Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

[A little more info about the album cover on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and the James Dean photo , pictured above]

I had no idea how covered this song was until I actually started looking. I have about 25 to go, and I'm pretty impressed. I did just listen to dozens of other shit-ass, pretentious piano versions of this great song... but you don't want to hear them.

That's what I do for you. I am your musical Jesus. I listened to these songs so you wouldn't have to.

Take a listen to this Dylan classic. Twice, and then one more time from The Gaslight in NYC ('62).

And then these really nice tributes to Bob:

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (best arrangement... hands down)
The Small Stars (esp. lead guitar)
Johnny Cash
The Derek Trucks Band (w Susan Tedeschi)
Elvis Presley
Odetta
Ivy League ('65, folksie)
Duane Eddy ('65, country-folk instrumental)

A lot of people make it sort of a love song - slow and easygoing. But it isn't a love song. It's a statement that maybe you can say something to make yourself feel better. It's as if you were talking to yourself. - bob dylan

On A Monday...

I think the Johnny Cash version, called I Got Stripes, is the most well known version of this song, but Leadbelly (aka Huddie Ledbetter, aka King of the 12-String Guitar) was the original outlaw and an even bigger bad-ass, and wrote the original words and music to On A Monday.

A little background from the Leadbelly Foundation:
In 1918, [Leadbelly] fought and killed a man in Dallas and was sentenced to thirty years to be served in the state prison in Huntsville, Texas. In 1925, he wrote a song asking Governor Pat Neff for a pardon. Neff, who had promised at his election never to pardon a prisoner, broke his promise and set Huddie Ledbetter free. In 1930, after a fight at a party, he was sentenced to another prison term in the infamous Angola Farm prison plantation in Louisiana. In a way, this was a stroke of luck, because he was discovered by folklorists John and Alan Lomax, who were recording prison songs for the Library of Congress.

PLAY: Leadbelly - On A Monday
PLAY: Johnny Cash - I Got Stripes