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I Shall Be Free
"I Shall Be Free" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was recorded on 6 December 1962 at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, New York, produced by John Hammond. The song was released as the closing track on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan on 27 May 1963, and has been viewed as a comedic counterpoint to the album's more serious material. Dylan has never performed the song in concert.
"I Shall Be Free" reworks "We Shall Be Free," performed by Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry during the 1940s, and released in 1944 on the album Leadbelly Sings Folk Songs (accompanied by Guthrie and Terry). That song, credited to Lead Belly, was itself likely an adaptation of a 19th-century spiritual.
Five takes were recorded on 6 December 1962 at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, New York, produced by John Hammond, during the last day of recordings for Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which was released on 27 May 1963. In the following months, Dylan also recorded versions of the song for Broadside and for the music publishers M. Witmark & Sons, the latter released in 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964. A mono version of the album track was issued in 2010 on The Original Mono Recordings.
The song is a talking blues, a type of song that Dylan often wrote and performed as he grew on the music scene. Clinton Heylin has speculated that the decision to make it the closing track of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was to show that Dylan's music came from an established tradition. It includes lines that seem to be inspired by "Take a Whiff on Me", a song that Heylin says "gave Dylan the necessary licence to get more wacky." There are also similarities between "I Shall Be Free" and Chris Bouchillon's "Talkin' Blues."
"Talkin' Blues" includes the verse:
"Ain't no use me workin' so hard
I got a gal in the rich folks' yard.
They kill a chicken, she sends me the head.
She thinks I'm workin', I'm a-layin' up in bed,
Just dreamin' about her. Havin' a good time,
Two other women"
The original manuscript for "I Shall Be Free" has the following verse, which Heylin says probably also draws from "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" performed by Hank Williams:
"There ain't no use in me workin' so hard,
I got me a woman who works in the yard.
Rakes the leaves up to her neck,
Every week she sends me a check.
She's a humdinger"
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I Shall Be Free
"I Shall Be Free" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It was recorded on 6 December 1962 at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, New York, produced by John Hammond. The song was released as the closing track on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan on 27 May 1963, and has been viewed as a comedic counterpoint to the album's more serious material. Dylan has never performed the song in concert.
"I Shall Be Free" reworks "We Shall Be Free," performed by Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Sonny Terry during the 1940s, and released in 1944 on the album Leadbelly Sings Folk Songs (accompanied by Guthrie and Terry). That song, credited to Lead Belly, was itself likely an adaptation of a 19th-century spiritual.
Five takes were recorded on 6 December 1962 at Studio A, Columbia Recording Studios, New York, produced by John Hammond, during the last day of recordings for Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which was released on 27 May 1963. In the following months, Dylan also recorded versions of the song for Broadside and for the music publishers M. Witmark & Sons, the latter released in 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964. A mono version of the album track was issued in 2010 on The Original Mono Recordings.
The song is a talking blues, a type of song that Dylan often wrote and performed as he grew on the music scene. Clinton Heylin has speculated that the decision to make it the closing track of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan was to show that Dylan's music came from an established tradition. It includes lines that seem to be inspired by "Take a Whiff on Me", a song that Heylin says "gave Dylan the necessary licence to get more wacky." There are also similarities between "I Shall Be Free" and Chris Bouchillon's "Talkin' Blues."
"Talkin' Blues" includes the verse:
"Ain't no use me workin' so hard
I got a gal in the rich folks' yard.
They kill a chicken, she sends me the head.
She thinks I'm workin', I'm a-layin' up in bed,
Just dreamin' about her. Havin' a good time,
Two other women"
The original manuscript for "I Shall Be Free" has the following verse, which Heylin says probably also draws from "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" performed by Hank Williams:
"There ain't no use in me workin' so hard,
I got me a woman who works in the yard.
Rakes the leaves up to her neck,
Every week she sends me a check.
She's a humdinger"