Sign on the Window isn't the Bob Dylan podcast you need, but it's definitely the one that you want! Each week we select a Dylan song at random, live with the song for a week (or two) and then get together to discuss. This week we travel down to northeast Tennessee for "Kingsport Town."
You'll find context (2:00), Kelly's slam poem about Kingsport (4:30), Kingsport and Daniel's relationship to the area (7:00) and our attempt to unpack the song (13:30).
Next week: Three may indeed be a crowd, but we'll give it a shot. Relive St. Patrick's Day with us!
CONTEXT (2:00)
Dylan record "Kingsport Town" on November 14, 1962 in 1 take.
Clinton Heylin wrote:
When ‘Kingsport Town’ entered general circulation in the late eighties, it seemed like a real throwback. Its use of folk commonplaces – and inclusion alongside a first-album outtake – suggested an early composition. Yet its delivery bore the hallmark of a songwriter who was some way down the road to the fully realized 'Seven Curses' and ‘Percy’s Song,’ both written the following year. In fact Dylan appears to be purposely demonstrating how sophisticated his grasp of traditional templates is becoming.
He's never played it live.
KELLY'S KINGSPORT POEM (4:30)
Now this is a treat: Kelly does a slam poem about Kingsport, TN.
KINGSPORT (7:00)
Now this is standard practice: Daniel does a historical overview of the Tri-Cities area (Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport) in southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee.
Daniel went to college for a year in Wise, Virginia (in the Clinch Valley, an hour from Johnson City, mainly traversing mountains). Through his own reflections, they talk the origins of the name, the 1770 Treaty of Lochaber, the Cumberland Gap, the Battle of Kingsport featuring George Stoneman (see our Band Month and "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down"), Mary the elephant, and traffic circles.
SONG ITSELF (13:30)
A "missing my gal" song, before even "Boots of Spanish Leather."
the narrator has been driven from old Kingsport Town because of an illicit affair, probably with the high sheriff's daughter, and is left wondering who will be taking care of his babe when he’s 'out in the wind...'
Kelly saw it as an interracial relationship, or the girl is an outlaw and takes the fall for her. Either way, definitely part of the SEVEN CURSES EXTENDED UNIVERSE™.
As for the music, the guitar is gorgeous, Dylan's voice is playful and earnest, and the structure is a bit intoxicating (like "Must Be Santa," less on the piling on of lines, more of the lines bleeding into new verses).
Tony Attwood wrote:
this type of folk song has long been popular with travelling singers because it gives the singer a certain cachet — the singer portrays himself as having been around the world and suffered all sorts of hardships and problems, and he (or she but generally he) has washed up here, in this bar, and tells his tale.
Robert MacMillan, in his excellent Haiku 61 Revisited series, wrote:
Cops chase man from town.
He messed around with a girl.
He thinks she'll miss him.
DOES IT WORK IN 2019?
For Daniel, it made him this week think about a different life (mainly the beautiful guitar) and how do I achieve it? Rising up in some company or finding a sustainable lifestyle? How do I run from the sheriff and kiss her Memphis mouth?
Mainly, it was thinking of that formidable year in Wise and how he hasn't really been able to get back there since then, almost 15 (!!) years ago.
THE EPISODE’S BOOKLET & PLAYLIST
RECOMMENDATIONS (31:30)
Kelly watched Russian Doll on Netflix. The Wire is still good. Spaced.
Daniel read Robert Bolaño's Spirit of Science Fiction and American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGreal. PUP's "Free at Last" video and concept.
Free At Last Covers | Playlist by PUP | Audiomack
ENDINGS (36:00)
Took "Kingsport Town" off our list. There are 431 songs left. Kelly guessed #406, which could've been "Absolutely Sweet Marie," off 1966's Blonde on Blonde. Nope. It's #296, "Baby, I'm In the Mood For You."
We close with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit's excellent "Cumberland Gap."
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080 – "Kingsport Town"