The song is notable for its brass band arrangement and the controversial chorus "Everybody must get stoned". Al Kooper, who played keyboards on Blonde on Blonde, recalled that when Dylan initially demoed the song to the backing musicians in Columbia's Nashville studio, producer Bob Johnston suggested that "it would sound great Salvation Army style.[1] When Dylan queried how they would find horn players in the middle of the night, Charlie McCoy, who played trumpet, made a phone call and summoned a trombone player.[1]
The song is essentially a simple blues chord progression in the key of F. The parts played by the trombone, tuba, piano, bass, drums, and tambourine remain practically the same in all of the verses. Much laughter and shouting in the background accompanies the song, mixed down to a low volume level, and Dylan laughs several times during his vocal delivery.
The track was recorded in Columbia Music Row Studios in Nashville in the early hours of March 10, 1966.[2] In the account of Dylan biographer Howard Sounes, the chaotic musical atmosphere of the track was attained by the musicians playing in unorthodox ways and on unconventional instruments. McCoy switched from bass to trumpet. Drummer Kenny Buttrey set up his bass drum on two hard-back chairs and played them using a timpani mallet. Moss played bass, while Strzelecki played Al Kooper's organ. Kooper played a tambourine.[3] Producer Bob Johnston recalled, "all of us walking around, yelling, playing and singing."[4]
Sean Wilentz, who listened to the original studio tapes to research his book on Dylan, wrote that at the end of the recording of "Rainy Day Women", producer Bob Johnston asked Dylan for the song's title. Dylan replied, "A Long-Haired Mule and a Porcupine Here." Johnston commented, "It's the only one time that I ever heard Dylan really laugh... going around the studio, marching in that thing."[4]
Sounes quoted musician Wayne Moss recalling that in order to record "Rainy Day Women", Dylan insisted the backing musicians must be intoxicated. A studio employee was sent to an Irish bar to obtain "Leprechaun cocktails". In Sounes's account, Moss, Hargus "Pig" Robbins and Henry Strzelecki claimed they also smoked a "huge amount" of marijuana and "got pretty wiped out". Sounes stated that some musicians, including McCoy, remained unintoxicated.[3] This version of events has been challenged by Wilentz's study of the making of Blonde on Blonde. According to Wilentz, both McCoy and Kooper insisted that all the musicians were sober and that Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, would not have permitted pot or drink in the studio. In support of this view, Wilentz pointed out that three other tracks were recorded that night in the Nashville studio, all of which appeared on the final album.[2][4]
In Robert Shelton's biography of Dylan, Shelton said he was told by Phil Spector that the inspiration for the song came when Spector and Dylan heard the Ray Charles song, "Let's Go Get Stoned" on a jukebox in Los Angeles. Spector said "they were surprised to hear a song that free, that explicit", referring to its chorus of "getting stoned" as an invitation to indulge in alcohol or narcotics.[5] (This anecdote may be questioned, because the Ray Charles song was released in April 1966, after "Rainy Day Women" was recorded.)[6]
After recording Blonde on Blonde, Dylan embarked on his 1966 "world tour". At a press conference in Stockholm on April 28, 1966, Dylan was asked about the meaning of his new hit single, "Rainy Day Women". Dylan replied the song was about "cripples and orientals and the world in which they live... It's a sort of Mexican thing, very protest... and one of the pro-testiest of all things I've protested against in my protest years."[7]
Shelton stated that, as the song rose up the charts, it became controversial as a "drug song". He pointed out that Time magazine, on July 1, 1966, wrote: "In the shifting multi-level jargon of teenagers, 'to get stoned' does not mean to get drunk but to get high on drugs... a 'rainy-day woman', as any junkie [sic] knows, is a marijuana cigarette."[5] Dylan responded to the controversy by announcing, during his May 27, 1966, performance at the Royal Albert Hall, London, "I never have and never will write a drug song."[8]
lyrics
Well, they’ll stone ya when you’re trying to be so good
They’ll stone ya just a-like they said they would
They’ll stone ya when you’re tryin’ to go home
Then they’ll stone ya when you’re there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
Well, they’ll stone ya when you’re walkin’ ’long the street
They’ll stone ya when you’re tryin’ to keep your seat
They’ll stone ya when you’re walkin’ on the floor
They’ll stone ya when you’re walkin’ to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
They’ll stone ya when you’re at the breakfast table
They’ll stone ya when you are young and able
They’ll stone ya when you’re tryin’ to make a buck
They’ll stone ya and then they’ll say, “good luck”
Tell ya what, I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
Well, they’ll stone you and say that it’s the end
Then they’ll stone you and then they’ll come back again
They’ll stone you when you’re riding in your car
They’ll stone you when you’re playing your guitar
Yes, but I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
Well, they’ll stone you when you walk all alone
They’ll stone you when you are walking home
They’ll stone you and then say you are brave
They’ll stone you when you are set down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
credits
from COVERS ALBUM,
released August 19, 1967
Single by Bob Dylan
from the album Blonde on Blonde
B-side "Pledging My Time"
Released April, 1966
Format 7"
Recorded March 10, 1966
Genre Folk rock, blues rock, jazz
Length 4:36 (album version)
2:26 (single edit)
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Bob Dylan
Producer(s) Bob Johnston
supported by 23 fans who also own “RAINY DAY WOMEN #12 & 35”
If you like music that’s even remotely heavy, this EP is for you. It’s hard rock, heavy metal, doom metal, stoner rock, and so much more. My only question is this: WHEN WILL SONIC MEDUSA RECORD AGAIN? Kirk Gauthier
Krautrock collides with psych on this rip-roaring EP from El Universo, which pits jagged guitars against lockstep rhythms. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 11, 2021
