Tell me, momma,
Tell me, momma,
Tell me, momma, what is it?
What's wrong with you this time?
Hey, John, come and get me some candy goods
Shucks, it sure feels like it's in the woods
Spend some time on your January trips
You got tombstone moose up and your brave-yard whips
If you're anxious to find out when your friendship's gonna
end
Come on, baby, I'm your friend!
And I know that you know that I know that you show
Something is tearing up your mind.
Tell me, momma,
Tell me, momma,
Tell me, momma, what is it?
What's wrong with you this time?
Ohh, we bone the editor, can't get read
But his painted sled, instead it's a bed
Yes, I see you on your window ledge
But I can't tell just how far away you are from the edge
And, anyway, you're just gonna make people jump and roar
Whatcha wanna go and do that for?
For I know that you know that I know that you know
Something is tearing up your mind.
Ah, tell me, momma,
Tell me, momma,
Tell me, momma, what is it?
What's wrong with you this time?
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
From Tony Glover's liner notes essay:
These two CDs document one of the great confrontational performances of the 20th century. Bob Dylan, intent on following his own inner vision, wasn't the first artist to NOT give the audience what they wanted, but he may have been the loudest.
In 1913, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky wrote music for "The Rite Of Spring" a Diaghilev ballet, choreographed by Nijinsky. His twelve-tone scales and use of unfamiliar structures caused not just a scandal, but rather a riot, as Parisian audiences stood and shouted, drowning out the orchestra. They considered Stravinski's score a "blasphemous attempt to destroy music as an art" and booed roundly throughout the piece.
In 1922, modern dancer Isadora Duncan began a tour with her husband, Russian poet Sergei Esenin, he read and she danced in auditoriums across the US. It was the height of the Red Scare, the powers-that-be were threatened by the bolshevik revolution of a few years before. When Duncan performed in Boston, she gave an impassioned speech, imploring a highly conservative audience- "you were once wild here, don't let them tame you!" When she waved a red scarf and bared a breast, declaring "nudity is truth, it is beauty, it is art!", the audience fled the hall.
In 1935, actor-director-writer Antonin Artaud performed his play "The Cenci", a dramatized myth of murder, incest and adultery, in Paris. Artaud had championed the "Theater Of Cruelty", where an audience was to be transformed through their encounter with his work. Settings were designed to disorient the spectator, recorded sound effects of trampling feet, an amplified metronome and tolling church bells were played through loudspeakers located in the four corners of the building and spectators were assaulted with macabre lighting effects. The play soon closed, and Artaud eventually wound up in an asylum.
In May of 1966, Bob Dylan stands on an English stage, coming back for the second half of a concert. The first part, done solo and acoustic, was well received, even though the lyrics were not the socially-conscious politically-motivating messages that had gained Dylan popularity barely a year before. Now he appears in a check houndstooth "rabbit" suit and pointed boots in front of a 5 piece band with an electric guitar in hand, playing incandescent rock and roll. There are catcalls throughout the set, and finally, just before the last number, someone yells "Judas!". Dylan replies, "I don't believe you!", turns to the band and snarls "play fucking loud!"--drummer Mickey Jones cracks the snare like a rifle shot and the Hawks roar into "Like A Rolling Stone". Dylan's voice is a velvet sneer as he shouts out the line "how does it feeeeeeel" and the performance rolls on with power, defiance and a sheer majesty rarely captured on tape.
By the time the first so-called "Royal Albert Hall" bootleg came out, some 4 or 5 years later, the mythology was in place: a blues-tinged Woody Guthrie comes out of the midwest, moves to NY, writes some poetic topical songs that become the soundtrack for the civil rights and anti-war struggles, turns inward and begins doing existentially surrealistic visionary work, hooks up with a kick-ass rock band, barnstorms the US and the Euro-continent, ends 4 months of grueling touring with a triumphant concert, returns to the US, breaks his neck in a motorcycle accident, and retires into a 20 month seclusion. When he returns, it's as a vastly changed man, a bearded biblical poet, with acoustic parables from a whole other century. So what happened, and why were those people so angry? Therein lies a tale...
1 "
She Belongs To M"
[Bringing It All Back Home : Dylan Albums]
2 "h Time Around Bob "
[Blond on Blond : Dylan Albums]
3 "
Visions Of Johann"
[Blond on Blond : Dylan Albums]
4 "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
[Bringing It All Back Home : Dylan Albums]
5 "
Desolation Ro"
[Highway 61 Revisited : Dylan Albums]
6 "Like A Woman Bob "
[Blond on Blond : Dylan Albums]
7 "Mr. Tambourine Man"
[Bringing It All Back Home : Dylan Albums]
8 "
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met"
[Another Side of Bob Dylan : Dylan Albums]
9 "
Baby, Let Me Follow You Dow"
[Bob Dylan : Dylan Albums]
10 "
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blue"
[Highway 61 Revisited : Dylan Albums]
11 "rd-skin Pill-box Hat Bob "
[Blond on Blond : Dylan Albums]
12 "
One Too Many Morning"
[The Times They Are A-Changin' : Dylan Albums]
13 "
Ballad Of A Thin Ma"
[Highway 61 Revisited : Dylan Albums]
14 "
Like A Rolling Ston"
[Highway 61 Revisited : Dylan Albums]