“The music is not in the notes but in the silence between.” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
I Shall Be Released: Rolling Stones #6 of 100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs
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I Shall Be Released
Song: The Band
Album: Music from Big Pink
Released: July 1, 1968
Genre: Roots rock
Songwriter: Bob Dylan
Rolling Stones magazine lists "I Shall Be Released" number 6 of the 100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs. It was written by Dylan in 1967 and first released by The Band on their1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink. Near the end of their 1976 farewell concert, The Last Waltz, all the evening's musicians except Muddy Waters - plus Ringo Starr and Ronnie Wood - performed the song on the same stage.
The Band (1968)
I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east.
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released.
"I Shall Be Released" could be anti-death penalty or a metaphor for awaiting release from Hell on Earth; a type of wrongful imprisonment. It's a solemn dirge; an apocalyptic hymn referencing "my light come shining from the west unto the east."
The Band backed Dylan on his first electric tour. They were known as the The Hawks when Bob Dylan hired them. At those first shows, audiences who felt Dylan sold out his folk fans booed them. On July 29, 1966, while on break from touring, Dylan was injured in a motorcycle accident and secluded himself in Woodstock, New York. While he recuperated, The Band rented a big, pink house in upstate New York where they recorded demos in the basement. Dylan recorded "I Shall Be Released" with them, but didn't release this version until his Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 album in 1971. The first official rendition of the tune came from The Band's debut album, Music From Big Pink.
Nina Simone (1969)
"Ya'll pushin', you're pushin', you're pushin'.
Just relax, relax. You're pushing it. It'll go up by itself.
Don't put nothin' in it unless you feel it."
Nina Simone was born in North Carolina, the sixth child of a Methodist preacher. Her musical roots were in the church, She began playing the piano at 3 years old. By age seven, she set a goal to become a concert pianist. She explained to Hit Parader: "I had been playing by ear and when I was seven a white woman heard me playing in a theatre and went to my mother with an offer to give me piano lessons. That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist. I didn't even think about it. I just got into it."
Nina Simone
After high school, Simone took a course in piano at New York's prestigious Julliard School of Music, but couldn't afford to stay. She took her stage name from French actress Simone Signoret. Nina was a nickname from her Hispanic boyfriend meaning "little one." The pseudonym kept her mother from finding out about her nightly performances in Atlantic City. The singer's first hit on the pop chart was a 1959 rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy." It went to number 18 on the US pop chart and remains her highest-charting hit. Her take on "I Shall Be Released" is from the 1969 album To Love Somebody. In 1992, the documentary Nina Simone: The Legend was made in France by Frank Lords.
Tim Buckley (1947–1975)
"He cared, but he'd made a choice early on: family or music. He chose music." Lee Underwood
Jeff Buckley's father was Tim Buckley; a guitarist, singer and songwriter who left before Jeff was born. Jeff's mother and stepfather, Ron Moorehead, raised him and he went by the name "Scotty Moorehead." He met his biological father once, when he was eight years-old. Tim Buckley's longtime guitarist Lee Underwood recalled to Uncut: "Several times he spoke to me of having abandoned Mary to fulfill his destiny as a musician. Tim intended to explain his leaving when Jeff came of age. Meanwhile, he wrote 'Dream Letter' as a kind of love song reaching across the years to a son he hardly knew. He cared, but he'd made a choice early on: family or music. He chose music." Jeff later penned a song for his Grace album, "Dream Brother," for a pal who was considering leaving his pregnant girlfriend. Jeff didn't want his friend to become like his own father.
Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley's music changed dramatically over the years. He began in folk music, but his later albums experimented with jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, and the avant-garde. A DVD-Video collection of his live appearances, Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House, was released in 2007. It features footage from his 1967 performance of "Song to the Siren" on The Monkees final TV episode - The Frodis Caper (aka "Mijacogeo") - and ends with a performance from May 21, 1974 of "Dolphins" for The Old Grey Whistle Test. He died at 28 years old from a heroin and morphine overdose in 1975. A concert celebrating his legacy launched his son's musical career.
The band toured the U.S. and internationally - in Europe, Japan, and Australia - to promote Grace. In 1996, they stopped performing. Buckley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1997 to work on a second album. On May 29, 1997, while awaiting the arrival of his band from New York, Buckley drowned during a spontaneous evening swim in the Mississippi River. His body was found - fully clothed - on June 4.
The concert was filmed by director Martin Scorsese, who made it into a documentary of the same title. The movie's considered one of the greatest documentary concert films ever made. In 2019, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" It begins with The Band performing the last song of the evening, their cover version of the Marvin Gaye hit "Don't Do It," as an encore. Towards the end, The Band and all their guests sang "I Shall Be Released."
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