Bob Dylan is releasing a new box set in his Bootleg series, Another Self-Portrait, on August 27. The new set includes unreleased recordings made for Nashville Skyline (1969), New Morning (1970), and the much-maligned Self-Portrait (1970). Critic Greil Marcus famously reviewed the latter album, asking “What is this Shit?” But he is much more kind in his review of the new box set, which looks like it might have some gems.
Rolling Stone premiered one of the songs on the new set, “Pretty Saro.” The song is an old English folk tune dating from he early 1700s. Although through the centuries the song had basically disappeared in England, it was preserved in the U.S. by singers in the Appalachian Mountains. More recently, Iris DeMent recorded the song the 2000 film Songcatcher.
In “Pretty Saro” the singer finds himself alone away from home. He understands that his love, Pretty Saro, will not have him because he had no land. At the end, he wishes he were a poet who could write her a letter. As he sits by the river, he reveals he dreams of his lost love wherever he goes. In the version used by Iris DeMent, the song ends with the singer wishing he was a turtle dove who could fly back to Saro and lay in her arms.
Check out the video for Bob Dylan’s version of “Pretty Saro” created by Jennifer Lebeau, who used photos and videos from the Farm Security Administration to accompany the song. Lebeau had also worked on Dylan’s 1994 MTV Unplugged video.
What do you think of Dylan’s version of “Pretty Saro”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Cowboy Jack Clement passed away this week in Nashville from cancer at the age of 82. The singer, producer, and songwriter had a long career with connections to some important figures in music history. Early in his career, Cowboy Jack Clement worked as a producer and engineer for Sam Phillips at Sun Records, helping discover Jerry Lee Lewis and recording him on such songs as “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” He wrote Johnny Cash’s “Ballad of a Teenage Queen” and produced the singer’s recording of “Ring of Fire.” He also produced several U2 performances in 1987 for their Rattle & Hum album. And he continued producing music until his death, with his most recent work being on Cathy Maguire‘s upcoming 2014 album.
In 2005, a movie called Shakespeare Was a Big George Jones Fan focused on Clement’s career using his home movies. He had been in the Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame since 1973, and he was going to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year.
Among all of Clement’s accomplishments, the one that stands out for me is that he wrote the song, “I Guess Things Happen That Way.” The song was a hit for Johnny Cash in 1958. Almost four decades later, the song appeared on the excellent soundtrack to the underrated Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner movie, A Perfect World (1993). Here is Cash’s original version of the song. (A live 1994 version is also on YouTube, but I prefer the original recording with the background singers the 1950s slapback sound.)
“I Guess Things Happen That Way” is one of the great heartbreak songs. In the song, the singer tells the listener about missing his lost love: “You ask me if I’ll miss her kisses./I guess I will, everyday.” He does not know if he will find another love (“I don’t know. I can’t say.).
But what is great about the song is that amid the pain, the singer and the upbeat music — including the background ba-doo-pa-doo’s — contemplate life getting better: “You ask me if I’ll get along./I guess I will, someway.” And the wonderful refrain reminds all of the heartbroken that they are not alone, “I don’t like it but I guess things happen that way.” It is one of the most perfect songs about the contradictory agony and hope that comes from losing a love.
Johnny Cash later recorded the song with Bob Dylan in 1969 while Dylan was making Nashville Skyline. “I Guess Things Happen That Way” did not end up on the album but you may listen to their version below. (Thanks to Michael Gray for pointing me to the Dylan-Cash collaboration.)
Clement originally wrote “I Guess Things Happen That Way” from a man’s point of view: “Heaven help me be a man / and have the strength to stand alone.” But Emmylou Harris shows that the song is more universal by adding a few tweaks (“Heaven help me to be strong”) in this performance at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
The song also may be performed as a man-woman duet, as shown by Kris Kristofferson and Norah Jones at a Johnny Cash tribute concert. Finally, here is a recent Clement performance of “Guess Things Happen That Way.” Paul Smith of Boundary Road accompanies Clement at the The Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa in Nashville, Tennessee.
We are sad at the passing of Cowboy Jack Clement. But we are thankful for the work he created during his long career giving us a little extra joy and comfort for our short time here on earth. I don’t like it, but I guess things happen that way.
What is your favorite Cowboy Jack Clement song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Bob Dylan is releasing a new box set in his Bootleg series, Another Self-Portrait, on August 27. The new set includes unreleased recordings made for Nashville Skyline (1969), New Morning (1970), and the much-maligned Self-Portrait (1970). Critic Greil Marcus famously reviewed the latter album, asking “What is this Shit?” But he is much more kind in his review of the new box set, which looks like it might have some gems.
