Musicology 101 - Just Like A Woman

I’ve had this post on my mind for quite some time, and the holiday gives me a little time to put it together. This year I started a series of posts called Musicology 101, which focuses on one particular song. Due to circumstances beyond my control, the series has only amounted to two songs to date. I chose Dylan’s Just Like A Woman today because he claimed to have written this on Thanksgiving. From the liner notes in Biograph:

“I think I was on the road… I think I wrote it in Kansas City or something… yeah I’m pretty sure I did. I was invited over to somebody’s house for Thanksgiving dinner but I didn’t go, didn’t feel like doing anything, I wasn’t hungry. I stayed in my hotel room and wrote this.”

No one but Bob knows if this is true. Dylan is known for his grand fabrications in interviews, and many accounts of the Blonde on Blonde Sessions have him working on songs in a Nashville hotel and recording on the fly into the wee hours of the morning. But that’s irrelevant. What’s important is that Just Like A Woman is one of Dylan’s most enduring songs, on perhaps his greatest album. Widely regarded as a sexist and anti-feminist taunt, the song was criticized by many when released in 1966. The critics seemed to interpret the song as an indictment of women’s inherent weakness. Even 5 years later, Marion Meade in the New York Times stated "that there is more complete catalog of sexist slurs." where Dylan defines women's natural traits as greed, hypocrisy, whining and hysteria." That's a bit heavy. There’s no doubt that Dylan is remarking on the childlike emotions of a certain woman, commonly thought to be Warhol groupie Edie Sedgwick, but I don’t hear any intent that it’s directed at women in general. [Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat is also thought to be about Edie, who may have also inspired the album title. Ironically, Bob played both songs last time I saw him]. On the original recording, the lilting arrangement has a nursery rhyme quality, as Dylan seems to mock the immature girl that lurks below the surface of the woman:


Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand inside the rain
Ev'rybody knows
That Baby's got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls.

Ironically, it could be these very qualities of childlike innocence and vulnerability that attracted him to her in the first place. In the end, he speaks of his own vulnerability:

It was raining from the first
And I was dying there of thirst
So I came in here

then later...

I just can't fit
Yes, I believe it's time for us to quit
When we meet again, introduced as friends
Please don't let on that you knew me when
I was hungry and it was your world.

In later years, the live performances of this song take on quite a different tone, as Dylan reflects on this failed relationship with a critical eye on his own failings as well as hers. Check out his solo performance from 1974, one of my favorites, from Before the Flood:




Interpreting Bob Dylan’s music is a daunting task. There are hundreds of books on the subject, and not much help from the author. When asked about the song in a 1992 interview, Dylan responded, “That’s a hard song to pin down. It’s another one of those that you can sing a thousand times and still ask what it is about, but you know there is a real feeling there.” Like all great poetry, it can mean different things with each reading, and this, my friends is why his music will endure for centuries. Happy Thanksgiving.

Just Like A Woman
Recorded March 8, 1966
Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville, Tennessee

Released as a single in September, 1966.
Bob Dylan, lead vocal, guitar and harmonica
There's some confusion over who played what on these sessions, which included:
Robbie Robertson, Al Kooper, Ken Buttrey, Rick Danko, Charlie McCoy, Wayne Moss, Jerry Kennedy, Bill Aikins, Henry Strzeleci, Joe South, Garth Hudson, Joe South and Paul Griffin, among others. [Little known fact: sweeping the studio floors was a young janitor named Kris Kristofferson].

more on Blonde on Blonde
the final word on Blonde on Blonde, and some damn good writing

Musicology 101 - You Need Love

The influence of American blues music on British rock has been well documented, but the plagiarism that was rampant in the 60’s and 70’s is still largely overlooked. Today, we call it ‘sampling,’ but to the original artists, in this case Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters, it was stone cold theft. Everyone knows Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’, but how many people know of the origin of this song? In 1962 Willie Dixon wrote ‘You Need Love’ and Muddy Waters cut the first version of this song at Chess Records in Chicago. Sung in Muddy’s inimitable style, the song is a typical blues theme of a man’s lusty pursuit of a young woman. Do any of these lines sound familiar?


You've got yearnin' and I got burnin'
Baby you look so sweet and cunning
Baby way down inside, woman you need love
Woman you need love, you've got to have some love
I'm gonna give you some love, I know you need love

You just gotta have love, you make me feel so good
You make me feel all right, you're so nice, you're so nice
You're frettin', and I'm petting
A lot of good things you ain't getting
Baby, way down inside, you need love

You need to be hugged and squeezed real tight,
by the light of the moon on some summer night
You need love and kissing too,
all these things are good for you
I ain't foolin' you need schoolin'
Baby you know you need coolin'
Baby, way down inside, woman you need love

Zep’s version owes as much to the Small Faces version, called ‘You Need Loving,’ recorded in 1966. Songwriting was credited to Ronny Lane/Steve Mariott, just as ‘Whole Lotta Love’ is Page/Plant. ‘Whole Lotta Love’ also borrows from Howlin’ Wolf at the end, with the line "Shake for me girl/I wanna be your back door man.” ‘Shake for Me” and “Back Door Man’ were written by Dixon and recorded by Howlin’ Wolf. And of course, Led Zeppelin II closes with ‘Bring It On Home,’ also written by Dixon and recorded by Sonny Boy Williamson.

Somehow I was vaguely aware of this back in the late 70’s when I was in high school. Chicago is home to the blues, and Muddy still had a following, getting airtime on the Loop and playing at Chicagofest to hoards of clueless white folks. At school, a typical exchange probably went something like this:

Stoner: “Man, are you trying to tell me that Whole Lotta Love was really written by some old black dude?”
Me: “Well not exactly, but they sure did copy a lot. A few others, too.”
Stoner: “Oh, shut up dude, Zeppelin rules!”

On Zeppelin’s debut album they gave credit to Dixon for “You Shook Me” and ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby”, maybe because they were pretty straight cover versions. With the heavy metal reinterpretation in ‘Whole Lotta Love’ they must have been reluctant. Ultimately, Dixon sued Led Zeppelin for plagiarism, but that didn’t happen until the mid 80’s. The case was settled out of court and recent Led Zeppelin releases have shared songwriting credit for "Whole Lotta Love" with Willie Dixon.

There’s a fine line between covering a song and reinterpreting it. Part of the complex roots of American music is the liberal reworking of songs, but with each new version, the original gets more obscure. For years Dylan has reinterpreted songs, although claiming songwriting credits. His latest album includes reworked versions of Someday Baby, When the Levee Breaks, and Rollin’ and Tumblin’, songs written by Lightning Hopkins (1948), Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie (1929, and of course redone by Zeppelin in 1971), and Hambone Willie Newbern (1936, made famous by Muddy in 1950), respectively. On the label, Dylan claims songwriting credits, presumably due to the reworked lyrics.

My point in all this rambling is to raise awareness, and encourage you to return to the originals from time to time and understand how music draws so heavily on the past. It’s not for me to decide on credits and royalties, but it sure wouldn’t hurt to pick up a few blues CD’s now and then.

Blues Heaven

You Need Love
Written by Willie Dixon
Recorded October 12, 1962
Chess Recording Studio, Chicago, Illinois
Chess single #1839

Muddy Waters, Vocal
Earl Hooker, guitar
Willie Dixon, bass
John ‘Big Moose’ Walker, organ
Casey Jones, drums
Ernest Cotton and A.C. Reed, tenor sax

Buy these discs:

Blues Masters, Volume 6

Muddy Waters Anthology - 1947-72

Musicology 101 - Rocket 88

This post marks the beginning of a new feature where I will select and dissect a particularly important song, delving into its history, influence, lyrical meaning, and any other bits of relevant information I can scrounge up. I’m fascinated by the stories and legends behind the music, and although most of this information is available in a variety of books, liner notes and web sites, my goal here is to distill it all into a manageable text, for my own benefit and enjoyment, and perhaps, yours as well.

So what better way to start this series than with the first rock and roll record ever made, Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats? Of course such a bold statement has been debated by countless music historians, but there’s a lot of evidence to support this theory, and a pretty good story too. On March 3, 1951, Ike Turner’s band the Rhythm Kings recorded the song in Sam Phillips studio in Memphis. Although written by Turner (1931- ), Phillips credited the songwriting to lead singer Jackie Brenston (1930-1979), and fabricated the Delta Cats for royalty reasons. Turner admitted to lifting the basic structure from a 1947 jump blues song called Cadillac Boogie, recorded by Jimmy Liggins and the Kings of Rhythm. There’s also an instrumental called “Rocket 88 Boogie,” originally recorded by Pete Johnson for the Los Angeles-based Swing Time Records label in 1949.

Although there were no rock and roll charts in 1951, Rocket 88 hit number 1 on the Billboard R&B chart in June, 1951. The song extols the virtues of the fast and muscular Oldsmobile model, but the innuendo and double entendres are evident:

You may have heard of jalopies

You heard the noise they make

Let me introduce you to my Rocket '88

Yes it's great, just won't wait

Everybody likes my Rocket '88

Gals will ride in style

Movin' all along

V-8 motor and this modern design

My convertible top and the gals don't mind

Sportin' with me, ridin' all around town for joy

Blow your horn, Rocket, blow your horn

Step in my Rocket and-don't be late

We're pullin' out about a half-past-eight

Goin' on the corner and havin' some fun

Takin' my Rocket on a long, hot run

Ooh, goin' out, oozin' and cruisin' and havin' fun

Now that you've ridden in my Rocket '88

I'll be around every night about eight

You know it's great, don't be late

Everybody likes my Rocket '88

Gals will ride in style

Movin' all along

So what makes Rocket 88 the first rock and roll record? If you consider rock and roll to be the melding of rhythm and blues and swing combo music, there were probably many songs that crossed the line in the late 40’s and early 50’s. What’s significant about Rocket 88 is the energetic backbeat, rollicking piano, boisterous vocals, and, believe it or not, probably the first use of distorted, or fuzz guitar, anywhere, by anyone (see Mythology, below). Its influence is enormous, introducing the automobile as a subject matter (and a metaphor for sexual prowess). Little Richard stole the piano introand I'd say Jerry Lee Lewis owes a little of his keyboard style to Turner. If you consider rock and roll to be the melding of R&B and country, well Bill Haley had a hit with a cover of this song in June of 1951, three years before he formed the Comets and cut Rock Around the Clock.

Mythology – The myth around a song of this magnitude has grown, and very likely has been embellished over the years as all good stories have. Legend has it that B.B. King invited Turner’s band to Memphis to record at Phillips’ studio. Some versions have Turner writing the song on the way to the session, others have him fleshing it out at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi (home to Robert Johnson’s Crossroads and where you can now frequently find Robert Plant roaming the streets in search of the spirit). On the drive up Highway 61 to Memphis (later ‘revisited’ by Dylan in 1965), a tube amplifier apparently fell out of the car and the woofer was damaged. Turner stuffed some paper into it, Phillips rolled tape, and the rest is history. Far fetched maybe, but I love this stuff!

Rocket 88
Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (Ike Turner’s Rhythm Kings)

Words and music by Jackie Brenston (actually Ike Turner)
Recorded March 3rd (or 5th), 1951
Memphis Recording Company, Memphis, TN

Originally released as Chess 1458
Produced by Sam Phillips

Ike Turner, piano
Jackie Brenston, vocals, saxophone(?)
Willie Sims, drums
Jesse Knight, bass
Willie Kizart, guitar
Raymond Hill, saxophone




This information was distilled from various sources. I would welcome any comments from real music historians that might be lurking out there.