The Bob Dylan Top 125 Countdown (#92-91) & This Week's Statistics

Before we get on with this week's statistics, here are a couple of songs from our Bob Dylan countdown.

At #92 in our countdown is a song called Dignity. Dignity was first released on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume 3 on November 15, 1994 and also released as a CD single a month later. It was originally recorded in the spring of 1989 during the Oh Mercy studio sessions, but was not included on the album.

The difficulties recording the song during the Oh Mercy sessions are described by Dylan in his autobiography, Chronicles, Vol 1. It was originally recorded with Dylan accompanied by Brian Stoltz and Willie Green. Though they managed to complete a polished performance, producer Daniel Lanois suggested something more ambitious with a Cajun band. Curious to see what Lanois had in mind, Dylan agreed to recut the song. The next evening, a session was held with Rockin' Dopsie and His Cajun Band, but the results were disastrous. The group experimented with different keys and tempos, but according to Dylan, everyone was frustrated with the results.

Dylan still preferred the original version recorded the previous day, but neither he nor Lanois considered it finished. As the session continued into the early morning hours, the group gave up and began playing old standards like Jambalaya, Your Cheatin' Heart, and There Stands the Glass. The next day, they listened to every take of Dignity recorded with Dopsie and his band, and all of them were rejected. "Whatever promise Dan had seen in the song was beaten into a bloody mess", Dylan recalled. "Where we had started from, we'd never gotten back to, a fishing expedition gone nowhere. In no take did we ever turn back the clock. We just kept winding it. Every take another ball of confusion." Dignity was set aside, never to be revisited for the remainder of the sessions.

The song as released in 1994 was remixed and overdubbed by Brendan O'Brien (who also played organ on the song on MTV Unplugged the same year). Although this particular re-recording is compositionally similar to the 1989 session (despite extended lead guitar interludes between verses and the outro in the 1994 version), the only element retained from the 1989 session was Dylan's lead vocal. A fresh rhythm track (bass guitar and drums), keyboards, guitars (electric and acoustic), banjo and tambourine were added during the 1994 session for Dignity. The driving slide guitar heard throughout the original was omitted.

A live version of the song, recorded on November 18, 1994 for MTV, was released as a single on April 11, 1995, and also appears on MTV Unplugged and Live 1961-2000: Thirty-Nine Years of Great Concert Performances. This is from the rehearsals:

A recording of the song from the original March-April 1989 Oh Mercy sessions was issued on Touched by an Angel: The Album in 1998, and subsequently included on compilation albums: The Best of Bob Dylan, Vol. 2, some editions of The Essential Bob Dylan, and Dylan. This is my favorite version, but it's nowhere to be found on the Internet.

A piano demo version of the song, recorded early in the Oh Mercy sessions, possibly in February 1989, was included as part of a six-song sampler in promo editions of Dylan's autobiographical Chronicles Vol. 1. This demo version was also released on Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs in 2008, along with a previously unreleased version of the song from the original March-April 1989 recording sessions. Here's the piano demo version of the song:

At #91 is I'll Keep It With Mine. The song has an interesting history: Dylan originally recorded a vocal-and-piano demo of the song for publishing company M. Witmark & Sons in June 1964, which was released by Columbia in 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964. Here's this version:

I'll Keep It With Mine (1964)

In mid-January 1965, during sessions for the Bringing It All Back Home album, Dylan again recorded the song solo, on piano. This version, with the working title "Bank Account Blues", was released in 1985 on the Biograph retrospective. This is my favorite version (by Bob Dylan):

I'll Keep It With Mine (1965)

A full-band rehearsal of the song, recorded during the early Blonde on Blonde sessions on January 27, 1966 (per album booklet), was released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3. The rehearsal is rough and the recording starts well into the first verse, which is briefly interrupted by producer Bob Johnston on a talkback speaker, saying, "What you were doing". Here it is:

I'll Keep It With Mine (1966)

During the seventh session for Blonde on Blonde – on February 15–16, 1966, at the Columbia Music Row Studios, Nashville, Tennessee – Dylan recorded at least ten instrumental takes of the song. One of them was used in the Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas. Here it is:

However, the song was first officially released by folk singer Judy Collins as a single in 1965. Mike Bloomfield is on guitar and Al Kooper is on keyboards:

My favorite version overall is the one that was recorded by Fairport Convention, with the fabulous Sandy Denny on lead vocals, released in 1969 as a US-only (A&M) single, as well as on their album What We Did on Our Holidays.

Now, let's move on to this week's statistics. It was one of the best weeks we've had, with increased traffic and interesting feedback from those of you who take the trouble to comment. The US and Greece did just fine, also it was an excellent week for the United Arab Emirates and Italy, another strong week for the UK, and a welcome appearance by Argentina in the weekly Top 10.

The full Top 10 is as follows:

1. the United States

2. Greece

3. the United Arab Emirates

4. Italy

5. the United Kingdom

6. France

7. Germany

8. Argentina

8. Cyprus

10. the Netherlands

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence this week (alphabetically): Algeria, Albania, Australia, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Denmark, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Happy to have you all!

In the all-time list there have been changes: Cyprus has overtaken Ireland and is now threatening Canada. The UK is moving closer to France, while Italy is positioned to soon overtake Ireland. Here is the full list:

1. the United States = 46.6%

2. Greece = 18.7%

3. Russia = 8.6%

4. Germany = 3.5%

5. France = 2.6%

6. the United Kingdom = 2.5%

7. Canada = 1.01%

8. Cyprus = 0.95%

9. Ireland = 0.92%

10. Italy = 0.83%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!