Bringing It All Back Home by Bob Dylan was in many eyes (including mine) one of the most important and influential albums of all time. Half the songs had an electric band backing and the lyrics were personal, surreal and poetic and couldn’t have been further from protest song.
It was released in March 1965 and as far as I can recall I bought it with a mixture of birthday cash and a gift voucher from the Coop in High Street, Birmingham. On my original vinyl copy you can still see the price – 32 shillings and seven pence about £1.62.
I was just 15 and my parents thought I had gone bad when they heard this strange music I filled my evenings with. After all what was wrong with Frank Ifield and those cheeky lads, Freddie and the Dreamers?
I played it at least once a day for weeks and once a week for months thereafter. I knew all the lyrics to every song (at least those I could decipher). When I got my first guitar I learned to play several of them. “Mr Tambourine Man”, “Gates of Eden”, “She Belongs To Me” and of course “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” which was one of the very first songs I ever played and sang.
I never understood the title but figured out nobody was meant to. I was intrigued by many of the lyrics … “she knows too much to argue or to judge” or “she knows there’s no success like failure, and that failure’s no success at all”. I’ve played the song all my life, changed arrangements from time to time, never got tired of it.
Bob Dylan remains a major inspiration to me after more than 50 years. I have added more favourites but no artist surpasses Dylan although a few come close.
Here’s a recording I made of it in 2015 at the Old Smithy Studio in Kempsey near Worcester:
Love Minus Zero / No Limit by Bob Dylan. Recorded by Tony Burt
Owners’ Rights Acknowledged
My love she speaks like silence, without ideals or violence
She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful, yet she’s true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses, and make promises by the hours
My love she laughs like the flowers, valentines can’t buy her.
In the dime stores and bus stations, people talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations, draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future, my love she speaks softly,
She knows there’s no success like failure, and that failure’s no success at all.
The cloak and dagger dangles, madams light their candles.
In ceremonies of the horsemen, even the pawn must hold a grudge.
Statues made of match sticks, crumble into one another,
My love winks, she does not bother, she knows too much to argue or to judge.
The bridge at midnight trembles, the country doctor rambles,
Bankers’ nieces seek perfection, expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.
The wind howls like a hammer, the night blows cold and rainy,
My love she’s like some raven at my window with a broken wing.
In October 2014 The Tony Burt Band performed at the Granary in Leominster for one of Norrie Davies’s famous curry nights. We managed to record most of one set and although it’s not of pristine quality it is quite listenable. I’ve decided to share a few of the tracks as they give a good idea of how the band was doing in those days.
There’s a bit of a story about this song as it resulted from a songwriting technique I learned from Christine Collister in 2013 at Moniack Mhor near Loch Ness.
Although I mostly perform songs I have written myself these days I still have a few covers I trot out when in the mood. I’ve always been a massive Dylan fan but first got to know this Dylan song via Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll. This was in the 60s and of course their recording became world famous as the theme for Absolutely Fabulous.
Here’s a song for the coming season. I find a lot of my songs refer to the seasons or weather or the passing of time. I guess they are classic topics for both songs and poems so shouldn’t really be surprised.
Popular Bromyard-based Folk Rock band, the Stoned Cherries, have released their first CD, “Baked In A Pie”. It is a lively and enjoyable mix of traditional tunes and largely original songs and is a close representation of their live act.
Sometimes I will write a song with a different well known song as its starting point. I don’t mean copying it or ripping it off in any way but more so taking inspiration from it. Those of you who know my song “Marching On” may not be entirely surprised to learn it was prompted by the old classic “Will The Circle Be Unbroken”. Equally a more recent number, “The Answer” was inspired by strumming chords of “Hotel California”.
Here is a relatively new song I have yet to record or even perform in public: “Mary Didn’t Want To Come To London”.
Five String Hammer was written in June 2017 at Halsway Manor in Somerset by Monica Shepherd and Tony Burt. It’s an interesting example of a co-written song so I’ll try to give a bit of insight of how it came about.