mentioned in a number of songs, including R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” and Bob Dylan’s “Lenny Bruce” from his Shot of Love album:
They said that he was sick ’cause he didn’t play by the rules He just showed the wise men of his day to be nothing more than fools They stamped him and they labeled him like they do with pants and shirts He fought a war on a battlefield where every victory hurts Lenny Bruce was bad, he was the brother that you never had.
A bio-pic about Lenny Bruce was made in 1974 starring Dustin Hoffman, who gives an excellent performance. Lenny, which was directed by Bob Fosse and was based on a Broadway play by Julian Barry, appears to be out of print on DVD, but you may watch it streaming on Netflix.
Although Lenny leaves out some background about Bruce’s tragic life, the movie is a good introduction to Bruce. And Hoffman presents what Bruce’s “shocking” performances were like.
It amazes me that Lenny Bruce was constantly harassed and faced prison for using words we hear all the time today. But I still remember seeing the Dustin Hoffman movie when I was a kid when we first got cable in our house.
I had never heard anyone speak like that. My education on movie profanity would continue with Al Pacino’s performance in Dog Day Afternoon. But Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Lenny Bruce was quite eye-opening. Many of Bruce’s intelligent points about censorship have stayed with me throughout my life. So, thank you Lenny and Dustin (and Richard Pryor and George Carlin).
Bonus Website: The Official Lenny Bruce website, approved by his daughter, also sponsors a link to donate to Lenny’s House, a non-profit charity for women recovering from drug and alcohol abuse.
Bonus Quote and Movie Reference : One of the Lenny Bruce quotes on the website is: “Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers, will allow you to satirize it which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.” In one of Woody Allen’s best movies, Crimes and Misdemeanors, a character played by Alan Alda says, “Comedy is tragedy plus time.” Allen was a supporter of Bruce and even signed a petition on Bruce’s behalf after an arrest, so I wonder if the line was inspired by Bruce?
What do you think about Lenny Bruce and his influence? Leave a comment.
Although Bob Dylan originally left “Red River Shore” off of the album “Time Out of Mind,” he eventually released several versions of the song on his “Bootleg” series, to the delight of fans and critics.
When I purchasedTell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (2008), the Bob Dylan CD that features unreleased songs from the time period of his more recent albums, the song “Red River Shore” stood out immediately as I played the CD in my car. I kept playing the song over and over again, barely getting to anything else on the CD. It is another example of a great song that Dylan originally decided to leave off an album he was making.
At least, like other gems left off Dylan albums, “Red River Shore” eventually got released. And after this post was originally written, Dylan released additional versions of the song in 2023 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996–1997). The music is great, as are the beautiful lyrics of loss.
Now I’m wearing the cloak of misery And I’ve tasted jilted love And the frozen smile upon my face Fits me like a glove But I can’t escape from the memory Of the one that I’ll always adore All those nights when I lay in the arms Of the girl from the Red River shore
Meaning of the Song
Many listeners have speculated on the meaning behind “Red River Shore.” On its face, of course, the narrator sings about woman he once knew. But the lyrics are tied up with the narrator’s feelings of loss and memory, such that a listener may speculate whether the singer’s story is reliable.
The song is rich and open to interpretation. Some writers have wondered if the girl from the Red River shore is the same person who was featured in Dylan’s “Shelter from the Storm,” such as in this piece on Gardener is Gone.
Further, some have speculated that the narrator of the song is a voice from the grave. There are several references in the lyrics that support this theory: The singer notes, “Sometimes I think nobody ever saw me here at all.” And the following verse may indicate the events remembered happened a very long time ago (which may be literal or may just be that the memories seem so long ago):
Well I’m a stranger here in a strange land, But I know this is where I belong; I ramble and gamble for the one I love, And the hills will give me a song; Though nothing looks familiar to me, I know I’ve stayed here before, Once a thousand nights ago, With the girl from the Red River shore.
The above quote about being a “stranger here in a strange land” echoes a line from the Bible in Exodus 2:22, where Moses says, “I have been a stranger in a strange land.” So it might not be surprising that some listeners such as Songs for the Journey have found religious overtones in the song. One has even argued that the entire song is about Dylan’s relationship with Christ.
At first, I was interested that there might be a hidden meaning in the song. Of course, Dylan is Dylan and one may never know his intent, but on further listening I do not the main theme of the song is religious.
The song is what it appears to be: a song about loss and memory. And while the final verse does have a reference to Jesus, it’s a statement that in today’s modern world, we unfortunately cannot count on God to undo what is lost. “He knew how to bring ’em on back to life/ Well, I don’t know what kind of language he used/ Or if they do that kind of thing anymore; /Sometimes I think nobody ever saw me here at all/ ‘Cept the girl from the Red River shore.”
Inspiration for the Song?
Bod Dylan may have been inspired to write the song by a folk song of the same name. One version appears in The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection, a collection of songs recorded by a traveling salesman. The “Red River Shore” there is about a woman waiting for a brave soldier, but the woman’s father puts together an army to prevent the soldier from reaching his daughter.
The song, which appears to be in the folk tradition of a tragic love affair, takes a turn in the last verse. There, the singer, who had spied the young damsel and the brave soldier, leaves the listener with a warning:
Love, love is the great fortune, For all of mankind; The woman controlled, They’re always confined; They’re controlled by their parents, Until they are wise; Then slaves for their husbands, The rest of their lives.
On July 5, 1960, Lulu Davis of Fayetteville, Arkansas made a recording of the folk song, available at this link.
The Kingston Trio recorded a version of this “Red River Shore” with slightly different lyrics. The Kingston Trio version is in the voice of the brave soldier. In this version, the brave soldier dies at the hand of the father’s army before reaching his true love (whereas in the Max Hunter collection version, it appears the soldier survives the attack of the father’s men).
I grabbed my six-shooter, spun round and around, Till six men were wounded and seven were down; I can’t fight an army of twenty and four, When I’m bound for my true love on the Red River shore.
At the foot of yon mountain where the big river flows, There’s a fond creation and a soft wind that blows, There lives a fair maiden, she’s the one I adore. But never will marry on the Red River shore.
Like Dylan’s “Red River Shore,” the earlier folk song is about a lost love, though at least in the Kingston Trio version, with the loss clearly centered around the death of the soldier.
Another more well-known folk song with a similar title about lost love, of course, is “Red River Valley.” At least the title of the lament might have been on Dylan’s mind while crafting his song (with “Shore” echoing the “r” in the the previous two words, while “Valley” echoes the “v” in “River”). In “Red River Valley,” the singer asks the lover leaving him to remember the Red River Valley and their love.
But except for the names of these songs and the themes of loss, Dylan’s “Red River Shore” ultimately is very different from those other Red River songs.
Versions of Dylan’s “Red River Shore”
As noted above, Dylan eventually released several versions of “Red River Shore” on his “Bootleg” series of albums, even if it was originally left off Time Out of Mind. Reportedly, the reason for the initial omission resulted from some tension between Dylan and producer Daniel Lanois on how to approach the song.
Musician and producer Jim Dickinson, who was eventually brought on to play over a ten-day period on the Time Out of Mind sessions, later explained that when he heard “Red River Shore,” he recognized it as a great song. But Dylan seemed frustrated with the attempts to get a final cut, telling Dickinson, “Well, we’ve done everything on that one except call the symphony orchestra.”
Whichever Dylan version you choose, though, they all are lovely.
Covers of “Red River Shore”
For whatever reason Dylan did not put “Red River Shore” on Time Out of Mind (unsatisfied with the takes, the belief that did not fit thematically on the album, etc.), once the outtakes were released, critics and fans recognized “Red River Shore” as one of Dylan’s late-career classics.
Although covers rarely match the original, I am intrigued by the number of people who have the guts to play a song and post it on YouTube. There are some nice covers of this song on YouTube. [2024 Update: Some of the ones mentioned below are no longer on YouTube.]
For example, there’s a good one by a German band called CCC Inc. A video of Henry Lim looks very professional, and it has nice instrumentation. Lim is the technical services assistant for the UCLA Music Library, and he has a busy extracurricular life. He has covered other artists like Radiohead with his string quartet, and he is an artist with Legos.
There are some good versions in the “dude with a guitar” category, such as a nice one by Kevin Magoon, who also adds a little electronic drum. C22romero does a nice job on the song too, but maybe he should turn down the reverb a little. I wish Chris Pap would focus the camera, but he does a nice quiet version of the song.
Perhaps because of the viewpoint of the lyrics, almost all of the covers are by men. But Linda Kosut performs the song in California.
After this post was initially published, singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave covered “Red River Shore” on his album, Depending on the Distance (2012). LaFave, who in addition to writing his own songs was a wonderful interpreter of several Dylan songs, is one of the rare established acts to tackle the epic length of “Red River Shore.” But he does an outstanding interpretation. Below is the excellent version from that album.
In another video after this post’s original publication, an artist named Kape does a nice version too. I cannot find much about him from the Internet, but he appears to be from Sweden.
Finally, one of my favorite covers is this version of “Red River Shore” by “lornisply.” The video features a guy playing an electric piano in his home. He has a good voice and seems to connect to the song.
And there is something about the simple weariness of the performance of the melancholy song that makes it believable, like he is thinking of someone he knew from long ago.
I know nobody matches the Bob Dylan version, but which cover version do you like best? Leave a comment.
It has been awhile since I spent a Sunday in church, and the last time I visited, the preacher spent more time talking about politics than about faith. But I do love to hear beautiful gospel songs. You do not need to be religious to open yourself up to these songs, which at the heart, are really love songs. In this three-part series, we are discussing the Best Gospel Songs by Pop Singers. We start off with songs by Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan.
, an excellent documentary.
box set.
(2008), the Bob Dylan CD that features unreleased songs from the time period of his more recent albums, the song “Red River Shore” stood out immediately as I played the CD in my car. I kept playing the song over and over again, barely getting to anything else on the CD. It is another example of a great song that Dylan originally decided to leave off an album he was making.