Moonshiner (Studio Outtake – 1963) – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan takes a classic traditional Irish drinking song here and inverts it, using tone and a few choice lyric changes to turn a celebratory ode to the moonshiner’s lifestyle into a brooding meditation on the essential emptiness of life as an alcoholic. One of Dylan’s first performances of Moonshiner was Live at The Gaslight 1962 which is a live album including ten songs from early Bob Dylan performances recorded in October 1962 at The Gaslight Cafe in New York City’s Greenwich Village. It was released in 2005 by Columbia Records.

In 1963, Bob Dylan recorded a studio version of Moonshiner, which was released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 and is the version which appears below.

[Verse 1]
I’ve been a moonshiner
For seventeen long years
I’ve spent all my money
On whiskey and beer
I go to some hollow
And sit at my still
And if whiskey dont kill me
Then I dont know what will

[Verse 2]
I go to some bar room
And drink with my friends
Where the women can’t follow
And see what I spend
God bless them pretty women
I wish they was mine
Their breath is as sweet
The dew on the vine

[Verse 3]
Let me eat when I am hungry
Let me drink when I am dry
A dollar when I am hard up
Religion when I die
The whole world’s a bottle
And life’s but a dram
When the bottle gets empty
It sure ain’t worth a damn

The following is from the Wikipedia article below:

The Moonshiner is a folk song with disputed origins. Some believe that the song originated in America, then was later made famous in Ireland, while others claim that it was the other way around. The Clancy Brothers stated on their recording that the song is of Irish origin, but again, this is disputed. … Its first American appearance was recorded in Carl Sandberg’s 1927 The American Songbag, which credits the Combs family of Kentucky for the collection of the song going at least as far back as the turn of the century. 

References:
1. The Moonshiner – Wikipedia

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