"You're No Good" is a song by Jesse Fuller that appeared as the opening track on Bob Dylan's eponymous debut album (1962). Eight takes were recorded by Dylan on November 20, 1961. He learnt the song directly from Fuller in Denver; Fuller's own recorded version was not released until May 13, 1963, on his album San Francisco Bay Blues. The song concerns the narrator's difficult relationship with a woman, and concludes with the narrator wanting to "lay down and die". Dylan's version is more uptempo than Fuller's, and has some changes to the lyrics; it has been positively reviewed by critics.
"You're No Good" | |
---|---|
Song by Jesse Fuller | |
from the album San Francisco Bay Blues | |
Released | May 13, 1963 |
Label | Prestige Folklore |
Songwriter(s) | Jesse Fuller |
Producer(s) | Paul A. Rothchild |
Jesse Fuller (1896–1976) was a one-man band musician, and inventor of the fotdella. His best-known song is "San Francisco Bay Blues", which he released on his debut album Working on the Railroad (1954). The track was later recorded by Ramblin' Jack Elliot and Donovan. [1] "You're No Good", written and performed by Fuller, was released on his album San Francisco Bay Blues on the "Prestige Folklore" label on May 13, 1963. The album was later reissued on Stateside Records (1966). [1] Fuller sings, and plays guitar, harmonica, kazoo, washboard, and fotdella on the album. Paul A. Rothchild is billed as "supervisor" on its back cover. [2]
Author Spencer Leigh refers to "You're No Good" as "very close" to "San Francisco Bay Blues". [3] The song outlines the narrator's difficult relationship with a woman who has "got the ways of a devil sleeping in a lion's den". [4] The narrator claims that despite him supporting her when she was in poverty, she now gives his money to another man. The song concludes with the narrator wanting to "lay down and die". [4] According to liner notes by Joe Boyd, Fuller experienced troubled personal relationships before meeting his wife. The notes claim, "Despite his vagabond ways, Jesse was always quite frugal and relatively conservative and women who drank and caroused until the early hours never got along well with Jesse." [2]
"You're No Good" | |
---|---|
Song by Bob Dylan | |
from the album Bob Dylan | |
Released | March 19, 1962 |
Recorded | November 20, 1961 |
Studio | Columbia Studio A (New York City) |
Length | 1:40 [5] |
Label | Columbia |
Songwriter(s) | Jesse Fuller |
Producer(s) | John H. Hammond |
Audio | |
"You're No Good" on YouTube |
Bob Dylan had seen Fuller perform at the Exodus coffee club in Denver in 1959, [6] and learned "You're No Good" from him personally. [7] [lower-alpha 1] It was the first song Dylan recorded at his initial session, on November 20, 1961, for his debut album Bob Dylan , which was released by Columbia on March 19, 1962. [7] [9] He recorded eight takes at Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City, four of them complete whilst the others were false starts. The fifth take was used as the opening track for the album. [9] [10] Dylan sings, and plays guitar and harmonica on the song. The album was produced by John H. Hammond, and engineered by George Knuerr and Pete Dauria. [5] Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin, who had access to unreleased tapes of the sessions, [11] wrote that "from the first take, Hammond Sr is all at sea". [12] Scholar Todd Harvey, however, interprets the session tapes as evidence that "corroborate[s] ... Hammond's suggestion that Dylan took a few minutes to adjust to the recording process". [8] After one of the takes of "You're No Good", Hammond asked Dylan to play the song again "'cause we were fixing the balance as you were going on". [12] Dylan wanted to use a spoken introduction, about a cowboy in Connecticut, to the song. This idea was abandoned after interruptions to early takes when Hammond complained that Dylan was popping the "p" sound in the word "planes". According to Heylin, the intention to splice different takes together, expressed by Hammond in the seesion would have been impractical as the sounds of the takes were too different. [12]
Dylan's version is faster than Fuller's, [3] and has some lyrical changes from the original, [5] for example omitting the lyric that the woman addressed in the song could "make a preacher lay his bible down". [4] Fuller was acknowledged on the liner notes by "Stacey Williams" (a pseudonym for critic Robert Shelton [13] ), which note that Dylan "learned [the song] from Jesse Fuller the West Coast blues singer". [14] The track was wrongly listed on the label of some American pressings and the British LP as "She's No Good". [15] Dylan gave a performance, which was recorded, at Eve and Mac Mackenzie's home in New York on November 23, 1961. His set included both "You're No Good" and Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues". [16] As of 2022, Dylan has never played the song live in a public concert. [4] [17] Fuller's own album release of the song was over a year after Dylan's. [9]
Shelton called the track "a nonsense song of the beleaguered male running down the offending female in his life". [15] Author John Nogowski described it as "addressed to a woman Dylan says he loves but cannot quite figure out why". [18]
Paul Williams felt that "You're No Good" was one of several songs on the album to "give hints of Dylan's rock and roll sensibilities". [19] Williams commented that despite Dylan being a philanderer, he did not portray that on the album and, quoting from the track, wrote that "about the only sexy line on the album is 'when you get a crazy notion [of] jumping all over me'". [20] Harvey thought that the song was chosen as the album opener "because it was upbeat and funny–a good opener". [8]
In a negative album review in The Pittsburgh Press , William Allan referred to Dylan's "singing (sic)" and mentions "You're No Good" as one of several songs on the record that "[don't] have a publisher – or seem likely to have". [21] Neil Spencer gave the song a rating of 3/5 stars in an Uncut magazine Dylan supplement in 2015, writing that all the songs on Bob Dylan "were treated to a lot of yelping, stuttering harmonica and none too special guitar playing". [22] Nogowski calls the album track an "energetic performance" but rates it only at "C+". [18] Shelton wrote about the song in his biography, No Direction Home, The Life and Music of Bob Dylan:
"the song scarcely proclaims a new singer of stature. Yet, the voice's spirit, drive, timbre, bite, and propulsion win attention, as does the instrumental work. At the break, Dylan builds his own one-man band. His galloping mouth harp talks to the guitar, which answers right back. Then the voice soars again, and the colloquy continues. Soon, we have a rollicking tumble of witty nonsense. The guitar work is quite clean here. As Dylan gets into the song, the broadness of his put-on comes forward, culminating in a couple of vocal riffs that suggest Elliott at his slyest. You're No Good' is one of the album's brightest moments." [15]
Jeff Hanna of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band said in a 2022 interview he had been a fan of Dylan since the first album and, regarding "You're No Good", that Dylan "sings the heck out of that one". [23]
Highway 61 Revisited is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 30, 1965, by Columbia Records. Having until then recorded mostly acoustic music, Dylan used rock musicians as his backing band on every track of the album, 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 chaos of contemporary America. Author Michael Gray has argued that, in an important sense, the 1960s "started" with this album.
Blonde on Blonde is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released as a double album on June 20, 1966, by Columbia Records. Recording sessions began in New York in October 1965 with numerous backing musicians, including members of Dylan's live backing band, the Hawks. Though sessions continued until January 1966, they yielded only one track that made it onto the final album—"One of Us Must Know ". At producer Bob Johnston's suggestion, Dylan, keyboardist Al Kooper, and guitarist Robbie Robertson moved to the CBS studios in Nashville, Tennessee. These sessions, augmented by some of Nashville's top session musicians, were more fruitful, and in February and March all the remaining songs for the album were recorded.
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on May 27, 1963 by Columbia Records. Whereas his self-titled debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, this album represented the beginning of Dylan's writing contemporary words to traditional melodies. Eleven of the thirteen songs on the album are Dylan's original compositions. It opens with "Blowin' in the Wind", which became an anthem of the 1960s, and an international hit for folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary soon after the release of the album. The album featured several other songs which came to be regarded as among Dylan's best compositions and classics of the 1960s folk scene: "Girl from the North Country", "Masters of War", "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right".
Bob Dylan is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on March 19, 1962 by Columbia Records. The album was produced by Columbia talent scout John H. Hammond, who had earlier signed Dylan to the label, a decision which was at the time controversial. The album primarily features folk standards, but also includes two original compositions, "Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody". The latter was an ode to Woody Guthrie, a major influence in Dylan's early career.
"4th Time Around" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released as the 12th track on his seventh studio album Blonde on Blonde on June 20, 1966. The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. Commentators often interpret it as a parody of the Beatles' 1965 song "Norwegian Wood ". John Lennon composed "Norwegian Wood" after being influenced by the introspective lyrics of Dylan. Lennon later reflected on his feelings of paranoia when Dylan first played him "4th Time Around".
"Absolutely Sweet Marie" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released on the third side of the double album and Dylan's seventh studio album, Blonde on Blonde (1966). The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. It was recorded at around 1:00 am on March 8, 1966, at Columbia Studio A, Nashville. Some commentators have interpreted the song as being about sexual frustration.
Sara Dylan is an American former actress and model who was the first wife of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. In 1959, Noznisky was wed to magazine photographer Hans Lownds, during which time she was known as Sara Lownds.
"Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" is a song written by Bob Dylan that appears on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. The album version also appears on 1971's Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II. An early studio take, done in a faster tempo, was released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack in 2005. As the recording indicates, Dylan had difficulty fitting the words to the tempo, and evidently this led to its rearrangement, as heard on Blonde on Blonde, in a more "rock"-oriented 4/4 time. The song's refrain likely refers to the Memphis Blues of W.C. Handy.
"Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Columbia Records first released an edited version as a single in March 1966, which reached numbers two and seven in the US and UK charts respectively. A longer version appears as the opening track of Dylan's seventh studio album, Blonde on Blonde (1966), and has been included on several compilation albums.
"Pledging My Time" is a blues song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan from his seventh studio album, Blonde on Blonde (1966). The song, written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston, was recorded on March 8, 1966 in Nashville, Tennessee. Dylan is featured on lead vocals, harmonica, and guitar, backed by guitarist Robbie Robertson and an ensemble of veteran Nashville session men.
"To Ramona" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, first released on his fourth studio album, Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964). The song was written by Dylan, and produced by Tom Wilson. The lyrics were started at the May Fair Hotel in London in May 1964, and finished during a week-long stay in the Greek village of Vernilya later that month. Dylan recorded all the tracks for the album, including the song, in a single three-hour session on June 9, 1964, at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, New York. Its narrator advises Ramona, who is preparing to return to "the South", not to follow the advice of others. Critics have suggested several different people as inspirations for the song, including Joan Baez, Suze Rotolo, and Sara Lownds.
"Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine", or "Most Likely You Go Your Way ", is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released as the first track on side three of his seventh studio album Blonde on Blonde (1966). The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. Dylan recounted that he had probably written the song after the end of a relationship. The song's narrator criticizes the lies and weakness of a woman, and says that "sometimes it gets so hard to care". Following a middle eight that refers to a judge who walks on stilts, the final verse establishes that the woman has been unfaithful to the narrator, as he suspected.
"Slow Train" is a song written by Bob Dylan that first appeared on his 1979 album Slow Train Coming. In the United States, it was released as the follow up single to "Gotta Serve Somebody." It was also released as the lead song from Dylan's 1989 live album with the Grateful Dead, Dylan & the Dead. Music critic Paul Williams has called it "the one track [on Slow Train Coming] that must be listened to again and again and again, inexhaustible, essential." Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner has called it "nothing less than Dylan's most mature and profound song about America".
"Where Are You Tonight? " is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released as the closing track on his 18th studio album Street-Legal (1978). The song was written by Dylan, and produced by Don DeVito. Dylan has said that the song is about the individual's "enemy within." Critical interpretations of the song have suggested that it references Dylan's divorce as well as foreshadowing or announcing his conversion to Christianity, which became evident in the religiously-focused projects that followed the album. Commentators have also opined that there are allusions in the lyrics to the work of Robert Johnson.
"Obviously 5 Believers" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released as the last track of side three of his double album Blonde on Blonde (1966), and was the B-side to the single release of "Just Like a Woman" for releases in America and some other countries. The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. It was recorded at Columbia Music Row Studios, in the early morning hours of a 9–10 March 1966 session. Four takes were recorded, although the first two were incomplete. It has been interpreted as a blues song about loneliness, with critics noting similarities in melody and structure to Memphis Minnie's "Chauffeur Blues". Dylan's vocals and the musicianship of the band on the track have both received critical acclaim, although the track is regarded by leading commentators as one of the minor songs on Blonde on Blonde.
"Temporary Like Achilles" is a blues song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was released as the second track of side three of his double album Blonde on Blonde on June 20, 1966. The song was written by Dylan, and produced by Bob Johnston. It was recorded at Columbia Music Row Studios, Nashville on March 9, 1966. The song incorporated elements of Dylan's incomplete "Medicine Sunday", which he had recorded with members of the Band in New York in October 1965. The song describes a narrator's frustration at being kept wating by a woman that he wishes to be romantically involved with; she is guarded by "Achilles". Some critics have suggested that the song references the Iliad.
"Talkin' Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was written by Dylan in June 1961, and recorded on April 25, 1962, at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, New York, produced by John Hammond. It is a humorous talking blues, which Dylan wrote after Noel Stookey gave him a press clipping about how the sale of forged tickets for a Father's Day picnic trip to Bear Mountain State Park had led to overcrowding and injuries.
"I Shall Be Free" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was recorded on 6 December 1962 at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, New York, produced by John Hammond. The song was released as the closing track on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan on 27 May 1963, and has been viewed as a comedic counterpoint to the album's more serious material. Dylan has never performed the song in concert.
"Highway 51 Blues" is a song composed by American blues pianist Curtis Jones, released on a 78 record on January 12, 1938. Bob Dylan's track "Highway 51", released as the closing track of his debut album Bob Dylan on March 19, 1962, incorporated the tune from Jones's version.
"I Shall Be Free No. 10" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which was released as the fifth track on his fourth studio album Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964). The song was written by Dylan and produced by Tom Wilson. It was recorded on June 9, 1964, and released on Another Side of Bob Dylan on August 8, 1964.
Bibliography
Citations