The song was released on Blonde on Blonde on June 20, 1966. the next morning he said, 'Okay, I'm ready to record.' After you've tried to stay awake 'til four o'clock in the morning, to play something so slow and long was really, really tough." Charlie McCoy (pictured in 1990) later recalled that "We came in at two, and he started to write the song, and four a.m. Daryl Sanders, author of a 2020 book about the making of Blonde on Blonde, remarks that several people present at the studio "have remembered recording 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' in one take, and that has become part of the mythology surrounding the song". He regards the other lyrical changes between different takes as minor. The Dylan scholar Michael Gray writes that for the first verse, only the opening line of the album version was significantly different from the first-take lyrics, which started with "With your mercury eyes in the months that climb". The fourth take clocked in at eleven minutes, 23 seconds, and would occupy the entire fourth side of the double album. After an incomplete take two, used to familiarise the musicians with the intended tempo, the third take was just over twelve minutes long. The first-take version lasted ten minutes and seven seconds. Where do we go from here?" įour takes of the song were recorded, three of which were complete. Several minutes later into the song, Buttrey said he was thinking, ". And he played another harmonica solo and went back down to another verse", meaning that the group had to revert to a less intense style. This is gonna be the last chorus and we've gotta put everything into it we can. Drummer Kenny Buttrey recalled that after the second chorus, "everybody's just peaking it up 'cause we thought, Man, this is it. Dylan counted off and the musicians attempted his composition, "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands". Finally, at 4 am, Dylan called the musicians in and outlined the structure of the song. Dylan's biographer Clinton Heylin described Dylan writing the song across three recording sessions that had been booked guitarist Charlie McCoy later recalled that it was unprecedented for him and the other musicians to be booked and paid for their time but not play. On February 15, following the move to Nashville, a session began at 6 pm, but Dylan simply sat in the studio working on his lyrics, while the musicians played ping-pong and chatted. Bringing with him Robbie Robertson on guitar and Al Kooper on keyboard, Dylan commenced recording with experienced Nashville session players. Frustrated by slow progress in the studio, Dylan agreed to the suggestion of his producer Bob Johnston and moved to Columbia's A Studio on Music Row, Nashville, Tennessee, in February 1966. Dylan's version has been cited as an influence by the former Pink Floyd bassist and songwriter Roger Waters, and George Harrison wrote that the track influenced aspects of the Beatles song " Long, Long, Long".īackground and recording Bob Dylan (left) with his tour manager Victor Maymudes (center) and Robbie Robertson in Sweden in April 1966, between the recording and release of "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"īob Dylan began to record his seventh studio album, Blonde on Blonde, in New York in October 1965. It has been covered by a variety of artists, including Baez, on Any Day Now (1968), and Richie Havens, on Mixed Bag II (1974). Later writers often agree with this, praising the sound, dismissing the lyrics, and rating the song as amongst Dylan's best work.ĭylan has never performed the song in concert. On its release, several reviewers found them impenetrable, but rated the song favorably. Commentators have pointed to literary allusions in "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" which include William Blake's " The Tyger", Algernon Swinburne's " Dolores", and verses of the Bible.ĭylan's lyrics polarized critics. Dylan refers to writing the song for his wife in his track " Sara" (1975). Some writers have concluded that the song refers to Joan Baez, although most agree that it was composed for Dylan's wife Sara Lownds. Four takes were recorded in the early hours of February 16 the final recording was released on Blonde on Blonde. The recording session began at 6 pm on February 15, 1966, at Columbia Studio A, Nashville, Tennessee, but Dylan worked on the lyrics for several hours while the experienced Nashville session musicians hired to accompany him stood by. The song was written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston. First released as the final track on Dylan's seventh studio album Blonde on Blonde (1966), the song lasts 11 minutes and 23 seconds, and occupies the entire fourth side of the double album. " Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" on YouTube
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