"Song for Bob Dylan" | |
---|---|
Song by David Bowie | |
from the album Hunky Dory | |
Released | 17 December 1971 |
Recorded | 6 August 1971 [1] |
Studio | Trident, London |
Genre | Folk rock |
Length | 4:13 |
Label | RCA |
Songwriter(s) | David Bowie |
Producer(s) | Ken Scott, David Bowie |
"Song for Bob Dylan" is a song written by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie for his 1971 album Hunky Dory. The song references Bob Dylan's 1962 homage to Woody Guthrie, " Song to Woody". [1] [2] Yet while Dylan opens with "Hey, hey, Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song," Bowie addresses Dylan by his birth name saying, "Now, hear this, Robert Zimmerman, I wrote a song for you." [3]
In the song, Bowie also describes Bob Dylan's voice "like sand and glue" which is similar to how Joyce Carol Oates described it upon first hearing Dylan: "When we first heard this raw, very young, and seemingly untrained voice, frankly nasal, as if sandpaper could sing, the effect was dramatic and electrifying." [4]
Bowie premiered "Song for Bob Dylan" on 3 June 1971 during a BBC concert session, with George Underwood (King Bees bandmate and school friend) singing lead vocals. [1] During broadcast, Bowie introduced the song as "Song for Bob Dylan – Here She Comes." [1]
The song was first recorded at Trident Studios for Hunky Dory on 8 June 1971, with Bowie singing lead vocals and the title changed to "Song for Bob Dylan." [1] During the Hunky Dory sessions the song went through numerous rejected retakes, with the final version recorded on 6 August. [1]
When asked about the song at the time of Hunky Dory's release, Bowie said, "This is how some see BD." [1] Bowie later revealed his true intention for writing the song in a 1976 Melody Maker interview saying,
While there is debate as to whether the tribute to Bob Dylan is a eulogy or a "harangue", [1] Bowie invokes Dylan-esque musical progressions in "Song for Bob Dylan." The song is in A major and the "Dylanesque, though neither passively imitative nor parodistic" [6] coda is described as "attain[ing] ectasy when...electric guitar weaves tipsy arabesques over broken chord pulses on two acoustic guitars." [6] The simple, descending bass line that accompanies the folk-chord progression invokes Dylan circa 1965. [7] Bowie also imitates Dylan's adenoidal voice throughout the song and the lyrics reflect Dylan's style of starkly contrasting narrow range-verse and swelling chorus. [7]
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