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Bob Dylan's Dream
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Wikipedia article
"'Bob Dylan's Dream'" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1963. It was recorded by Dylan on April 24, 1963, and was released by Columbia Records a month later on the album 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'.Heylin, 'Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades', p. 732Gray, 'The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia', pp. 243244
The song was also recorded as a demo for Dylan's publishing company, M. Witmark & Sons. The demo version, taped the day before the album track, was officially released on 'The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 The Witmark Demos: 19621964' in October 2010. A May 10, 1963 live version of the song was also released that month on 'In Concert Brandeis University 1963'. An April 12, 1963 concert performance was included on 'Live 19621966: Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections', released in 2018.
Background
Various accounts have been proposed regarding the song's inspiration, none of them being conclusive. In one,
"Bob Dylan's Dream" recalls the times Dylan had spent in Greenwich Village with comedian Hugh Romney and their friends during the early 1960s. Romney, later to become Wavy Gravy of Woodstock and Merry Pranksters fame, lived above The Gaslight Cafe on MacDougal Street, where he worked as entertainment director.Sounes, 'Down the Highway', pp. 9293 The two first met at the Gaslight in the spring of 1961. Dylan approached Romney about the possibility of performing and began appearing regularly at the Gaslight's hootenannies. Within a few months, he debuted at the Gaslight as a featured act.Sounes, 'Down the Highway', pp. 93
Dylan frequently hung out upstairs in Romney's apartment and wrote one of his most significant songs there, "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", in August 1962 .Sounes, 'Down the Highway', pp. 121122 The next winter, in late January or early February 1963, he wrote "Bob Dylan's Dream" possibly as a nostalgic remembrance of his early days in the Village when his life was less complex.Bjorner, 'The Yearly Chronicles', 1963
A differing account, by biographer and critic Robert Shelton, posits that the song concerns the lost innocence of Dylan's adolescence in Hibbing, Minnesota.Shelton, 'No Direction Home', p. 156 John Bucklen, one of Dylan's closest friends in Hibbing in the mid-1950s, told Shelton he and Dylan used to venture out to his sister's house, where they would play guitar and sing verses.Shelton, 'No Direction Home', pp. 4546 "When I heard the song 'Bob Dylan's Dream'," he said, "I couldn't help but think that some of the sessions we had at my sister's house were part of that 'Dream.'"Heylin, 'Revolution in the Air', p. 124
The song's origins
According to Shelton, Dylan credited the melody of "Bob Dylan's Dream" to the traditional broadside ballad "Lord Franklin" (also known as "Lady Franklin's Lament" and "The Sailor's Dream"), which he learned from British folksinger Martin Carthy, while visiting London in late December 1962.
However, Dylan may have learned the song even earlier from his Village friend Paul Clayton, who had recorded it in 1957 for his album 'Whaling and Sailing Songs: From the Days of Moby Dick' on Folkways. In either case, within a couple weeks after returning from London in January 1963, Dylan began playing "Bob Dylan's Dream" for Gil Turner during after-hours sessions at Gerde's Folk City, where Turner was emcee.Heylin, 'Revolution in the Air', p. 125Gray, 'Bob Dylan Encyclopedia', pp. 672673
Besides the melody, Dylan's song also shares lyrical similarities with "Lady Franklin's Lament", as in the song's closing lines:
"Lady Franklin's Lament" concludes on a similar note:
Within a short time, Dylan made the song a regular part of his repertoire, performing it for his first major New York concert at Town Hall on April 12, 1963. Less than two weeks later, on April 24, he recorded two takes of the song at Columbia's Studio A, one of which was selected for the album 'Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'.Heylin, 'Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions,', p. 14
Notable cover versions
* Peter, Paul, and Mary on 'Album 1700', 1967
* Judy Collins on 'Judy Sings Dylan...Just Like a Woman', 1993
* Phil Carmen on 'Bob Dylan's Dream', 1996
* Kinky Friedman on 'Classic Snatches from Europe', 2003
* Bryan Ferry on 'Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International', 2012
Notes
See also
List of Bob Dylan songs based on earlier tunes
References
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