Mississippi is the first song to be presented here from Bob Dylan 2001 album – Love and Theft. I would hesitate to guess that if you were to compile a list of music critics top 10 post 2000 Bob Dylan songs, Mississippi would make the list of most of them. Gee wizz that would be a difficult list to create, and a lot of excellent tracks would not make the cut, just because you can’t have a bigger list of say, 50 songs. Like Leonard Cohen, Bob’s produced so much great material in this period and he is still going at it. Shadow Kingdom, his 40th studio album and second soundtrack album was released on June 2, 2023. It is Dylan’s first album of new studio recordings since his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways.
I think lyrically Mississippi is a kind of throwback to his 1997 masterpiece Not Dark Yet and musically foreshadowing where he would go on his 2006 – Thunder on the Mountain, although Mississippi is more of a country rock song whereas Thunder is a bluesy rock epic. But readers may have better suggestions as to Mississippi correlations in Dylan’s discography. Wikipedia wrote the song features a pop chord progression and has a riff and lyrical theme similar to “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again“. The song was originally recorded during the Time Out of Mind sessions (demo sessions in Fall 1996; official album sessions in January 1997) but was ultimately left off the album. Dylan rerecorded the song for Love and Theft in May 2001.
[Verse 1]
Every step of the way we walk the line
Your days are numbered, so are mine
Time is piling’ up, we struggle and we scrape
We’re all boxed in, nowhere to escape
[Verse 2]
City’s just a jungle; more games to play
Trapped in the heart of it, tryin’ to get away
I was raised in the country, I been working’ in the town
I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down
[Verse 3]
Got nothing’ for you, I had nothin’ before
Don’t even have anything for myself anymore
Sky full of fire, pain pourin’ down
Nothing you can sell me, I’ll see you around
[Verse 4]
All my powers of expression and thoughts so sublime
Could never do you justice in reason or rhyme
Only one thing I did wrong
Stayed in Mississippi a day too long
From the Wikipedia reference below:
Mississippi was the last track recorded for Love and Theft, and according to drummer David Kemper, it was added almost as an afterthought. As Kemper explained in an interview with Uncut magazine: “We thought we were done with Love And Theft, and then a friend of Bob’s passed him a note, and he said, ‘Oh, yeah, I forgot about this: “Mississippi”‘. And then he made a comment, ‘Did you guys ever bring the version we did down at the Lanois sessions?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, we have it right here’. And he said, “Let’s listen to it’. So they put it up on the big speakers, and I said, ‘Damn – release it’! But it was just me and Tony [Garnier], and Larry [Campbell] wasn’t on it, and Charlie [Sexton] wasn’t on it. And so we all just said, ‘Wait a minute. And Daniel is producer on it. Let’s re-record it’. So we did our version of it”.
Dylan indicated in another interview that he felt he could re-record the song precisely because the earlier versions had not leaked and were not circulating among bootleg collectors: “I’ve been criticised for not putting my best songs on certain albums but it is because I consider that the song isn’t ready yet. It’s not been recorded right. With all of my records, there’s an abundance of material left off – stuff that, for a variety of reasons, doesn’t make the final cut…Except on this album, for which we re-cut the song ‘Mississippi’. We had that on the Time Out Of Mind album. It wasn’t recorded very well but thank God, it never got out, so we recorded it again. But something like that would never have happened ten years ago. You’d have probably all heard the lousy version of it and I’d have never re-recorded it. I’m glad for once to have had the opportunity to do so.”
References:
1. Mississippi (Bob Dylan song) – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
I like this one…you know more about him after 2000 than I do…but this one I remember.
I’m glad you like it too. I don’t think it would make my top 10 post 2000 favourites, bit it’s a pretty darn good song. I love the lyrics and they do align more with the album for which they were written for – Time Out of Mind. Dylan didn’t like the demos. They did a fantastic job on this recording ‘rebooted’ for Love and Theft’.
Duquesne Whistle would be in mine after 2000. This one is a really good song.
I love that video of Duquesne Whistle, but it wouldn’t even make my top 30, but it’s still a Super song. There are three classics to my mind post 2000 straight up that he did which I would put right up with any of his best stuff:
Things Have Changed, Thunder on the Mountain and Huck’s Tune. To be honest there are too many to mention. Then you have the all -time best of the best ending on Shadows – ‘What’ll I do’ and ‘That Lucky Old Sun’. Now those two are the bee’s knees!
That is really good…I know some but not all of his stuff from 2000 on. I gravitate to his stream of conscious songs in the mid sixties but of course I like the other decades also. Afer Blonde on Blonde he changed and I liked it but something keeps pulling me back to those earlier songs….like with the Springsteen album I like the best…I love the wordplay
I like too much to mention from every era. I agree about the fascination of his earlier material. I actually think I listen and enjoy to way more material from him post 70’s. HIs 60’s stuff obviously is ingenuously innovative, lyrically his finest and most commercially well-known, but I’ve heard it so much! The Live 1966 concert record is easily my favourite music from him then. ‘Visions of Johanna’ in that concert is my all-time favourite song from him.
I like the album cuts…but yea for us we know them like hits…even the non hits. In the seventies I liked a lot of stuff… Blood on the Tracks and some others.
Street Legal is my favourite record by him late 70’s. Don’t even get me started on Blood on the Tracks. We could be having this conversation for the rest of our lives. lol
LOL….
My Mum flipped when she heard ‘Lucky Old Sun’ and ‘What’ll I do’. Like I mean she went full Dylan crazy like I’ve never seen. And she used to take the piss out him when I was growing up haha.
LOL…most people do. They are shocked when I tell them he won a grammy for vocals of the year on You Gotta Serve Somebody.
Another great song. ‘Best vocals’ haha I remember Nick Cave saying that song had a huge influence on him as well as Cohen’s early records.
His vocals were really good on that track. Very forceful but smooth.
There are few songs where I don’t like his vocals because of the timbre of his voice as well as his inflections and intonations to drive the lyrics and ‘feel’ of the music. What he did on the Sinatra record is a classic example of how immense he is at doing it. Who would have ever thought including my Mother (a huge swooner Frank Sinatra fan) that Dylan with ‘What’ll I Do’ could outdo any other version of this timeless classic? Dylan hits that song out of the ballpark and then some.
When I saw him in 2016 I noticed the Sinatra songs and I was very surprised…the same when his Christmas album came out…keeps us guessing.
But there are so many gems on both. Like his Little Drummer Boy even. That’s better than any other one I’ve heard and I’ve heard a bucket load. Don’t even get us started on ‘It Must Be Santa’, which I know you are a big fan of.
The guy’s Jewish as well, ffs, but hasn’t lost anything of his Christian spirit from the intermittent spell into Christian music haha. My family play that XMAS album like it’s going out of style in the season proper.
Oh I liked it…I just never would have dreamed he would have released a Christmas album. I did a double take when I read about it.
No one did. Everyone had the double take reaction I imagine. I remember Dylan fans being up in arms about him doing both, including yours truly. Then you only have to hear them and encounter how time has treated them.