Book Review: That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound: Dylan, Nashville, and the Making of Blonde on Blonde by Daryl Sanders

That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound: Dylan, Nashville, and the Making of Blonde on Blonde by Daryl Sanders

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Daryl Sanders' account of the making of Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, a landmark album whose influence resonates to the present day, is a fascinating read for Dylan fans and will also be of interest to anyone curious about the history of rock'n'roll music writing and production. Sanders offers a well-paced mixture of narrative, first-hand accounts from an array of interview subjects, and an analysis of the unusual writing and recording process that resulted in the album.

The book begins in the summer of 1965, as Dylan, who had grown dissatisfied with producer Tom Wilson following the recording of "Like a Rolling Stone," was matched with a new Columbia Records staff producer, Bob Johnston. Johnston had actively campaigned within the company to work with Dylan, and his style of production offered Dylan more latitude in the studio to pursue his creative vision of a new rock'n'roll sound than he had experienced with Wilson. Returning to Columbia's New York studios, the immediate result of this new collaboration was all of the other tracks on Highway 61 Revisited, a major album in its own right.

Nevertheless, Dylan had a problem. Gearing up for a North American tour that would include 40 dates between August 28 and December 19 he found himself without a band to back him, as the musicians who played on Highway 61 Revisited declined the opportunity to go out on tour. Scrambling to line up musicians who could produce the sound he was aiming for, Dylan received a fateful tip from one of his manager's secretaries that led him to the Hawks, a mostly Canadian band then trying to establish themselves in the U.S. Initially seeking to hire only guitarist Robbie Robertson, Dylan was eventually convinced to employ the entire group as the tour dates began.

By October Dylan was ready to return to the studio and begin work on his next album. Over a period of four months (in between concert dates) Dylan and the Hawks attempted to record nine songs, but Dylan was mostly unhappy with the results and only one recording from these sessions, for the song "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)," made it onto the next album. Sanders doesn't offer many insights into the sources of the problem, but it's likely that Dylan and the Hawks were still adjusting to each other at this point and had not yet forged the kind of musical unity that would become evident as the tour progressed into the following year. The Hawks were a hard-edged rhythm and blues combo who had cut their teeth backing Ronnie Hawkins for four years before striking out on their own. They had little familiarity with the folk idiom out of which Dylan came and which still informed much of his songwriting, despite his move toward rock arrangements. For his part, Dylan's method of studio recording was highly idiosyncratic. He would typically run through a song on piano or guitar, followed by brief rehearsals in which the musicians would develop their own arrangements, and then start recording takes until he was satisfied. In between takes he might offer only minimal or vague feedback about what he liked or didn't like, and although he was willing to do multiple takes on a song he favored the "lightning-in-a-bottle" sound one could get when a song was relatively fresh and spontaneous. Generally, he would not persist if the energy in the room was fading.

Producer Johnston had an idea for resolving Dylan's frustration, suggesting he move the recording sessions to Columbia's studios in Nashville. Johnston had experience in Nashville and was aware of a rising generation of young studio musicians who were Dylan's contemporaries. They were as familiar with the rock'n'roll and rhythm'n'blues styles as he was, while also being steeped in a host of other musical styles. They were also highly disciplined professionals well-acquainted with the routines of Nashville music production, where they were expected to get master recordings finished on tight schedules and on budget. While many of Dylan's New York associates regarded Nashville as a bastion of traditionalism that he should avoid, Dylan trusted Johnston enough to give it a try, believing he had little to lose after the New York session.

By a stroke of good fortune, Dylan had at this time a rare asset to facilitate his work in Nashville. Musician Al Kooper, who had almost accidentally contributed the signature organ part on "Like a Rolling Stone" and the rest of the Highway 61 Revisited songs, accompanied Dylan to Nashville and served as a de facto intermediary between Dylan and the Nashville musicians. Kooper would typically be the first to hear the new songs, working with Dylan at their hotel on arrangements and other details, then going early to the studio to rehearse with the musicians and edit charts while Dylan continued to work on lyrics.

From the musicians' perspective, the sessions were fairly unorthodox. Sanders' account of the eight recording sessions, which ran from February 14 through March 10 of 1966, with breaks in between while Dylan was performing concerts or otherwise occupied, describe a common pattern. The musicians usually arrived at the studio at 6:00 pm and waited for Dylan to arrive, sometimes for several hours. When he showed up, he often sequestered himself in an area of the studio to continue work on unfinished lyrics or arrangements until he was ready to begin recording. On several occasions the musicians were not summoned to begin working on the songs until well after midnight, with sessions wrapping up just before dawn or even later. Most songs required numerous takes, marked with false starts, breakdowns, technical problems, and Dylan's penchant for continuing to revise and refine lyrics on subsequent takes. Dylan and Johnston could afford to do this on Columbia's dime in 1966 because the company regarded Dylan as a hot property and worth the money. The musicians had few complaints about being paid at union scale for their time, whether they played or not, but most found the sessions challenging, especially when they were scheduled for morning sessions with another artist and operating on little or no sleep.

In 2015 Dylan released "The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966," including an 18-disc collector's edition that contains all of these takes, so the curious can have a soundtrack to accompany Sanders' narrative and hear the songs evolving both musically and lyrically through multiple takes. Even without this audio, however, Sanders makes clear that the Nashville musicians had little difficulty coming up with sympathetic arrangements that captured the sound in Dylan's head, with minimal guidance and encouragement from Johnston. It may have been a combination of their quick virtuosity, their broad musical palette, and their closeness to Dylan as generational peers that enabled them to create the varied soundscapes that make Blonde on Blonde such a striking album.

Sanders concludes with a brief account of the impact Blonde on Blonde had on rock music and of the impact Dylan's sessions had on Nashville itself. In the years following Blonde on Blonde's release, rock musicians from other parts of the country flocked to Nashville, revitalizing the city as a music center for many genres and undoubtedly contributing to the cross-fertilization of country and rock music that would emerge in the wake of Dylan's experience. The studio musicians Dylan worked with found themselves in high demand for many years afterward and contributed to countless recordings. Dylan also returned to Nashville to record his next three studio albums, but Blonde on Blonde remains the towering achievement of this period, and Sanders' book does justice to the story.



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