Santa-Fe (Bob Dylan song)
Encyclopedia
"Santa-Fe" is a song that was recorded by Bob Dylan
and the Band
in the summer or fall of 1967 in the Woodstock
area of New York State. It was recorded during the sessions that would in 1975 be released on The Basement Tapes
but was not included on that album. These sessions took place in three phases throughout the year, at a trio of houses, and "Santa-Fe" was likely put on tape in the second of these, at a home of some of the Band members, known as Big Pink. The composition, which has been characterized as a "nonsense" song, was copyrighted in 1973 with lyrics that differ noticeably from those on the recording itself.
In the decades following this collaboration, the over 100 tracks recorded at these sessions were at different stages obtained by collectors and released on bootlegs
. The first batch of these leaked to the public beginning in the late 1960s, the second in 1986, and the third, which included "Santa-Fe", in the early 1990s. The song was released officially on the Columbia album The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. It has been subject to mixed opinions by critics and biographers, with some praising it for its expressiveness, and others regarding it unmemorable, while criticizing its inclusion on The Bootleg Series at the expense of more worthy candidates.
, Garth Hudson
, Richard Manuel
, Robbie Robertson
and Levon Helm
, although Helm quit the group in late November or early December 1965. In July 1966, Dylan suffered a motorcycle accident and spent several months recuperating at his house in Byrdcliffe
, near Woodstock, New York. By spring 1967, all of the members of the Hawks, except Helm, had joined Dylan in the Woodstock area, with Danko, Manuel and Hudson living in nearby West Saugerties
in a house nicknamed Big Pink. Dylan and the four Hawks began recording informal music sessions, first at Dylan's house in what was known as "the Red Room", followed by the basement of Big Pink. Earlier on they recorded mostly covers and traditional music, but later moved onto original material written largely by Dylan. In total, over 100 songs and alternate takes were put on tape. Helm returned to the group in October 1967 and performed on some final Woodstock-area collaborations between Dylan and the Hawks, these ones at a different house that some group members had moved to. In the fall of that year, the Hawks, who soon renamed themselves the Band, continued writing and rehearsing songs for their debut album, Music From Big Pink
.
Dylan biographer Sid Griffin has noted that, because no written records were kept of these 1967 recording sessions, "the world will have to live with the fact that it will never know exactly which Basement Tapes tune was recorded when and where". Nonetheless, using clues such as the sound quality of different batches of songs, and where they appear on the original reels of tapes, attempts have been made to place the songs into a rough chronology and guess the locations at which they were likely recorded. Biographer Clinton Heylin
places "Santa-Fe" in the summer of 1967 at Big Pink. The liner notes of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 date it in the fall of that year. Griffin lists it among the probable Big Pink recordings, and in a group of songs from around July, but concedes it is also "unlikely [but] possible" it came from the Red Room.
, Manfred Mann
and the Byrds
eventually did. Dylan's demo tapes were soon heard by music journalists, including Rolling Stone
s Jann Wenner
, who wrote a front-page story in that magazine entitled "Dylan's Basement Tape Should Be Released". This made the general public hungry to hear the music, and in July 1969 a bootleg called Great White Wonder
, which included some of the Big Pink songs, came out. Other Basement Tape bootlegs followed.
In 1975, the Columbia album The Basement Tapes was compiled, mainly by Robertson and engineer Rob Fraboni. Robertson and Fraboni put thirty-five of the songs onto composite reels of tape, and Heylin believes these represented a short list of candidates for the album. "Santa-Fe" was included on these composite reels, but was not ultimately chosen for the album. The Basement Tapes included sixteen Dylan songs recorded at Big Pink in 1967, as well as eight Band demos from various times and locations between 1967 and 1975. One Dylan song on the album, "Goin' to Acapulco", had not appeared on his 1967 fourteen-song acetate or on bootlegs, and this alerted the world to the possibility that there might be more Basement Tape songs in existence. In 1986, at least twenty-five previously unknown 1967 songs by Dylan and the Band passed into collectors' hands by way of a former roadie
of the Band's. In the early 1990s, a third batch of songs, these ones from Garth Hudson's archives, came to light around the time Columbia was preparing The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3; "Santa-Fe" comes from this last group. In his liner notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, John Bauldie commented on these second and third stages in which groups of Big Pink songs had come to light: "Despite the ... emergence [in 1986] in collectors' circles of a further couple of hours of Basement Tapes, it seems as though there's a good deal left unheard. 'Santa-Fe' is just one example of a batch of previously unsuspected Basement tracks". By 1992, the "Santa-Fe" batch of songs had been obtained by bootleggers, and almost all known Dylan Basement Tape songs were assembled onto the 5-CD bootleg The Genuine Basement Tapes.
similarly do not include "Santa-Fe" among the songs they believe were recorded after Helm's arrival. Griffin also argues that no organ is audible on the track and proposes the following musician line-up as being more likely: Dylan, acoustic guitar and vocals; Robertson, electric guitar; Hudson, piano; Danko, bass; Manuel, drums.
Heylin has noted that, as is the case with a number of other of Basement Tape tracks, Dylan's copyrighted, published "Santa-Fe" lyrics differ from what can be heard on the song. Heylin speculates that the "dramatic reworking" in the later version arose from Dylan's "1973 musing in Malibu", where Dylan had moved to, and that new lines like "build a geodesic dome and sail away" and "My shrimp boat's in the bay" sound like the work of "someone sitting on the dock of the bay, not up on Meads Mountain [in Woodstock]". Heylin also notes that the website maintained by Olof Björner
, Words Fill My Head, contains a transcription of the song as Dylan performed it. The 1973 copyrighted lyrics are printed on Bobdylan.com.
In his notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, Bauldie describes the song as "a typical combination of nonsense and fun, just for the hell of it, really..."; author Oliver Trager likewise describes it as a "nonsense" song. Heylin writes that the lyrics "revolve around 'dear, dear, dear, dear, Santa Fe'—intended to be both a woman's name and the town in New Mexico
. After five verses of rolling said words around, he moves on."
review rates it one of the highlights of Volume 2 of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, commenting that it is one of only a couple of mid-60s songs on the compilation that "live up to their vintage". Griffin describes it as "catchy but slight" and "a slight if charming little ditty", but criticizes the decision to include it on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 rather than the "masterpiece" composition "Sign on the Cross", which remains unreleased. Heylin concurs, characterizing "Santa-Fe" in 1995 as a "pleasant enough throwaway" but suggesting that "Sign on the Cross" or another 1967 composition, "I'm Not There", would have been much better choices (the latter track was eventually released in 2007 on the I'm Not There soundtrack
). By 2009, Heylin's opinion had changed little and he writes that "of all the 'missing' basement-tape originals that appear on that three-CD set, 'Santa Fe' hardly represented an A-list candidate. Just another discarded ditty, it relies on the usual wordplay and slurred diction to obscure any pretense to a deeper meaning". Marcus dismisses it as no more than "a riff", while a review in Stereophile
magazine calls it "the most lightweight tune on all three CDs, with indecipherable lyrics". Author Peter James, referring to Dylan and the Band's Woodstock output, writes that "many great songs were written and recorded in [Big Pink's] basement in 1967, unfortunately 'Sante-Fe' is not one of them." He goes on to describe the song's inclusion on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 as "little more than a joke".
on his album Performs Bob Dylan & The Band's The Basement Tapes Live at Joe's Pub. Fishman played more than sixty songs from Dylan and the Band's Basement Tape sessions over three nights, of which selected tracks were included on the CD and an accompanying DVD. "Santa-Fe" has also been covered by Steve Gibbons and Michel Montecrossa
. On November 7, 2007 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, J Mascis
and the Million Dollar Bashers performed the song at a special concert featuring numerous music artists celebrating the release of Todd Haynes
's film I'm Not There
. Thomas Ward notes that Dylan himself has never played the song live.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and the Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
in the summer or fall of 1967 in the Woodstock
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
area of New York State. It was recorded during the sessions that would in 1975 be released on The Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes
The Basement Tapes is a 1975 studio album by Bob Dylan and The Band. The songs featuring Dylan's vocals were recorded in 1967, eight years before the album's release, at houses in and around Woodstock, New York, where Dylan and the Band lived...
but was not included on that album. These sessions took place in three phases throughout the year, at a trio of houses, and "Santa-Fe" was likely put on tape in the second of these, at a home of some of the Band members, known as Big Pink. The composition, which has been characterized as a "nonsense" song, was copyrighted in 1973 with lyrics that differ noticeably from those on the recording itself.
In the decades following this collaboration, the over 100 tracks recorded at these sessions were at different stages obtained by collectors and released on bootlegs
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
. The first batch of these leaked to the public beginning in the late 1960s, the second in 1986, and the third, which included "Santa-Fe", in the early 1990s. The song was released officially on the Columbia album The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. It has been subject to mixed opinions by critics and biographers, with some praising it for its expressiveness, and others regarding it unmemorable, while criticizing its inclusion on The Bootleg Series at the expense of more worthy candidates.
Recording near Woodstock
In 1965 and 1966, Dylan was touring with the Hawks—Rick DankoRick Danko
Richard Clare "Rick" Danko was a Canadian musician and singer, best known as a member of The Band.-Early years :...
, Garth Hudson
Garth Hudson
Eric Garth Hudson is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist. As the organist, keyboardist and saxophonist for Canadian-American rock group The Band, he was a principal architect of the group's unique sound...
, Richard Manuel
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band....
, Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
and Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, although Helm quit the group in late November or early December 1965. In July 1966, Dylan suffered a motorcycle accident and spent several months recuperating at his house in Byrdcliffe
Byrdcliffe Colony
The Byrdcliffe Colony, also called the Byrdliffe Arts Colony or Byrdcliffe Historic District, was founded in 1902 near Woodstock, New York by Jane and Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and colleagues, Bolton Brown and Hervey White...
, near Woodstock, New York. By spring 1967, all of the members of the Hawks, except Helm, had joined Dylan in the Woodstock area, with Danko, Manuel and Hudson living in nearby West Saugerties
West Saugerties, New York
West Saugerties is an hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States and part of the Town of Saugerties.West Saugerties is located at . It lies above sea level.-History:...
in a house nicknamed Big Pink. Dylan and the four Hawks began recording informal music sessions, first at Dylan's house in what was known as "the Red Room", followed by the basement of Big Pink. Earlier on they recorded mostly covers and traditional music, but later moved onto original material written largely by Dylan. In total, over 100 songs and alternate takes were put on tape. Helm returned to the group in October 1967 and performed on some final Woodstock-area collaborations between Dylan and the Hawks, these ones at a different house that some group members had moved to. In the fall of that year, the Hawks, who soon renamed themselves the Band, continued writing and rehearsing songs for their debut album, Music From Big Pink
Music from Big Pink
Music from Big Pink is the 1968 debut album by rock band The Band. It features the well-known song, "The Weight". The music was composed partly in 'Big Pink', a house shared by Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson in West Saugerties, in upstate New York...
.
Dylan biographer Sid Griffin has noted that, because no written records were kept of these 1967 recording sessions, "the world will have to live with the fact that it will never know exactly which Basement Tapes tune was recorded when and where". Nonetheless, using clues such as the sound quality of different batches of songs, and where they appear on the original reels of tapes, attempts have been made to place the songs into a rough chronology and guess the locations at which they were likely recorded. Biographer Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin
Clinton Heylin is an English author who has written extensively about popular music and the work of Bob Dylan.- Education :...
places "Santa-Fe" in the summer of 1967 at Big Pink. The liner notes of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 date it in the fall of that year. Griffin lists it among the probable Big Pink recordings, and in a group of songs from around July, but concedes it is also "unlikely [but] possible" it came from the Red Room.
Circulation of Basement Tape songs
In late 1967, an acetate of fourteen of Dylan's compositions was made, from which demos circulated among music groups who might be interested in recording some of the songs. Artists including Peter, Paul and MaryPeter, Paul and Mary
Peter, Paul and Mary were an American folk-singing trio whose nearly 50-year career began with their rise to become a paradigm for 1960s folk music. The trio was composed of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers...
, Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann was a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboardist, Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band...
and the Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
eventually did. Dylan's demo tapes were soon heard by music journalists, including Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s Jann Wenner
Jann Wenner
Jann Simon Wenner is the co-founder and publisher of the music and politics biweekly Rolling Stone, as well as the owner of Men's Journal and Us Weekly magazines.-Childhood:...
, who wrote a front-page story in that magazine entitled "Dylan's Basement Tape Should Be Released". This made the general public hungry to hear the music, and in July 1969 a bootleg called Great White Wonder
Great White Wonder
Great White Wonder, or GWW, is the first notable rock bootleg album, released in July of 1969 and containing unofficially released recordings by Bob Dylan. It is also the first release of the famous bootleg record label Trademark of Quality...
, which included some of the Big Pink songs, came out. Other Basement Tape bootlegs followed.
In 1975, the Columbia album The Basement Tapes was compiled, mainly by Robertson and engineer Rob Fraboni. Robertson and Fraboni put thirty-five of the songs onto composite reels of tape, and Heylin believes these represented a short list of candidates for the album. "Santa-Fe" was included on these composite reels, but was not ultimately chosen for the album. The Basement Tapes included sixteen Dylan songs recorded at Big Pink in 1967, as well as eight Band demos from various times and locations between 1967 and 1975. One Dylan song on the album, "Goin' to Acapulco", had not appeared on his 1967 fourteen-song acetate or on bootlegs, and this alerted the world to the possibility that there might be more Basement Tape songs in existence. In 1986, at least twenty-five previously unknown 1967 songs by Dylan and the Band passed into collectors' hands by way of a former roadie
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
of the Band's. In the early 1990s, a third batch of songs, these ones from Garth Hudson's archives, came to light around the time Columbia was preparing The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3; "Santa-Fe" comes from this last group. In his liner notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, John Bauldie commented on these second and third stages in which groups of Big Pink songs had come to light: "Despite the ... emergence [in 1986] in collectors' circles of a further couple of hours of Basement Tapes, it seems as though there's a good deal left unheard. 'Santa-Fe' is just one example of a batch of previously unsuspected Basement tracks". By 1992, the "Santa-Fe" batch of songs had been obtained by bootleggers, and almost all known Dylan Basement Tape songs were assembled onto the 5-CD bootleg The Genuine Basement Tapes.
Personnel
The liner notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 list the song's personnel as Dylan, guitar and vocals; Robertson, guitar; Hudson, organ; Manuel, piano; Danko, bass; and Helm, drums. However, Griffin argues that Helm did not arrive in Woodstock until after the song is believed to have been recorded. Furthermore, the drumming sounds to Griffin more like Manuel's style. Heylin and biographer Greil MarcusGreil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
similarly do not include "Santa-Fe" among the songs they believe were recorded after Helm's arrival. Griffin also argues that no organ is audible on the track and proposes the following musician line-up as being more likely: Dylan, acoustic guitar and vocals; Robertson, electric guitar; Hudson, piano; Danko, bass; Manuel, drums.
Copyright and Lyrics
Different Basement Tape songs were copyrighted in stages between 1967 and 1975, with "Santa-Fe" being registered in September 1973; still other songs from the sessions were not copyrighted until the 1980s. Researcher Tim Dunn indicates that in the original 1973 copyright the song was registered as "Santa-Fe" with a hyphen, but that some later documents relating to the renewal of the copyright omit the hyphen. The liner notes of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 print the title as "Santa-Fe", while Dylan's official website, Bobdylan.com, spells it without the hyphen but with an accent on the e: "Santa Fé".Heylin has noted that, as is the case with a number of other of Basement Tape tracks, Dylan's copyrighted, published "Santa-Fe" lyrics differ from what can be heard on the song. Heylin speculates that the "dramatic reworking" in the later version arose from Dylan's "1973 musing in Malibu", where Dylan had moved to, and that new lines like "build a geodesic dome and sail away" and "My shrimp boat's in the bay" sound like the work of "someone sitting on the dock of the bay, not up on Meads Mountain [in Woodstock]". Heylin also notes that the website maintained by Olof Björner
Olof Björner
Olof Björner is a Swedish researcher who has specialized in documenting the live performances and recording sessions of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan...
, Words Fill My Head, contains a transcription of the song as Dylan performed it. The 1973 copyrighted lyrics are printed on Bobdylan.com.
In his notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, Bauldie describes the song as "a typical combination of nonsense and fun, just for the hell of it, really..."; author Oliver Trager likewise describes it as a "nonsense" song. Heylin writes that the lyrics "revolve around 'dear, dear, dear, dear, Santa Fe'—intended to be both a woman's name and the town in New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. After five verses of rolling said words around, he moves on."
Appraisal
Opinions about the song have been mixed. Allmusic critic Thomas Ward calls it "one of the great good-time songs in Dylan's canon". Ward comments that "Dylan sings it as if he is having the time of his life", adding that "rarely has he sung with such expressiveness". Anthony Varesi, author of The Bob Dylan Albums, similarly praises the song's "breadth of feeling" and "unparalleled expressiveness", noting that "it appears Dylan simply improvised the song on the spot, and the passion within him allows the song to flow forth naturally". Biographer John Nagowski has described the song as "delightful", while a New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
review rates it one of the highlights of Volume 2 of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3, commenting that it is one of only a couple of mid-60s songs on the compilation that "live up to their vintage". Griffin describes it as "catchy but slight" and "a slight if charming little ditty", but criticizes the decision to include it on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 rather than the "masterpiece" composition "Sign on the Cross", which remains unreleased. Heylin concurs, characterizing "Santa-Fe" in 1995 as a "pleasant enough throwaway" but suggesting that "Sign on the Cross" or another 1967 composition, "I'm Not There", would have been much better choices (the latter track was eventually released in 2007 on the I'm Not There soundtrack
I'm Not There (soundtrack)
The soundtrack album for the Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There was released as a double CD on October 30, 2007. It features only one recording by Dylan himself—his previously unreleased recording of the title song "I'm Not There" recorded during The Basement Tapes' sessions in 1967—plus...
). By 2009, Heylin's opinion had changed little and he writes that "of all the 'missing' basement-tape originals that appear on that three-CD set, 'Santa Fe' hardly represented an A-list candidate. Just another discarded ditty, it relies on the usual wordplay and slurred diction to obscure any pretense to a deeper meaning". Marcus dismisses it as no more than "a riff", while a review in Stereophile
Stereophile
Stereophile is a monthly magazine that focuses on high end audio equipment, such as loudspeakers and amplifiers, and audio-related news, such as online audio streaming. It was founded in 1962 by J. Gordon Holt....
magazine calls it "the most lightweight tune on all three CDs, with indecipherable lyrics". Author Peter James, referring to Dylan and the Band's Woodstock output, writes that "many great songs were written and recorded in [Big Pink's] basement in 1967, unfortunately 'Sante-Fe' is not one of them." He goes on to describe the song's inclusion on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 as "little more than a joke".
Cover versions
The song has been covered by Howard FishmanHoward fishman
Howard Fishman is a singer, guitarist, bandleader and composer from New York, NY. His music is inspired by a deep passion for New Orleans jazz, pop, gospel and country music, but is filtered through a contemporary aesthetic...
on his album Performs Bob Dylan & The Band's The Basement Tapes Live at Joe's Pub. Fishman played more than sixty songs from Dylan and the Band's Basement Tape sessions over three nights, of which selected tracks were included on the CD and an accompanying DVD. "Santa-Fe" has also been covered by Steve Gibbons and Michel Montecrossa
Michel Montecrossa
Michel Montecrossa is a German media entrepreneur, author, musician, painter, film-maker, futurist, consciousness researcher and founder of Mirapuri, the City of Peace and Futureman in Europe...
. On November 7, 2007 at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, J Mascis
J Mascis
J Mascis is an American musician, best known as the singer, guitarist and songwriter for Dinosaur Jr.. In 2011, he was ranked in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.- Biography :...
and the Million Dollar Bashers performed the song at a special concert featuring numerous music artists celebrating the release of Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes is an American independent film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature films Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, and the Academy Award-nominated Far from Heaven and I'm Not There.- Style and themes :The writes that "Haynes is...
's film I'm Not There
I'm Not There
I'm Not There is a 2007 biographical musical film directed by Todd Haynes, inspired by iconic American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's life and public persona: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw...
. Thomas Ward notes that Dylan himself has never played the song live.