Bob Dylan – Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

I’ve seen the man live 8 times and this song…I saw him play one time. Whenever you see Bob Dylan you usually get a variety of songs. He is not an oldies show…he will throw in some but he doesn’t do a Vegas Greatest Hits show. 

I don’t post many Dylan songs…not because I’m not a huge fan…like I said I’ve seen the man 8 times. If I get a chance, I’ll see him 8 more times.  When you post a Dylan song you almost feel the urge to do an interpretation of the song…I have no interest in doing that. It would lead me down too many roads. Some people are good at that though…I’m not. 

Dylan was growing frustrated with the recording in New York so producer Bob Johnston mentioned Nashville. Dylan’s manager at the time, Albert Grossman, told Johnston if he ever mentioned Nashville again that he would fire him. Didn’t work…Dylan ended up recording Blonde On Blonde in Nashville. He would also go to record more here as well. 

This song was one of my many favorites of this album. Dylan is still going in 2024, but this was his peak for me. In the mid-60s, Dylan was on fire, cranking out songs that blurred the lines between folk, rock, blues, and poetry. Dylan later described the sound of Blonde on Blonde as “that thin, wild mercury sound”—a phrase as cryptic as Bob can be. What does that mean exactly? No one knows for sure, but the music does have a thin sound… almost surreal quality to it. 

In Al Kooper’s book, he talked about some of the stories that Johnston shared making the album. Kooper said that Bob Johnston shared one of the wilder stories from those sessions, one that captures the vibe of those late-night Nashville nights. He recounted an incident involving a blind keyboard player nicknamed Pig (Hargus “Pig” Robbins), who played on the album.

Pig was hanging out with some drunk friends one night when he suddenly declared, “I wanna drive. You so-and-so’s move over and let me navigate this Cadillac!” And because this was Nashville in the 60s, and because his buddies were drunker than Pig, they actually pulled over and let him behind the wheel.

Now, picture this… A blind man is driving a car down the highway, while a bunch of rowdy passengers coach him from the front seat: “A little to the left … good … now a little to the right … speed up a bit…” And for a few glorious moments, they were pulling it off until the red-and-blue lights of the Tennessee Highway Patrol appeared in the rearview. They panicked and had Pig pull over, but what happened next?  Johnston said people were laughing too hard by then to care how it ended.

Bob released 5 singles from this double album. He had two top 10 hits, two top 40 hits out of it. This was the end of an era for Bob. After this album, he had a motorcycle accident and he changed his songwriting style. He followed this album with John Wesley Harding and  Nashville Skyline which was nothing like his earlier music.

The musicians on this album included Robbie Roberston, Al Kooper, Rick Danko, Kenny Buttrey, Charlie McCoy, and Charlie McCoy. After this, his songs became a little less wordy and chaotic and became more structured. 

I checked on “Pig” for information about the blind session man. It looks like Pig drove a lot when given a chance. Walter Haynes was a Nashville studio session man and he told this story. “Pig and I have worked together many times in the studio, he has played on many sessions that I produced. He has a most remarkable ear and you only have to run a song once and he’s ready to do it. As you know, Pig is blind and one day I was walking behind Columbia Records and I saw pig driving a car down the alley, of course someone was sitting beside him telling him which way to turn the wheel, what a guy!”

Al Kooper: The credits are vague on the Blonde on Blonde album. Maybe I can fill in a few holes for the reader. Joe South is playing bass on “Visions of Johanna.” He has a very special style of playing bass, sort of hillbilly funk. His unique guitar style is most discernible in the mix on “Memphis Blues Again.” He and I have some nice organ-guitar trade-offs in that on

Stuck Inside Mobile With These Memphis Blues Again

Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block
I’d ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don’t talk
And the ladies treat me kindly
And they furnish me with tape
But deep inside my heart
I know I can’t escape
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile with the
Memphis blues again

Well, Shakespeare, he’s in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking to some French girl
Who says she knows me well
And I would send a message
To find out if she’s talked
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine
An’ I said, “Oh, I didn’t know that
But then again, there’s only one I’ve met
An’ he just smoked my eyelids
An’ punched my cigarette”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Grandpa died last week
And now he’s buried in the rocks
But everybody still talks about how
Badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen
I knew he’d lost control
When I speed built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Now the senator came down here
Showing ev’ryone his gun
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son
An’ me, I nearly got busted
An’ wouldn’t it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck
Oh, Mama, is this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Now the tea preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest
But he cursed me when I proved it to him
Then I whispered and said, “Not even you can hide
You see, you’re just like me
I hope you’re satisfied”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Now the rainman gave me two cures
Then he said, “Jump right in”
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
An’ like a fool I mixed them
An’ it strangled up my mind
An’ now people just get uglier
An’ I have no sense of time
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

And when Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon
Where I can watch her waltz for free
‘neath her Panamanian moon
An’ I say, “Aw come on now
You know you knew about my debutante”
An’ she says, “Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb
They all fall there so perfectly
It all seems so well timed
An’ here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

48 thoughts on “Bob Dylan – Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”

  2. Good read about old Bob. I dug the guy from the start of it all. Nashville suited his music better than New York, and after he added The Band to his show, his music didn’t suffer a bit. There’s a movie coming out around Christmas about Bob, Joan B., The Band , Cash and others.

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    1. Thanks Jim….you do it better than most but yea…this one would be hard. Well Bob did say The Ragman was the devil…other than that he hasn’t said a thing.

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  7. I’d never heard this one before. I can certainly understand how a young Bruce Springsteen could have been compared to the ‘next Dylan’ with their lyrical approaches. Eight times!? Wow- that’s something. It is good he changes up his setlists with all the songs he can draw from.

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    1. That is why so many people see him multiple times…you get a different show each time. The only two songs I heard was in the first 5-6 concerts…and they were Maggies Farm and LiKe A Rolling Stone…he didn’t play them in them last show.

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    1. Well he makes each show different so it’s not like you will see the same show over and over. On the last tour he covered Frank Sintra a lot lol.

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      2. It’s really a smart move on his part I believe. He plays some hits but he plays some of them differently….so every show is a new show…it’s not a Turtles Happy Together Tour…. and I love those…don’t get me wrong but Dylan keeps himself relevant in a modern way.

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  10. Great song. First heard it on his Greatest Hits Vol.II. I eventually got Blonde On Blonde when I started collecting more of his albums. It’s definitely not a song like “The Times They Are A-Changing”, where you know exactly what he’s talking about. I think it’s best not to try to pin a meaning on his more poetic songs. I just try to appreciate the music and the way the words sound whether I understand it or not

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    1. That was what I heard it from as well. It contained that colorful poster with his hair spelling ELVIS.
      I love the flow of words in these songs

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      2. He did…my uncle had a brick building in his yard that he turned into a demo studio. Joe South recorded there and also Percy Sledge…I have a copy of a receipt for Joe South.

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      2. I’m not sure about the chimp but he would carry a giant light bulb into a press conference. He would toy with them and say “Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb.”

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  12. Great song! I didn’t recall the title but recognized it as soon as I started listening to the clip.

    While I’ve seen a bunch of tribute bands multiple times, I can’t say the same about any big ticket artist. The Rolling Stones, McCartney and Springsteen top my list with 3 gigs each.

    I painfully found out myself that Dylan doesn’t exactly perform greatest hits type shows when I saw him in Germany in the late ’80s – my only time to date. After literally opening his set with “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” he only play songs that were completely obscure to me.

    Of course, I went in totally naive, thinking I was well prepared by having listened multiple times to his great 1974 live album “Before the Flood.” 🙂

    Due to this unhappy experience, I didn’t want to know much about Dylan for many years thereafter. But eventually I got over it and now I’d be ready to see the maestro again, if a reasonably priced opportunity would present itself.

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    1. I get it but I was lucky to be told by a Dylan fan before I went. I was prepared and ready…he did play some hits but I’m a huge fan so I knew those songs you may not have…

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      1. No doubt knowing the “Before the Flood” album and a few additional songs certainly didn’t make me an expert.

        That said, my longtime German music buddy who digs Dylan told me another huge Dylan fan he knows attended the concert as well and also wasn’t impressed.

        In any case, my big mistake was I went in with completely unrealistic expectations.

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      2. Now I’ve seen one I didn’t like as much…the reason is because I think Dylan got sick and only played for 45 minutes…that sucked and he didn’t sound good when he played. He shouldn’t have done it.

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  13. The story about the blind piano player driving around Nashville just cracks me right up.

    favorite lines in this song:
    An’ I say, “Aw come on now
    You know you knew about my debutante”
    An’ she says, “Your debutante just knows what you need
    But I know what you want”

    I remember Rainy Day Women (what a strange name for that song), I Want You, and Just Like a Woman being on the radio but not the other two. It is extremely difficult to choose a favorite song on it, but I can say it is one my most listened-to (aside from Planet Waves) and one of my favorite albums of his. He and his backup band seriously jam on it.

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    1. That story was so cool! Plus what I didn’t say is…Bob just couldn’t bring himself to call that guy “pig”…so he would tell Al Kooper to tell pig something.
      Yea….this one and Blood on the Tracks rank really high with me…I like Planet Waves as well.

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