"Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" | ||||
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Single by Bob Dylan | ||||
from the album Nashville Skyline | ||||
B-side | "Country Pie" | |||
Released | October 1969 | |||
Recorded | February 17, 1969 | |||
Studio | Columbia Studio A (Nashville, Tennessee) [1] | |||
Genre | Country rock | |||
Length | 3:23 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan | |||
Producer(s) | Bob Johnston | |||
Bob Dylan singles chronology | ||||
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"Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" is a song written by Bob Dylan from his 1969 album Nashville Skyline . [2] It was the closing song of the album. The song was the third single released from the album, after "I Threw It All Away" and "Lay Lady Lay", reaching #50 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and reaching the top 20 in other countries. [3] [4] It was anthologized on the compilation albums Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II and Playlist: The Very Best of Bob Dylan '60s. [4]
Dylan arrived at the Nashville Skyline recording sessions having written just four songs, including "I Threw It All Away" and "Lay Lady Lay". Having recorded these and three other new songs on February 13 and 14, 1969, he needed a few more songs to fill out the album. "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" was written over two days at the Ramada Inn where Dylan was staying, and recorded over 11 takes on February 17. [5] The song is reminiscent of the last two songs from Dylan's previous album John Wesley Harding , "Down Along the Cove" and "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", particularly the latter. [5] [6] [7]
The lyrics of "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" mark a change from many of Dylan's earlier love songs, which expressed a restlessness in search of perfect love. [8] In contrast, "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" expresses Dylan's devotion to his lover and willingness to stay with her. [4] [7] [8] [9] Even though the line from the title, which is repeated at the end of each verse, only explicitly expresses a willingness to stay "tonight", the implication of the song is that the singer is willing to stay permanently and become a family man. [4] [7] Train imagery runs throughout the song, but unlike earlier songs that used similar imagery, in this song even though the singer "can hear that whistle blowin'" he wants to "throw [his] ticket out the window" and let "a poor boy on the street" have his seat so that he can stay with his lover. [7] [8] [9] [10] The accompaniment includes piano, pedal steel guitar and bass guitar. [4] [10]
Upon the single release, Cash Box said that unlike previous Dylan singles, "this ballad is honed to a fine edge and further sharpened through excellent production touches." [11] Billboard said that "this strong original rhythm item...offers much of the same potential [as 'Lay Lady Lay']." [12] Record World called it "another classic from the master." [13] Beck Hansen told Mojo that "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" is his favorite Bob Dylan song: “I didn’t get too deep into his music until I got into the Nashville records. Those are the ones that really got to me, because I was so into country music when I was younger and hearing those records for the first time... I always liked his kind of throwaway love songs. For somebody who’s a giant like him, who writes those great cinematic songs like Visions Of Johanna that draw you into a strange world, to just toss out a good little tune...that’s an aspect of Dylan I always really appreciated.” [14]
Dylan did not play "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You" live in concert until the Rolling Thunder Revue tours in 1975 and 1976, and it was not played live again until February 1990 on the Neverending Tour. [5] [9] The first live performance was at Waltham, Massachusetts on November 22, 1975. [5] The Rolling Thunder Revue version became an anthemic rocker, rather than the sweet country song from the original album. [9] A live version of the song from the first Rolling Thunder Revue tour was released in 2002 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue .; [4] it was also included on the 2019 box set The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings , along with a rehearsal of the song. According to his official website, Dylan played the song 144 times in total between 1975 and 2006. [15]
Nashville Skyline is the ninth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on April 9, 1969, by Columbia Records as LP record, reel-to-reel tape and audio cassette.
John Wesley Harding is the eighth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on December 27, 1967, by Columbia Records. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to semi-acoustic instrumentation and folk-influenced songwriting after three albums of lyrically abstract, blues-indebted rock music. John Wesley Harding was recorded around the same time as the home recording sessions with The Band known as The Basement Tapes.
"Tangled Up in Blue" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released as the opening track of his 15th studio album Blood on the Tracks (1975). The song was written by Dylan and produced by David Zimmerman, Dylan's brother. Released as a single, it reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song concerns relationships and contains different narrative perspectives. Dylan has altered the lyrics in subsequent performances, changing the point of view and details in the song.
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.
"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.
"Lay Lady Lay", sometimes rendered "Lay, Lady, Lay", is a song written by Bob Dylan and originally released in 1969 on his Nashville Skyline album. Like many of the tracks on the album, Dylan sings the song in a low croon, rather than in the high nasal singing style associated with his earlier recordings. The song has become a standard and has been covered by numerous bands and artists over the years.
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Donald William "Bob" Johnston was an American record producer, best known for his work with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, and Simon & Garfunkel.
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. Often considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in history, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 60-year career. He rose to prominence in the 1960s, when songs such as "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. Initially modeling his style on Woody Guthrie's folk songs, Robert Johnson's blues and what he called the "architectural forms" of Hank Williams's country songs, Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.
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"When I Paint My Masterpiece" is a 1971 song written by Bob Dylan. It was first released by The Band, who recorded the song for their album Cahoots, released on September 15, 1971.
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"Rita May" is a song by Bob Dylan, originally recorded during the sessions for the album Desire, but released only as the B-side of a single and on the compilation album, Masterpieces. The song is based on the 1957 rockabilly song "Bertha Lou". Some listeners believe that the lyrics of the song refer to writer Rita Mae Brown, who had complained of the lack of opportunities for casual lesbian sex.
"I Threw It All Away" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. The track appeared on Dylan's album Nashville Skyline in 1969, and was released as its first single later that year, where it reached number 85 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 30 on the UK Singles Chart. It is considered to be one of the best and most popular songs on the album.
"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.
"Mama, You Been on My Mind" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Written in 1964 during a trip to Europe, the song dealt with his recent breakup with his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo. Dylan first recorded the song in June of that year during a session for his album Another Side of Bob Dylan. However, the song was not included on the album, and Dylan's version remained unreleased until 1991. In total, in the 1990s and 2000s four versions were put out on Dylan's Bootleg Series of releases, including two live performances with Joan Baez from 1964 and 1975.
Bob Dylan is an American musician, singer-songwriter, music producer, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest.
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Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings is a box set of 1975 live recordings by Bob Dylan, released on June 7, 2019. For this tour, Dylan assembled a loose collective of a backing band called Guam and played across North America for several dozen shows. The tie-in Netflix documentary film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese was released the following week. A similar compilation was released in 2002 entitled Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue, as part of Dylan's ongoing Bootleg Series. That compilation was re-released on vinyl as a companion to the later release.