Tell Me, Momma (Live 1966) – Bob Dylan & the Hawks (the Band)

“That tour was a very strange process…We’d go from town to town, from country to country and it was like a job. We set up, we played, they booed and threw things at us. Then we went to the next town, played, they booed, threw things, and we left again. I remember thinking, ‘This is a strange way to make a buck.'”

– Robbie Robertson, guitar player of The Hawks 

Tell Me Momma was played on Dylan’s 1966 world tour with the Band (then known as the Hawks). It was used as the opener for the electric set, being played a total of 15 times during the tour. The song was not recorded on a studio album and was never performed again. The ‘Live at Free Trade Hall, Manchester, UK – May 17, 1966 – Official Bootleg‘ is my favourite live concert performance and the box CD set with the inner booklet still adorns my modest library in my living room. Tell Me Momma is the fifth song presented so far from Dylan’s electric set after his previous entry One Too Many Mornings.

For the remainder of this article, I am going to forward extracts from Recliner Notes‘ exceptional article on Tell Me Momma. For any Bob Dylan fans out there I point you to his Bob Dylan series articles because he is so well-versed on all things Dylan:

Alongside all of the usual trappings of a rock and roll tour, there was also a film crew traveling alongside Dylan, capturing his every move. The pressures resulting from all of these various circumstances must have been tremendous on Dylan. The adversity of the tour manifested itself through Dylan in many ways. Here’s one example as recorded by the film crew and later released as part of 2005’s documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan:

What a dazzling example of Dylan’s mind at work, creating a hilarious piece of surreal poetry in real time. It’s a form of found art, but it’s Dylan who generates the work through his life as art. The various extremities of the 1966 tour were also revealed onstage. As Robertson also said to Crowe in the interview quoted above:

“You can hear the violence and the dynamics in the music.”

“Tell Me, Momma” lets us in on the musicians getting ready for the full band performance. Garth Hudson tests his organ sound. Robertson noodles a bit on the electric guitar. Then another electric guitar — that has to belong to Dylan — begins strumming and strumming and strumming before a quick count by Dylan launches a tremendous sound as if a large wave has fallen on the audience. Unlike a wave that recedes giving a momentary pause, this roar continues before balancing into a rock ‘n roll song.

Dylan begins singing and his voice is different from the acoustic set. The subtleness of his delivery is gone, mostly giving way to powerful howling which was needed to be heard over the musical barrage. He sounds like a poisonous viper at times, spitting out lines such as “Cold black water dog, make no tears.” Yet Dylan also is practically purring when he sings, “Don’t you remember makin’ baby love?”

Dylan’s vocals are entwined in the music being produced by the band, especially during the stop-stop move they pull off during the line “But I know that you know that I know that you show.” It’s a funny bit of writing, demonstrating the push-pull power imbalance of the relationship at the center of the song. The band emphasizes each “know” with “bang.” – Read the remainder of Scott Bunn’s (Recliner Notes) vivid description of the song here.

A performance of the song at Paris’ L’Olympia on 24 May 1966 featured in D. A. Pennebaker’s documentary Eat the Document. The same video of Dylan and the Hawks shown in Eat the Document was shown in Martin Scorsese’s 2005 Documentary No Direction Home.

[Verse 1]
Ol’ black Bascom, doesn’t break no mirrors
Cold black water dog, make no tears
You say you love me with what may be love
Don’t you remember making baby love?
Got your steam drill bit and you’re looking for some kid
To get it to work for you like your nine-pound hammer did
But I know that you know that I know that you show
Something is tearing up your mind

[Chorus]
Tell me, momma
Tell me, momma
Tell me, momma, what is it?
What’s wrong with you this time?

[Verse 2]
Hey, John, come and get me some candy goods
Shucks, it sure feels like it’s in the woods
Spend some time on your January trips
You got tombstone moose up and your grave-yard whips
If you’re anxious to find out when your friendship’s gonna end
Come on, baby, I’m your friend
And I know that you know that I know that you show
Something is tearing up your mind

[Verse 3]
Oh, we bone the editor, can’t get rid
But his painted sled, instead it’s a bed
Yes, I see you on your window ledge
But I can’t tell just how far away you are from the edge
And, anyway, you’re just gonna make people jump and roar
Watcha wanna go and do that for?
For I know that you know that I know that you know
Something is tearing up your mind

References:
1. Tell Me, Momma -Wikipedia
2. Tell Me, Momma – Recliner Notes