tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post6248302736174183645..comments2024-03-21T00:34:35.359-07:00Comments on Every Bob Dylan Song: Bob Dylan Song #4: Man of Constant SorrowTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12613923038816299394noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post-57769114127229979852018-02-22T20:29:57.940-08:002018-02-22T20:29:57.940-08:00Hello there Tony, yes another fine analysis of a s...Hello there Tony, yes another fine analysis of a song recorded and performed by Bob Dylan. Come and join us inside Bob Dylan's Music Box http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/394/Man-of-Constant-Sorrow and listen to every song composed, recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, plus all the great covers and so much more.Music of Bob Dylanhttp://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/394/Man-of-Constant-Sorrownoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post-50394666622282640982013-12-02T14:13:14.643-08:002013-12-02T14:13:14.643-08:00Of course, there were four versions of this song i...Of course, there were four versions of this song in O Brother. The four was the newgrass version, but the first was a robust guitar + vocals version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZtgZ5fHOuU), while the middle two were briefer instrumentals. The movie exalted all sorts of rustic music-- not only Appalachian folk, but acoustic (and acapella) blues, gospel, country, and bluegrass. These genre divisions are generally more important to music listeners than to music makers, and indeed the most influential music makers routinely hybridized styles: Dylan, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, U2, the Beatles, Zeppelin, etc.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13897907465365971441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post-51782837422856755972008-11-17T08:32:00.000-08:002008-11-17T08:32:00.000-08:00I would definitely say there is a folk resurgence....I would definitely say there is a folk resurgence. I think has been blended into indie/folk more so today, but especially in the Lansing area, folk is pretty big. Frontier Ruckus, Two Gallants, and even more stuff with a lot of influence from artists like Bob Dylan like quite a bit of Wilco, etc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post-23312616399217366282008-07-12T06:58:00.000-07:002008-07-12T06:58:00.000-07:00Oh, I'm totally with you. Most of those bands are...Oh, I'm totally with you. Most of those bands are not worth listening to at all. I'm not even really a big Iron and Wine fan (and Animal Collective is very, very bad). However, it *is* folk music, if not traditional folk music, and it is much more popular than most contemporary folk musicians. And possibly for good reason. I'm a very big fan of bluegrass music, but most contemporary bluegrass musicians are totally without interest.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16275910125866070618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post-34701616907460462902008-07-11T23:46:00.000-07:002008-07-11T23:46:00.000-07:00I'll have to check out Six Organs of Admittance. I...I'll have to check out Six Organs of Admittance. I will admit that a lot of the bands you mentioned I've either not listened to yet (Joanna Newsom - that will have to be rectified, also) or didn't particularly care for (Animal Collective - <I>Sung Tongs</I> was SUCH a waste of time). <BR/><BR/>Iron and Wine, on the other hand, is great, and I really enjoy his music. And his cover of Dark Eyes with Calexico is truly outstanding.Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12613923038816299394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post-6890902100186350872008-07-11T09:27:00.000-07:002008-07-11T09:27:00.000-07:00Although I don't think you could justifiably call ...Although I don't think you could justifiably call it a renaissance, I do think there is some increased interest in folk music. Artists like Six Organs of Admittance, Devendra Barnhardt, Animal Collective, Joanna Newsom, Iron and Wine, The Sunburned Hand of the Man, etc. all make music that is directly inspired by folk music. <BR/><BR/>Most of them are pretty terrible, and play new compositions almost exclusively. A few of them (Six Organs of Admittance) are pretty great, and there is a good deal of interest in some of them (Devendra Barnhardt, Iron and Wine).Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16275910125866070618noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post-36767808818090924722008-07-05T20:35:00.000-07:002008-07-05T20:35:00.000-07:00Man, you weren't kidding when you told me you had ...Man, you weren't kidding when you told me you had a monster reply. This is as nerdy and meta as we can get about Bob, and I love it.<BR/><BR/>First of all, let's not forget the Soggy Bottom Boys also look like Tim Blake Nelson and John Turturro, aka The Jesus. Are YOU going to fuck with the Jesus, mang? That being said, I see your point re: Dylan's growly folk version > the poppy OBWAT? version. I guess what it comes down to is I'm sucked in by how catchy the Oh Brother? version is, not to mention my previously stated worries and odd feelings re: Dylan's debut to begin with.<BR/><BR/>Amazing tip-in with Ralph Stanley - were I the type to actually do much in the way of research, I might have added that little spicy nugget of knowledge (or, at least, read about it and discarded it as irrelevant). I'm also glad you pointed out how Dylan very rarely changes arrangements (which is why "trad. arr. Dylan" is such a cute little joke), and must confess that my memory of the 90s cover albums is *extremely* hazy and will need to give a rehear or two. I always forget that my depth of Dylan knowledge is merely a Lake Huron compared to your Lake Superior.<BR/><BR/>Looking forward to hearing the '88 acoustic versions - he had some really fantastic performances there (the Berkeley San Francisco Bay Blues deserves official release, IMO), and I'm sure this is no different. And, btw, the '02 Solid Rocks were AWESOME.Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12613923038816299394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2448601238585270507.post-35621507273692892072008-07-05T15:24:00.000-07:002008-07-05T15:24:00.000-07:00I'm (a man of constant) sorry, but I cannot endors...I'm (a man of constant) sorry, but I cannot endorse the O Brother version of the song, a nice bit o' fun, over Dylan's rrrraw lament. To me, Bob actually sounds like a man of at least semi-frequent sorrow. The singer in the Soggy Bottom Boys version, with its downright poppy harmonies, just sounds self-consciously oldtimey (and looks like George Clooney). <BR/><BR/>I don't like to rate such things against each other, actually, because I'm such a pushover for Bob and easy believer in "no one can interpret and fully invest themselves into a song like Dylan" (when he's committed, of course, and not just goofing around with something like "Nowhere Man" or "Homeward Bound"). So I'm not much of a real arbiter. Really, though, I suppose the two versions have very different intentions. While its commercial achievement was surprising, the OBWAT? MOCS is still a (don't get me wrong, successful and fully realized) commercial bluegrass arrangement. Whereas Dylan's is full-on white blues, all up in the Appalachians and whatnot.<BR/><BR/>IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII do think the elongated first lines carry some drama in their own right -- aural if not narrative tension. Of course, as would become even clearer 30 years later with the cover albums, and as you get into nicely in your post on Baby Let Me Follow You Down, Bob is not really a maverick when it comes to the *arrangements* of traditional songs, and stays consistent with them, perhaps best exemplified when he goes so far as to replicate Blind Boy Fuller's "Aw Shucks!" during his performance of Weeping Willow at the Supper Club. So I would venture that it probably wasn't his idea to sing it that way, but that that's how it was done in his favorite version of the song that had been shown to him. A version which presumably also carried this particular iteration of lyrics with Colorado et al.<BR/><BR/>I agree with you that the 2002 version is only kind of neat. I guess it was a tribute to his longtime acquaintance T-Bone Burnett in light of the popularity of the song -- and the fact that, as fate would have it, the soundtrack ended up, erm, defeating Love And Theft for the Album of the Year Grammy a month before he started playing it. Plus Dylan conveniently had the perfect band for him at the time to execute that arrangement with the harmonies. He's also clearly got a lot of renown for Ralph Stanley, who I think first popularized the song -- the version of which that the Soggy Bottom Boys are pretty clearly paying homage to -- as they recorded a duet together on an album in the late 90s.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, if the '02 NET performances, with the start-stop (sounds kind of like Solid Rock?), are merely interesting (not the first, or tenth, best bluegrass cover he was doing with Larry and Charlie harmonies he was doing around that time), the acoustic version he did in 1988 is truly breathtaking, as were most of the covers from that year. As with the '02 version, he uses the Kentucky lyrics consistent with Stanley and the Soggy Bottom versions, but keeps the lines from the first album about rambling "through ice and snow, sleet and rain." Folk is a song of constant changes.<BR/><BR/>http://rapidshare.com/files/127439712/Man_of_Constant_Sorrow_04-05-02.mp3.html<BR/><BR/>http://rapidshare.com/files/127439713/Man_of_Constant_Sorrow_06-11-88.mp3.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com