THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,495) Bob Dylan and the Band — “I’m Your Teenage Prayer”
Well, we go from a great Dylan parody/rip-off to a glorious doo-woo parody by Dylan himself with the Band from what else but The Basement Tapes. I kept trying to find the “original recording by the original artist” until I realized it was a Dylan original — that’s how good it is.
“As a doo wop parody it’s up there with some of the stuff from ‘Freak Out’ by Frank Zappa” (Namenameson23, https://www.reddit.com/r/bobdylan/comments/i5yuvr/im_your_teenage_prayer_is_the_actual_best/?rdt=63203), “[p]ure, wonderful basement silliness” (llama40204, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CanO9iqhpYw&pp=ygUjQm9iIGR0bGFuIEnigJltIHlvdXIgdGVlbmFnZSBwcmF5ZXI%3D)that “is hilarious” (G8GT364CI1, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tpiUGHm6Ndk&pp=ygUjQm9iIGR0bGFuIEnigJltIHlvdXIgdGVlbmFnZSBwcmF5ZXI%3D as when “at the end someone sings ‘Teenage Pear’ and Dylan cracks up laughing”. (Namenameson23, https://www.reddit.com/r/bobdylan/comments/i5yuvr/im_your_teenage_prayer_is_the_actual_best/?rdt=63203) Nathalie O. says:
[It’s] a doo-wop parody sprinkled with laughs and false starts. Rick Danko’s tenor voice is delightful, and Richard Manuel singing mischievously in the background captures the essence of The Basement Tapes.
https://medium.com/the-riff/you-aint-goin-nowhere-5d4ade643d2d
Tony Atwood explains and explores:
If you have never played in a band that is not specifically rehearsing for a live performance, but instead is just kicking ideas around and having fun, you won’t know what it is like, and may well find it hard to understand why the guys spent so many hours larking about with silly songs like “I’m your teenage prayer”. Why would Bob write down all these lyrics, and evolve this tune and set of three different chord sequences JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT? . . . Think of it, perhaps, like an alternative to spending an evening with friends down the pub or in a bar. People do it for the friendship, for the chatter, to get out of the house, to pass the time, but not because it is going to lead somewhere. They do it because this is their life. . . . This song is based around three commonplace chord sequences from 1950s doo-wap. These are classic moves which anyone familiar with 1950s music would know and be able to play without even thinking – no rehearsing necessary. You hear the first change and then you know, as a musician, exactly where it is going. There is a real glory to be had by playing along on such occasions, seeing where the music goes, and… larking about . . . .
Here are some excerpts from a beautiful essay on The Basement Tapes by Nathalie O.:
It was the year of the summer of love, of the emblematic Sgt. Peppers, of beautiful people with wild hair, wearing pearls and flowers. Less poetically, it was also the year of racial riots in big cities across the United States, among them the infamous ones of Detroit. . . . [F]ive young men found a refuge in the Catskill Mountains. Bob, Richard, Rick, Garth, and Robbie created their own universe protected from the modern world. . . . They were [also] protected from . . . their past. The songs they played in the basement were so far from the music of that summer. They got back to basics, to old tunes that reflected a world that no longer existed, interspersed with songs written by Bob Dylan that contained enigmatic lyrics. Immersed in that cozy world, they forgot they had toured the world the previous year. They rediscovered the satisfaction of playing music without pressure. As Garth Hudson told Barney Hoskyns: “We were doing seven, eight, ten, sometimes fifteen songs a day. Some were old ballads and traditional songs, some were written by Bob, but others would be songs Bob made up as he went along.” Their pieces were an incredible blend of roots music, country, traditional, bluegrass. . . . Unconscious that they were inventing the Americana Sound, they devoted themselves to the music they loved, the music they wanted to play. It offered them a sanctuary from the troubles that were going on . . . . They drove cars from the 1940s, wore vintage hats, and played traditional songs in a pink house. It wasn’t the hippie dream, but it was their dream. A dream different from the one of the flower children, yet no less significant. Those afternoons in Big Pink marked a path in their lives, a welcomed intermission that pushed their creativity to new heights. What happened in Big Pink during those magical months was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It shaped Bob Dylan and the members of The Band. . . . It was a total contrast with 1966, where they were almost punk. A year later, they had changed. The world around them had changed, as well. The trepidation of a world tour gave way to a peaceful lifestyle set in an artistic town. . . . Did they feel they missed something living in the Catskills rather than in San Francisco? Probably not. They knew they were finding their own voice. Although they weren’t conscious that their music would still live decades later, the shelter they created at Big Pink should have seemed like a benediction. It was exactly what they needed at that moment in their lives. And it’s exactly what we still need now.
https://medium.com/the-riff/you-aint-goin-nowhere-5d4ade643d2d
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