Planet Waves - Recording Sessions

Recording Sessions

In the summer of 1973, Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist of The Band, relocated to Malibu, California, not far from Dylan's residence. According to Robertson, the idea of collaborating with Dylan evolved from a conversation that took place sometime after July 28, when The Band played to hundreds of thousands of people at Summer Jam at Watkins Glen in upstate New York. After much discussion about that experience, the idea of touring again "seemed to really make sense," says Robertson. "It was a good idea, a kind of step into the past...The other guys in the Band came out and we went right to work."

Dylan had not toured since 1966, when The Band accompanied him as The Hawks. Since then, he had played with The Band on a number of occasions, including a New Year's concert in 1971/1972; that was the last time Dylan had played with The Band, and it was warmly received by the audience. When Dylan joined The Band for a test run at Robertson's home in September 1973, he was satisfied by the results, enough to proceed with touring plans.

"We sat down and played for four hours and ran over an incredible number of tunes," recalls Robertson. "Bob would ask us to play certain tunes of ours, and then we would do the same, then we'd think of some that we would particularly like to do."

Dylan left for New York in October to compose new material for album sessions scheduled in November. Dylan already had three songs ("Forever Young," "Nobody 'Cept You," and "Never Say Goodbye") which he had demoed in June, and when he returned to Malibu after twenty days in New York, he had six more.

On Friday, November 2, Dylan and The Band held a session at Village Recorder Studio A in Los Angeles, California. Engineer Rob Fraboni recalls the proceedings as fairly relaxed and informal, an opportunity "to get set up and to get a feel for the studio." Drummer Levon Helm was not even present, as he was still in transit, on his way to Los Angeles from the East Coast. Nevertheless, the session was devoted to all three songs demoed in June, and Dylan and The Band succeeded in recording complete takes of "Forever Young" and "Nobody 'Cept You" as well as the master take for "Never Say Goodbye."

When Dylan and The Band reconvened at Village Recorder the following Monday, with Levon Helm now present, they made another attempt at "Nobody 'Cept You." Robertson abandoned the wah-wah pedal used during the November 2 session, and a satisfactory take was completed and marked for possible inclusion. Master takes for "You Angel You" and "Going, Going, Gone" were also completed.

"Forever Young" occupied a portion of the Monday session, and the results would not meet Dylan's satisfaction. He would return to it for three more sessions, as it would prove to be the most difficult song to record.

The next day, on November 6, Dylan and The Band recorded master takes for three more songs: "Hazel," "Something There Is About You," and "Tough Mama."

They reconvened two days later, on November 8, performing three takes of "Going, Going, Gone" before recording "On A Night Like This." Attempts at the former would not replace the master take from the 5th, but a master take of the latter was successfully recorded. The session would then end with "Forever Young."

After several false starts, Dylan and The Band executed what would ultimately be one of two master takes for "Forever Young." However, Dylan nearly rejected the performance after hearing some disparaging criticism from one particular visitor.

"We only did one take of the slow version of 'Forever Young,'" recalls Fraboni. "This take was so riveting, it was so powerful, so immediate, I couldn't get over it. When everyone came in nobody really said anything. I rewound the tape and played it back and everybody listened to it from beginning to end and then when it was over everybody sort of just wandered out of the room. There was no outward discussion. Everybody just left. There was just and I sitting there. I was so overwhelmed I said, 'Let's go for a walk.' We went for a walk and came back and I said, 'Let's go listen to that again.' We were like one minute or two into it, I was so mesmerized by it again I didn't even notice that Bob had come into the room...So when we were assembling the master reel I was getting ready to put that on the master reel. I didn't even ask. And Bob said, 'What're you doing with that? We're not gonna use that.' And I jumped up and said, 'What do you mean you're not gonna use that? You're crazy! Why?' Well,...during the recording... Lou Kemp and this girl came by and she had made a crack to him, 'C'mon, Bob, what! Are you getting mushy in your old age?' It was based on her comment that he wanted to leave off the record."

Fraboni would defend the recording, and when he refused to relent, Dylan reconsidered and allowed him to include it on the album. Fraboni also convinced Dylan to do his first vocal overdubs for the album. (While The Band had three regular vocalists in Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, and Helm, none of them sing on the album.)

On November 9, Dylan held what he intended to be the final session for the album. From Fraboni's perspective, Dylan already had a perfect take of "Forever Young" from the previous day, but Dylan still attempted a different, acoustic arrangement, which was ultimately rejected. Dylan would tell Fraboni that afternoon, "I been carrying this song around in my head for five years and I never wrote it down and now I come to record it I just can't decide how to do it."

The last song recorded on the 9th was a new composition titled "Wedding Song," which Dylan had completed over the course of the sessions. "Nobody 'Cept You" was originally planned as the album's closing number, but without a satisfactory performance, it would be omitted and replaced by "Wedding Song."

Though there was enough material to fill an album, Dylan decided to hold one more session. On the 14th, The Band was called back to record two songs. The first was another arrangement of "Forever Young," this time with Helm on mandolin and Danko on fiddle. This new version of "Forever Young" would create the second of two master takes for the song, and both of them would be included on the album.

The second song recorded on the 14th was "Dirge" (or "Dirge For Martha" as it was marked on the tape box). "Bob went out and played the piano while we were mixing . All of a sudden, he came in and said, 'I'd like to try 'Dirge' on the piano.'...We put up a tape and he said to Robbie, 'Maybe you could play guitar on this.' They did it once, Bob playing piano and singing, and Robbie playing acoustic guitar. The second time was the take."