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. We have FINALLY MADE IT TO EPISODE 100: "Dirge" from 1974's Planet Waves!
Kelly and Daniel visit Planet Waves for the first time since Episode 5 (and include a snippet because those early episodes are basically unlistenable!). We talk dirges, marches and music theory; crypticness as an assett; the differing camps one can view this song through and if it works in 2019, our final song of the year!
Context (5:00)
Initial takes — Kelly recorded "Dirge" Dirges, marches, 4-4 time (7:00)
Song Itself and crypticness as an asset(13:30)
Camp Sara (20:00)
Camp Burnout of 1960s (29:00)
Camp "Love" and Society (34:30)
Camp Drugs (40:00)
Does it work? (42:00)
Playlist (46:30)
Recommendations (53:00)
Endings (1:00:00)
Next episode: We'll choose Episode 101 during our Year End specials in December!
Context (5:00)
A first take of "Dirge" is rumored on November 10, 1973 with Bob, Rob Fraboni, Nat Jeffrey and "Bob's friend" — probably Harry Dean Stanton, who we talked about during our Music Video Month episode "Dreamin' of You" (062). This would be after he added acoustic takes on November 9 with "Wedding Song" and "Forever Young."
He's officially record the track on November 14, 1973. Bob is on piano and Robbie Robertson on acoustic guitar. The song was logged as "Dirge for Martha."
Fraboni told Recording Engineer later:
Recording Engineer: Was that the last song they cut?
RF: Actually, the final recording happened during the mixing. We had mixed about two or three songs, and Bob, Robbie, Nat and I were there. Bob went out and played the piano while we were mixing. All of a sudden, he came in and said, "I'd like to try 'Dirge' on the piano." We had recorded a version with only acoustic guitar and vocal a few days earlier.
Recording Engineer: Were you ready for it?
RF: We weren't ready at all, we were mixing. But we put up a tape and he said to Robbie, "Maybe you could play guitar on this." They did it once, Bob playing piano and singing, and Robbie playing acoustic guitar. The second time was the take. It was another one of those incredible, one-time performances.
Recording Engineer: Was anyone else involved in the mixing?
RF: Robbie Robertson has a good ear for mixing, knows what he wants to hear. So it was pretty much him and Bob when it got down to mixing. Robbie and I mixed the record together, and Bob was there commenting and making suggestions. He wanted certain types of sounds. He wanted a kind of bar room sound from the piano on Dirge rather than a majestic sound. He also wanted a raunchy vocal sound. We actually mixed Dirge immediately after we recorded it that night. Robbie and I listened to it once and I said, "Let's mix it right now." So we took a mix, and that's what's on the record. It had a unique character, and it was important to him. We did another mix later going for a more 'polished' sound, but didn't use it. That's the kind of stuff he was sensitive to, how the mixes affected the character of the music. That might have been more important to him than the sound quality.
This song was never played live.
Song Itself (14:00)
"Dirge" was the standout of our 5th episode on Planet Waves. It did not disappoint 95 episodes and nearly three years later. Kelly and Daniel talk about the sound of Robbie's guitar, Dylan vocals (Clinton Heylin said that "alone is acidic enough to strip layers of skin"), dirges and march songs, 4-4 time and music theory.
Lyrically, Daniel creates different camps. Camp Sara (20:00), Camp Burnout of 1960s (29:00), Camp "Love" and Society (34:30) and Camp Drugs (40:00).
Camp Sara
It's hard to contrast the artfully cryptic lines that are obviously full of meaning to our narrator with the hollowly cryptic lines from last episode. The "old hotel" conjures the Chelsea immediately. Dylan singing, I hate that foolish game we played and the need that was expressed echoes the future "Idiot Wind." And, of course, the ending of the song:
Lady Luck, who shines on me, will tell you where I’m at
I hate myself for lovin’ you, but I should get over that
Ron Howard voice: "He won't."
The New Yorker’s Ellen Willis wrote at the time:
Planet Waves is unlike all other Dylan albums: it is openly personal … I think the subject of Planet Waves is what it appears to be—Dylan’s aesthetic and practical dilemma, and his immense emotional debt to Sara.
Camp Burnout of 1960s
Most of this camp rests upon verse 3:
Heard your songs of freedom and man forever stripped
Acting out his folly while his back is being whipped
Like a slave in orbit, he’s beaten ’til he’s tame
All for a moment’s glory and it’s a dirty, rotten shame
The appeal in a certain subset of Dylan fans is clear, if it does reduce to power of the song. To bolster this you clutch onto the mention of Lower Broadway and the evocative — if vague — "age of fiberglass."
Camp "Love" and Society
Dylan singing out the Doom Machine leads us here, and, specifically, verse 4:
There are those who worship loneliness,
I’m not one of them In this age of fiberglass I’m searching for a gem
The crystal ball up on the wall hasn’t shown me nothing yet
I’ve paid the price of solitude, but at last I’m out of debt
It's an all-timer lyrically. There's a lot of angst happening. This camp coming after considering Sara and Dylan the meta-figure inside of all his songs makes this one standout some, but only for fleeting moments. I love Shelton on this verse:
Planet Waves can be seen as Dylan’s edging into a new assault on language. There is a hesitancy, even a bit of clumsiness, as in the 'age of fiberglass' line, which sounds like he’s revving up his engine.
Camp Drugs
Finally! This one is mostly bullshit, but you can fill in the blanks with some of his lines:
You were just a painted face on a trip down Suicide Road
That hollow place where martyrs weep and angels play with sin
Can’t recall a useful thing you ever did for me
’Cept pat me on the back one time when I was on my knees
Does this work in 2019? (42:00)
It's a resounding "yes" from Kelly and Daniel. The piano work is incredible, Robbie's guitar is virtuosic, the melody is original and complex, and the lyrics are dense. To quote Buffy Summers: "There is no bad here."
THE EPISODE’S BOOKLET & PLAYLIST (46:30)
RECOMMENDATIONS (53:00)
Beyond "Dirge," Kelly was revisiting the Deftones and Team Sleep again. Also Idiot Pilot. She also attended a Buffy Halloween party in Portland. (She went as Oz with her "God" name tag). Her and Daniel also went to see The Menzingers with Culture Abuse and Tigers Jaw at Hawthorne Theater.
Daniel listened to Jeff Rosenstock's latest live album, Thanks, Sorry. He finished The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells.
With the year closing down, he was finishing his '60s playlists with backlogs of John Coltrane (and his Quartet), Miles Davis, Phil Ochs, Tim Buckley, Tom Paxton and more. (See my 1960s playlist below. This isn't a cut-and-paste playlist or some greatest hits — these are my favorites that I've listened to. I plan on updating it yearly with the newest jams and randomizing it so, depending on when you find this, it'll be greatly expanded. The embed will only show 100 songs so click in and follow!)
ENDINGS (1:00:00)
See our Christmas Special to find out what the next episode is!
REFERENCES IN EPISODE
Chopin - Marche Funèbre (Funeral March)
Phil Ochs - Flower Lady (mono version)
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