"I thought that show was tremendous," Costello said. "Both
Bob
Dylan and Merle Haggard were absolutely
at their peak. Bob has a great new band. He's
playing very intricate arrangements ...
Merle Haggard was funny as hell
and sang like a bird. It was a
terrific complementary show of two people you admire."Elvis Costello
Long story short...working with
Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard on a
Jimmie Rodger's documentary...time goes by. Dylan calls Merle to go
on road with him. I get to
go along on one of Merle's buses and cross America with
the Hag and Bob Dylan. The tour sold out in 2 days
on Bob Dylan's
website...I was the only digital movie
and still camera on the tour...with pen in hand I documented a historic concert
happening with two great Pioneer
Troubadour Icons. I
was a hog in slop in hog heaven!!!!
I kissed my two kids bye and hopped a train
from Paso Robles, California up the central coast to Seattle, Washington, where the
Bob Dylan Spring
tour with Merle Haggard and Amos Lee was to set out for the near two month
tour. I boarded one of the Hag's buses and went on a magical mystery tour...After 36 years in the entertainment and
music business, I must say that I have never seen so many standing ovations than I have seen
for Bob
Dylan and Merle Haggard... each and every night of their Spring tour together.
There has not been one show since the tour started two months ago that a person was left setting
after the end of the last song from each of the icons.
flash forward for news article...Sept. 2006...
Dylan's Swing Time Waltz in the Face of the
Apocalypse
By
PETER STONE BROWN
"In 2005 Dylan
went on tour with Merle Haggard and his band The Strangers opening. To some
it was an odd choice but to those who knew Haggard’s music it wasn’t.
Haggard, like Dylan had explored all kinds of music, doing tribute albums to
Jimmie Rodgers and Western Swing legend, Bob Wills, exploring New Orleans
music and various theme albums. He led one of the tightest bands in country
music, capable of playing any style. Haggard is also one of the best
songwriters in country music and unfortunately best known for the
anti-hippie, “Okie From Muskogee,” which early on gave him the reputation as
a hard-core right winger. The humorous thing about all this was by the time
he toured with Dylan, he was an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq and of
the Bush administration.
On that tour,
Dylan’s band changed dramatically. Longtime guitarist and
multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell departed and at first Dylan replaced
him with three people including violinist Elana Fremerman, who had opened
for the Dylan/Nelson tour the previous summer. I wondered if Dylan was
nervous about Haggard’s band and felt he had to bolster his own, with a twin
fiddle attack to match Haggard’s (Haggard plays fiddle in addition to
guitar)."
Paul Allen, who I had a few talks with about Museums
and the possibility of meeting Merle Haggard on the
Dylan tour, and he was interested in the number of
streaming shows I had produced on the Internet since
it's invent...wild to have talks with the man that was
Bill Gates partner at Microsoft and virtuall invented
Microsoft Word. I loved the bloody cutting edge...
Bob Dylan's American Journey
is opening in Seattle
where the Bob Dylan's American Journey 1955 to
1965 Exhibit...at the
EXPERIENCE MUSIC PROJECT
Back to 2005 Dylan Hag tour...
After some searching around on the Internet
I find that this Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard tour might be kickin' up more dust than
any music event
in a long time. Kinda has the ring of when Dylan went to Nashville and teamed
up with Johnny Cash and the synergy between the two not only created
the Nashville Skyline
album and brought much of the recording industry to "tune town," but was a mark in the
beginning of "country rock," that spurred
the "outlaw" movement and southern rock. Or,
when Gram Parsons teamed up with the Byrds...and there are some interesting links between Merle
and Gram and Dylan and the Byrds.
Dream Tour For The Common Man Tue, Feb 01 2005, Pollstar Magazine
The spirit of Woody Guthrie must be dusting off the old suitcases
and getting ready to take to the great highway again, with two of his most lauded musical descendants
mounting a spring tour of most West Coast dates so far.
Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard are kindred spirit singer/songwriters;
one is country and the other a little bit rock ‘n' roll. These should be rollicking shows,
with Bob bringing along his band and Merle appearing with The Strangers. Amos Lee will come
along for the ride as well.
Intimate theater gigs with two superstars of the caliber of Dylan
and Haggard don't come around very often, and most of the tour dates confirmed so far include
extended runs. "The Bob Show" kicks off March 7 with a three-night stand at Seattle's Paramount
Theater and heads down the West Coast, hitting Portland, Ore., Oakland, Los Angeles,
Denver, Chicago on on East...
Ironies in the fire...paradoxes in the
evolution of the life and times. As one writer put it in an article, "Hearing Merle Haggard's combative,
love-it-or-leave-it anthem "Fightin' Side of Me" and Bob Dylan's primal, prophetic
call-to-action "The Times They Are a Changin'" on the same
bill was one of many up-is-down, down-is-up, left is right and right is left moments Monday night as the two music legends
opened a five-night
run at the Paramount in Seattle, Washington."
A few star sightings around the Dylan
Haggard Train:
THE TOUR SCHEDULE
Bruce Willis Andy Garcia two nights Kelsey Grammer Richard Gere Roger Waters Ringo Star Meg Ryan Elvis Costello Jack Nicholson Paul Newman Lucinda Williams Peter Wolf Don Knox Tim McGraw & Faith Hill Ethan Hawk William Defoe Hammond Jr.
Max Gail Bonnie Raitt Pierce Brosnan Buck Owens Bob Weir-Grateful Dead Bill Krutzman-Grateful Dead Ramblin' Jack Elliott Rosanna Arquette Jerry Seinfield Natalie Cole Rickey Phillips-- Styx Jessica Lang Stephen Wright Richie Havens Bill Walton Donald Fagen-Steely Dan
DATE CITY VENUE
March 7-9 Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre
March 11-12 Portland, OR University of Portland -- Chiles Center
March 14-16 Oakland, CA Paramount Theatre
March 21-23 Los Angeles, CA Pantages Theatre
March 25-26 Los Angeles, CA Pantages Theatre
March 28-29 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium
April 1-3 Chicago, IL Auditorium Theatre
April 5-6 Chicago, IL Auditorium Theatre
April 8-9 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom
April 15-17 Boston, MA Orpheum Theatre
April 22 Mashantucket, CT Fox Theater
April 24 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Resort Spa & Casino
April 25-26 New York, NY Beacon Theater
April 28-30 New York, NY Beacon Theater
"It sold out in hours just about
everyplace," Haggard says. "It's a prestigious thing for me.
I'm thrilled." The 11-city 39 show
theater tour is the first time these two outlaws have toured
together. However, Dylan has been
on the road doing stadium shows with Merle's saddle
pal Willie Nelson. In talking about
the teaming up with Dylan, Haggard said, "It's a real
honor, I probably wouldn't have done it
with anybody else. I think our connection is real clear;
Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie influenced
both
of us. I just took it in one direction, he
took it in another. Now here we've come,
full circle.
The
Jimmie Rodgers Saga
Painting by Linda Standley-Anderson
Both artist are well known to
have been influenced by, and are big fans of both Jimmie Rodgers and Woody Guthrie. Both
have done tribute albums to Jimmie Rodgers. Merle released "Same Train, Different Time,"
in 1969. In the liner notes of the album it says, "Like Willie Nelson, Haggard has
found inspiration not mere monuments in the past
...Here he must also have felt a kinship
to
Rodgers' constant wandering since there's a feeling of both intensity and amusement to his versions of this material. Rodgers' songs may romanticize loneliness and the hobo's
life but Haggard knows that doesn't mean they aren't true, at least in
the right
hands."
Dylan released in 1997, the compilation
"The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute, with Jimmie Rodgers songs on the CD by Jerry
Garcia, Willie Nelson,
Bono and many other great stars...in the liner notes Dylan
says, "Though he is claimed as The Father of
Country Music, the title is limiting
and deceiving in
light of today's country music and hewouldn't have understood it. In his
time, he was better known as "The Singing Brakeman"or "Blue Yodeler" and
hence in some
circles, he has come to be known as the "Man WhoStarted It All" which is more to the
truth for he was a performer of force without
precedentwith a sound as lonesome and mystical as it was
dynamic. He gives hope to the vanquished and humility to the mighty.
Indeed, he sings
not only among his bawdy, upbeatblues and railroading songs, but also
Tin Pan Alley trash and crooner lullabies as well.
Might find it interesting to note that
the Dylan Tribute CD included "Hobo Bill's Last Ride," recorded with The Strangers, Haggard's
band and Iris Dement. We might note another in- teresting time these two icons brushed
shoulders was back in 1969, when they appeared on the Johnny Cash television show, at
the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, (known as the
"Mother Church").
Dylan and Cash sang "Girl From the North Country." Cash and
Haggard sang "Sing Me Back Home," a song Dylan
is now doing in most every show, and many times as a encore or the last song before
the encore on the Dylan Haggard tour.
TRAIN CONNECTIONS...Haggard is an
"Okie" if there ever was one, born there in 1934. Dylan left Minnesota in 1961 on a journey
to visit the Okie poet laureate Woody Guthrie in New York, who was one of Merle's music
heroes. One of Dylan's best albums is "Blood on the Tracks," and one of the Hag's
best albums some say is "My Love Affair With Trains." Dylan has been known to sing Willie Nelson
and Merle Haggard's "Pancho and Lefty. Bob has been out on tour with Willie Nelson
before boarding up with Merle on this train ride, well really the tour is moving in two 18 wheeler
trucks, one huge merchandise trailer, and six tour busses, and the Dylan camp also travels
in a jet from from some cities to the next gig.
Both are considered "outlaws"...Merle is
a real one, having been given a full pardon in '72 by Gov. Ronald Reagan, for his misdeed
of robbery. I would say that they are both poets and troubadours of the common man, be
it on the right or the left...or the millions that are down the center and want a different world
that either the left or right gives to the people that just want to find and enjoy the "American
Dream." Both artist walked off "The Ed Sullivan Show." Both are total "troubadours"...both
are mysterious, and two of the best songwriters in music history.
Dylan has before, as now, had the guts
to write with sensitivity and clarity about the times that are changin'. He is a prolific
artist who not only carefully reports the times and the in- justices of the day, but continues to
do so as the conditions of the world seem to continue to worsen, and he does not lose his resolve
to be a gadfly, if you will. One sees in the per- formance his dedication to his music.
It only seems fitting that he should take the position of not only the artist, but the leader
of this great band.
Merle Haggard was born on April 6, 1937
in Bakersfield, California, in the 30s Haggard's parents migrated from the Dustbowl to
"the land of milk and honey", California. Life was hard, Haggard's dad was a railroad man
and Haggard himself was born in a converted rail- road boxcar, many of his great songs come
from those times..."Mama's Hungry Eyes", "California Cotton fields", "They're Tearin'
The Labor Camps Down" and "The Way It Was In '51". In 1957 he was sent to
San Quentin prison for burglary, a Johnny Cash concert in January of 1958 led him to join the prison
band. Songs from his prison experiences include "Sing Me Back Home," a song that
Dylan is doing in many of the shows.
Haggard specializes in writing deceptively
upbeat songs about the road, longing for a woman, the bottle, the past, trains, ramblin'
and the struggles of the rural working class. He has the voice now, after all these
hard years, of a Big Crosby to Lefty Frizelle, and he can sing Jimmie Rodgers, Roger Miller,
Johnny Cash, impersonations that will make you set up and applause. "Okie" went
double platinum in 120 days, and Haggard went on to record forty number one hits to date.
Many roads traveled from the time he hoped a freight train at 11 years old.
My hat don't hang on the same nail too long. My ears can't stand to hear the same old song. An' I don't leave the highway long enough, To bog down in the mud. 'Cos I've got ramblin' fever in my blood.
Caught this ramblin' fever long ago, When I first heard a lonesome whistle blow. If someone said I ever gave a damn, Man, they damn sure told you wrong. I've had ramblin' fever all along.
FROM RAMBLIN MAN BY MERLE HAGGARD
Writer in Jazz Magazine said, "Arguably the
world's greatest living country music singer and undeniably the greatest living country
music songwriter, Merle Haggard has been writing, recording and performing for over forty
years. He's charted over forty number-one country hits. While considered the most truly
“country” of country artists, there has always been a strong influence of blues and especially
jazz music in the sound of Haggard and his virtuoso group the Strangers.
They're selling postcards of the hanging They're painting the passports brown The beauty parlor is filled with sailors The circus is in town Here comes the blind commissioner They've got him in a trance One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker The other is in his pants And the riot squad they're restless They need somewhere to go As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
What do we say about
Bob
Dylan?
There has been over 50 books written about him, and his Chronicles: Volume I is a great
look at the man that has
mastered music and transformed and fused music and sounds since he arrived
in New York from Hibbing. After his many years as a troubadour and the
book we
understand more his passion for music. He is quick to let others know he has been influenced
by the likes of Jimmie Rodgers, Woody Guthrie,
Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Joan Baez,
Harry Belafonte and others. We know he was born Robert Zimmer- man in Duluth in 1941,
but he has
reinvented him self so many times, does anybody know who Bob Dylan is?
And then there is the influence of Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
In his book he says, “Highway 61, the main
thoroughfare of the country blues, begins about where I came from…Duluth to be exact.
I always felt like I’d
started on it, always had been on it and could go anywhere from it, even
down into the deep Delta country. It was the same road, full of the same contra-
dictions,
the same one-horse towns, the same spiritual ancestors
The Mississippi River, the bloodstream
of the blues, also starts up from my neck of the woods I was never too far away from any of it.
It was my place in
the universe, always felt like it was in my blood." Dylan is doing a great
rendition of "Highway 61" on this tour.
Highway 61 Revisited... Is considered
one of Dylan's best works, it is a masterpiece of folk and rock. The album was voted by
Rolling Stone Magazine
as the 4th of the best 500 Albums of all time. I always knew
that there were some interesting things that happened along this highway, so I Googled and
found some... Highway 61 Revisited was Dylan's sixth album released by Bob Dylan. Highway 61
stretches from New Orleans through Memphis and
Chicago through Hibbing, Minnesota,
Dylan, is from Hibbing, he has much Mississippi blues in the album. Dylan grew up in a
small Minnesota town, and
as a youth he loved the blues and jazz coming up Highway 61.
"Like a Rolling Stone" was on the album. Robert Shelton, a Dylan biographer, said:
"Highway 61 became I think to him a symbol of freedom, a symbol of movement, a symbol
of independence and a chance to get away from a life he
didn't want in that town." 1
Bessie Smith, the blues singer, died on Highway 61, while Elvis Presley grew up in housing
projects along it and Martin Luther
King, Jr. was shot on Highway 61.
Now the fifth daughter on the twelfth night Told the first father that things weren't right My complexion she said is much too white He said come here and step into the light he says hmm you're
right Let me tell the second mother this has been done But the second mother was with the seventh son And they were both out on Highway 61.
Now the rovin' gambler he was very bored He was tryin' to create a next world war He found a promoter who nearly fell off the floor He said I never engaged in this kind of thing before But yes I think it can be very easily done We'll just put some bleachers out in the sun And have it on Highway 61.
In the spirit of Jack Kerouac, Robert left
Hibbing in 1959 on a Greyhound bus bound for Minneapolis, where he would introduce
himself as Bob Dylan, and as
many writers have said over and over he continues to reinvent
himself over and over again since that time... and continues to cover ground with the
passion he
has for his music. This dedication I am seeing first hand on this tour.
From the stage hands, to the sound crew, lighting, security and management. This is
about the
music and entertaining. Dylan is a pro. He is a band leader. He is mysterious, and
we love him for it. He is on a never ending tour, just "like a
rollin stone."
By the time they get to New York no telling
what will change in music as we know it...
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship,
My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip,
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin'. I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
FROM MR. TAMBOURINE MAN BY BOB DYLAN
The
curtain opens on the Hag...
Behind
every great all-star performance are the true unsung heroes of the tour, the
roadies. Responsible for more equipment every night than some
cheap
moving companies deal with all year, the roadies,
stage crew, sound and light guys arrive in the city long before the show
starts. Smaller groups often hire
moving companies to move the
gear, but big bands have their own
18-wheelers. While the band members sleep in the hotel or cruise to
the venue in a
chartered jet, the crew sets up the stage, flies the sound, hooks in the lights
and effects, hangs the curtain, sets up the drums, amps, microphones and
other instruments and gets everything just right for the band's arrival to sound check
around 4:00 p.m. every afternoon. If the show goes perfectly, nobody
thinks
about the crew but if there are any mistakes, often a crew member is left applying for a job
at the local moving companies before the night is over. Then,
when the
curtain falls they tear it all down, pack it up and load it back into the truck. Often as
soon as the last
box is placed, it's hard driving through
the
night to the next city where it's done all over again.
Haggard walks on stage dressed in black,
including fedora, with his band The Strangers,
who have been on the road with him for
over 4 decades, and
having been voted the
"Touring Band of the Year," numerous times.
Merle goes right into "Think I'll Just Stay
Here and Drink." Later he tells
the crowd
that he has the oldest touring bar band in the
world. We have nurses instead of roadies.
He received 3 standing ovations before he had finished the fifth
song of the night.
"Vocally, Dylan's more guttural than ever,
but he was also amazingly limber, playing his
roughness for both laughs and pathos on
"The Man in Me" and
rephrasing "Memphis Blues
Again" with an ascending stop-time melody
that was less sardonic than wistful. And his phrasing got especially loopy on "Mr.
Tambourine Man": "In the jingle-uh- jangle-uh-morning-
ugh, I'll come-uh, following uh- yooouuu."
For his second encore, Dylan tipped his hat to an
alleged
co-writer with a lovely version
of Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home," reported theSeattle Times.
The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom I stood up to say good-bye like all the rest And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell 'Let my guitar playing friend do my request.' (Let him...)
Sing me back home with a song I used to hear Make my old memories come alive Take me away and turn back the years Sing Me Back Home before I die
I recall last Sunday morning a choir from 'cross the street Came to sing a few old gospel songs And I heard him tell the singers 'There's a song my mama sang. Can I hear once before we move along?'
Sing me back home, the song my mama sang Make my old memories come alive Take me away and turn back the years Sing Me Back Home before I die
Sing Me Back Home before I die
Dylan sings Hag's..."Sing Me Back Home"
Merle gets 3 standing ovations by the 5th
song the first night in Seattle...You could see and
feel how much they appreciated his genius,
even if not totally aware
of his music before
the show, Merle went far to remind them
that he has written a few songs and been down a
few roads himself. The audience
would hang on
his every word and were quick to give
him standing ovations, over and over through
his performance with his touring band TheStrangers.
After Merle leaves the stage there's a
15 minute stage setup and the curtain opens on the
Bob Dylan show, with all the band members
each night in semiformal
outfits. Bob is
usually wearing a cowboy cut suit, boots
and cowboy hat. At the same time these outlaws
are in Seattle, Paul Allen's (Bill Gates
partner in
Microsoft and a big music fan to say the
least) EMP Experience Music Project has
a Dylan exhibit across town, to underscore to
his status as a literary icon and bestselling
author. In Seattle Dylan does several songs from
2001's "Love and Theft" album, with old hits such as "Like A Rolling Stone," "All Along
the
Watchtower," "Watching the River Flow"
and "Mr. Tambourine Man." He opened
with "Drifter's Escape." Dylan sang "The Man in
Me," from 1970's "New
Morning" album,
which was followed by "Stuck Inside of Mobile
With the Memphis Blues Again," with Don
Herron's pedal steel guitar solo taking us to
another Dylan convergence in his music.
Dylan and band also did "Moonlight" from the "Love and Theft" CD, and the anti-war
song "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only
Bleeding)," with
great response from the audience.
Among the newer ones in set were "Honest With Me,Cat's in the Well," and "Sugar Baby."
THE LEGENDS MEET...
I had helped get Merle on his bus after
his performance, I was standing down by the bus,
Dylan's manager comes up to me and says
that Dylan would like to meet Merle before he
goes on...can I have him at the stage
door in about 4 minutes. Wow, I think "Merle is on bus
taking off his boots and Frank is somewhere
backstage. So I call Frank and tell him that in
few minutes Jeff wants Merle out here
to meet Dylan, he says, "thanks, be right there." I
jump on the bus and tell Merle that in
less than 4 minutes that Dylan would like to meet you
out side at the stage door before he goes
on.
Merle looks at me and says, "sure."
He heads back of bus and puts his boots back on.
He and I walk to the doorway where Jeff
said to bring Merle. Frank walks up, then like outa
nowhere Dylan is standing there.
Dylan says, "Hey Haggard." Haggard says, "Hey Dylan."
They shake hands and Bob leans over to
Merle and says, "Merle, sometime I want you to
teach me how to hop a freight train."
Working on a documentary called the
Jimmie
Rodgers Train I get a cold chill at Dylan
bringing up freight trains. I think
of some other similar train tracks that these two have run
down together and at separate times.
I am working with both Dylan and Haggard on the doc
about the "Singing Brakeman," Jimmie Rodgers,
and am in hog heaven hearing the two talk about freight trains. Many
might not know, that Merle was born in a train car.
Dylan's band is getting great reviews.
I would say they are one of the best bands in the
in the biz. Besides his tours with
the Grateful Dead, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,
the Rolling Thunder Revue (including Roger
McGuinn, Bobby Neuwirth and others), and the
most famous band linked with Dylan: The
Band, Dylan has put together a very exciting
group that at times sounds like a country
rock orchestra. Bob Wills is tapping his foot in
his grave at the the music that seems
to revive out of this band.
The band now with the Bob Dylan show is
with fabulous drummer George Recile, who has
worked on project with Rolling Stones'
guitarist Keith Richards and other greats in the biz. Stu Kimball is lead guitar,
who joined last year. Kimball has performed on albums with Bob
Dylan, Bruce Springstein, Carly Simon,
he from Austin and played with Stevie Ray and
Jimmie Vaughan. Donnie Herron
is on banjo, violin, pedal steel and is from the Nashville
based BR5-49. Elana Fremerman
- violin and fiddle is from Hot Club of Cowtown, might
say discovered when Dylan and Willie were
doing shows together and her band was on
the shows. Tony Garnier
is on bass and has played with Dylan longer than many musicians,
and comes from the great Bob Wills
Texas style swing band Asleep at the Wheel. Dylan is
is on piano and harp.
Bob Dylan and his long time bass player
Tony Garnier...great
guy and I had some fun time and great talks about music history
with Tony...he turned me on to Emmett Miller and some of Bob's
thoughts on Jimmie Rodgers and Miller...
When Ruthie says come see her In her honky-tonk lagoon, Where I can watch her waltz for free 'Neath her Panamanian moon. An' I say, "Aw come on now, You must know about my debutante." An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need But I know what you want." Oh, Mama, can this really be the end, To be stuck inside of Mobile With the Memphis blues again.
THE STRANGERS...on the road for
40 years with Merle...Merle says they don't have
roadies, they have nurses. We have
an ambulance that follows the bus...on this tour the
following Strangers are in the band.
Long time drummer with the Strangers is Biff Adam,
on bass is Kevin Williams,
Doug
Colosio for eight years has been on piano. Tim Howard on guitar, long time Stranger and a great steel
player is Norm Hamlet, Norm
doubles as a bus driver for the band buss. On
horn and sax is Don Markham, backup singer is TheresaHaggard, Merle's wife. On
fiddle and mandolin and from Dwight Yokam's band is ScottJoss. Merle is on lead guitar
and vocals. Frank, Fuzzy and Noel have been keeping
the show on the road, with 3 buses moving
the troubadours down the highway.
My hat don't hang on the same nail too long. My ears can't stand to hear the same old song. An' I don't leave the highway long enough, To bog down in the mud. 'Cos I've got ramblin' fever in my blood.
Caught this ramblin' fever long ago, When I first heard a lonesome whistle blow. If someone said I ever gave a damn, Man, they damn sure told you wrong. I've had ramblin' fever all along. Merle Haggard from Ramblin'
Fever
Haggard and the Strangers rehearse and sound check
First two shows both Bob
and Merle hang in the wings and watch each other's shows.
I can see and I hear that their is a mutual
energy going on, and there
is a feeling that this is going
to be one heck of a tour. Merle
is working on a new song...their is synergy in the room...Merle told the audience that he was
going
to hang around his house for a few months and
got a call from Bob Dylan and said wanted
me to play on some gigs from Seattle to New York with
him and I asked him, Why?
Later Merle commented that at first he did not want
to go because the money was not good enough,
Haggard says, "I'm Not
an opening act."
They laugh, and Merle goes on with a song.
Tie die and deadheads, Seattle hipsters...Dylan
stayed on the side of the stage and played his piano and harmonica all night never
picking up the guitar once.
They love the show...
it is going to be hard for the critics
to be critical from what I am seeing.
Tweedle-dee Dum and Tweedle-dee Dee They're throwing knives into the tree Two big bags of dead man's bones Got their noses to the grindstones
Living in the Land of Nod Trustin' their fate to the Hands of God They pass by so silently Tweedle-dee Dum and Tweedle-dee Dee
Well, they're going to the country, they're gonna retire They're taking a streetcar named Desire Looking in the window at the pecan pie Lot of things they'd like they would never buy
Neither one gonna turn and run They're making a voyage to the sun "His Master's voice is calling me," Says Tweedle-dee Dum to Tweedle-dee Dee
Amos Lee was on tour opening each show
Donnie Herron
The tour is being opened each night by
Amos
Lee, a singer-songwriter whose light blues
and folk style has a gentle and mystic
sound. Each night when their is
usually the noise of
the audience finding the way to their
seats for the show, these folks get seated fast and
begin to enjoy the soft mellow voice and
music of Amos Lee and his band. He is like a
young James Taylor, with some Dylan mixed
in for those that like some comparisons. Jaron Olevsky is on bass,
Fred
Berman on drums, Nate Skiles on guitar, mandolin
and trumpet.
Helping Amos Lee and band move down the
road and stay up with Dylan and Haggard is
Hollace Detwiler
as tour manager
and Kenny Townsend is production manager.
Meet a few folks have tickets for 20 shows...tickets
going for $200 to $300 bucks out front of venue. Talk to a lady that is taking
buses, getting rides, taking train
to get to the shows
and then standing out front hoping for
a free ticket. At Oakland she said she had seen
every show.
Streets next to Paramount blocked off for
the trucks and buses of Dylan and the Hag to
park...great excitement around the movement...trucks,
buses, crew, the union boys, security, fans looking for a peek at the legends,
or get some music memorabilia signed. There's
always a feeling of confusion and excitement
around the backstage door from the time the
big trucks begin to unload until the band
busses pull out for the next city.
We jump on the "ole gray mare"...head
back to the hotel on the river. Merle, the band
Frank and Darrell go in hotel in rooms
each night. I stay on the bus and have a bunk for
sleep, bunk to keep my stuff and the desk
is my office thus far...great place to document
the tour from. Getting great pics
of the road, the tour buses, trucks, and the venues...soon
we roll the cameras on more of the players
on this Dylan and Haggard Track...I get a
room from time to time, and hang in the
hotels and restaurants with the guys.
Merle Haggard and Bob Dylan's buses in Seattle
I had the feelings after the first two
shows that Dylan has some great country vibes going
on...beyond touring with Willie Nelson
and now Merle Haggard and wearing cowboy boots
every night. I had thoughts back to when
he did the Nashville Skyline album. In 1969 Dylan joined up with another country
legend, when he recorded Nashville Skyline
with Johnny Cash. Cash said about
the album, "One that came out of that session was
"Girl from the North Country" -- was a
guest song on Bob Dylan's album. Bob Dylan's appearance brought a great deal of attention
to Nashville, a lot of attention that a lot of my
peers did not give him credit for, but
still he brought a lot of attention on Nashville -- people
like him and people to follow who recorded
songs
in Nashville because Bob Dylan had..."
Charlie McCoy said, "It's probably the
one biggest thing that ever happened to Nashville --
as a recording center of all kinds of
music. Because after he came here,
it was like people...
people in the rock music business all
of a sudden said "Oh, wait a minute. Dylan went to
Nashville, so it must be okay to go there."
Some say
that "Nashville Skyline" was a full
fledged country album, and had the great
"Lay Lady Lay," "To Be Alone With You," "I Threw It All Away," "Tonight I'll Be Staying
Here With You," and the duet with Johnny Cash.
Johnny wrote the following on the album:
Bob Dylan and his complex relationship with
the Byrds, Jim Dixon, Gram Parsons and the
Sweetheart of the Rodeo album were all
beginning to set the stage for what would become
Country Rock. When Dylan went to
Nashville the emergence was made and a sound that
is still alive today in the "new country
music," that is seeing such popularity. When I hear
Dylan do "Mr. Tambourine Man," I think
back to the hybrid sound that Dylan and Cash and
Gram Parsons and the Byrds were making
and the musical dance and personal relation-
ships that were part of the chain of influence
in those great musical times. Remember these
guys were influenced by bluegrass, music
of Merle Travis, Jimmie Rodgers, Woody Guthrie
Ramblin' Jack Elliott and other country
boys.
To add more wood to our irony in the fire,
country great Haggard was a huge influence on
Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman. Parsons
recorded his song "Somebody Else You've Known" on Safe at Home (LHI, 1968) with
the International Submarine Band. Later Parsons
and Hillman covered "Life in Prison" (on
Sweetheart of the Rodeo with the Byrds), "Sing Me
Back Home" and "Tonight the Bottle Let
Me Down" (on Sleepless Nights (A&M, 1976) with
the Flying Burrito Brothers). Jerry
Garcia also did "Sing Me Back Home."
This man can rhyme
the tick of time The edge of pain, the what
of sane And comprehend the good
in men, the bad in men Can feel the hate of fight,
the love of right And the creep of blight
at the speed of light The pain of dawn, the gone
of gone The end of friend, the end
of end By math of trend
What grip to hold what he
is told How long to hold, how strong
to hold How much to hold of what
is told. And Know
The yield of rend; the break
of bend The scar of mend
I'm proud to say that I
know it, Here-in is a hell of a poet.
And lots of other things
And lots of other things.
-- Johnny Cash
and the headlines read:
Dylan reinvents himself yet again, and makes it work
Dylan and Haggard have surreal old time
The Bob & Merle Show...Two legends roll into Oakland
Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard:
An engaging double shot of rock and country legends
Haggard strong, silent, but certainly not stoic
Bob Dylan takes a turn at country
Dylan, Haggard defy the years
Hear Him Out: After 40 years on the road,
Haggard still has a lot on his mind
Okie and the poet thrill the Pantages
Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard hit the Pantages
Kockin' on Haggard's door
Bob Dylan's latest guise: keyboardist
Elana Fremerman
What a great addition to the Dylan Band
during the tour with Haggard. Elana
plays
the fiddle like nobodies business, as they
say...Dylan had her center stage and she
was a joy to be around on the tour!!!!!!!!
Before the show Buck Owens comes on Merle's
bus. They talk about old friends, the biz,
and Merle sings him a couple new songs
he is working on. One he started writing the
other night during the first shows in
Seattle. You can see the great friendship between
these two great legends. They talk
about Jimmie Rodgers.
Later Buck says, "Let's go see Dylan."
The small group with Merle and Buck head back
to the backstage room where Dylan is with
his band. I walk in right behind the two
country Icons...it was a great look of
pleasure and surprise that was on Dylan's face when
he saw Haggard and Owens standing just
in the door and side by side. Hawerd the feelings
of some wild west old time movie with
flashes to the future and back again. Buck has
taken Dylan one of his famous red, white
and blue guitars to give to him. You can feel
the magic in the room with these three
legends. Interesting to me that Dylan is doing a
Merle Haggard and a Buck Owens song in
his show...musical synergy.
Merle plays Buck Owens a new song of Kris Kristofferson's
he is doing.
Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens
picture by Karen Rotan
The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom I stood up to say good-bye like all the rest And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell 'Let my guitar playing friend do my request.' (Let him...)
Sing me back home with a song I used to hear Make my old memories come alive Take me away and turn back the years Sing Me Back Home before I die
Dylan was singing Merle's SING ME
BACK HOME nightly
Some paper in Springfield, MO says, "Merle
Haggard seemed to be in very fine shape, always a marvelous singer and picker and
classy as country gets. His band, the Strangers,
remain impeccable. Look great and
play like you'd expect. Excellent vibe throughout.
Merle Haggard and the Strangers are perhaps
the highlight in terms of energy and connection with the audience. On this
night, people stood up again and again as Merle cranked
out his classics. He has a presence
on stage
that is something to see. As the elder
statesman in this Show, I suppose he knows
he has to set the standard."
The red velvet curtain backdrop is beautiful
and the show's shows lighting is very profes-
sional, while the sound men fight to find
just the right mix in the art theaters. During one
song Merle stopped and said, "You know
these theaters are built for a man to set on a
stool here on stage with a Martin guitar
and sing and play, and the entire audience can
hear him, then we come in here with all
this electricity and f____ it up." The audience
claps in approval. However after
the Seattle show the sound guys had seemed to have
all their problems worked out.
Merle said, "I quit smokin' weed in 1992,
but being here in Oregon I might start again.
You got a fine state here. That
stuff might not make you live longer if you quit, but it will
seem like it." Then he went into
"Ramblin' Fever."
Dylan starts his show with "Maggies Farm"...Standing
backstage you see how serious the band, crew and Dylan are about the
show and the music. Professional is the order
of the night. After some thirty
plus years in the music biz I have never seen a show with
so many standing ovations. During
the music dead silence, and more standing ovations
than you can shake a stick at.
The first thing I remember knowing, Was a lonesome whistle blowing, And a young un's dream of growing up to ride; On a freight train leaving town, Not knowing where I'm bound, No-one could change my mind but Mama tried. One and only rebel child, From a family, meek and mild: My Mama seemed to know what lay in store. Despite all my Sunday learning, Towards the bad, I kept on turning. 'Til Mama couldn't hold me anymore.
And I turned twenty-one in prison doing life without parole. No-one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried. Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied. That leaves only me to blame 'cos Mama tried.
MERLE
HAGGARD
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. No, I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more. Well, I try my best To be just like I am, But everybody wants you To be just like them. They sing while you slave and I just get bored. I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.
"Hey, were one step from being homeless...
we got a backstage pass...the circus is in town."
Great "Wild West" feeling in the music.
Dylan is doing some boot skootin'..."Highway 61"
and they roar by the second note and they
have the flashbacks
remembering how the
Grateful Dead would not know what song
Jerry was going to play, but by the second note
they were playing the song he chose.
Haggard is himself playing without a set list and the
band has after all the years a second
sense, when it comes to Mr. Haggard and the next
song he
wants to play. By the second
note...they all got it.
Donnie Herron on steel in Bob's band and
the sound is giving me a feeling beyond Jerry
Garcia in the New Riders of the Purple
Sage, which really came
about as a creation of
jam sessions when he had gotten him a
new steel guitar in Hawaii, what many called psychedelic country, and the sound that
came
out when Gram Parsons with JD Mannis
on steel in the Sweetheart of the Rodeo
album, that history may someday mark as the beginning of "country
rock," or when Jimmie
Rodgers began to introduce the steel guitar into
music in the early days with Billy
Burks on steel. The rock/country/western sound
of the
steel blending with the violin/
fiddle of Elana Fremerman are giving such great rearrangements to "Just Like a Woman" and an especially
delicate
"Girl of the North Country."
The audiences have been a mix of old and
young, cowboys in hats, hippies in tie-dies, deadheads, Dylan devotees, and "A"
list celebs. Many baby
boomers bringing their kids
to see the icon that they have known
and loved for several decades and Haggard fans.
This has no doubt opened a new
market
of fans by the tens of thousands to Merle Haggard and Dylan again recreates himself
as he has done since the days he was singing Woody
Guthrie songs and playing in the
coffee houses in New York.
Life is like a mountain railroad With an engineer that's brave We must make the run successful From the cradle to the grave
Watch the curves, the fills, and tunnels Never falter, never fail Keep your hand upon the throttle And your eyes upon the rail Haggard
As a backstage observer I must say that
with the Dylan and Haggard bands and crew it is
the music and the job that are important.
No party backstage. There
is a show to do.
The Haggard team is a little more relaxed
with a certain amount of backstage guest on the stage and in and out of his bus through
the night.
Both men have shown their commintment to their music and are there to perform.
Has been a very smooth connection between the Dylan camp, the Haggard
Camp and the
UPSTAGE boys running the lights, sound and production of the project.
On stage and in interviews Haggard said,
"Dylan is the Marlon Brando of music." One
show he said, "Dylan is Einstein...man
this guy is a genius." He has
called him "the great
Bob Dylan," and points out that he is
just the opening act, and just a bar band and not used
to such big cultured audiences.
The stage and dress of the bands has been
very eloquent, which is irony for two known rebels and outlaws to be dressed dressed
to kill, with their bands as
well wearing great
looking "western" style clothes, the Dylan
gang being a little more dapper in his black western wear and wearing a black cowboy
hat with
a cowboy image it is said he has
been adorning for a couple of years now.
The set design with the red velvet curtain,
a background later of stars and then the Dylan
logo with a sense of majesty and royalty.
As they stood on stage
each night with their
no bow, no thanks stance as the curtain
closed gave me a feeling a some modern day Shakespeare actor/musicians that just gave
the performance of their life, and they knew it,
and Dylan takes the prize fighter stance
looking at the audience like they are some strangers on a future wild west
town,
and they might draw guns at the drop of a hat.
Paramount Theater in Oakland, California
By the Oakland shows the national press
have picked up on the tour with United Press, the
Hollywood Reporter, Variety Magazine,
Associate Press, Reuters,
and all the local papers
giving coverage to the show. We
feel like the shows up untill LA will be the rehearsal and the
real tour begins in Los Angels at the
Pantages Theater.
Oakland, California shows at the beautiful
Paramount Theater on March 14, 2005. BonnieRaitt is backstage, and Pearce Brosdan,
Bob Weir and
Bill Krutzman of the Grateful Dead,
the one and only Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
The set list for the show is:
Drifter's Escape
It's All Over Now, Baby
Blue Tweedle Dee & Tweedle
Dum The Man In Me (Bob was center
stage with just his harp - no piano)
Highway 61 Revisited
Can't Wait
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With
The Memphis Blues Again Under The Red Sky
Bye And Bye (Donnie on violin)
Honest With Me
Mr. Tambourine Man
Summer Days
(encore)
A-11 (song by Hank Cochran)
and cut by Buck Owens All Along The Watchtower
I am setting backstage with Ramblin' Jack
Elliott and Bob Weir comes over showing some excitement. After Jack introduces
us, Weir tells Jack, "Wow, Jack
I just met Merle Haggard."
Weir had gone out front to the merchandise
booth and bought a Haggard CD. Backstage
was a feel of time past and future with
Bob Weir and Bill Krutzman of the Greateful Dead,
Bonnie Raitt, actor Pearce Brosden, the
CEO of the Jerry Garcia estate, managers for Aaron Neville,
TV/video producer Len Del Amico...Dylan waves to Ramblin' Jack as they
lead him to the stage.
In all the shows, Dylan has been playing
a portable keyboard and standing crouched into
the microphone sometimes making moves
of a band leader and
sometimes dancing to the
music. Each time he picks up the
harmonica the crowd applauds, sometimes while doing
his harmonica solos he will leave his
curled position behind the mic and take center stage.
Joel Selvin, San Fran Chronicle Senior
Pop Music Critic said, "Now that he is a piano
player, he has
adopted a new singing style,
too. Crooning and pushing his voice hard at
the same time, Dylan made little turns
into his upper register, tiny melodic burnishes
that
finished lines unexpectedly. He needs
that surprise. He pushes at the boundaries of expectation and, if the result is sometimes
chaos, it's impossible to
tell it he is the master of
his own destiny on-stage or just hanging
on for dear life."
"Haggard gave a smooth, assured demonstration of the high art
of honky-tonk singing,bringing along an extraordinarily efficient troupe he called "a
polished beer-joint band."Haggard, 67, knows that nuance is the highest aspiration of art
and he invested avacuous pop song such as "Unforgettable"... when it came to playing,
though, he was allbusiness. he opened with a 20 minute volley of song after
song before stopping to say,"Hello, I'm Merle Haggard." The crowd exploded into a standing
ovation. He played adozen of his own hits, but closed with songs from his heros, Jimmie
Rodgers and Bob Wills."
SAN FRANCISCO TRIBUNE
It's four a.m. in New York City three a.m. in Dallas
The night is still early here in Frisco
Market street's still going the same old shows are showing
And I'm still all alone here in Frisco
They say it's raining in Chicago and it's cold and clear in Denver
Been windy all night long here in Frisco
Troley cars are clinging the big Bay Town's swinging
And I'm still all alone here in Frisco HAGGARD\
LOS ANGELES...PRESS
Dylan, Haggard defy the year...
Okie and the poet thrill
the Pantages--LA Times
Besides Merle Haggard telling the sell
out audience at the grand Pantages Theater in Los
Angeles that, "There is something that
Bob and I have in common,
we are big fans of
Jimmie Rodgers (the Singing Brakeman),"
and to add to the "train" mystique of the tour,
the LA Times had the following,
"With a lineup that includes flashy Elana Fremerman on
violin and Donnie Herron on banjo and
pedal steel guitar, Dylan and the six-piece unit
roared with the fury of a LOCOMOTIVE,
BARRELING DOWN THE TRACKS SO FAST,that if you missed a note or
a vocal line you'd be run over." And, "...or when he (Dylan) turned "The Times They
Are A-Changin" inside out to make the folk tune into aMODERN LOCOMOTIVE EXPRESS."
Merle has some 40 number one country hits
to draw from and countless other songs that he does of his favorites Lefty Frizzle,
Jimmie Rodgers, Buck Owens,
and others. At the
opening show at the Pantages he did Grammy
winning song "Mama Tried," "Silver Wings" and "The Bottle Let Me Down."
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)
Merle Haggard says he didn't want to go on tour with Bob
Dylan at first. The money wasn't good
enough,
Haggard says. "I'm not an opening act."
The country titan changed his mind after
he watched the film "Runaway Jury." Its soundtrack
includes Norah Jones'
version of Dylan's
"Heart of Mine." That affecting performance got
Haggard thinking. "I said, f---,
I guess I'll have to go with him," he says, in his ever-blunt way.
Haggard joked often with the audience and
poked fun at his band the Strangers, and him-
self for a missed note or lyric during
the show. He goofed on "Okie
From Muskogee," then
he stopped mid-song and told the audience
he had a "senior moment." He also mentioned
his mentioned his memory lapse on
favorite
pastime he shared with his friend Willie Nelson.
"Me and Willie can't remember anything,"
Haggard said, "But we love everybody."
About Merle
The LA Voice said, "Merle Haggard
strode out to respectful applause which continued throughout his set. I didn't
expect a lot from him, but he
quickly laid to rest any
doubt as to his considerable talents.
His voice is in as fine a form as one would want from a
country singer, and that's saying a lot.
He
also took most of the guitar solos himself. The
monologues were funny and self deprecating,
and he stopped songs midway often to joke and tease his band
mates ("the oldest bar band in the world"). They were cut off after playing a snippet of a song about the benefits
of marijuana; Haggard explained that he didn't
have the motivation to finish writing
it."
In LA some front section seats were selling
for a grand. I go outside before Merle goes on
and climb on his bus and there is
Ringo
Star, wow. We would also
see
Jack Nicholson, TimMcGraw and
Faith Hill that night on Merle's
bus. The night that Merle did not sing "Unforgettable" Natile Cole was in the audience.
A few nights later Merle said he could kick
himself in the butt for not knowing she
was there. Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby being
among his key influences in
music, you
could hear him crooning' for sure.
Wish I was down on some blue bayou, With a bamboo cane stuck in the sand. But the road I'm on, don't seem to go there, So I just dream, keep on bein' the way I am. Wish I enjoyed what makes my living, Did what I do with a willin' hand. Some would run, ah, but that ain't like me. So I just dream and keep on bein' the way I am.
For those that were of the mind set that
Merle was from the establishment because of the
song he wrote for his dad, "Okie From
Muskogee," he reinvented
himself with numerous
references to his love for marijuana in
his 55 minute set, and received a great ovation for
his song about growing old, "I wish I
could
Be
30 Again." The LA Weekly had the statement, "The ironical nature of Bob Dylan
choosing the Okie from Muskogee as tour mate is
inescapable,
particularly as it can be
persuasively argued that Haggard is the perfected
and superior artist: a vocalist of illimitable
sensitivity, a lyricist of dazzling reach
and expressive power, and a guitarist capable
of both mule-kick impact and angelic restraint...The
influence Haggard has had on several generations
of
players is demonstrably greater than
Zim's--there are a small army of arena-level
performers who owe Haggard a vast debt..."
One writer said about Dylan's band, "His
backing band proved adept at roadhouse rocking,
country-tinged maneuvers and blues styling...The
group tore
it up during the ramshackle
boogie of "Highway 61 Revisited"
and later shifted into swing mode for the jumping
"Summer Days."
BOB DYLAN SET LIST IN LOS ANGLES
March 21, 2005
Drifter's Escape
The Times They Are A-Changin' Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum Just Like A Woman
High Water (For Charley Patton)
Down Along The Cove
Moonlight
Highway 61 Revisited
Love Sick
Honest With Me
Girl Of The North Country
Summer Days
(encore)
Sing Me Back Home
All Along The Watchtower
March 22, 2005
Drifter's Escape
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Under The Red Sky
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Down Along The Cove
Floater (Too Much To Ask)
Highway 61 Revisited
This Wheel's On Fire
Honest With Me
Masters Of War
Summer Days
(encore)
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
All Along The Watchtower
March 23, 2005
To Be Alone With You
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
Lonesome Day Blues
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The
Memphis Blues Again
Man In The Long Black Coat
Highway 61 Revisited
Ballad Of Hollis Brown
Down Along The Cove
Bye And Bye
Honest With Me
Mr. Tambourine Man
Summer Days
(encore)
Forever Young
All Along The Watchtower
March 25, 2005
Cat's In The Well
Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum Shooting Star
Things Have Changed
Down Along The Cove
Make You Feel My Love
Highway 61 Revisited
Standing In The Doorway
Honest With Me
Every Grain Of Sand
Summer Days
(encore)
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
All Along The Watchtower
March 26, 2005
Maggie's Farm
If You See Her, Say Hello
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Girl Of The North Country (acoustic)
High Water (For Charley Patton)
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Sugar Baby (acoustic)
Floater (Too Much To Ask)
Honest With Me
Ballad Of Hollis Brown (acoustic)
Summer Days
(encore)
Mississippi
All Along The Watchtower
"The curtain raised the ultimate time
on Bob Dylan And His Band, who stood with six-guns
a-blazin', firing "Drifter's Escape"
at the folks gathered there," a
writer doing a review on
Bob's website said. The LA Times
said, "Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard are such masters
of their craft that they make it hard
for
critics not to look like pushovers, especially at the
concert as warm and frequently thrilling
as the freewheeling one they put on Monday at the
Pantages
Theatre in Los Angeles."
Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Don't stand in the doorway Don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled There's a battle outside And it is ragin'. It'll soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin'.
At 63, Dylan is the ultimate
self-revisionist, always toying with his songs and altering his phrasing
for unpre- dictable dips, rises and
punctuation. He spent most of the time behind an upright piano, leaning
over into the
microphone and occasionally
blowing his distinctively ragged harmonica.
The latest edition of his
backing band proved adept at roadhouse rocking, country-tinged maneuvers
and blues stylings. All the
guys were decked out in gray suits, a contrast to Dylan‘s black Western
wear. The group tore it up during
the ramshackle boogie of "Highway 61 Revisited" and later shifted into
swing mode for the jumping "Summer Days."
HOLLYWOOD REPORT
No sir I'm not homeless,
My home is in the street.
I'm not some lonely person down there,
Beggin' round your feet.
Somehow we stay warm and cozy.
Huddled in the wind.
No sir I'm not homeless,
We just need a house to put it in.
HAGGARD
Once upon a time you dressed so fine You threw the bums a dime in your prime,
didn't you? People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're
bound to fall" You thought they were all kiddin' you You used to laugh about Everybody that was hangin' out Now you don't talk so loud Now you don't seem so proud About having to be scrounging for your
next meal.
How does it feel How does it feel To be without a home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone
Big wheel's rollin'; Big wheel's rollin',
movin' on. Big wheel's rollin'; gotta keep 'em goin'.
Big wheel's rollin', movin' on.
The white line is a lifeline to the nation.
And men like Kix and Ronnie make it move.
Livin' like a gipsy, always on the go.
Doin' what they best know how to do.
Jammin' gears has got to be a fever.
'Cos men become addicted to the grind.
(The grind.) It takes a special breed to be a truck
drivin' man, And a steady hand to pull that load behind.
The Hag...