PROFILBARU.COM

"John Wesley Harding"
"John Wesley Harding"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album John Wesley Harding
Released	December 27, 1967
Recorded	November 6, 1967
Studio	Columbia Studio A (Nashville, Tennessee)
Genre	Folk rock; country rock;
Length	2:59
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Bob Dylan
Producer(s)	Bob Johnston
Audio sample
	file; help;

"John Wesley Harding" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that appears as the opening track on his 1967 album of the same name.

Writing and recording

Dylan told Jann Wenner in a 1969 Rolling Stone interview that the song "started out to be a long ballad. I was gonna write a ballad on ... like maybe one of those old cowboy ... you know, a real long ballad. But in the middle of the second verse, I got tired. I had a tune, and I didn't want to waste the tune; it was a nice little melody, so I just wrote a quick third verse, and I recorded that."^[2] Biographer Clinton Heylin states that Dylan has had a well-documented interest in outlaw cowboys, including Jesse James and Billy the Kid,^[3] and in the past Dylan has said that his favorite folk song was "John Hardy",^[4] whose real-life title character in 1893 murdered another man over a game of craps.^[5] John Wesley Hardin was another late-19th century outlaw.^[3] Dylan has stated that he chose John Wesley Hardin for his protagonist over other badmen because his name "[fit] in the tempo" of the song.^[2] Dylan added the g to the end of Hardin's name by mistake.^[6]^[7]

The song was recorded in two takes on November 6, 1967, in Studio A of Columbia Music Row Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.^[3]^[8] Both of these were considered for the album, but the second take was ultimately chosen.^[3]

Themes

Dylan has said that he did not have a clear notion of what the song was about.^[2]^[7] He told Cameron Crowe in 1985 that after recording the John Wesley Harding album, he "didn't know what to make of it. ... So I figured the best thing to do would be to put out the album as quickly as possible, call it John Wesley Harding because that was the one song that I had no idea what it was about, why it was even on the album. So I figured I'd call the album that, call attention to it, make it something special..."^[7] It was the only title that he considered for the album.^[2] He told a Newsweek interviewer in 1969 that the songs on his country Nashville Skyline album: "These are the type of songs that I always felt like writing. The songs reflect more of the inner me than the songs of the past. They're more to my base than, say, 'John Wesley Harding'. There I felt like everyone expected me to be a poet so that's what I tried to be."^[9]

Cover versions

"John Wesley Harding" has been covered by McKendree Spring on their 1969 eponymous album,^[10] as well as Tom Russell^[11] and Wesley Willis.^[12]

Notes

^ Kosser, Michael (2006). How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A.: A History Of Music Row. Lanham, Maryland, US: Backbeat Books. pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-1-49306-512-7.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Wenner, Jann. "Interview with Jann S. Wenner," Rolling Stone, November 29, 1969, in Cott 2006, p. 158
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Heylin 2009, p. 447
^ Shelton 1986, p. 448
^ John Hardy Found Guilty
^ Sounes 2001, p. 227
^ ^a ^b ^c Crowe 1985
^ Heylin 1995, p. 69
^ Reprinted in Shelton 1986, p. 458
^ McKendree Spring
^ Ruhlmann
^ Black Light Diner

References

"Black Light Diner". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
Cott, Jonathan, ed. (2006). Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-92312-1.
Crowe, Cameron (1985). Biograph (CD booklet). Bob Dylan. New York: Columbia Records.
Heylin, Clinton (1995). Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960–1994. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0-312-15067-9.
Heylin, Clinton (2009). Revolution In The Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Volume One: 1957–73 (2010 paperback ed.). Constable. ISBN 978-1-84901-296-6.
"John Hardy Found Guilty of Murder in the First Degree". Wheeling Daily Register. West Virginia Archives and History. 1893-10-13. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
Maginnis, Tom. "John Wesley Harding: Song Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
"McKendree Spring". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
Ruhlmann, William. "Tom Russell: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2011-03-11.
Shelton, Robert (1986). No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan. Ballantine. ISBN 0-345-34721-8.
Sounes, Howard (2001). Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-1686-8.