Nashville skyline
| Nashville skyline | ||||
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| Studio album by Bob Dylan | ||||
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Publication |
April 9, 1969 |
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| Label (s) | Columbia | |||
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
27:14 |
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| occupation |
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Bob Johnston |
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Studio (s) |
February 12 - February 21, 1969 |
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Nashville Skyline is a studio album by Bob Dylan . It was produced by Bob Johnston and was released on April 9, 1969 on Columbia Records . On the Asian market, the album was released in 1973 as a licensed recording by Life Records .
After first releasing a country music track on John Wesley Harding (I'll Be Your Baby Tonight) , Dylan turned to country music on this album. Later albums fell back into folk and / or rock .
The most famous song on the album is Lay Lady Lay , which reached number 7 on the US pop charts.
Collaboration with Johnny Cash
The successful country singer Johnny Cash had been friends with Dylan since 1964. On his '65 Orange Blossom Special , he sang three songs written by Dylan.
Bob Johnston was Columbia producer of Cash and Dylan and arranged for a meeting between the two in February 1969. They spontaneously recorded around 18 songs in the studio, mostly songs by Dylan or Cash (One Too Many Mornings, Big River , I Walk the Line ) . However, both thought the recordings were too bad to publish. But Girl from the North Country was taken for Dylan's album.
Dylan lived in Cash's house until the end of the recordings for the album and wrote the song Wanted Man for him there . Cash recorded this shortly afterwards for his album Johnny Cash at San Quentin . When he announced the song, he explained to the prison inmates who Bob Dylan was and called him "the greatest writer of our time".
Cash also wrote the lyrics for the album and received the 1970 Grammy Award for best record text ("Best Album Notes").
Track list
All the songs were written by Dylan. The instrumental number Nashville Skyline Rag is the only song on the album that Dylan plays on the harmonica.
- Girl from the North Country (with Johnny Cash) - 3:41
- Nashville Skyline Rag (Instrumental) - 3:12
- To Be Alone with You - 2:05
- I Threw It All Away - 2:23
- Peggy Day - 1:59
- Lay Lady Lay - 3:20
- One More Night - 2:25
- Tell Me That It Isn't True - 2:45
- Country Pie - 1:35
- Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You - 3:23
To the content of the songs
The central theme of the album is love. All songs have to do with it, be it memories of an old love (Girl from the North Country) or regrets about the end of a relationship (I Threw It All Away) . The songs One More Night, Tell Me That It Isn't True and I Threw It all Away document the influence that country singer Hank Williams had on Dylan.
Lay Lady Lay reached number 7 on the US pop charts, making it one of Dylan's greatest chart successes. Of all the numbers on the album, it sounds the least like country music. It is a sensual song in which the singer expresses how strong his desire for a woman is. Dylan himself said of this song that it contained "romantic and possibly sexual premonitions".
Remarkable
- At the beginning of Girl from the North Country , Dylan can be heard chewing gum.
- The album was the first to contain material from Cash's guitarist Bob Wootton . The first Cash album with Wootton ( Johnny Cash at San Quentin ) was released in June 1969.
- At the beginning of To Be Alone With You , Dylan asks producer Johnston if the tapes are on ("Is it rolling, Bob?").
- With I Threw It All Away Dylan appeared on the Johnny Cash Show in 1969 . It was his first TV appearance after his motorcycle accident.
- Since Dylan had only decided to use a cowbell and bongos for the song Lay Lady Lay during the recording , the drummer Kenny Buttrey lacked the right tripods. Kris Kristofferson , who was then employed as the caretaker of Columbia Studios, was then asked to hold the instruments for the recording.
Individual evidence
- ^ Clinton Heylin: Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960-1994. New York 1995, pp. 74f.
