Songs Previously Unreleased On LP
"In one sense, 1971 and 1972 might both be considered 'lost' years," writes Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin. Neither year would produce an album, at least not an album entirely composed of newly-recorded material.
Between March 16 and 19, 1971, Dylan reserved three days at Blue Rock Studios, a small studio in New York's Greenwich Village. According to Heylin, "These sessions were produced by Leon Russell of Mad Dogs and Englishmen fame. Only two originals were recorded—'Watching the River Flow' and 'When I Paint My Masterpiece'—but both confronted the same subject matter, a continuing dearth of inspiration, in a refreshingly honest fashion."
"When I Paint My Masterpiece" was also recorded by The Band, who would release their version first on Cahoots. Dylan's recording from Blue Rock would only see release on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II.
"Watching the River Flow" was issued as a single in June 1971, backed by "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue", which had been recorded during the New Morning sessions.
Months later, Dylan would agree to release a second "greatest hits" compilation, provided he could compile it himself, issue it as a double album, and include several older compositions which he had written but never issued himself. To accommodate this last condition, Dylan took it upon himself to hold a recording session at Columbia's Recording Studios in New York. On September 24, 1971, in Columbia's Studio B, Dylan recorded four songs with his friend, Happy Traum.
"He felt there were some songs that he had written that had become hits of sorts for other people, that he didn't actually perform himself," recalls Traum, "and he wanted to fit those on the record as well...So we just went in one afternoon and did it, it was just the two of us and the engineer, and it was very simple...we chose three on the spot and mixed them...in the space of an afternoon...Sometimes I wasn't even sure if it was a final take until we would just finish and Bob would say, 'Okay, let's go and mix it.'"
"Crash On The Levee (Down In The Flood)". "You Ain't Going Nowhere". and "I Shall Be Released" were recorded and selected for the compilation. "Only a Hobo", an early composition dating back to 1963, was also considered for inclusion but ultimately was left unreleased until 1991's The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991.
A few lyrical revisions were made on "You Ain't Going Nowhere", the most notable being a reference to Roger McGuinn. Told to "pick up your tent, you ain't going nowhere," McGuinn's band, The Byrds, had successfully recorded "You Ain't Going Nowhere" on their landmark album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and they even issued their recording as a single. Country musician Marty Stuart has also recorded this song. According to McGuinn in the liner notes to the 1997 reissue of Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Dylan singled him out in these lyrics for bungling Dylan's original Basement Tapes lyrics on the Byrds version of the song in which McGuinn sings "Pack up your money / Pick up your tent" instead of "Pick up your money/ Pack up your tent" as Dylan had.
Read more about this topic: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II
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