Black Rider (song)

Last updated

"Black Rider"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album Rough and Rowdy Ways
ReleasedJune 19, 2020
RecordedJanuary–February 2020
Studio Sound City (Los Angeles)
Genre Folk
Length4:12
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Bob Dylan
Producer(s) None listed
Rough and Rowdy Ways track listing
10 tracks
  1. "I Contain Multitudes"
  2. "False Prophet"
  3. "My Own Version of You"
  4. "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You"
  5. "Black Rider"
  6. "Goodbye Jimmy Reed"
  7. "Mother of Muses"
  8. "Crossing the Rubicon"
  9. "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)"
  10. "Murder Most Foul"
Fan art inspired by Bob Dylan's "Black Rider", created by manipulating a vintage comic book cover BlackRiderArt.jpg
Fan art inspired by Bob Dylan's "Black Rider", created by manipulating a vintage comic book cover

"Black Rider" is a minor-key folk ballad written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the fifth track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways . It is the shortest song on the album and features a sparse acoustic arrangement but its musical complexity and ambiguous lyrics have generated substantial critical analysis.

Contents

Reception

In a four-and-a-half out of five-star review of Rough and Rowdy Ways in Uncut magazine, critic Richard Williams notes that the album's "subdued mood is dialed down a further notch for 'Black Rider': simple acoustic guitar and mandolin, just marking the chords, sometimes almost disappearing behind dream-like lyrics that sound as though they’re being written on water. Murmured to a rival or maybe to an alter ego, they contain perhaps the most surprising single word in Dylan’s entire recording career: 'Black rider, black rider, hold it right there / The size of your cock will get you nowhere / I’ll suffer in silence, I’ll not make a sound / Maybe I’ll take the high moral ground…' The song drifts along until it just vanishes completely, like a pebble in a pond". [1]

Spectrum Culture included "Black Rider" on a list of "Bob Dylan's 20 Best Songs of the '10s and Beyond". In an article accompanying the list, David Harris noted that, "On initial listens, the song almost has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it feel, but there is a sinister energy there that takes hold the more you hear the record...On an album filled with some of Dylan’s most urgent songs in years, 'Black Rider' stands out as one of the best. In many ways, it is a summation of the man’s career from topical songwriter to his Christian-inspired rock". [2]

Critic Phil Shaw cited the song as being the very best on Rough and Rowdy Ways, acknowledging that it is not "the most obvious selection" but that it is "a grower from the first". He also named it as his fourth favorite song of the year 2020. [3]

Screen Rant named it one of the "10 Saddest Songs of 2020 That We Couldn't Stop Listening To" and interpreted the song's subject to be death. [4]

Music journalist Sam Liddicott called it one of the "most impactful" songs on the album and praised Dylan's "surprisingly smooth and sweet" vocal delivery, noting that the track exemplifies how Dylan possesses greater "vocal dexterity" than is commonly believed. [5]

Stereogum ran an article to coincide with Dylan's 80th birthday on May 24, 2021 in which 80 musicians were asked to name their favorite Dylan song. The Kills' Alison Mosshart selected "Black Rider", noting how Rough and Rowdy Ways had served as the soundtrack to a solo roadtrip she took after the COVID-19 pandemic began: "Every time 'Black Rider' came on, I imagined myself some outlaw character. The song, the inner dialogue of the solo driver in the murdered-out muscle car gunning it through cuckoo-land, tempting the dark. It all felt right. It was my favorite song. I wound up driving around for the rest of the year. Seventeen thousand miles later, the collective reverberation of engine roar and Dylan’s new record will forever be interwoven in my memories of that strange time on the lost highway". [6]

Musical complexity

"Black Rider" is performed in the key of D minor. Dylan scholar and musicologist Eyolf Ostrem considers it to be Dylan's "most complex song ever" from a musical perspective (with the only competition coming from 1967's "Dear Landlord", 1980's "In the Garden" and 1989's "Ring Them Bells"). In a lengthy essay on his website, Ostrem details how Dylan's unusual chord changes (alternating between minor, major and seventh chords in surprising fashion) have the effect of making listeners "expect one thing" while he then gives them "something else". Ostrem sees this uncanny effect of subverting listener expectations as being underscored by some of the lyrics (e.g., "The road that you're on, same road that you know / Just not the same as it was a minute ago"). [7]

Matt Chamberlain's percussion on the song is also unusual. There are exactly five faint drumbeats on the track, one at the conclusion of each verse, an effect so spare and subtle that it has caused some critics to inaccurately describe the song as featuring no percussion at all. [8] [9]

Lyrical interpretations

The lyrics of the song feature a first-person narrator addressing a mysterious enemy, the titular "black rider", across five verses. [10] Critics have variously interpreted the character of the black rider as the biblical Third Horseman of the Apocalypse (AKA Famine), [11] Bob Dylan's public persona, [12] Satan, [13] and/or the personification of "death itself". [14]

In the 2022 edition of their book Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon analyze the song within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which they note "first appeared in November 2019" and claim that, when hearing lines like "You fell into the fire / You're eating the flame", "[o]ne inevitably thinks of a new scourge, a power of diabolical forces, that might take away everything. For the songwriter, however, there remains a glimmer of hope". [15]

Writer and disc jockey Scott Warmuth sees the song as possibly relating to Robert Wilson's play The Black Rider , which premiered in 1990 and features songs by Tom Waits and a libretto by William S. Burroughs. [16] Warmuth had already written at length about The Black Rider in relation to Dylan's work in 2013: The play's narrative involves a man making a bargain with the devil. In his libretto, Burroughs references Ernest Hemingway having likewise made a "devil's bargain" by allowing Hollywood producers to give his short story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" a "happy ending", a tragedy from which Burroughs saw Hemingway as never having recovered, leading to artistic stasis and death. Dylan, who has acknowledged the influence of Burroughs on his own work, [17] also made extensive but subtle use of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" in the "Oh Mercy" chapter of his 2004 memoir Chronicles: Volume One . Warmuth sees Dylan as playing an elaborate formal game with close readers of his book: Dylan appropriates aspects of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" in Chronicles as an indirect means of showing readers how he avoided making a "tragic mistake" similar to Hemingway during the writing and recording of his 1989 album Oh Mercy . [18]

Cultural references

The surprising line "The size of your cock will get you nowhere", much remarked upon in reviews of Rough and Rowdy Ways , [19] [20] [21] is a close but more concise paraphrase of a sentence in Satire IX by the Ancient Roman poet Juvenal. [22]

The line "Some enchanted evening I'll sing you a song" is a reference to the Rodgers and Hammerstein song "Some Enchanted Evening", which Dylan had recorded on his 2015 album Shadows in the Night . [23]

The song's final line, "Black Rider Black rider, you've been on the job too long", is an allusion to the refrain of the traditional folk song "Duncan and Brady", [24] which Dylan played live between 1999 and 2002, and a 1992 studio recording of which appeared on his album The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 . [25]

Live performances

"Black Rider" received its live debut at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 2, 2021, the first concert of Dylan's Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour. [26] He played it at all 202 shows of the tour through its conclusion in Austin, Texas on April 6, 2024. [27]

Related Research Articles

"Shelter from the Storm" is a song by Bob Dylan, recorded on September 17, 1974, and released on his 15th studio album, Blood on the Tracks, in 1975. It was later anthologized on the compilation album The Essential Bob Dylan in 2000.

"Talkin' World War III Blues" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that was first released as the tenth track of his 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Like nearly every song on the album, it is performed by Dylan solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica played in a rack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Love Sick (Bob Dylan song)</span> 1998 single by Bob Dylan

"Love Sick" is a minor-key love song by American musician and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan. It was recorded in January 1997 and appears as the opening track on his 30th studio album Time Out of Mind (1997). It was released as the second single from the album in June 1998 in multiple CD versions, some of which featured Dylan's live performance of the song at the 1998 Grammy Awards. The song was produced by Daniel Lanois.

"High Water " is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the seventh track on his 31st studio album "Love and Theft" in 2001 and anthologized on the compilation album Dylan in 2007. Like much of Dylan's 21st century output, he produced the track himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost.

"Simple Twist of Fate", a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, was recorded on September 19, 1974, and was released in 1975 as the second song on his 15th studio album Blood on the Tracks.

"Highlands" is a blues song written and performed by Bob Dylan, and released as the 11th and final track on his 30th studio album Time Out of Mind in 1997. It is Dylan's second longest officially released studio recording at sixteen minutes and thirty-one seconds, surpassed only by "Murder Most Foul", which runs twenty-five seconds longer. The song was produced by Daniel Lanois.

"To Be Alone with You" is a country-rock song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the third track on his 1969 album Nashville Skyline.

"Soon After Midnight" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that appears as the second track on his 2012 studio album Tempest. Like much of Dylan's 21st-century output, he produced the song himself using the pseudonym Jack Frost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early Roman Kings</span> 2012 single by Bob Dylan

"Early Roman Kings" is a blues song written and performed by Bob Dylan that appears as the seventh track on his 2012 studio album Tempest. It was also released as the album's lead single through Columbia Records on August 7, 2012. Like much of Dylan's 21st-century output, he produced the song himself using the pseudonym Jack Frost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder Most Foul (song)</span> 2020 single by Bob Dylan

"Murder Most Foul" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, the 10th and final track on his 39th studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). It was released as the album's lead single on March 27, 2020, through Columbia Records. The song addresses the assassination of John F. Kennedy in the wider context of American political and cultural history. Lasting 16 minutes, 56 seconds, it is the longest song he has released, eclipsing 1997's "Highlands" which runs for 16 minutes, 31 seconds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">I Contain Multitudes</span> 2020 single by Bob Dylan

"I Contain Multitudes" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, the opening track on his 39th studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). It was released as the album's second single on April 17, 2020, through Columbia Records. The title of the song is taken from Section 51 of the poem "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman.

<i>Rough and Rowdy Ways</i> 2020 studio album by Bob Dylan

Rough and Rowdy Ways is the thirty-ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on June 19, 2020, through Columbia Records. It is Dylan's first album of original songs since his 2012 album Tempest, following three releases that covered traditional pop standards. The album was recorded at Sound City Studios from January to early March 2020. The session musicians included all of the then-current members of Dylan's Never Ending Tour band alongside other musicians, such as Blake Mills and Fiona Apple. The album's sound was described by critics as Americana, folk, blues, and rhythm and blues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">False Prophet (song)</span> 2020 single by Bob Dylan

"False Prophet" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, the second track on his 39th studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). It was released as the album's third and final single on May 8, 2020, through Columbia Records. The music is based on Billy "The Kid" Emerson's 1954 Sun Records single "If Lovin' Is Believin'".

"I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the fourth track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. The song is performed in 6/8 time and has a lilting melody that has caused some critics to compare it to a "lullaby".

"Ring Them Bells" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 1989 as the fourth track on his album Oh Mercy. It is a piano-driven, hymn-like ballad that is considered by many to be the best song on Oh Mercy and it is the track from that album that has been covered the most by other artists.

"Goodbye Jimmy Reed" is an uptempo blues song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the sixth track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. A tribute to blues giant Jimmy Reed, the song has been singled out for praise by critics for being the most raucous number on an album otherwise predominated by quieter, slow-to-mid-tempo songs, and for playful lyrics that deliberately juxtapose "the sacred and the profane".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">My Own Version of You</span> 2020 song by Bob Dylan

"My Own Version of You" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the third track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. Inspired by Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, this darkly comical song features a narrator who describes bringing "someone to life" using the body parts of disparate corpses in what has been widely interpreted as an elaborate metaphor for the songwriting process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mother of Muses</span> 2020 song by Bob Dylan

"Mother of Muses" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the seventh track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. It is a spare and meditative acoustic folk song in which the first person-narrator offers a paean to Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory in Greek mythology who gave birth to the nine Muses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crossing the Rubicon (song)</span> 2020 song by Bob Dylan

"Crossing the Rubicon" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the eighth track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. It is a slow electric blues featuring lyrics that heavily reference classical antiquity and the life of Julius Caesar in particular.

Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour was a concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in support of his 39th studio album Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). The tour began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on November 2, 2021 and continued through the spring of 2024 where it concluded in Austin, Texas.

References

  1. ↑ "Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways". UNCUT. May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Bob Dylan's 20 Best Songs of the '10s and Beyond". Spectrum Culture. February 19, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  3. ↑ Shaw, Phil (December 24, 2020). "My Songs of the Year: From Gabriels to Dylan and The Avalanches". Here Comes The Song. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  4. ↑ "10 Saddest Songs Of 2020 That We Couldn't Stop Listening To". ScreenRant. March 7, 2021. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  5. ↑ "TRACK REVIEW: Bob Dylan - Black Rider". Music Musings & Such. June 21, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  6. ↑ "80 Artists Pick Their Favorite Bob Dylan Song". Stereogum. May 24, 2021. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  7. ↑ "Black Rider – Dylan's most complex song ever – things twice" . Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Bob Dylan". Tim Cumming. June 13, 2020. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  9. ↑ Light, Alan (June 19, 2020). "Bob Dylan Doesn't Need to Fear Death. His Art Makes Him Immortal". Esquire. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Black Rider | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Dylan's Christian anthology 3: Black rider and Made up my mind | Untold DylanUntold Dylan". August 11, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Rough and Rowdy Ways" . Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Bob Dylan: The Black Rider | Untold DylanUntold Dylan". July 10, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Bob Dylan: Rough and Rowdy Ways". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  15. ↑ Margotin, Philippe; Jean-Michel Guesdon (2022). Bob Dylan : all the songs : the story behind every track (Second ed.). New York. ISBN   978-0-7624-7573-5. OCLC   869908038.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  16. ↑ Warmuth, Scott. "Status update". Twitter. Archived from the original on July 4, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  17. ↑ "Watch rare footage of Bob Dylan demonstrating the "cut-up technique"". December 31, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  18. ↑ "Vive le Vol: Bob Dylan and the Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway" . Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  19. ↑ "Bob Dylan's 'Rough And Rowdy Ways' Breathes, Expands And Contracts". NPR.org. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  20. ↑ Harvilla, Rob (June 22, 2020). "Bob Dylan Sounds Like He Could Go on Forever". The Ringer. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Bob Dylan's Legacy Is Secure, But He's Given Us Another Masterpiece Anyway". Stereogum. June 17, 2020. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Juvenal Quote". Lib Quotes. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Some Enchanted Evening | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  24. ↑ "Duncan and Brady Lyrics". www.lyrics.com. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Duncan and Brady | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
  26. ↑ Greene, Andy (November 3, 2021). "Bob Dylan Launches New Era of Never Ending Tour at Captivating Milwaukee Opener". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Setlists | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.