Bob Dylan — The 9th Blonde on Blonde Session

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again (Takes 1-15)

Feb 17, 2024

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, take 1 to take 15. Columbia Music Row Studios, Nashville, Tennessee. Thursday, 17th February, 1966. Produced by Bob Johnson. Recorded between 4AM - 7AM.

Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, vocal), Charlie McCoy (guitar), Joe South (guitar, bass), Al Kooper (organ), Hargus ”Pig” Robbins (piano), Henry Strzelecki (bass), Kenneth Buttrey (drums). 1. Wayne Moss (guitar).

1. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 1: rehearsal 0:00

2. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. rehearsal 3:21

3. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 1: breakdown 8:15

4. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 2: rehearsal 10:07

5. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 3: rehearsal

6. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 4: breakdown 11:20

7. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 4 again: false start 14:03

8. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 5 14:13

9. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 6: false start 20:02

10. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 7: false start 20:15

11. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 8: false start 20:36

12. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 9: breakdown 20:42

13. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 10: false start 21:14

14. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 11: breakdown 21:33

15. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 12: breakdown 22:31

16. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 13: breakdown 23:14

17. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 14: complete 27:22

18. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. take 15 34:25

(18 released on BLONDE ON BLONDE, Columbia C2L-41, C2S-841, 28 June 1966.)

https://www.bobdylan.com/albums/blonde-on-blonde/

https://www.bjorner.com/DSN01225%20(66).htm#DSN1283

Oh, the ragman draws circles

Up and down the block

I’d ask him what the matter was

But I know that he don’t talk

And the ladies treat me kindly

And furnish me with tape

But deep inside my heart

I know I can’t escape

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

Well, Shakespeare, he’s in the alley

With his pointed shoes and his bells

Speaking to some French girl

Who says she knows me well

And I would send a message

To find out if she’s talked

But the post office has been stolen

And the mailbox is locked

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

Mona tried to tell me

To stay away from the train line

She said that all the railroad men

Just drink up your blood like wine

An’ I said, “Oh, I didn’t know that

But then again, there’s only one I’ve met

An’ he just smoked my eyelids

An’ punched my cigarette”

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

Grandpa died last week

And now he’s buried in the rocks

But everybody still talks about

How badly they were shocked

But me, I expected it to happen

I knew he’d lost control

When he built a fire on Main Street

And shot it full of holes

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

Now the senator came down here

Showing ev’ryone his gun

Handing out free tickets

To the wedding of his son

An’ me, I nearly got busted

An’ wouldn’t it be my luck

To get caught without a ticket

And be discovered beneath a truck

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

Now the preacher looked so baffled

When I asked him why he dressed

With twenty pounds of headlines

Stapled to his chest

But he cursed me when I proved it to him

Then I whispered, “Not even you can hide

You see, you’re just like me

I hope you’re satisfied”

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

Now the rainman gave me two cures

Then he said, “Jump right in”

The one was Texas medicine

The other was just railroad gin

An’ like a fool I mixed them

An’ it strangled up my mind

An’ now people just get uglier

An’ I have no sense of time

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

When Ruthie says come see her

In her honky-tonk lagoon

Where I can watch her waltz for free

’Neath her Panamanian moon

An’ I say, “Aw come on now

You must know about my debutante”

An’ she says, “Your debutante just knows what you need

But I know what you want”

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street

Where the neon madmen climb

They all fall there so perfectly

It all seems so well timed

An’ here I sit so patiently

Waiting to find out what price

You have to pay to get out of

Going through all these things twice

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again.

After reading this recently, “Chapter II: Do you remember...?” (https://travellingwithbobdylan.substack.com/p/chapter-ii-do-you-remember), by Christina Svane, I listened to this recording session again. Good to hear this song being born here.

There also seemed to be some kind of connection with this Definitely Dylan episode, exploring Shadow Kingdom, and Bob Dylan’s ‘dualistic relationship with time’ ..

https://www.definitelydylan.com/listen/2021/9/14/shadow-kingdom-a-midsummer-nights-dream

Kind of related, I recently posted this on youtube…

The two versions of When I Paint My Masterpiece, from 1987. Just to note, the photograph I used for this, and a previous upload, are incorrect. Getty images have it labelled as 1987, Copenhagen.

Copenhagen, 1987

I did think that the photograph seemed unusual for 1987. I thought maybe it was the lighting. I then realised that the 1987 Copenhagen show was indoors, and the lighting here seems to be outdoor natural light. I suspect the photograph is most likely from Copenhagen, 1984.

Either way, I noticed recently whilst listening to the Copenhagen show from the 21st September, 1987,

.. that it was only the second time that year that Bob Dylan had played When I Paint My Masterpiece live. The first time was a couple of weeks earlier in Basel, Switzerland. 10th September. He sang the two versions quite differently. I thought I would post the two versions together here. I posted elsewhere that I got to listening to these shows from 1987 again after reading parts of “Travelling with Bob Dylan and Other Unsolved Mysteries” By Christina Svane, https://travellingwithbobdylan.substack.com/ (I came across this by following a link posted elsewhere by Definitely Dylan, so thank you to her for that).

A few weeks ago I heard this brief clip of a George Harrison interview, he makes reference to a couple of Bob Dylan songs, including Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again,

1×

0:00

-0:50