Bob Dylan’s love for the blues reached new heights in his ode to Blind Willie McTell in a 2006 fan video
Bob Dylan Blind Willie McTell fan video
Bob Dylan wrote Blind Willie McTell in 1983 for the CD Infidels but it was left off the release.
The song had been circulating in bootlegs for almost a decade when Columbia release it 1991 on the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991.
The song is a classic tale from Dylan and is one of his better “long” songs.
The lyrics are cryptic and evocative, with rich images of the South, slavery and blues. The tune is largely snatched from St. James Infirmary which gets a mention in the last verse.
I was playing in a bar one night and a 22 year old man asked me to play it. I couldn’t believe that this obscure Dylan song had reached into his age.
Dylan said “I started playing it live because I heard the Band doing it. Most likely it was a demo, probably showing the musicians how it should go. It was never developed fully, I never got around to completing it. There wouldn’t have been any other reason for leaving it off the record. It’s like taking a painting by Monet or Picasso – goin’ to his house and lookin’ at a half-finished painting and grabbing it and selling it to people who are ‘Picasso fans.'”” (Rolling Stone 2006)
Blind Willie McTell named in the chorus line “No one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell” was a blind blues musician from Georgia. While he is rated as influential, until Dylan wrote his name into a song, very few people talked about him. That’s of course Dylan’s sense of irony.
His song Statesboro Blues became a staple for the Allman Brothers.
Sources – Wikipedia and Blind Willie McTell
This video was taken by a fan in October 2006.
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