Bob Dylan : Nashville Skyline (Expanded Edition)

LAY, LADY LAY

LAY ACROSS MY 

BIG BRASS BED

 Nashville Skyline

 is the ninth 

studio album

 by the 

American singer-songwriter

 Bob Dylan,

released on 

April 9, 1969, 

by Columbia Records .

Building on the rustic style he expe

rimented with on 

John Wesley Harding, 

Nashville Skyline 

displayed a 

complete immersion

 into country music. 

Along with the more

 basic lyrical themes, 

simple

 songwriting structures,

 and charming domestic feel, 

it introduced audiences

 to a radically new

 singing voice

 from Dylan, 

who had temporarily

 quit smoking a soft, 

affected country croon.

The result received a

 generally positive reaction

 from critics, 

and was a 

commercial success. 

The album scored 

Dylan his fourth 

UK No. 1 album 

and reached 

No. 3

 in the U.S.

Background

The concept of recording

 a country album

 in Nashville

 was first 

discussed with 

Dylan in 1965 

by Johnny Cash, 

who expressed interest in

 producing such an album. 

"I've got my own ideas 

about that 

Nashville sound

 and I'd like to

 try it with Bob,"

 Cash said

 in a March 1965 

interview with

 Music Business magazine.

 Those sessions

 did not end up

 materializing

 until 1969 

and by June of 1965, 

Dylan was going

 fully electric 

with the recording of 

Highway 61 Revisited. 

By the time 

Nashville Skyline 

was recorded,

 the political climate 

in the United States

 had grown more polarized

. In 1968, 

civil rights leader 

Martin Luther King Jr. 

and Senator 

Robert F. Kennedy 

(a leading candidate for the presidency) 

were assassinated. 

Riots related to 

the Vietnam War 

and civil rights

 broke out in most

 large American cities.

 A major one surrounding

 the Democratic National Convention

 in Chicago

 and racially motivated 

conflagrations spurred by 

King's assassination 

marked this period.

 A new president,

 Richard Nixon, 

was sworn into office 

in January 1969, 

but the U.S. engagement

 in Southeast Asia, 

particularly the 

Vietnam War, 

would continue 

for several years.

 Protests over a wide range of

 political topics 

became more frequent. 

Dylan had been a 

leading cultural figure, 

noted for political 

and social commentary 

throughout the 1960s. 

Even as he moved away 

from topical songs,

 he never lost his 

cultural stature. 

However, 

as Clinton Heylin

 wrote of 

Nashville Skyline, 

"If Dylan was concerned about 

retaining a hold on

 the rock constituency, 

making albums with 

Johnny Cash

 in Nashville 

was tantamount to

 abdication in many eyes.

""Our generation owes him

 our artistic lives," 

observed 

Kris Kristofferson, 

who later sang with

 Cash in The Highwaymen, 

"because he opened all the doors

 in Nashville when he did 

Blonde on Blonde

 and 

Nashville Skyline. 

The country scene was so 

conservative until

 he arrived. 

He brought in

 a whole new audience.

 He changed the way 

people thought about it

 even the

 Grand Ole Opry 

was never 

the same again."

TRACKLIST

Girl From The North Country

 (With Johnny Cash)

Nashville Skyline Rag

To Be Alone With You

I Threw It All Away

Peggy Day

Lay Lady Lay

One More Night

Tell Me That It Isn't True

Country Pie

Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You

Girl From The North Country

 (Rehearsal) 

 (With Johnny Cash)

Girl From The North Country

 (Take 1)  

(With Johnny Cash)

To Be Alone With You 

(Take 1)

I Threw It All Away

 (Take 1)

Peggy Day 

(Take 1)

Lay, Lady, Lay 

(Take 2)

One More Night

 (Take 2)

Tell Me That It Isn't True

 (Take 2)

Country Pie 

(Take 2)

That's All Right, Mama

 (Take 1) 

 (With Johnny Cash)

I Walk The Line

 (Take 2)

Folsom Prison Blues 

(Outtake) 

 (With Johnny Cash)

Wanted Man 

(Take 1)

  (With Johnny Cash)

I Threw It All Away

 (Mono)

 (Live)

Girl From The North Country

 (Mono)

 (Live)

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