It doesn't sound like Bob dylan! Is this in his earlier years?

My favorite Dylan song. So sweet.

(of course, I'm a sucker for almost anything with pedal steel)

And yes, this is pre-heroin Dylan.

It doesn't sound like Bob dylan! Is this in his earlier years?

Dylan chose, as a young man, to try to sound like an old raspy-voiced blues singer, because those were the guys he revered. He never wanted to sound pretty. He never wanted his songs to sound pretty either. That's why I can never understand people who say they prefer the cover versions of Dylan. It's like lite beer compared to whisky, whisky that lays forever on the tongue.

I've enjoyed some of those cover versions. But not because they were prettier or closer to what the songs could be. Few have matched or bettered Dylan's versions. Hendrix's Watchtower and The Neville Brothers Ballad of Hollis Brown are two great examples of songs that perhaps live up to Dylan's standard.

These days, Dylan's voice really does sound like the old bluesman he'd always wanted to sound like. And he can still change your life in three minutes. Still remember exactly where I was when I heard him sing Blind Willie McTell the first time.

It's because he had quit smoking for this album. You never realize how bad smoking is for your voice until you quit. The change in my voice was dramatic.

Enough about me. This song has always held me spellbound from the opening note to the end. One line reminds me of my husband: "His clothes are dirty but his hands are clean and you're the best thing that he's ever seen." Sounds like Dylan understood the heart of a working man.

This song was largely to blame for me deciding that I and my then new bride had to have a brass bed for well...what newlyweds do...

That's what most people don't understand about Bob Dylan. He has an amazing amount of vocal control and the "other voice" he uses was chosen as part of the effect.

Oh yeah....