Every Saturday I use the Discogs Randomizer Gizmo to pick a record from my collection and write about it here.
The Discogs Randomizer is stuck on “American Western” mode this week as we stay in the American southwest, or more accurately, Durango, Mexico, for a film soundtrack written and recorded by Bob Dylan. I have not seen this film in a long time, and I mostly remember young Kris Kristofferson boning a bunch of hot women before he is awkwardly shot and killed. A lot of other stuff happened too, perhaps I should rewatch.
What I also remember is Dylan’s famous HORRIBLE acting. One of the reasons he is Bob freakin’ Dylan is because he does not give a flying fajita if you don’t like his voice, his songs, his shifting worldviews, his shifting religious views, his overall iconoclasm, and his stilted acting. It all makes up the mystique that surrounds Bob, and he likes it that way, as he says at the end of his 2003 film, Masked & Anonymous1, “I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago.”
Anyway, like the film, this soundtrack was panned by a bunch of elitist fools. Of course, the crown jewel of songs, covered excellently by Eric Clapton and Iguessifyoureintothatsortofthing by Guns N’ Roses, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was first recorded here.
Most of the tracks are instrumental pieces for various scenes that ended up getting jumbled around by MGM when they spurned director Sam Peckinpah—who was later vindicated by an original cut of the film being released years later. Suck on that elitist movie reviewers.
I would describe my copy as well loved. Not that it is beat half to hell, but my so-called “play copy” is a clean Terre Haute pressing with an embossed album title on the front and track listing panel on the back. It just looks like it came from 1973.
Some of the highlights include, of course, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” the bluegrass-inspired “Turkey Chase,” “Billy 1,” “Billy 4,” which was recorded in Mexico City, and “Billy 7.” Some of the other instrumental tracks, particulary the “Bunkhouse Theme” and “River Theme” are straight soundtrack fodder—no surprise there, however, “Final Theme,” is a great instrumental for a lo-fi study playlist or a drive through a desert.
Everyone is very familiar with the covers of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” but a real deep cut is the Los Lobos’ cover of “Billy 1” from the I’m Not There2 soundtrack.
A fun fact about the sessions for this album is that two unfinished sketches named “Rock Me Mama” were eventually turned into the ear worm we all know as “Wagon Wheel.” Done well, with Bob’s permission, and originally by Old Crow Medicine Show and an overplayed version by Hootie—er Darius Rucker. Several other people ruined the song too, but I still like my bootleg sketch and Old Crow Medicine Show.
Speaking of Old Crow Medicine Show, they also finished another song from these sessions and I am only learning about this now whilst reading some articles about it. It happens to be the first Old Crow Medicine show song I ever heard, “Sweet Amarillo.”
Always fun to do these deep dives, and it is also no wonder I liked that song so much, Bob wrote it and Ketch Secor and the boys finished it and did it justice.
While not Bob’s finest work, it belongs in his catalog as a period of time where he was trying new things and moving away from whatever pundits and rabid fans wanted him to be at that time. Spend your Saturday saddling up with Billy the Kidd for one last ride.
Which by the way is criminally misunderstood and underrated and I will fight anyone who thinks otherwise.
Another unimpeachably good film don’t @ me.
Another Dylan album for me to track down. God, that guy is prolific....