Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands/Cross The Green Mountain

Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands/Cross The Green Mountain
Two Songs that I regard as Master Works

Set In The Same Naritive style similar music structure.
They stand out to me as different from his(Bob Dylan) other songs.
Could someone suggest any other?

I have listened to them on end, similar emotions ....

Bob Dylan has written in as many song patterns as can be imagined, revisiting many, many times. But with these two he goes the extra yard these are real big efforts. these are very disciplined, try writing a song like these. Enough of the word these already! He wasnt kidding when he said that his songs were mathematical, the amazing thing is he became aware of this at such a young age. Fancy being able to write songs 12 minutes long at the age of Twentytwo that would make people young and old from all walks of life and from all corners of the Earth stop and listen enthralled from start to finish. Hard Rain. But Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands/Cross The Green Mountain is there another Bob Dylan song(s) like them?

Muddy Lagoon
Bird Fancier MultiFacetee

Vision of Johana,Gates of Eden,Baby Blue and Chimes of Freedom spring to mind......controlled but multi layred meister works.

a haunting quote of Dylan's:


“Are you considering any further radical changes to your music?”

“Writing a symphony”

(Stops for four seconds to guage the response. No one laughs, he sees he's being taken seriously. He elaborates-)

"with different melodies, different words, different ideas all being the same, that all roll on top of each other and underneath each other. People complain my songs are pretty long now. At some point maybe I’ll just get to where I put out, an album consisting of one long song."

---

whatever it is you are responding to, MuddyL, I hear you.

I got lost in Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands for long enough to work out its intricate rhyme scheme (for myself)- become familiar (as much as I was able) with the stateliness of its formal structure. the rhythm, usually described as 6/8, I hear as an expansive, regally paced 4/4 ^*. not a Brahmsian 3-against-2.. but a 3-within-2:
1_2,3 2_2,3 3_2,3 4_2,3
the lyrics perhaps the most intensely erotic Dylan has ever penned- yet within the strictures of courtly language, mirroring the formality of the song's construction. it's a slow, irresistible, ineluctable.. siege.

I'll stop about the song.
it has stood out as unique to me, as well.

thank you for the post- I haven't spent as much time with Cross The Green Mountain but I get a sense of what you are hearing.
it is not just length.
and if I were to 'add' another song to your short list, the one that comes to mind, aurally.. right away is Red River Shore

* (4/4 is called 'common time'.
and the song is in D major, the "workingman's key" (thank you, acp)
common time and workingman's key.. yet reaching for the stars)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2009 01:37PM by blue-eyed.

True. Agree. Farewell Angelina a song like that was some way there Love is just a four letter word Queen Jane, Positively Fourth Street, Stuck inside of mobile , idiot wind and it goes on an on.... but those two.

Muddy Lagoon
Bird Fancier Desolation Rower

Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands - rapturous

Cross the Green Mountain - serviceable

I know the point of the thread is about the structure of these songs. Yes, there is a basis for putting them together. "You and Me We Had It All" sounds more melodically like "Cross the Green Mountain", at least to these several ears.

other songs? - the cinematic "New Danville Girl" redone as "Brownsville Girl" and better in its first approach.
I find "One to Many Mornings" to be a cousin to these songs. Maybe "Blind Willie McTell".

All this considered - as blue-eyed notes - Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands has these multiple rhythic pulses that pull against the dripping melody.

there seems to me a slow 7 - just sing the opening.

mercury (merkree) is the upbeat.

I love to sing this song. About once every 15 years or so I do.

Quote:

blue-eyed
* (4/4 is called 'common time'.
and the song is in D major, the "workingman's key" (thank you, acp)
common time and workingman's key.. yet reaching for the stars)

it was with specific reference to "Sad-Eyed Lady" that Bob referred to D as the "workingman's key."
it not only meant something to him that he considers D to be the workingman's key,
but also that he had chosen the workingman's key for Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,
his masterful tribute to Sara Lownds.

all those anamrmas???? anagrams

anna



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2009 01:38PM by Richard.

Quote:

angry crow puking
it was with specific reference to "Sad-Eyed Lady" that Bob referred to D as the "workingman's key."

cool!

(Richard, rhythm as I hear it:

4 measures of intro [2 phrases, 2 measures each, 4/4]

on last beat of 4th measure, 2 eighth-notes "with your"- i.e. that's the 'upbeat'
downbeat of 1st full 'singing' measure is "mercury")



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2009 01:38PM by blue-eyed.

yes, correct, the downbeat - i'm feeling a bit beatup.

I did mean it's the downbeat and that starts the slow 7.

hope you feel better..

I still don't hear the '7'.. I hear a steady, steady 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 beat phrases--
but who cares, as long as it's rapturous-- !

I only brought it up to try to describe the song's unique place in Dylan's 'songbook'.
its structure.. so unusually not lending itself to being improvised, yanked, changed, shape-shifted---



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2009 01:51PM by blue-eyed.

even performed

well, it may be more in the Hindustani sense of music, where the "sum" the first beat is also the last.

probably it's 6 an 1/32 ....

Quote:

blue-eyed
.. so unusually not lending itself to being improvised, yanked, changed, shape-shifted---

Some performances of "Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" you may not have heard:

A hotel room in Denver, March 1966 - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Rolling Thunder Revue rehearsals, October 1975 - [www.sendspace.com]

Hi Craig
I've heard them. But talking about the actual writing of the songs. What are your thoughts ?

Muddy Lagoon
Bird Fancier In Quisitor

Like A Rolling Stone , possibly


It's scary ,I want to introduce another type of song that is without peer , Ballad of a Thinman.

Quote:

Muddy Lagoon
Like A Rolling Stone , possibly


It's scary ,I want to introduce another type of song that is without peer , Ballad of a Thinman.

Then you must look at Tom Thumb.

Chimes of freedom plays to this melodic structure, goin to acapoco, lay down your weary tune is also written in symbolist poetry as is chimes, visions of Johanna is an immaculate piece of poetry that blends elements of the surreal, ballad of thin man with the love and warmth of I want you and the cynicism of love is just a four letter word, carefully crafted into one of dylans most haunting mesmerizing songs that trumpts all previous works on the subject of love.

welcome back