Sunday Music – Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right – The Bob Dylan Series (Part 2)

Today’s music video is ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’, and this version is from the Australian band The Seekers.

The image used in this clip shows the Australian band The Seekers. L to R – Keith Potger, Judith Durham, Bruce Woodley, and Athol Guy.

This video was posted to You Tube by dazbluey

While this series will concentrate on Bob Dylan songs, I’m doing something different here by posting songs of his that were recorded by other artists and bands. This in no way is meant to detract from Dylan in any manner, but to actually highlight his vast store of material, and in those early days in fact, as big a star as Bob was, most of his songs were made into hits by other artists.   …  

Bob Dylan wrote this song in 1962 and it was released on his second album, that breakthrough album, ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’ in 1963. The song has a background, as you might imagine. By the time this album was released, Bob was already a Superstar, long before that term was even coined. Everywhere he played, the audiences were packed and wildly cheered with every song he played. However, and surprisingly, his songs when sung by Bob himself, received little airplay. Other artists made Dylan songs into hits, and some of them were huge hits. Peter Paul and Mary were foremost among those, but most of the music stars of the time, even at this early stage in Bob’s career, were releasing songs composed by Dylan, guaranteed to sell well. This song was one of them especially, and has been ‘covered’ by many artists at the time, and since.

I’ve selected this version by The Seekers from Australia to highlight especially the difference in the way Bob sang it to the way it was ‘smoothed’ somewhat by some of those other artists and bands. Bob has sung the song numerous times over the years and each time he himself seems to do it differently, so this is a song that has no set style when it is being performed.

The Seekers made it huge in the UK in the early and mid 60′s with a string of hits, the first of these ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’, (written by Tom Springfield) a monster hit selling nearly 2 million copies. They were a ‘clean cut’ band in an age of those early rock bands, and sold surprisingly well, across the Planet. They blended harmonies so well, especially with Judith’s powerful voice influenced strongly from traditional, and Jazz backgrounds, and this Dylan song is one of few Seeker’s songs that did not specifically highlight Judith’s wonderful voice.

They had a further 9 major hits in their wonderful career, and Bruce Woodley, with Dobe Newton wrote what is now almost an Australian anthem ‘I Am Australian’, a song I highlighted in this earlier post on Australia Day.

They included this Dylan song on one of their earliest albums, brought out before they produced an album of their songs that included some of their own hits. In fact, I still have that album in my collection, probably the first album that started my collection of more than 400 vinyl LP’s. The album was one of those albums in our small family collection at the time, and has since found its way into my collection, but the songs were family favourites at the time, and the album was one that was often on the turntable, songs that I enjoyed even as a young teenager at the time. That album included Standards, Traditional arrangements and 2 songs by Dylan, and other than the Peter Paul and Mary songs, this was one of the first times I had heard anything composed by Dylan.

The background of the song is closely tied in with Bob’s relationship with his girlfriend at the time, Susan Rotolo. She was known as ‘Suze’ pronounced in much the same manner as you might say Susy, with the concentration being on the letter Z. Bob was known to have close associations with many young women at the time, but Suze was one of the constants in those early years of his career. She is forever immortalised as the young woman on Bob’s arm on that famous album cover of ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’.

Bob and Suze were on again, off again, on again companions for some years, and when Suze left with her mother to further her education in Italy, Bob penned this song in 1962. The lyrics can be taken many ways, either as ambivalence and right through almost to spite, and that’s the beauty of the song, and why it can be sung in so many ways with emphasis on different parts of the lyrics. Suze was influential in Bob’s early career. She returned from Italy, the album cover was shot, and the album released, but their tempestuous association was one that could not endure, and they parted not long after this album came out. Suze at that time was only 20, and Bob was 22.

This next song here, probably one of the most famous of American songs, was written by Woody Guthrie, a man who influenced Bob’s career as he first started out, years before this, Bob’s second album came out. Bob moved from Minnesota to hopefully start a career in music in the same style as Woody Guthrie. It took Bob numerous attempts, especially as young unknown before he got to actually meet  Woody, who was slowly dying. Guthrie was just happy that his songs, and especially, his ideals, were being passed down to a new generation of singers.

This clip is not a performance of that song ‘This Land Is Your Land’ but an overlay of existing and rare footage of Guthrie over his singing of the song, a wonderful song that epitomises an optimistic American outlook. As you see that still image there of Woody holding his guitar, the small sticker there reads ‘This Machine Kills Fascists’, his guitar. Woody Guthrie, a true American legend.

This video was posted to You Tube by alargedog

Tagged: Bob Dylan, Music, Music Video, The Seekers, Videos, Woody Guthrie

Posted in: America (USA), Music, Videos