Bob Dylan's 'Blind Willie McTell': Thirty Years On

In May 1983, Bob Dylan at the piano accompanied by Mark Knopfler on guitar recorded "Blind Willie McTell" during the sessions for the album Infidels. Considering it an unfinished work, Dylan left it off of that album and it did not surface as a recording until a decade later with the official release on the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. The melody is loosely based on "St. James Infirmary Blues". For the song, Dylan, seated at the piano and accompanied by Mark Knopfler on the twelve-string acoustic guitar, sings a series of plaintive verses depicting allegorical scenes which reflect on the history of American music and slavery. Each verse ends with the same refrain: "Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell".

It is an awesome song, particularly the original bare bones version, haunting, poetic, and passionate. Dylan acknowledged that he began playing it  at shows after hearing the Band's performance. The above performance was a more recent, expanded version. While I still prefer the original, stripped down version, it is terrific to hear and see the song performed by its composer, a song that remains enigmatic, perhaps surreal, but that deserves a place among his more remarkable compositions.

More on the song here

Not the original but a more spare, piano based version here

And a 2013 version here from Akron, Ohio here


--Anthony Napoli