Dylan has finally changed up the setlist! He had been playing the same tunes, mostly from Rough and Rowdy Ways, for literally years. It was nice to hear that he finally mixed it up. He probably gained a new paying customer – me – the next time he comes to town.
The new setlist contains a number of covers, mostly oldies from the 50s. I’m not super familiar with that era, so I though it would be fun to do a deep dive to learn a bit about them. So here we go. This post will focus on My Babe, by Willie Dixon.
I think of myself as fairly knowledgeable about popular music. I may need to rethink that. The name Willie Dixon – one of the legendary figure of the blues – is one I was only vaguely familiar with. Shame on me.
I do know a lot of his songs, and I’m sure you do as well. Many of them were covered by the 60s legends.
Dixon said that he wrote the song for Little Walter, a favorite of Dylan’s (which will get to).
I felt Little Walter had the feeling for this “My Babe” song. He was the type of fellow who wanted to brag about some chick, somebody he loved, something he was doing or getting away with. He fought it for two long years and I wasn’t going to give the song to nobody but him. He said many times he just didn’t like it but, by 1955, the Chess people had gained confidence enough in me that they felt if I wanted him to do it, it must be his type of thing. The minute he did it, BOOM! she went right to the top of the charts.
He was right. Walter’s version stayed at #1 for five weeks.
Dylan has a few things to say about Little Walter (see Key to the Highway) in his eccentric book, The Philosophy of Modern Song.
Little Walter could take other people’s ideas and make them his own. “My Babe” is a good example of that. “My Babe” has been around for ages as a gospel song called “This Train.” Walter changed the words and made a classic performance out of it.
I think Bob is wrong about Walter changing the words; Dixon did.
Listen to Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s version of This Train.
Dylan borrowed the phrase “midnight creeping” from My Babe for his song The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest. Well maybe. Dixon also borrowed it. http://konkordans.se/taft%20%20blues%20lyrics.txt.WebConcordance/framconc.htm
That’s it for today. Happy Fourth of July!
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