Elvis Costello made only the most minor changes to Bob Dylan’s 1967 lyrics for the song “Married To My Hack” that is included on the not-yet-released album, Lost On The River: The New Basement Tapes — with one exception.
On the copy I got of a piece of yellow, blue-lined paper on which Dylan wrote the lyrics, the final line of the song is incomplete.
Dylan wrote, “Just gimmie a bottle and the”
That’s it.
He never finished it.
But Costello sings, “Gimmie a bottle and someone to throttle ’cause I’d rather be married to my hack.”
It’s certainly a controversial line in an otherwise humorous song in which Dylan details all the many women who apparently want him.
He wrote that he’s “got 15 women,” and later on the page, that he’s “got loose eye’d ladies who never seen a man just waiting around out back.”
The punchline is, of course, the song’s title. Dylan repeatedly tells us throughout the song that he would “rather be married to my hack.”
But the song’s best lines comes early on.
“I move like the breeze, and the birds and the bees
I’m never known to look back…”
[I just published my rock ‘n’ roll novel, True Love Scars.” There’s info about it here.]
— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —
I think I read an interview before (in the last seven years or so, but a few years after they appeared together on “Dharma & Greg” -ha!) where Burnett said he thought he could help Dylan make a good album. This might be the closest that he gets to that opportunity. However, I don’t think it would sound *all* that differently than the albums Dylan has been producing for himself.
But this particular song sounds like something off Costello’s “The Delivery Man” album (produced by Dennis Herring rather than Burnett).
Off-topic: Did you see the news about Jack White possibly producing The Libertines? Wow.
The NME reported today that a spokesperson for Jack white said White has never expressed an interest in working with The Libertines. So don’t get your hopes up.
What strikes me about this song is how easily it could have fit onto Blonde on Blonde… which might be the reason why these songs were stashed away. Too much of what had already been done. My hypothesis is that these songs predate the actual Basement Tape sessions.