Around this time, Dylan decided a change in scenery would help his situation. Producer Bob Johnston had some experience recording at Columbia's studios in Nashville, Tennessee, working with seasoned veterans like Grady Martin and Floyd Cramer. "They were great musicians, but they were used to working a certain way," Johnston recalls.
"I'd ask them to play this or that part, and they'd say, 'Nope, don't want to play that.' They wouldn't play anything they didn't want to play." Johnston was also familiar with a number of musicians, including Jerry Kennedy, Wayne Moss, and Kenny Buttrey, who had moved up to Nashville from Florida and other parts of the South.
"I started using them on demo sessions [in Nashville] and liked them." During sessions for , Johnston flew one of these musicians, Charlie McCoy, into New York to accompany Dylan on "Desolation Row." It was during those sessions that Johnston told Dylan he should try recording in Nashville.
"I said, 'You outta come on down to Nashville sometime. They got no clocks down there, and they've really got a bunch [of] great musicians — everybody really cares ..
. Bob just kind of said, 'Hmm,' and put his hand to his chin, looking like Jack Benny" recalls Johnston. "That's how he always was with a new idea — everything you ever said to him he always heard, but he never reacted right away.
He'd just file it away, and it would come out later if he liked it." Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, and Columbia Records president Bill Gallagher, were present during this exchange, and according to Johnston, "a little later, [they] came to me and said, 'If you ever mention anything about Nashville again to Dylan, we'll fire you. The reason being, we're having too much success the way we're doing it now.
' I said, 'Okay, you're the boss.'" A session was actually scheduled for November of 1965, but it was cancelled at the last minute. With his current situation, Dylan decided to give Nashville a try.
"It wasn't me pressuring him in any way," recalls Johnston. "I took him to Nashville later because he'd said, 'Let's go down there.'" On February 14th (Valentine's Day), 1966, Dylan held his first recording session at Columbia's Music Row Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
In addition to Al Kooper, Dylan and Johnston recruited guitarist and bassist Charlie McCoy, guitarist Wayne Moss, guitarist and bassist Joe South, and drummer Kenny Buttrey. Charlie McCoy recalls, "When [Dylan] first came in ..
. he asked us if we'd mind waiting a while. They had stopped at an airport in Richmond and he didn't have a chance to finish his material.
So we all went out and let him have the studio to himself. He ended up staying in there [writing] for six hours." Three songs were recorded at that first Nashville session, with "Fourth Time Around" and "Visions of Johanna" receiving successful renditions that were ultimately chosen for the album.
Further attempts at "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," however, were deemed unsatisfactory. (Guitarist Jerry Kennedy and pianist Hargus "Pig" Robbins attended this session, playing only on "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat.") The next day, Dylan held an extended session that lasted through the early morning hours of February 16th.
However, studio logs indicate that no actual songs were recorded until 4 a.m. on the morning of the 16th.
It was during this session that Dylan recorded another epic composition, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." Ken Buttrey recalls, "[Dylan] ran down a verse and a chorus and he just quit and said, 'We'll do a verse and a chorus then I'll play my harmonica thing. Then we'll do another verse and a chorus then I'll play some more harmonica, and we'll see how it goes from there.
' ...
we were preparing ourselves dynamically for a basic two- to three- minute record because records just didn't go over three minutes ...
If you notice that record, that thing after like the second chorus starts building and building like crazy, and everybody's just peaking it up 'cause we thought, Man, this is it ...
This is gonna be the last chorus and we've gotta put everything into it we can. And he played another harmonica solo and went back down to another verse and the dynamics had to drop back down to a verse kind of feel ..
. After about ten minutes of this thing we're cracking up at each other, at what we were doing. I mean, we peaked five minutes ago.
Where do we go from here?" Another session, held at 6 p.m.
on February 17th, was dedicated to yet another epic composition, "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again." A master take was successfully recorded and later included on the final album. Dylan left Nashville to play a handful of concerts, backed by the Hawks, but he returned in March to resume sessions at Columbia's Music Row Studios.
This time, he came prepared with eight songs to record. According to Al Kooper, Dylan would spend much of his spare time in his hotel room, refining these compositions. "He had a piano in his room at the hotel and during the day I would go up there and he would teach me the song," recalls Kooper.
"I would play the song over and over on the piano for him. One, he could concentrate on writing lyrics and didn't have to mess with playing the piano; two, I could go to the studio early that night and teach it to the band before he even got there, so they could be playing the song before he even walked through the door." On March 8th, master takes of "Absolutely Sweet Marie," "Just Like A Woman," and "Pledging My Time" were all recorded.
A final, all-night session ran through the evening of March 9th into the early morning hours of March 10th, producing master takes of "Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)," "Temporary Like Achilles," "Rainy Day Women #12 35," "Obviously Five Believers," "I Want You," and "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat," all of which would be included on the final album. Dylan was very pleased with the Nashville sessions, and when he supervised the final mix of in April in Los Angeles, he had enough material for a double-album. "The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on individual bands in the album," Dylan would later say in 1978.
It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up. That's my particular sound. I haven't been able to succeed in getting it all the time.
Mostly I've been driving at a combination of guitar, harmonica, and organ." Around this time, Dylan decided a change in scenery would help his situation.
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