"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" | |
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Song by Bob Dylan | |
from the album Highway 61 Revisited | |
Released | August 30, 1965 |
Recorded | July 29, 1965 |
Studio | Columbia, New York City |
Genre | Blues rock [1] |
Length |
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Label | Columbia |
Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan |
Audio sample | |
"It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" is a song written by Bob Dylan, that was originally released on his album Highway 61 Revisited . It was recorded on July 29, 1965. The song was also included on an early, European Dylan compilation album entitled Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits 2.
An earlier, alternate version of the song has been released, in different takes, beginning with the appearance of one take on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 in 1991.
The version of the song on Highway 61 Revisited is an acoustic/electric blues song, one of three blues songs on the album (the others being "From a Buick 6" and "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"). [2] [3] It is made up of lines taken from older blues songs combined with Dylan's own lyrics. [2] Rather than the aggression of some of the other songs Dylan wrote during this time, "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" reflects world-weary resignation. [2] The imagery is sexual, and the song can be interpreted as an allegory of someone who is sexually frustrated. [3] Dylan would return to similar images and suggestions in later songs, such as "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" and "Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)". [3]
This version was recorded on July 29, 1965, the same day that Dylan also recorded "Positively 4th Street" and "Tombstone Blues". [4] Musically, the song has a lazy tempo driven by lazy-slap drumming with a shuffling beat and slight emphasis on the offbeat from session drummer Bobby Gregg. [2] [5] There is also a barrelhouse piano part played by Paul Griffin, a raunchy bass part played by Harvey Brooks, an electric guitar part played by Mike Bloomfield and an unusual harmonica part. [2] [5]
An earlier version of the song went by the title "Phantom Engineer". [6] This version has a more upbeat tempo and four lines of different lyrics. [6] [4] It was recorded on June 15, 1965, the same day that recording of "Like a Rolling Stone" began. [6] [4] Different takes of the June 15 version may be heard on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 , The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home , and the 2-disc version of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 . Take 1 of the song, released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 and on Dylan's Vevo channel, is played in a more moderately paced, brooding arrangement, before Dylan and the musicians settled on a more upbeat version. On The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 and The Bootleg Series Vol. 12, the version is a speedy bouncing blues with a signature guitar riff being played on each bar and a fast clicking organ. [6] (The 6-disc and 18-disc editions of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 include outtakes from both the June 15 and July 29 sessions.)
The song's live debut came as part of Dylan's controversial electric set, backed by members of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Al Kooper, at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965, after "Maggie's Farm". [2] [4] [5] [7] After being heckled during the electric set, and especially during "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry", by fans who wanted Dylan to play acoustic folk music, Dylan returned to play acoustic versions of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". [4] [7] The Newport performance of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" features jamming by guitarist Bloomfield and organist Al Kooper. [4] Kooper preferred the alternate version to the version that ended up on Highway 61 Revisited. [6] The Newport performance was released in 2018 on Live 1962-1966: Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections.
Dylan played it live as part of his set in the August 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. This version was included in the concert film and Grammy Award-winning album of the same title. [2]
A November 1975 performance of the song from Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour was released on the 2002 album The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue . [8] In 2019, that performance and three other live renditions of the song from the same tour were released on the box set The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings .
Dylan performed a jazz arrangement of the song backed by the Wynton Marsalis Septet at a concert in Lincoln Center in 2004. This acclaimed version eventually received an official release on the United We Swing compilation album in 2018. [9]
According to his website, Dylan has played the song in concert over 200 times between 1965 and 2021. [10]
Steely Dan borrowed a line from the song as the title of their debut album Can't Buy a Thrill (1972). [6]
In a 2005 poll of artists reported in Mojo , "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" was listed at number 87 of the all time Bob Dylan songs. [11]
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Dylan continued the musical approach of his previous album Bringing It All Back Home (1965), using rock musicians as his backing band on every track of the album in a further departure from his primarily acoustic folk sound, except for the closing track, the 11-minute ballad "Desolation Row". Critics have focused on the innovative way Dylan combined driving, blues-based music with the subtlety of poetry to create songs that captured the political and cultural climate of contemporary America. Author Michael Gray argued that, in an important sense, the 1960s "started" with this album.
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The Rolling Thunder Revue was a 1975–76 concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan with numerous musicians and collaborators. The purpose of the tour was to allow Dylan, who was a major recording artist and concert performer, to play in smaller auditoriums in less populated cities where he could be more intimate with his audiences.
The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue is a live album by Bob Dylan released by Columbia Records in 2002. The third installment in the ongoing Bob Dylan Bootleg Series on Legacy Records, it documents the Rolling Thunder Revue led by Dylan prior to the release of the album Desire. Until the release of this album, the only official live documentation of the Rolling Thunder Revue was Hard Rain, recorded during the less critically well received second leg of the tour.
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan is a 2005 documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th-century American popular music and culture. The film focuses on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his "retirement" from touring following his motorcycle accident in July 1966. This period encapsulates Dylan's rise to fame as a folk singer and songwriter where he became the center of a cultural and musical upheaval, and continues through the electric controversy surrounding his move to a rock style of music.
"Ballad of a Thin Man" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan, and released in 1965 on his sixth studio album, Highway 61 Revisited.
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"Tombstone Blues" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released as the second track on his sixth studio album Highway 61 Revisited (1965). The song was written by Dylan, and produced by Bob Johnston. Critical interpretations of the song have suggested that the song references the Vietnam War and US President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
"Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan. It was originally recorded on August 2, 1965, and released on the album Highway 61 Revisited. The song was later released on the compilation album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II and as two separate live versions recorded at concerts in 1966: the first of which appeared on the B-side of Dylan's "I Want You" single, with the second being released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. The song has been covered by many artists, including Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Power, Nina Simone, Barry McGuire, Judy Collins, Frankie Miller, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, The Black Crowes, Townes Van Zandt, Bryan Ferry, and The Handsome Family. Lightfoot's version was recorded only weeks after Dylan's original had been released and reached #3 on the Canadian RPM singles chart.
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By 1965, Bob Dylan was the leading songwriter of the American folk music revival. The response to his albums The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and The Times They Are a-Changin' led the media to label him the "spokesman of a generation".
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