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Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks is the production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Double Elvis. Bob Dylan was a musical genius

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Speaker 1: and one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He

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Speaker 1: didn't follow leaders. He chased that thin, wild mercury sound.

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Speaker 1: He never looked back. Even as the times changed, and

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Speaker 1: as the times changed, Bob Dylan changed. He tried on

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Speaker 1: and discarded identities like they were mass He transformed. He

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Speaker 1: transfigured in somewhere along the way, the Bob Dylan that

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Speaker 1: you thought you knew died. This is his story. It's

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Speaker 1: the morning of day three, Sunday, July nineteen sixty six.

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Speaker 1: It's been a long night here at my home in Middletown,

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Speaker 1: New York, and the patient, Robert Zimmerman, a k a.

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Speaker 1: Bob Dylan, is still in distress and seems to have

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Speaker 1: had a slight reaction to the pain killers I've given him.

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Speaker 1: His fever like state continues, although at this stage they

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Speaker 1: are more lucid moments than not. I have put psychological

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Speaker 1: evaluation on hold for the time being. It's my suggestion

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Speaker 1: that we treat his physical injury fully before we explore that.

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Speaker 1: He's also refusing to go home, so he'll remain in

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Speaker 1: my care here in my house for the foreseeable future.

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Speaker 1: That was a decision that was made with the patient's wife, Sarah.

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Speaker 1: We primarily made this choice because, well, to be honest,

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Speaker 1: I'm not entirely sure that at this moment Bob knows

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Speaker 1: where his homeless Nashville. That was important to me. Transfiguration, invention, reinvention,

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Speaker 1: those can all come in different forms. But you know,

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Speaker 1: sometimes you actually need physical movement. Sometimes you need a

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Speaker 1: change of scenery. If I never went to New York,

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Speaker 1: then I would have existed if I'd never gone to Nashville.

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Speaker 1: Who knows, creativity is a funny thing. You never know

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Speaker 1: what's going to move the needle or how I went

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Speaker 1: to that country town for the first time in it

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Speaker 1: put my head into a different space. It put my

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Speaker 1: music into a new lane. And now I can see

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Speaker 1: that it left a whole lot of blood on the tracks.

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Speaker 1: Chapter three, Bob Dylan is a Nashville cap M. I

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Speaker 1: need to get out of here. I need to get

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Speaker 1: out outside. Hyde Park goes spinning by, and I feel

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Speaker 1: like I haven't slept in days. I turned to the

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Speaker 1: man next to me and say, I wish we could

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Speaker 1: speak English, and he laughs. I thought I'd always record

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Speaker 1: in New York. You know, it was Bob Dylan's hometown. Sure,

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Speaker 1: Bobby Zimmerman was born in Duluth, but Dylan, he was

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Speaker 1: a New Yorker. But you can't just stay on one

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Speaker 1: track your whole life. Remember, life is all about inventing yourself.

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Speaker 1: At some point I would have to leave New York

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Speaker 1: physical movement, and it all started on August four. We've

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Speaker 1: been working on the Highway sixty one revisited album on

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Speaker 1: which I decided to close. The whole thing was called

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Speaker 1: Desolation Row. Another decision we'd come to was that it

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Speaker 1: would be an acoustic song. We'd cut some electric takes,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know. I knew an acoustic one would

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Speaker 1: just be better. So we booked some more studio time.

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Speaker 1: But it didn't I don't know. It just needed something transfiguration, invention, reinvention.

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Speaker 1: Bob Johnston, the producer in charge of the session, mentioned

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Speaker 1: that he had asked a guy to come and watch

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Speaker 1: us record. Now, I hadn't been with Johnston for too

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Speaker 1: long at this point, but I trusted him. It turns

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Speaker 1: out I was right to That guy who came by

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Speaker 1: to watch us called himself Charlie McCoy. Charlie was a

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Speaker 1: Nashville player, a country guy. I knew Charlie's work. I

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Speaker 1: think most people knew his work without even knowing they

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Speaker 1: knew it. He was a killer harp player, still young,

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Speaker 1: but man could he play. He did a spot on

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Speaker 1: a song called Harpoon Man Blew Me Away. We had

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Speaker 1: a little introduction courtesy of Bob Johnston, and just as

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Speaker 1: he was gonna leave, I figured I'd throw him a

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Speaker 1: curveball the new lane. I told him that we were

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Speaker 1: just about to do a song and wondered if he

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Speaker 1: fancied sitting in. I wanted to see how he'd react. Sure,

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Speaker 1: he said, completely unfazed. I told him to grab the

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Speaker 1: acoustic guitar at the back of the studio and give

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Speaker 1: us some licks. We had finished the take of Desolation

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Speaker 1: Row within the hour. Within the hour, he put my

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Speaker 1: head into a different space. We tried to get it

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Speaker 1: in three different sessions before Charlie, but with him, the

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Speaker 1: song just fell into place. He did these Flamenco type fills.

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Speaker 1: It gave the song a real identity Nashville. After he left,

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Speaker 1: Bob Johnston told me that that's what it was like

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Speaker 1: and now Shille That's how they did it. We released

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Speaker 1: the Highway sixty one album later that month. That song

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Speaker 1: with Charlie was the last thing we cut for the record.

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Speaker 1: By the end of the year, I was back in

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Speaker 1: the studio man that year Transfiguration. I started cutting songs

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Speaker 1: for Bringing It All back Home, and then we cut

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Speaker 1: Highway sixty one. Then before the year was out, we

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Speaker 1: were making Blonde on Blonde, Invention. The workload was beginning

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Speaker 1: to show reinvention. Those first sessions for Blonde on Blonde

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Speaker 1: in New York, they weren't good. I take responsibility. We

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Speaker 1: didn't really have the songs, but the band. The band

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Speaker 1: was the band, you see. I remember one session we

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Speaker 1: were trying to get the track She's Your Lover. Now.

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Speaker 1: Back then it was called just a Little Glass of Water.

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Speaker 1: I'd written it about a relationship I'd been in and

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Speaker 1: out of. We spent all day on that song. I

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Speaker 1: mean all day. Do you actually need physical movement? It

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Speaker 1: started it too in the afternoon. Garth Hudson, Rick Danko,

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Speaker 1: Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson, all those guys I'd relied on before.

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Speaker 1: We're there in a setting I knew well too Columbia's

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Speaker 1: Studio A in New York City. It should have been easy,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't. Like before we started to cut the track,

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Speaker 1: Bob Johnston asked me what the song was called from

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Speaker 1: the control room, and before I could properly answer, Robbie said,

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Speaker 1: it's called you Can Have Her. We shared a laugh

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Speaker 1: about that, but there wasn't much more laughter that day.

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Speaker 1: As the minutes of the studio time ticked on, we

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Speaker 1: tried the song a number of ways. By three pm,

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Speaker 1: we changed the tempo and the arrangement. By four I

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Speaker 1: was at the piano, then the guitar. By five pm

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Speaker 1: we were no closer than we've been at two. Do

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Speaker 1: you need a change of scenery? I lost my temper

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Speaker 1: with them on one take. I don't know which one,

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Speaker 1: take four thousand Maybe I just said to them together,

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Speaker 1: you've just got to play it together. Robbie bit back

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Speaker 1: at me. We are, he yelled. He moaned that every

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Speaker 1: take was different. They needed time to process it, to

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Speaker 1: process my ideas. Creativity is a funny thing. Well, we

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Speaker 1: didn't have time. Of course, every take was different. We

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Speaker 1: were in the studio, which means you're paying for every second.

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Speaker 1: You literally don't have time to waste. Plus, when I'm

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Speaker 1: in the studio, I can't stand too many retakes. Doing

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Speaker 1: the same song again and again sucks the life out

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Speaker 1: of them. He need to capture that magic. We try

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Speaker 1: it again again. It fell apart. I shouted about how

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Speaker 1: ugly the song was. We took a break at five thirty.

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Speaker 1: I smoked and smoked and smoked. Seven pm. Still no

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Speaker 1: good takes. We switched tactics and rehearsed a version we

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Speaker 1: all liked. I remember looking at the big studio clock pm.

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Speaker 1: We should have had the thing in the can hours ago.

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Speaker 1: Another break, Then eleven PM came and went still working

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Speaker 1: out the damn song. Then midnight I remember saying, I

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Speaker 1: can't hear the song anymore. It's gone and it had.

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Speaker 1: It was two am when the band went home. I

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Speaker 1: was alone with Bob Johnston. He asked me if I

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Speaker 1: wanted to do another take. I said sure, Sometimes you

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Speaker 1: need a change of scenery. So I sat at the

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Speaker 1: piano and mumbled my way through the first verse. But

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Speaker 1: then then something clicked. It all fell into place, what

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Speaker 1: it should sound like, how we should structure it. The

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Speaker 1: song's d n A. It just formed in front of me.

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Speaker 1: It put my head into a different space. By the

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Speaker 1: time I had finished running through it, the song was there.

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Speaker 1: We had our first complete take that I was happy with.

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Speaker 1: Johnston asked from the control room if I should get

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Speaker 1: the guys back to do one last take. No, absolutely not.

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Speaker 1: I realized that very second the fault was with the band.

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Speaker 1: I pressed the talk back button to the control room

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Speaker 1: and I asked Bob a question, Hey, what time is

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Speaker 1: the next flight to Nashville? I thought I was going

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Speaker 1: to be sick. I tried to breathe, but I couldn't

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Speaker 1: get an affair. I put my fingertips over my eyes.

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Speaker 1: What time was it? Six seven? I couldn't remember where

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Speaker 1: the last twenty four hours had gone. The time I

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Speaker 1: spent in Nashville recording from ninety six to nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: nine was an important time in my career. I cut

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Speaker 1: some good albums there and also got to work with

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Speaker 1: a hero of mine. I first met Johnny Cash at

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Speaker 1: the Newport Folk Festival on one of my shall we say,

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Speaker 1: less eventful shows there. I remember after back in my

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Speaker 1: hotel room, I jumped on the bed shouting, I've just

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Speaker 1: met Johnny Cash. I couldn't believe it. You never know

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Speaker 1: what's going to move the needle. By the end of

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Speaker 1: the decade we were recording together, I was working in

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Speaker 1: Nashville on the Nashville Skyline LP. The city had become

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Speaker 1: my new recording home since the collapse of those Blonde

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Speaker 1: on Blonde New York sessions. It was bearing fruit too.

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Speaker 1: I was cutting albums that I liked in a way

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Speaker 1: that I liked Nashville Skyline like all them, Nashville LPs

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Speaker 1: was quick to make, and it contained tunes that I

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Speaker 1: still stand by today. Lay Lady Lay, for example, That's

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Speaker 1: a big song for me. Norman Blake steel guitar and

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Speaker 1: Kenny Buttery's drums and the highlight of that song. I'd

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Speaker 1: wanted some bongos on the tunes, so Kenny found me some.

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Speaker 1: I remember him running a cigarette lighter underneath them to

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Speaker 1: tighten the skin. We added some cow was on top

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Speaker 1: of that too. Chris Christofferson, who would win his first

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Speaker 1: Grammy only two years later, was working as a studio

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Speaker 1: janitor at the time. Yeah, that's the truth. Chris had

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Speaker 1: to hold the bongos and cow bell next to Kenny's

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Speaker 1: drum kit. He just stood there holding them for all

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Speaker 1: the takes. He should have won a Grammy for that reinvention.

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Speaker 1: The sessions weren't always a breeze. There were also months

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Speaker 1: of bitter disappointment. Jerry Lee Lewis was recording in Nashville

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Speaker 1: at the same time as us. Bob Johnston took me

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Speaker 1: to see him, knowing I was a big fan. We

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Speaker 1: went into his studio with Johnston being his usual affable self. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: Louis was, well, whatever the opposite of affable is, this

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Speaker 1: is Bob Dylan, Johnston said. The killer turned to me shrugged,

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Speaker 1: said so, I suggested in my most friendly voice that

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Speaker 1: we could do something together in the studio. He just paused,

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Speaker 1: then said no, that was it. Two words, so and no.

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Speaker 1: I would have admired his attitude if I weren't such

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Speaker 1: a fan. But Johnny Cash and I we had a

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Speaker 1: much better meeting. Johnny was recording in the studio next

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Speaker 1: to us. He came in and saw us cut Nashville

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Speaker 1: skyline Rag and tonight I'll be staying here with you.

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Speaker 1: He was very complimentary. He'd always been supportive. He had

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Speaker 1: recorded a version of my song it Ain't Me Babe

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Speaker 1: a couple of years before it beats mine by a

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Speaker 1: country mile. He was truly the greatest of the grades.

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Speaker 1: We stayed in touch since that first meeting, trading letters

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Speaker 1: and postcards. He defended me when all this acoustic electric

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Speaker 1: nonsense started. He rightfully pointed out that country music was

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Speaker 1: always electric, and no one found issue with that. After

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Speaker 1: that session, we went out for dinner and the next

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Speaker 1: day decided it was time we record it with each other.

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Speaker 1: Bob Johnston had produced Johnny's Fulsome Prison album the year before,

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Speaker 1: so everybody was comfortable in the studio. We also like

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Speaker 1: to work in the same way. While recording quickly with

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Speaker 1: little or no overdubs, Johnston had made the studio into

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Speaker 1: a sort of nightclub. The main lights were down low

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Speaker 1: and he'd set up little lights everywhere. There was a

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Speaker 1: ton of guitars on hand and a couple of microphones

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Speaker 1: for me and Johnny. Before we started, Johnston said to us, both,

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Speaker 1: I can't produce YouTube. You produce yourselves. Creativity is a

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Speaker 1: funny thing. We both laughed, and before we knew it,

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Speaker 1: we'd recorded eighteen songs. Johnston wanted us to do another

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Speaker 1: session together for a duets album, which I would have loved,

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Speaker 1: but it never happened that session with Johnny though. That

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Speaker 1: remains a defining moment for me. And while for the

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Speaker 1: longest time only one song was released from it, Girl

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Speaker 1: from the North count Free, the opener to Nashville Skyline,

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Speaker 1: it meant everything to me. Johnny was and is the

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Speaker 1: north Star. You could guide your ship by him. It

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Speaker 1: was a big time for him too. He had signed

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Speaker 1: a deal with ABC for a new television show, imaginatively

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Speaker 1: titled The Johnny Cash Show. Now I hated doing TV,

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Speaker 1: really I did. I hated it. But when john asks

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Speaker 1: you to appear on his show, what are you gonna do?

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Speaker 1: Say no? No one says anything but yes to Johnny Cash.

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Speaker 1: So I agreed to be on the first ever episode.

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Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was live live. Usually these things

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Speaker 1: are taped, but this was live. Playing live had become

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Speaker 1: so alien to me. And now I was having to

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Speaker 1: do it in front of the whole country. And I

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Speaker 1: do mean the whole country. People from coast to coast

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Speaker 1: were tuning in to see Johnny and his music. Can

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Speaker 1: hear they had Bob Dylan doing the thing that they

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Speaker 1: all loved country music. Man, I had to do it well.

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Speaker 1: Creativity is a funny thing. It was at the Rhyman Auditorium,

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Speaker 1: a small venue at the best of times, but when

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Speaker 1: you add in a camera crew, stage, set equipment, and

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Speaker 1: studio audience, well, it's suffocating. Johnny assured me it would

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Speaker 1: be okay, but for the first time in a long time,

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Speaker 1: I was nervous, beyond belief. They asked me to wear

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Speaker 1: a velvet suit for the show. It's TV, they told me.

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Speaker 1: I tried it on and felt even more terrified about

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Speaker 1: the whole thing. I declined their offer. I knew I

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Speaker 1: must have looked nervous because Kenny, the drummer, asked me

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Speaker 1: if I was okay. Ship Man. He said, you look

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Speaker 1: like a frightened kid at a talent show. You know what?

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Speaker 1: Kenny was right? Man Transfiguration H Jones. People led us

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Speaker 1: to the stage and told us would be on in

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Speaker 1: two minutes after his introduction, I was sweating. It was

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Speaker 1: a mistake, all of it. I was sure of it.

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Speaker 1: It put my head into a different space. Why was

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Speaker 1: I even doing this? Why was I here? I hadn't

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Speaker 1: rehearsed properly. If you run a marathon without training, you'd

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Speaker 1: crash out after the first mile. Why did I think

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Speaker 1: this would be any different. Johnny was on the other

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Speaker 1: side of the auditorium and he nodded to me. As

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Speaker 1: the lights went out. They had the band in darkness,

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Speaker 1: I mean complete darkness. They might as well have not

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Speaker 1: been there. No one could even see them. It was

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Speaker 1: just me in the spotlight, like I was at a

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Speaker 1: James or something. At last. I was never comfortable with

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Speaker 1: that pop star ship, especially not at this moment in

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Speaker 1: my life that was important to me. Someone start to

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Speaker 1: counting down from five to four. I thought to myself,

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Speaker 1: what if I ran, just ran out that door now?

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Speaker 1: And then I cursed myself for picking a new song.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't have picked something I'd played a thousand times

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Speaker 1: before on a thousand stages. No. But before I could

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Speaker 1: even finish that thought, I heard three, two one, and

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Speaker 1: then a huge red light illuminated everything, followed by a spotlight.

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Speaker 1: Johnny and his trademark drawl said, ladies and gentlemen, here's

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Speaker 1: Bob Dylan, and I felt my stomach dropped. Fifteen stories

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Speaker 1: I played, I threw it all away, and somehow I

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Speaker 1: didn't throw it all away. You never know what's going

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Speaker 1: to move the needle or how even though the song's

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Speaker 1: run time is only two and a half minutes, it

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Speaker 1: felt like it went at a glacial pace. Later, I

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Speaker 1: sang with john A live on air, which was even

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Speaker 1: more exhilarating than in the studio. But the whole thing

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Speaker 1: reminded me I wasn't the man I was before. Something

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Speaker 1: had changed, maybe forever. I didn't know it that night,

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Speaker 1: but the Johnny Cash Show would be my last fond

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Speaker 1: memory in Nashville. Music City would soon turn sour and

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Speaker 1: I'd once again have to pack my bags and find

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Speaker 1: a new creative home. We'll be right back after this.

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Speaker 1: We were were. My cigarette was burning to the bitter end.

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Speaker 1: I took one last drag and tried to get my

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Speaker 1: vision and focus. I turned to the person next to

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Speaker 1: me and saw the most famous man in the world,

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Speaker 1: and he looked angry. Nashville saved Blonde on Blonde, no

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Speaker 1: doubt about it. Me though I was pretty beat up

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Speaker 1: at that point. The pace I was living at during

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Speaker 1: that time wasn't livable without drugs. The rate I was

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Speaker 1: going always meant I was going to crash. The pills

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Speaker 1: they could prolong that speed well for a little while.

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Speaker 1: At least. Sometimes you actually need physical movement. When we

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Speaker 1: were recording Blonde on Blonde in Nashville, I was still

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Speaker 1: writing the songs. Some days I'd make the session players,

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Speaker 1: Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss, Pig Robbins, all those Nashville cats.

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Speaker 1: I'd make them hang around in the studio until I

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Speaker 1: had finished the songs. Some nights they'd wait until two

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Speaker 1: or three in the morning. I'd saunter in and say, okay,

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Speaker 1: we're ready. Creativity is a funny thing. At first, I

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Speaker 1: think they enjoyed it, but after a while boardom set in.

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Speaker 1: They played cards and even invented a game where they'd

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Speaker 1: throw quarters into the ceiling tiles. You could get them

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Speaker 1: lodged in there if you threw them just right. This

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Speaker 1: pressure for creativity meant that I had to have a

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Speaker 1: stimulant to keep me going, and it worked just about

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Speaker 1: Who got the album done, didn't we? Even if the

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Speaker 1: final session literally lasted all night until the dawn. Those cats, man,

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Speaker 1: they could play Nashville. They got the songs, they helped

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Speaker 1: get down on tape what was in my head. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: you need a change of scenery. There was one evening

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Speaker 1: that stayed with me though after a rehearsal of the

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Speaker 1: song Rainy Day Women. I asked the guys in the

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Speaker 1: band what they did here, you know, when they weren't

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Speaker 1: busy making records. They weren't used to artists asking them that.

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Speaker 1: I could tell the song talks about getting stoned. So

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Speaker 1: is it about drugs? Make up your own damn mind,

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Speaker 1: use your own ears. I'm not here to discuss that.

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Speaker 1: But for the song to work, to have the atmosphere

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Speaker 1: that I wanted to have, I needed everyone in the

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Speaker 1: studio to be in the right frame of mind. It

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Speaker 1: put my head into a different space. I couldn't make

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Speaker 1: this song with everyone straight. So we came up with

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Speaker 1: a plan. We sent one of the studio custodians out

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Speaker 1: to a bar. Now Nashville cats never drank in a

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Speaker 1: studio ever, so this was quite new to them, and

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Speaker 1: they took to it instantly. There was one slight problem, however,

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Speaker 1: I had sent out for a drink I had seen

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Speaker 1: somewhere um lepre con cocktail. You heard of him? No,

337
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:53,520
Speaker 1: me neither, Well, not before Nashville. Anyway. They're supposed to

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Speaker 1: come in a shot glass of miniature yet highly toxic concoction.

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00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:01,159
Speaker 1: But the custodian became back with all these drinks in

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00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 1: milkshake cartons. They were gigantic transfiguration. We drank him down,

341
00:24:08,880 --> 00:24:12,639
Speaker 1: of course, they were like razors on your throat, and

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00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:15,760
Speaker 1: that feeling only got wilder when we passed round joints too.

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Speaker 1: The atmosphere was finally taking shape. That was important to me.

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Speaker 1: Later someone had the idea of putting a trombone on

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Speaker 1: the song, and so we called up a friend of

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Speaker 1: one of the cats, Wayne Butler. Woke him up in

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Speaker 1: the middle of the night. He got dressed, grabbed his trombone,

348
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Speaker 1: came to the studio, took a quick swig from the

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Speaker 1: milkshakeed Carton, played his part, and then went right back

350
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Speaker 1: to bed. That was it. I wanted them all to

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Speaker 1: sound like a salvation army vand that had been defiled,

352
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Speaker 1: and let me tell you, they delivered. That's what it

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Speaker 1: was like in those sessions. But that's not what it

354
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Speaker 1: was always like with drugs. Later that year, I was

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Speaker 1: in London, Man London had become a drag. This was

356
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Speaker 1: on that Judas tour. You recall, I'm still struggling to

357
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Speaker 1: escape from that damned tour. I'll be struggling to escape

358
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Speaker 1: it for the rest of my life, mark my words.

359
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:21,199
Speaker 1: Who knows. I'd been up all night with John Lennon

360
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Speaker 1: at his house in the Suburbs. We decided to get

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Speaker 1: his driver to take us into London to have a

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Speaker 1: look around the place. It all seemed so pretty in

363
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Speaker 1: that spring morning light. But somewhere between the Rits and

364
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Speaker 1: Hyde Park, the hangover and come down kicked in. The

365
00:25:37,080 --> 00:25:40,359
Speaker 1: whole thing was filmed for that ABC documentary, the one

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Speaker 1: I was supposed to be working on in Woodstock. Look,

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00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,760
Speaker 1: the footage is awful. There you have two of the

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Speaker 1: biggest musicians in the world, not solving any problems, not

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Speaker 1: writing any songs, just blabbing on, talking shit. It wasn't

370
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Speaker 1: just the drugs though. John and I were too tens

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Speaker 1: around each other. I can never exactly say why. We

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00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:06,919
Speaker 1: were similar in a way I guess too similar. We

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Speaker 1: would never have made it work in the studio together.

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Speaker 1: Creativity is a funny thing now. George Harrison he was

375
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Speaker 1: a good writing partner. I always got on with George.

376
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Speaker 1: We wrote and spent time together. We ended up becoming

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Speaker 1: good friends. Hell, we'd even end up in a band together.

378
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: But John, John was different. He'd tell me years later

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Speaker 1: about how uptight he was in the car that day,

380
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Speaker 1: and not just because of the junk we were on.

381
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Speaker 1: I don't know. I was embarrassed about it all, being

382
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Speaker 1: out of control, burnt out. I didn't want him to

383
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Speaker 1: see me like that. That was important to me. I

384
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:51,639
Speaker 1: was a mess. You know, you can't hide it when

385
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Speaker 1: you're a mess. The veil had slipped and I didn't

386
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,240
Speaker 1: have the energy to pick it back up. As the

387
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:00,480
Speaker 1: car journey wore on, I knew I was going to

388
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Speaker 1: be sick. I remember saying I was going to be

389
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,760
Speaker 1: sick right into the camera. I've done and said everything

390
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 1: else straight into that fucking camera on that tour, so

391
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,680
Speaker 1: why not be sick in front of it. They'd love

392
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Speaker 1: that Judas crowd that would finish off their story, the

393
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:23,240
Speaker 1: final miserable act of their former folk hero. I was

394
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: sweating and I couldn't see straight. My mouth tasted of

395
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 1: cigarettes and snot. Even the pale morning light gave me

396
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,320
Speaker 1: a headache through my shades. I said to John, look,

397
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Speaker 1: I don't want to be sick in here, but I'm

398
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: going to be sick. He made some quip about a

399
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:44,159
Speaker 1: remedy for sore eyes, groovy forehead or curly hair. I

400
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:49,960
Speaker 1: couldn't even respond. Sometimes you need a change of scenery. Later,

401
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,680
Speaker 1: when he dropped me off at the Mayfair Hotel, I

402
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: made good on my promise and spilled my guts everywhere.

403
00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,199
Speaker 1: I thought back to Nashville. While in that hotel, sobering up,

404
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:04,679
Speaker 1: I thought about how fun drugs used to be. That

405
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: crazy night while still recording Rainy Day Women in the

406
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:12,520
Speaker 1: morning after two those quarters still dangling from the ceiling tiles.

407
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: As I was finishing off some lyrics, the cats were

408
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 1: in the next room on a break, playing with a

409
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,200
Speaker 1: Luiji board. I'm not even joking. They were having to

410
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 1: find new ways of keeping boredom at bay. Between takes.

411
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Speaker 1: The bass player, this guy named Henry Stress Lucky. He said,

412
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:31,160
Speaker 1: you know this is going to be the biggest album

413
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,480
Speaker 1: in the world, or it ain't gonna do nothing. Then

414
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: I grabbed the lyrics sheet to I Want You and

415
00:28:37,040 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 1: told him I was ready to go again. J New

416
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 1: York City. Tom Wilson stood in the middle of Columbia

417
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,880
Speaker 1: Records Studio A and narrowed his eyes at Bob Dylan.

418
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 1: His scrunched up eyes did the talking forum. What the

419
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 1: fuck man? Tom Wilson was the producer, not Bob Dylan.

420
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:32,720
Speaker 1: Dylan didn't know what the hell he was talking about.

421
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,640
Speaker 1: He was way out of his league. He wanted Wilson

422
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:38,200
Speaker 1: to actually turn the organ up in the song's mix.

423
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 1: Wilson shook his head. That cat's not even an Oregon player. Man.

424
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:45,720
Speaker 1: Dylan jumped out of his seat and moved the goddamn

425
00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,320
Speaker 1: fader himself. He looked Wilson in the eyes. Don't ever

426
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 1: tell me who's an organ player and who's not. Tom

427
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 1: Wilson kind of had a point. The guy on Oregon,

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00:29:56,280 --> 00:30:00,400
Speaker 1: Al Cooper, wasn't actually an organ player, or a piano

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00:30:00,440 --> 00:30:03,880
Speaker 1: player for that matter. He was laboriously working out the

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00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: song's chords and sequence on the HAMM and B two keyboard,

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00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:09,640
Speaker 1: which he did by waiting for the rest of the

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00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 1: band to play a chord before he would join in

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00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 1: behind them. It resulted in a delayed organ riff that,

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00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:19,400
Speaker 1: to Tom Wilson sounded like a child's third lesson, but

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00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:26,960
Speaker 1: to Bob Dylan sounded just right. When Dylan's Like a

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00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: Rolling Stone was released as a single in the summer

437
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:34,360
Speaker 1: of nineteen, it shattered the earth, and that argued over

438
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,200
Speaker 1: organ riff was left up high in the mix just

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00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 1: where Bob Dylan had put it. Bob Dylan's journey to

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00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 1: Nashville was a long time coming, and it actually started

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00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 1: before the fateful Newport Folk Festival. Up until the recording

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00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 1: of Like a Rolling Stone, Dylan had made most of

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00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,480
Speaker 1: his records with producer Tom Wilson, but for both the

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00:30:55,520 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: producer and the artist, the sessions for Like a Rolling

445
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:03,120
Speaker 1: Stone would prove to be the last straw. The relationship

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00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: soured when Wilson named Dylan's fourth album Another Side of

447
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,920
Speaker 1: Bob Dylan. Dylan wasn't overly impressed with it, but he

448
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 1: was less impressed when, just the year before, Wilson had

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00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: booked a session without Dylan's knowledge in order to add

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00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: some overdubs to his recordings. While Wilson was a godfather

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00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,040
Speaker 1: of folk music, Dylan decided he'd had enough. He needed

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00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 1: a facilitator in the producer's chair, not a babysitter, and

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00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:33,360
Speaker 1: since Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman also had a fraid relationship

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00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: with the producer, the decision was an easy one. Wilson

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00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:44,440
Speaker 1: was out after the Newport Folk Festival, Bob Johnston was

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00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: in the control room. He received the call from Columbia

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00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 1: Records a few weeks before ever the Southern Gentleman. He

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00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 1: actually called Wilson to explain the situation, to which Wilson replied, help,

459
00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 1: I knew they were going to fire me. Bob Johnson,

460
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 1: on the other hand, it long admired Dylan and had

461
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: even explicitly expressed his desire to work with him, and

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00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,200
Speaker 1: now he could go into the forthcoming sessions with a

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00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 1: clear conscience. In those early Highway sixty one sessions, while

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00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 1: in the presence of Grossman and Columbia Records Vice chairman

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00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:19,720
Speaker 1: Bill Gallagher, Johnston suggested Dylan might one day want to

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00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:23,280
Speaker 1: record in Nashville, and Dylan brushed off the suggestion as

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00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 1: he did, and Johnston couldn't help but notice Gallagher and

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00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:31,840
Speaker 1: Grossman exchange glances. A week later, Johnston sat outside Gallagher's

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00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,680
Speaker 1: office at the Columbia Records Building, and he tried to

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00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 1: comb his messy hair with his fingers, and he buttoned

471
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 1: up a shirt. He attempted to calm his nerves. He tried,

472
00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,400
Speaker 1: but could not imagine any scenario where the record producer

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00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 1: being summoned to the vice chairman's office was a good thing.

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00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:51,240
Speaker 1: Columbia Records Vice Chairman, Bill Gallagher's secretary appeared and he

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00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:56,360
Speaker 1: was ready. Johnston walked inside Gallagher's office and after Grossman

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00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,959
Speaker 1: sat next to the vice chairman's large wooden desk, gross

477
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,520
Speaker 1: and dwarf the damn thing. His huge physical presence was

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00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 1: matched only by the presence of his character. Grossman didn't

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00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: say hello. In fact, he didn't say anything until after

480
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 1: five minutes of forced conversation between the other two men.

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00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: He addressed Bob Johnston directly, if you ever mentioned Nashville

482
00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 1: to Dylan again, we will fire you. The words were

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00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 1: half spoken and half spat. Gallagher attempted to soften the delivery.

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00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 1: What Albert is trying to say is we're having too

485
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 1: much success the way things are at the moment. Gallagher

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00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 1: and Grossman outlined in no uncertain terms that Bob Dylan

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00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 1: was the quintessential New York hipster and after everything that

488
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 1: had happened with his career image, that the music over

489
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 1: the last few months Nashville will be a change that

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00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: Columbia was not willing to accommodate, so instead Johnston brought

491
00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:57,400
Speaker 1: Nashville to Bob Dylan. The next month, he called Charlie

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00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 1: McCoy into the Desolation Rose Session, and Nashville immediately became

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00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:04,960
Speaker 1: an inevitability. Once Dylan had seen what Nashville could offer

494
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,760
Speaker 1: in the form of McCoy's stunning guitar work, it rendered

495
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:11,319
Speaker 1: both Gallagher and grossmen powerless, and if they wanted to argue,

496
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:13,319
Speaker 1: they would be the ones who would be fired, and

497
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,800
Speaker 1: they'd wind up wherever it was Tom Wilson had crawled

498
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:23,000
Speaker 1: off to Bob. Dylan's time in the Capital of Capital

499
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:26,400
Speaker 1: c Country was time well spent, and not only did

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00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,640
Speaker 1: it deliver one of his greatest albums in the form

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00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:31,440
Speaker 1: of Blonde on Blonde, but it also brought him back

502
00:34:31,480 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 1: into the studio after his nineteen sixty six motorcycle crash.

503
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:40,279
Speaker 1: Once installed in the city fully, he recorded his next

504
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:45,560
Speaker 1: three LPs there. Two of those albums, seven John Wesley

505
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:50,800
Speaker 1: Harding in sixty nine Nashville Skyline, were commercial and critical hits,

506
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 1: confirming Dylan's artistic status debilitating motorcycle accident be Damned, and

507
00:34:57,080 --> 00:35:01,600
Speaker 1: simply by making those records, he changed Nashville forever. After

508
00:35:01,640 --> 00:35:03,759
Speaker 1: it was revealed that he cut his magnum opus and

509
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,720
Speaker 1: one of rock's first and finest double albums in the city.

510
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 1: The floodgates opened, Nashville became not just a center for

511
00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:14,520
Speaker 1: country music, but a center for music, partly due to

512
00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:16,520
Speaker 1: the fact that Dylan had included the names of the

513
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:22,600
Speaker 1: album's musicians those Nashville Cats across the LPs gatefold. However,

514
00:35:23,160 --> 00:35:25,640
Speaker 1: by the turn of the decade, the magic and refuge

515
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 1: Nashville had given Dylan was starting to wear off, and

516
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 1: for the nineteen seventy album New Morning, he returned to

517
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,160
Speaker 1: New York. He wouldn't cut another studio album in Nashville.

518
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,000
Speaker 1: His time in Nashville also coincided with the end of

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00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:43,360
Speaker 1: the sixties, a decade where Dylan had been both the

520
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 1: poster boy for a generation and its saboteur. His celebrity

521
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:51,839
Speaker 1: had swelled and burst. He'd gone on a supersonic pace

522
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,400
Speaker 1: and then slowed to a crawl. It was a decade

523
00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:58,760
Speaker 1: of change and reinvention for both him and for the world,

524
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:02,120
Speaker 1: and in many ways the fate of both were intertwined.

525
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:07,560
Speaker 1: The next decade, the nine seventies, would bring even more change.

526
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:12,280
Speaker 1: The ride would be rougher, fate's simple twists not so simple,

527
00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:16,000
Speaker 1: and there would be plenty of blood on the tracks.

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00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:33,040
Speaker 1: Blood on the Tracks is produced by Double Elvis in

529
00:36:33,120 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. It's hosted an executive produced

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00:36:37,160 --> 00:36:40,920
Speaker 1: by me Jake Brennan, also executive produced by Brady Sadler.

531
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 1: Zeth Lundie is lead editor and producer. This episode was

532
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:48,280
Speaker 1: written by Ben Burrow, Story and copy editing by Pat Healy,

533
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:52,440
Speaker 1: Mixing and sound designed by Colin Fleming. Additional music and

534
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:56,839
Speaker 1: score elements by Ryan Spreaker. This episode featured Chris Anzeloni

535
00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:00,160
Speaker 1: is Bob Dylan. Sources for this episode are available at

536
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:02,440
Speaker 1: double Elvis dot com on the Blood of the Tracks

537
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:06,480
Speaker 1: series page, follow Double Elvis on Instagram at double Elvis

538
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,360
Speaker 1: and on Twitch at s Grace Slant Talks, and you

539
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:12,040
Speaker 1: can talk to me per Usual on Instagram and Twitter

540
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:30,520
Speaker 1: at Disgrace Landpond, rock and Roll Crazy, or Dad