It may be one of Bob Dylan’s greatest albums, but the atmosphere in the studio for Blood on the Tracks was far from perfect. Session musicians drafted in for initial recordings in New York noted the tensions that Dylan brought with him for his 1975 masterpiece. The album would feature all-time greats like Shelter from the Storm, Idiot Wind, and If You See Her, Say Hello, but it would take some time for Dylan to land on a sound that satisfied him.
Those who worked with Dylan on the album told all as part of an interview with Uncut Magazine. Glenn Berger, a studio assistant to engineer Phil Ramone, noted the tense environment that affected the recording process. Bass player Tony Brown found himself following along to Dylan’s playing by looking at the All Along the Watchtower hitmaker’s hands while the rest of the band found it difficult to connect with Dylan, according to Berger.
He said: “Tony was just staring at Dylan’s hands, trying to figure out the next chord and keep up. There was no warmth or camaraderie. That may have contributed to the intensity of the experience, that those were not happy sessions. Certainly, with the record’s content and Dylan’s marriage breakdown, there were a lot of dark feelings in the room.
“Bob didn’t know the guys from the band; he didn’t ask for them. But Paul Griffin was his idea. He was an older, straight-ahead jazz guy. He came in with a big smile on his face, and there was no direction, consistent with everything else. It didn’t work, and he walked out with the smile still on his face.”
The dark feelings would be understandable given the delicate subject matter affecting Blood on the Tracks. While Dylan would claim he was merely adapting short stories by Anton Chekov, the detail of Idiot Wind and Buckets of Rain made it clear that the veteran songwriter was reeling from the breakdown of his marriage to Sara Lownds.
Despite the initially frosty recording sessions, Dylan did make off with a complete album from these tapes. Blood on the Tracks would be re-recorded and heavily altered in the second sessions, though, at the behest of Dylan’s brother.
These earlier tapes are stripped-back and rely on the acoustic works Dylan has found his footing in a decade prior. But his brother, David Zimmerman, told Dylan to re-record them, and the rest is history. Dylan during those early recordings faced little, if any, resistance from those in the studio.
The Ramone sessions saw Dylan engage with his work “like a concert performance” according to keyboardist Thomas McFaul, who was drafted in to the sessions in New York. He said: “There was no guidance at all from Phil Ramone, and Dylan’s approach was more like a concert performance than a recording session. He would ‘perform’ the song and if he didn’t like it, he would stop and say, ‘We don’t like that, erase it.’ Dylan used the royal ‘we’.”
Despite Dylan referring to himself as a collective it appeared there was little to no challenging his behaviour in the studio from Ramone. His assistant, Berger, said: “So Dylan is playing, and everyone is aware of the clacking of his buttons on the guitar. Phil was afraid to hit the talkback and tell him. Nobody dared counter what he was doing.”
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