If you like country licks in rock music,

[RoscoeElegante]

then you might really like this isolated track of the piano in "Like a Rolling Stone."


Great stuff!

I love hearing the isolated drums and organ, too.

The parts' roles in the whole--hinges, enzymes, and hues, baby!

 

[Chiogtr4x]

then you might really like this isolated track of the piano in "Like A Rolling Stone."


Great stuff!

I love hearing the isolated drums and organ, too.

The parts' roles in the whole--hinges, enzymes, and hues, baby!

Kind of weird, seeing a Blonde On Blonde era photo w/ this song ( from Highway 61 album)

( but I love the song & both albums)

I'm not sure if I can put into words why,
( maybe just a 'cultural/ music timestamp' with Bob and this song), but "Like a Rolling Stone" is my #1 song, all-time, any musical style.

Maybe it's the lyric content, the speed-rap, Bob's singing, the drum intro, the instrumentation, the year?

Bob just made it all seem really important, urgent- even if we didn't know what the song meant

 

[RoscoeElegante]

Kind of weird, seeing a Blonde On Blonde era photo w/ this song ( from Highway 61 album)

( but I love the song & both albums)

I'm not sure if I can put into words why,
( maybe just a 'cultural/ music timestamp' with Bob and this song), but "Like a Rolling Stone" is my #1 song, all-time, any musical style.

Maybe it's the lyric content, the speed-rap, Bob's singing, the drum intro, the instrumentation, the year?

Bob just made it all seem really important, urgent- even if we didn't know what the song meant

Have you seen this, Chiogtr4x?

 

[RoscoeElegante]

Kind of weird, seeing a Blonde On Blonde era photo w/ this song ( from Highway 61 album)

( but I love the song & both albums)

I'm not sure if I can put into words why,
( maybe just a 'cultural/ music timestamp' with Bob and this song), but "Like a Rolling Stone" is my #1 song, all-time, any musical style.

Maybe it's the lyric content, the speed-rap, Bob's singing, the drum intro, the instrumentation, the year?

Bob just made it all seem really important, urgent- even if we didn't know what the song meant

I completely agree. So many of his best songs are, well, existential like this. Gotta come to terms with your life. Gotta face up and decide. What's your compass at this pivotal moment?

And he sure had a sense of vengeance about him. "It Ain't Me, Babe," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Positively Fourth Street," "Idiot Wind," etc.--the man can spit some artful, "your-soul-is-in-peril, girl" spites.

FWIW, some of the "Like a Rolling Stone" sessions show him with a Jaguar. Sounds to me like he's playing that rather than the Teles and Strats he often used/uses. The rhythm guitar part provides a chewier center to the song than an unaffected Tele could produce. I hate Jaguars, myself, but they did offer that quality. Spongier, mid-forward tones:

(I hear this also in "Positively Fourth Street.")

Anyway, the next question becomes which iterations/echoes of the original version do "Like a Rolling Stone" lovers like best? I love some of the oft-maligned 1978 tour versions, particularly the fierce ones in his Earls Court shows in London. Check out the bootlegs still wandering around of these.

Here, the piano's country licks are such a treat, as they're otherwise kinda buried in the mix. And I'm trying to coax our keyboardist, who's a classical and jazz guy by training and taste, to smoke some pork rinds, or at least bend the keys with some axle grease....

 

[Willie Johnson]

The guy from Mastodon has some tasty country licks on their Leviathan album (which is otherwise all prog-metal, so it really sticks out).

 

[Honga Man]

The first video posted with keyboard and bass reminds me of what Band In A Box software sounds like, or used to the last time I messed around with it.

Don't get me wrong; I dig this stuff. Thanks for posting.

 

[RoscoeElegante]

The first video posted with keyboard and bass reminds me of what Band In A Box software sounds like, or used to the last time I messed around with it.

Don't get me wrong; I dig this stuff. Thanks for posting.

I really love its under-produced, rubbery bass, tack-hammer piano qualities. And even the pianist's occasional near-flubs and belated figuring out of some of the better fills. Dylan can be terribly sloppy, of course. But he also generates some real gems by mining spontaneity as much as he tries to....

 

[SPUDCASTER]

I think Charlie Daniels and Charlie McCoy played on a lot of Dylan sessions.

 

[RoscoeElegante]

In this same vein, go here
https://thecuttingedge.bobdylan.com/jam/sooner-or-later/
and to the rightside dot to isolate the piano track.
Freakin' LOVE the boogie-ish, gospel-ish, country-ish (in sum, to me, "Motown-ish") piano here.

Not sure what the proper category is, obviously. But great stuff!

 

[Chester P Squier]

I think I might have read that the guy playing the piano was playing the organ when the session began, Al Kooper played guitar, and Dylan played piano. The session was not going well, so the producer had them all take a break. During the break, Kooper played the organ and the producer liked what he heard, so he had Kooper play the organ, the organist play that piano in the OP, and Dylan play guitar.

Besides the Floyd Cramer licks, I also liked the "Sweets for my Sweet" licks as well on the piano.

 

[Mindthebull]

Here’s the story behind the organ part straight from the horses mouth, Al Kooper. I love this!! “Aw man, your no organ olayuh!!!” An eighth note behind of perfection.