John Wesley Harding (song)

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"John Wesley Harding"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album John Wesley Harding
ReleasedDecember 27, 1967 (1967-12-27)
RecordedNovember 6, 1967
Studio Columbia Studio A (Nashville, Tennessee) [1]
Genre
Length2:59
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Bob Dylan
Producer(s) Bob Johnston
Audio sample

"John Wesley Harding" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that appears as the opening track on his 1967 album of the same name.

Contents

Writing and recording

Dylan told Jann Wenner in a 1969 Rolling Stone interview that the song "started out to be a long ballad. I was gonna write a ballad on ... like maybe one of those old cowboy ... you know, a real long ballad. But in the middle of the second verse, I got tired. I had a tune, and I didn't want to waste the tune; it was a nice little melody, so I just wrote a quick third verse, and I recorded that." [2] Biographer Clinton Heylin states that Dylan has had a well-documented interest in outlaw cowboys, including Jesse James and Billy the Kid, [3] and in the past Dylan has said that his favorite folk song was "John Hardy", [4] whose real-life title character in 1893 murdered another man over a game of craps. [5] John Wesley Hardin was another late-19th century outlaw. [3] Dylan has stated that he chose John Wesley Hardin for his protagonist over other badmen because his name "[fit] in the tempo" of the song. [2] Dylan added the g to the end of Hardin's name by mistake. [6] [7]

The song was recorded in two takes on November 6, 1967, in Studio A of Columbia Music Row Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. [3] [8] Both of these were considered for the album, but the second take was ultimately chosen. [3]

Themes

Dylan has said that he did not have a clear notion of what the song was about. [2] [7] He told Cameron Crowe in 1985 that after recording the John Wesley Harding album, he "didn't know what to make of it. ... So I figured the best thing to do would be to put out the album as quickly as possible, call it John Wesley Harding because that was the one song that I had no idea what it was about, why it was even on the album. So I figured I'd call the album that, call attention to it, make it something special..." [7] It was the only title that he considered for the album. [2] He told a Newsweek interviewer in 1969 that the songs on his country Nashville Skyline album: "These are the type of songs that I always felt like writing. The songs reflect more of the inner me than the songs of the past. They're more to my base than, say, 'John Wesley Harding'. There I felt like everyone expected me to be a poet so that's what I tried to be." [9]

Cover versions

"John Wesley Harding" has been covered by McKendree Spring on their 1969 eponymous album, [10] as well as Tom Russell [11] and Wesley Willis. [12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Kosser, Michael (2006). How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A.: A History Of Music Row. Lanham, Maryland, US: Backbeat Books. pp. 149–150. ISBN   978-1-49306-512-7.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wenner, Jann. "Interview with Jann S. Wenner," Rolling Stone, November 29, 1969, in Cott 2006 , p. 158
  3. 1 2 3 4 Heylin 2009 , p. 447
  4. ↑ Shelton 1986 , p. 448
  5. ↑ John Hardy Found Guilty
  6. ↑ Sounes 2001 , p. 227
  7. 1 2 3 Crowe 1985
  8. ↑ Heylin 1995 , p. 69
  9. ↑ Reprinted in Shelton 1986 , p. 458
  10. ↑ McKendree Spring
  11. ↑ Ruhlmann
  12. ↑ Black Light Diner

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