Shooting Star (Bob Dylan song)

Last updated
"Shooting Star"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album Oh Mercy
ReleasedSeptember 18, 1989
RecordedMarch/April 1989
Studio Mobile studio at 1305 Soniat St., New Orleans
Genre Folk
Length3:12
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s) Bob Dylan
Producer(s) Daniel Lanois
Oh Mercy track listing
10 tracks
  1. "Political World"
  2. "Where Teardrops Fall"
  3. "Everything Is Broken"
  4. "Ring Them Bells"
  5. "Man in the Long Black Coat"
  6. "Most of the Time"
  7. "What Good Am I?"
  8. "Disease of Conceit"
  9. "What Was It You Wanted"
  10. "Shooting Star"

"Shooting Star" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 1989 as the tenth and final track on his album Oh Mercy . It was produced by Daniel Lanois.

Contents

Composition and recording

In his memoir Chronicles: Volume One , Dylan recalls writing the song after taking a long motorcycle ride with his wife, Carolyn Dennis, during a break from recording his album Oh Mercy in New Orleans: "The song came to me complete, full in the eyes like I'd been traveling on the garden pathway of the sun and just found it. It was illuminated. I'd seen a shooting star from the backyard of our house, or maybe it was a meteorite". [1]

Dylan scholar Tony Attwood describes it as an otherwise simple song of lost love ("the traveller moving on is the woman, while the man does the 'you wanted me to be someone I couldn’t be' thing and is seemingly left behind") that is made more complex by an unusual musical and lyrical bridge in which "all hell breaks loose". Attwood describes how Dylan moves down the chromatic scale note by note in this bridge, only the second time in his career for him to do this (following 1967's "Too Much of Nothing"), as he sings about the apocalypse: "You can hear it by playing each note, black or white, that are next to each other on the piano. Dylan does it starting on C sharp, going down to C, B, B flat, A.

(C sharp minor) Listen to the engine, (C) listen to the bell

(B) As the last fire truck (B flat) from hell

(A) Goes rolling by

(B) All good people are (E) praying

The musical sequence is then revisited

It’s the last temptation, the last account

The last time you might hear the sermon on the mount

The last radio is playing". [2]

In their book Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon note that, in addition to Dylan on vocals, guitar and harmonica, the song features Daniel Lanois on omnichord ("a plastic instrument that sounds like an autoharp"), Brian Stoltz on guitar, Tony Hall on bass and Willie Green on drums. They also note that Dylan regretted not being able to add a brass section to the track and achieve a more orchestral sound but that his doubts were dispelled when Lanois "hyped the snare and captured the song in its essence" in the final mix. [3]

Critical reception

Rolling Stone magazine included "Shooting Star" on a list of "Bob Dylan's Greatest Songs of the 1980s", noting that it "echoes some of the self-doubt and regret heard earlier on 'Most of the Time'" while also serving as an example of how "Dylan is very good at ending his albums on exactly the right note". [4]

Spectrum Culture included the song on a list of "Bob Dylan's 20 Best Songs of the 1980s". In an article accompanying the list, critic Justin Cober-Lake praises both the lyrics (for the way Dylan establishes "an almost-narrative and an almost-prayer while leaving any final understanding open-ended enough for the listener to glide into") and the music (for the way "Dylan develops a beautiful melody for his reflections, perfectly embraced by Lanois’ production"). [5]

Jim Esch at AllMusic called it "a simple three verse plus bridge country ballad that manages to suggest the arc of an affair – balled up in the image of a shooting star" that is "remarkable for its lyrical allusiveness" and leaves "a weary sadness in its wake". [6]

The Big Issue placed it at #16 on a list of the "80 Best Bob Dylan Songs - That Aren't the Greatest Hits" and characterized it as a "hymn to regret and what might have been". [7]

Live performances

According to his official website, Dylan performed the song 126 times in concert on the Never Ending Tour between 1990 and 2013. [8] A live performance from New York City in 1994 was filmed and officially released on the Bob Dylan MTV Unplugged television special and accompanying live album in 1995. [9] The live debut occurred at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin on June 9, 1990 and the last performance (to date) took place at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio on September 12, 2024. [10]

The song is prominently featured in Curtis Hanson's Academy Award-winning 2000 film Wonder Boys and on its accompanying soundtrack album. [11]

Notable covers

There have been at least half a dozen studio covers of the song including David Gogo on his 2000 album Bare Bones, [12] Lindsay Evans on her 2006 album Road to Damascus [13] and Laura Pursell on her 2023 album Shooting Star. [14]

Aaron Neville performed the song live at a MusiCares tribute to Dylan in 2015. Dylan praised Neville's performance in an interview shortly after: “I could always hear him singing that song. He’s recorded other songs of mine, all great performances, but for some reason I kept thinking about ‘Shooting Star’, something he’s never recorded but I knew that he could. I could always hear him singing it for some reason, even when I wrote it. I mean, what can you say? He’s the most soulful of singers, maybe in all of recorded history. If angels sing, they must sing in that voice. I just think his gift is so great. The man has no flaws, never has. He’s always been one of my favorite singers right from the beginning”. [15]

Related Research Articles

<i>Oh Mercy</i> 1989 studio album by Bob Dylan

Oh Mercy is the twenty-sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 12, 1989, by Columbia Records. Produced by Daniel Lanois, it was hailed by critics as a triumph for Dylan, after a string of poorly reviewed albums. Oh Mercy gave Dylan his best chart showing in years, reaching No. 30 on the Billboard charts in the United States and No. 6 in the UK.

<i>World Gone Wrong</i> 1993 studio album by Bob Dylan

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

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political World</span> 1989 song by Bob Dylan

"Political World" is an uptempo folk rock song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the opening track on his 1989 album Oh Mercy and as a single in Europe in 1990. It was produced by Daniel Lanois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Most of the Time</span> 1989 song by Bob Dylan

"Most of the Time" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as the sixth track of his 1989 album Oh Mercy. The song was written by Dylan and produced by Daniel Lanois. The album version of "Most of the Time" was recorded on March 12, 1989, in a mobile studio at 1305 Soniat St., New Orleans, and released on Oh Mercy in September of that year. Two studio out-takes from the same set of recording sessions were released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 in 2008, and a new version recorded on March 16, 1990, was issued as a promotional single and video in 1990.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Everything Is Broken</span> 1989 single by Bob Dylan

"Everything is Broken" is an uptempo rock song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, and released as the first single from his 1989 album Oh Mercy, where it appears as the third track. It was later anthologized on the compilation albums The Essential Bob Dylan in 2000 and Dylan in 2007. The song spent eight weeks on Billboard's "Mainstream Rock Songs" chart, peaking at number eight on October 27, 1989. It was produced by Daniel Lanois.

"Man in the Long Black Coat" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 1989 as the fifth track on his album Oh Mercy. It is a minor-key folk ballad, often described as "haunting" and frequently cited as a highlight of the album. The song was produced by Daniel Lanois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silvio (song)</span> 1988 single by Bob Dylan

"Silvio" is a folk rock song written by Bob Dylan and Robert Hunter and released by Dylan as the seventh track of his 1988 album Down in the Groove. Performed alongside the Grateful Dead, the song was released as the album's only single and spent eight weeks on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, peaking at #5 on July 1, 1988.

"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.

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"Po' Boy" is an acoustic folk/jazz song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that appears as the tenth song on his 2001 album Love and Theft. It was anthologized on the compilation album Dylan in 2007. Like most of Dylan's 21st century output, he produced the song himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost.

"What Was It You Wanted" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 1989 as the ninth and penultimate track on his album Oh Mercy. It was produced by Daniel Lanois.

References

  1. ↑ Dylan, Bob, 1941- (2004). Chronicles. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   0-7432-2815-4. OCLC   56111894.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ ""Shooting Star" – the meaning of the lyrics and the music | Untold Dylan". 2015-02-18. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  3. ↑ Margotin, Philippe; Jean-Michel Guesdon (2015). Bob Dylan : all the songs : the story behind every track (First ed.). New York. ISBN   978-1-57912-985-9. OCLC   869908038.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ "Bob Dylan's Greatest Songs of the 1980s". Rolling Stone. 2012-08-15. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  5. ↑ "Bob Dylan's 20 Best Songs of the '80s". Spectrum Culture. 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  6. ↑ Shooting Star - Bob Dylan | Song Info | AllMusic , retrieved 2021-06-03
  7. ↑ "The 80 best Bob Dylan songs – that aren't the greatest hits". The Big Issue. 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  8. ↑ "Setlists | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  9. ↑ "MTV Unplugged | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  10. ↑ "Setlists | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  11. ↑ Wonder Boys (2000) - IMDb , retrieved 2021-06-03
  12. ↑ "Cover versions of Shooting Star by David Gogo | SecondHandSongs". secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  13. ↑ "Cover versions of Shooting Star by Lindsay Evans | SecondHandSongs". secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  14. ↑ Major, Michael. "Video: Laura Pursell Releases Video Covering Bob Dylan Song 'Shooting Star'". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2024-02-03.
  15. ↑ Times-Picayune, Keith Spera, NOLA com | The (16 February 2015). "Bob Dylan on 'favorite' singer Aaron Neville: 'The man has no flaws, never has'". NOLA.com. Retrieved 2021-05-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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