Despite some of Dylan’s songs on the album lacking the weightiness that critics and audiences were used to, the calculated arrangement of the tracks established a structure that maintained listener’s interest. The album opens with a duet between Dylan and Johnny Cash on “Girl from The North Country.” The song serves as a prologue, calling back to simpler times of the past in Minnesota, when Dylan was surrounded by small-town, country culture. Dylan and Cash take turns singing “Remember me to one who lives there / She once was a true love of mine…Please see for me if her hair hangs long, / That’s the way I remember her best.” By opening the album with a song calling back to Dylan’s humble roots with a guest appearance by a country music legend,
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“Peggy Day” implements what Nelson refers to as “a good-natured exercise in country wordplay” through phrases such as “By golly, what more can I say / Love to spend the night with Peggy Day….Man, that girl is out of sight / Love to spend the day with Peggy Night.” “Peggy Day” also employs the instrumental trope of a “big country finish,” reminiscent of Elvis Presley. In addition to “Country Pie” having the word “country” literally in the title, the imagery within the song—“Listen to the fiddler play / When he’s playin’ ‘til the break of day / Oh me, oh my / Love that country pie…Blueberry, apple, cherry, pumpkin and plum / Call me for dinner, honey, I’ll be there”—evokes a feeling of a simple, American dream. Though some critics may have found both “Peggy Day” and “Country Pie” among the more shallow tracks on the album, their arrangement and structure adjacent to other songs on Nashville Skyline balance feelings of sensitivity and maturity with nostalgia and …show more content…
In recent months leading up to Nashville Skyline, their relationship hit rocks when Dylan wanted to change the name of their publishing company, Dwarf Music, to honor the birth of Dylan’s son. Upon realizing the constraints of his and Grossman’s ten-year contract, Dylan elected to publish Nashville Skyline through an independent company, Big Sky Music. According to Howard Sounes, author of Down the Highway, “the new songs on Nashville Skyline were published by a company Bob established independently of Albert Grossman as part of his efforts to disengage himself from Grossman’s control…Big Sky Music was created as a ‘kind of a palliative’ to appease Bob… (Sounes, 239)” It may be that in addition to creating Big Sky Music, Bob may have also attempted to disengage from Grossman by making the distinct creative choice to make Nashville Skyline a country album. With Dylan being the type of artist and person that he is, it is feasible that all or none of the above mentioned factors might have played into his creative decisions for Nashville Skyline. Dylan will be the only one to ever truly
“Peggy Day” implements what Nelson refers to as “a good-natured exercise in country wordplay” through phrases such as “By golly, what more can I say / Love to spend the night with Peggy Day….Man, that girl is out of sight / Love to spend the day with Peggy Night.” “Peggy Day” also employs the instrumental trope of a “big country finish,” reminiscent of Elvis Presley. In addition to “Country Pie” having the word “country” literally in the title, the imagery within the song—“Listen to the fiddler play / When he’s playin’ ‘til the break of day / Oh me, oh my / Love that country pie…Blueberry, apple, cherry, pumpkin and plum / Call me for dinner, honey, I’ll be there”—evokes a feeling of a simple, American dream. Though some critics may have found both “Peggy Day” and “Country Pie” among the more shallow tracks on the album, their arrangement and structure adjacent to other songs on Nashville Skyline balance feelings of sensitivity and maturity with nostalgia and …show more content…
In recent months leading up to Nashville Skyline, their relationship hit rocks when Dylan wanted to change the name of their publishing company, Dwarf Music, to honor the birth of Dylan’s son. Upon realizing the constraints of his and Grossman’s ten-year contract, Dylan elected to publish Nashville Skyline through an independent company, Big Sky Music. According to Howard Sounes, author of Down the Highway, “the new songs on Nashville Skyline were published by a company Bob established independently of Albert Grossman as part of his efforts to disengage himself from Grossman’s control…Big Sky Music was created as a ‘kind of a palliative’ to appease Bob… (Sounes, 239)” It may be that in addition to creating Big Sky Music, Bob may have also attempted to disengage from Grossman by making the distinct creative choice to make Nashville Skyline a country album. With Dylan being the type of artist and person that he is, it is feasible that all or none of the above mentioned factors might have played into his creative decisions for Nashville Skyline. Dylan will be the only one to ever truly