John Wesley Harding (song)

"John Wesley Harding" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that appears as the opening track on his 1967 album of the same name.

Writing and recording

Dylan told Jann Wenner in a 1969 Rolling Stone interview that the song "started out to be a long ballad. I was gonna write a ballad on ... like maybe one of those old cowboy ... you know, a real long ballad. But in the middle of the second verse, I got tired. I had a tune, and I didn't want to waste the tune; it was a nice little melody, so I just wrote a quick third verse, and I recorded that."^[1] Biographer Clinton Heylin states that Dylan has had a well-documented interest in outlaw cowboys, including Jesse James and Billy the Kid,^[2] and in the past Dylan has said that his favorite folk song was "John Hardy",^[3] whose real-life title character in 1893 murdered another man over a game of craps.^[4] John Wesley Hardin was another late-19th century outlaw.^[2] Dylan has stated that he chose John Wesley Hardin for his protagonist over other badmen because his name "[fit] in the tempo" of the song.^[1] Dylan added the g to the end of Hardin's name by mistake.^[5][6]

The song was recorded in two takes on November 6, 1967, in Studio A of Columbia Music Row Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.^[2][7] Both of these were considered for the album, but the second take was ultimately chosen.^[2]

Themes

Dylan has said that he did not have a clear notion of what the song was about.^[1][6] He told Cameron Crowe in 1985 that after recording the John Wesley Harding album, he "didn't know what to make of it. ... So I figured the best thing to do would be to put out the album as quickly as possible, call it John Wesley Harding because that was the one song that I had no idea what it was about, why it was even on the album. So I figured I'd call the album that, call attention to it, make it something special..."^[6] It was the only title that he considered for the album.^[1] He told a Newsweek interviewer in 1969 that the songs on his country Nashville Skyline album: "These are the type of songs that I always felt like writing. The songs reflect more of the inner me than the songs of the past. They're more to my base than, say, 'John Wesley Harding'. There I felt like everyone expected me to be a poet so that's what I tried to be."^[8]

Cover versions

"John Wesley Harding" has been covered by McKendree Spring on their 1969 eponymous album,^[9] as well as Tom Russell^[10] and Wesley Willis.^[11]

Notes

References

• "Black Light Diner". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
• Cott, Jonathan, ed. (2006). Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-92312-1.
• Crowe, Cameron (1985). Biograph (CD booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records.
• Heylin, Clinton (1995). Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960–1994. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-15067-9.
• Heylin, Clinton (2009). Revolution In The Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Volume One: 1957–73 (2010 paperback ed.). Constable. ISBN 978-1-84901-296-6.
• "John Hardy Found Guilty of Murder in the First Degree". Wheeling Daily Register. West Virginia Archives and History. 1893-10-13. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
• Maginnis, Tom. "John Wesley Harding: Song Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
• "McKendree Spring". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
• Ruhlmann, William. "Tom Russell: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
• Shelton, Robert (1986). No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-34721-8.
• Sounes, Howard (2001). Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-1686-8.

External links

• "John Wesley Harding" lyrics on official website

This page was last edited on 2 February 2022, at 21:15