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Too Much of Nothing

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Wikipedia article




"'Too Much of Nothing'" is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1967, first released by him on the album 'The Basement Tapes' (1975).

Themes and history of song



One of the most haunting themes of 'The Basement Tapes' is an apprehension of the void. Shelton hears in this song an echo of the bald statement that Lear makes to his daughter Cordelia, "Nothing will come of nothing" (act I, scene 1). Marcus asserts that this was one of the songs recorded at the end of "the basement summer" in August or September 1967. He writes that these songs "are taken slowly, with crying voices. Dylans voice is high and constantly bending, carried forward not by rhythm or by melody but by the discovery of the true terrain of the songs as theyre sung. Richard Manuels and Rick Dankos voices are higher still, more exposed."

Cover versions



By November 1967, this song was a Top 40 hit for Peter, Paul and Mary. According to 'Billboard', this version's "clever driving blues arrangement compliments the trio to the fullest." 'Cash Box' said that it is "blues in a folk manner with plenty of funk." In Dylan's original, the chorus addresses two ladies"Say hello to Valerie/Say hello to Vivien/Send them all my salary/On the waters of oblivion"but Peter, Paul and Mary changed the second name to "Marion," displeasing Dylan. According to the trio's Paul Stookey, Dylan consequently became disenchanted with the group: "We just became 'other hacks' that were doing his tunes." Patrick Humphries notes that, whether by accident or design, the chorus's two women originally named share the names of the two wives of the major 20th-century poet T. S. Eliot.Eliot married Vivienne Haigh-Wood in 1915; they separated in 1933. Critics consider their marriage central to his writing 'The Waste Land' . Eliot married Valerie Fletcher in January 1957, near the end of his life . Lachlan MacKinnon Mackinnon, Lachlan, "T.S.Eliot's carelessness towards John Hayward", ' Times Literary Supplement ', London, 12 March 2014 writes that the lines do refer to Eliot's wives and are "remarkably shrewd", suggesting the poet's "strange combination of self-distancing and financial propriety". Peter, Paul and Mary's recording of the song was also included on their 1968 album 'Late Again'.

This song also appeared on Spooky Tooth's debut album 'It's All About', and on Fotheringay's debut album, as well as Albert Lee's 'Black Claw & Country Fever' sessions. All three versions substituted "Marion" for "Vivien".

Personnel



*Bob Dylan vocal, guitar

*Robbie Robertson electric guitar

*Garth Hudson organ

*Richard Manuel piano, backing vocal

*Rick Danko bass, backing vocal.

Overdubbed 1975:

*Hudson additional keyboards

*Helm (possibly) drums, backing vocal

Notes



References




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