MUSIC (DEMOS)

CAUGHT (Song for Bob and Larry)

CAUGHT is a Demo.
In 1995, someone told me to learn the lyrics to TANGLED UP IN BLUE.

I did so, and then ignored everything about the song and Dylan.

Bob toured with Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead in a Double Bill show in 1999(?) and, while everyone I knew was there to see Phil (and Robben Ford), I was very interested to see Dylan. It was like taking a drug. His band consisted of a guy in a cowboy hat on drums DRIVING the songs in an almost marching band- blues stomp (David Kemper), a guy in a brown suit with a bowler hat on upright bass thumping and jiving (Tony Garnier), former Arc Angels guitar player Charlie Sexton playing a green Gretch Country Gentleman for most of the show, and a tall, long haired guy with a beard and mustache who looked like a riverboat gambler who played EVERYTHIING that had strings. Fiddle, Mandolin, Acoustics 6 and 12 string, Pedal Steel, and Telecaster. His name was Larry Campbell. He was my new hero.

They began to play TANGLED UP IN BLUE and it was quite different from the Album version I had to memorize, and even more different than the Jerry Garcia version from ’93. It was bluegrassy, except for the (did I mention) DRIVING DRUMS by Kemper.

I got home and began the journey. I read books. All of them. I bought all of the albums. I bought BIOGRAPH. I read College dissertations on Dylan. Some of them 600 pages. These lead me to the Bootleg Tapes. All of them. I made my way up to the recent version of the band. Those were my favorite bootlegs. There was a recording of EVERY NIGHT. Every night was good, and Bob was in a fun place then. SOME shows were absolutely incendiary though, and that was due to Larry.

I saw that band as much as I could for the next 5 years until Larry retired from the road. I haven’t seen Bob since.

In 2004, I started noodling with the recordings. One night I just wanted to do a soundcheck with the acoustic. I played something akin to the opening of Larry’s version of TANGLED.

Hey.

I like that.

So, I said “If I’m going to use that as a seed for a new song, it’s gotta be a tribute top BOTH those guys.

CAUGHT is sung in a style reminiscent of early Dylan when he was homaging Woody Guthrie.

The lyrics are some of my favorites of any lyrics ever written anywhere by anybody. Even Bob.

Thanks Bob, and Thanks Larry. (And David, and Tony and Charlie)

Do you need to hear this every day? If so, please go here for the opportunity to download.