Thursday, March 29, 2007

Dylan Video of the Week - Forever Young



Here's Mr. D. singing "Forever Young" on the Letterman show.

"Forever Young" was originally recorded by Dylan and The Band on November 8, 1973, and released on Planet Waves in 1974. Reportedly, it was one of the more difficult cuts to get on tape to Dylan's satisfaction.

"We only did one [complete] take of the slow version of 'Forever Young,'" said studio engineer Rob Fraboni, according to a Wikipedia entry. "This take was so riveting, it was so powerful, so immediate, I couldn't get over it... I was so mesmerized by it again I didn't even notice that Bob had come into the room...

"...So when we were assembling the master reel I was getting ready to put that [take] on the master reel. I didn't even ask. And Bob said, 'What're you doing with that? We're not gonna use that.' And I jumped up and said, 'What do you mean you're not gonna use that? You're crazy! Why?' Well, during the recording...[Dylan's childhood friend] Lou Kemp and this girl came by and she had made a crack to him, 'C'mon, Bob, what! Are you getting mushy in your old age?' It was based on her comment that he wanted to leave [that version] off the record."
Dylan would attempt another, acoustic, arrangement of the song on November 9th, telling Fraboni, "I've been carrying this song around in my head for five years and I never wrote it down and now I come to record it I just can't decide how to do it." Ultimately, the earlier, November 8th version would be used.

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