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Watch Video of Previously Unreleased Dylan & Cash Recording Session

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Tony Maples Photography

 

“Honey, I don’t want to interrupt your train of thought, but be sure that Bob puts the melody to that song, that ‘Wanted Man’…you forgot the melody,” June Carter Cash is overheard saying at the beginning of a recently released track. It features her husband Johnny Cash singing “Wanted Man” with Bob Dylan, on a previously unreleased recording, which has now been shared with the public for the first time.

The video that accompanies the previously unreleased demo has been shared on the Bob Dylan YouTube channel, on October 21, 2019, and has since garnered close to 350K in viewers in its short availability. The recording was originally recorded by Cash and Dylan in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1969. The pair had what seemed like an unlikely friendship to fans, which lasted close to four decades. During that period, they recorded together only once. It was a two-session that commenced on February 17 of that year. Dylan was finishing the recording of his album entitled “Nashville Skyline” at Columbia Studios in the Country Music Capital. Nearing the close of that project, Cash joined him. They had first met at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and expressed great interest in each other’s music. In “Cash: The Autobiography,” the country superstar wrote: “I had a portable record player that I’d take along on the road. And I’d put on [The] Freewheelin’ [Bob Dylan] backstage, then go out and do my show, then listen again as soon as I came off. After a while at that, I wrote Bob a letter telling him how much of a fan I was. He wrote back almost immediately, saying he’d been following my music since ‘I Walk the Line,’ and so we began a correspondence.”

Video: YouTube/Bob Dylan

On September 19, 2019, a statement was released that Dylan would soon issue the 15th part of his ‘Bootleg Sessions’ series, focusing on the famous 1969 Nashville recording session between himself and Cash. Set to be released on November 1, the installment will feature 47 previously unheard songs. The song, “Wanted Man” was written for Cash by Dylan, and it became a huge hit for the country music icon. In an article by Ben Corbett on Liveabout.com, the writer speaks of this musical duo: “When it comes to creative freedom, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan have been two of the most historically defiant risk-takers among American singer-songwriters. Loyal only to the muse, it was inevitable that the paths of these two visionaries would eclipse during the most experimental and inspired phases of their careers, with an ensuing lifelong friendship.”

Cash went on to record the country music touchstones current fans still listen to, earmarking a phase in the genre that included the development of The Highwaymen, a supergroup comprised of the four top artists in country music. Partnering with such Texas counterparts as Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, not to mention one of the founding members of the outlaw country subgenre, Kris Kristofferson, Cash went on to inspire future singers and fans through the ’80s and mid-1990s. All of that having been accomplished, the music that will soon be released for fans to hear from the Dylan and Cash session now seems like the icing atop a recording confection which is too sweet to miss!