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For Douglas Brinkley's feature "Bob Dylan's America," check out our new issue, on stands now. |
All
but one of the tracks on Bob Dylan's
new album
Together Through Life are co-written with Grateful
Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. It's the most help he's ever had on a
single album, but hardly the first time Dylan has written with a
partner. Over the past 45 years he's shared credit with Tom Petty,
Rick Danko, Sam Shepard, Carole Bayer Sager and even Gene Simmons
and Michael Bolton. Here are the stories behind five of those
collaborations — click here to listen along: 
"Hurricane" (with
Jacques Levy)
Dylan teamed up with New York play director and songwriter Jacques
Levy to write most of the songs on 1975's Desire. Dylan
was inspired to write "Hurricane" after reading Rubin "Hurricane"
Carter's memoir The Sixteenth Round, though he struggled
with the lyrics since he hadn't composed many topical songs since
the early 1960s. Levy's experience with playwriting proved to be an
asset. "Bob wasn't sure he could write a song," Levy told Dylan
biographer Clinton Heylin. "He was just filled with all these
feelings about the Hurricane. The beginning of the song is like
stage directions. 'Pistol shots ring out in a bar-room night.' "
The tune is a classic, but Levy and Dylan got several of the facts
about the case wrong and were later sued by one of the people
mentioned in the song.
"Silvio" (with
Robert Hunter)
During rehearsals for Dylan and the Grateful Dead's 1987 stadium
tour, Robert Hunter supplied Dylan with the lyrics to this barn
barner — which is the clear highlight of 1988's Down In
The Groove. It wasn't a hit, but Dylan treated it like it was,
playing it live 595 times between 1988 and 2004.
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"Brownsville Girl"
(with Sam Shepard)
On Knocked Out Loaded Dylan's sole credits came on two of
eight songs — the others were either covers or co-written
with Tom Petty, Carole Bayer Sager or great American playwright Sam
Shepard. The 11-minute "Brownsville Girl" is, however, Dylan at his
absolute finest. Co-written with Shepard, the song is a hysterical
stream of conscience epic that repeatedly refers to standing in
line to see the 1950 Gregory Peck picture The Gunfighter.
"Doesn't matter who came up with such lines as 'She said even the
swap meets around here are getting corrupt' and 'I didn't know
whether to duck or run, so I ran,' " wrote rock critic Robert
Christgau. "They're classic Dylan."
"Jammin' Me" (with
Tom Petty)
You'll be hard pressed to find another Dylan penned tune that
namechecks Joe Piscopo, Vanessa Redgrave and Eddie Murphy. Dylan
wrote the tune with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell during the 1987
True Confessions co-headlining tour with Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers. "I wrote the lyrics with Bob Dylan at the Sunset
Marquis," Petty said. "Bob and I poured over a newspaper,
appropriating the lyrics. Then I took the lyrics I'd written with
Bob and put them to a track Mike had put together."
"Steel Bars" (with
Michael Bolton)
Many were shocked when they saw the liner notes to Michael Bolton's
1991 hit album Time, Love and Tenderness and saw that the
final track was co-written with Bob Dylan. "Someone who works with
Dylan called me up and said, 'Bob Dylan would like to write with
you,' " Bolton said. "I was awed. I told him, 'I don't even know
how I could write a lyric when working with you ... I'm too
intimidated.' But then we started messing around with some chords
and wrote 'Steel Bars,' a song about obsession. It took us two
sessions to write, and when I left, I was told, 'Bob likes you and
he wants you to come back.' "
For Douglas Brinkley's feature "Bob Dylan's America," check out our new issue now.
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