Outlaw Blues

Commentary

According to the records of the the first day of the Bringing It All Back Home recording sessions, Outlaw Blues was originally named California, Dylan rewrote it and re-recorded it the next day as Outlaw Blues. He apparently has never given it any thought since: he’s never played it live. Yet there is much of interest in this seemly throw-away tune. That there is so much to tell tells us something about Dylan’s art.

Robert Shelton thinks that Dylan is trying to satirize the typical blues lyric. Tim Riley calls it “absurdist”. These comments are right on the money. Dylan is having fun with this one, combining his deep knowledge of the blues with his new, beat-inspired, absurdist point of view. Although the lyrics don’t really go anywhere – the final verse takes off in a completely different direction from what came before – there’s a lot of fun to be had along the way.

The first line clues the listener in to what’s going on:

“Ain’t it hard to stumble and fall into some funny lagoon”

“Ain’t it hard to stumble” is probably borrowed from the very well-known traditional song I’m a Stranger Here, the title of which Dylan would use later in his song Nobody ‘Cept You, released on the Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3. Dylan may have learned Stranger from Odetta, a popular folksinger and one of his early influences. Stranger must be a favorite of his, since he again borrowed the phrase, “worried man”, for Dignity and the “saddle” image is used in Country Pie, Unbelievable, Gates of Eden, and Idiot Wind.

The lyrics are reprinted below (there are many versions).

I’m a Stranger Here

Ain’t it hard to stumble when you’ve got no place to fall?
Ain’t it hard to stumble when you’ve got no place to fall?
In this whole wide world I’ve got no place at all.

I’m a stranger here, I’m a stranger ev’rywhere.
I would go home but honey, I’m a stranger there.

Hitch up my buggy, saddle up my black mare.
Hitch up my buggy, saddle up my black mare.
Goin’ to find me a fair deal in this world somewhere.

I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long.
I’m worried now but I won’t be worried long.
It takes a worrled man to sing a worried song.

Baby caught the Katy, she left me a mule to ride.
Baby caught the Katy, she left me a mule to ride.
When that train pulled out that mule laid down and died.

Looked down the track just as far as I could see.
Looked down the track just as far as I could see.
And a little bitty hand kept a-wavin’ back at me.

Here’s another version by the great Richie Havens.

Just for good measure, Dylan also borrowed the “nine below zero” line from blues great Sonny Boy Williamson, who wrote a well-known song with the same name.

The lyrics are pretty funny. The narrator compares his looks to those of Robert Ford, a member of the outlaw Jesse James’ gang in the late 1800’s. Ford had been arrested for murder, but made an agreement with the governor of Missouri to kill James in return for his freedom and a ten thousand dollar reward. Ford shot James in the back as he was attempting to hang a picture on the wall. Armed with this background information, the second verse is pretty amusing:

Ain’t gonna hang no picture,
Ain’t gonna hang no picture frame.
Ain’t gonna hang no picture,
Ain’t gonna hang no picture frame.
Well, I might look like Robert Ford
But I feel just like a Jesse James.

The next verse is one of my favorite of Dylan’s throwaway lines. Some Australian tourist company should develop a advertisement campaign around it:

Oh, I wish I was on some
Australian mountain range.
I got no reason to be there, but I
Imagine it would be some kind of change.

The next stanza is just some hipster themes and blues imagery, but also contains a nice couplet that could have been written by one of the blues greats. Maybe it was?

Don’t ask me nothin’ about nothin’,
I just might tell you the truth.

The final verse really doesn’t seem to relate to anything that came before, but contains a sly reference to the plethora of blues songs with lyrics that evaluate the intrinsic beauty of various shades of skin-tone among black women.

She’s a brown-skin woman
but I love her
just the same

Thus, the song winds up right back where it started, paying homage but also poking a little fun of the blues.

The lyrics of this tune are interesting, but the real story is the new, hard blues sound that Dylan creates. The song really works and is a tribute to the outstanding session players that worked on the recording.

The White Stripes did a really energetic version.

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Lyrics

Ain’t it hard to stumble
And land in some funny lagoon?
Ain’t it hard to stumble
And land in some muddy lagoon?
Especially when it’s nine below zero
And three o’clock in the afternoon.

Ain’t gonna hang no picture,
Ain’t gonna hang no picture frame.
Ain’t gonna hang no picture,
Ain’t gonna hang no picture frame.
Well, I might look like Robert Ford
But I feel just like a Jesse James.

Well, I wish I was on some
Australian mountain range.
Oh, I wish I was on some
Australian mountain range.
I got no reason to be there, but I
Imagine it would be some kind of change.

I got my dark sunglasses,
I got for good luck my black tooth.
I got my dark sunglasses,
I’m carryin’ for good luck my black tooth.
Don’t ask me nothin’ about nothin’,
I just might tell you the truth.

I got a woman in Jackson,
I ain’t gonna say her name.
I got a woman in Jackson,
I ain’t gonna say her name.
She’s a brown-skin woman,
but I
Love her just the same.