MUSIC FROM BIG PINK ... The Band (Featuring I Shall Be Released)
I SHALL BE RELEASED
They say everything can be replaced
They say every distance is not near
So I remember every face
Of every man who put me here
I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
They say every man needs protection
They say that every man must fall
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Somewhere so high above this wall
Now yonder stands a man in this lonely crowd
A man who swears he's not to blame
All day long I hear him shouting so loud
Just crying out that he was framed
They say every distance is not near
So I remember every face
Of every man who put me here
I see my light come shining
From the west down to the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
They say every man needs protection
They say that every man must fall
Yet I swear I see my reflection
Somewhere so high above this wall
Now yonder stands a man in this lonely crowd
A man who swears he's not to blame
All day long I hear him shouting so loud
Just crying out that he was framed
I SHALL BE RELEASED [INFORMAL] ... Elvis Presley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFNQI_ZiC0
I SHALL BE RELEASED ... The Beatles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmYqp6NKoRs
Bob Dylan “I Shall Be Released”
Posted: February 28, 2012 Filed under: Bob Dylan | Tags: "Amazing Grace", "I Shall Be Released", Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan countdown, Bob Dylan songs, Greatest Hits Volume Two, Happy Traum, Richard Manuel, The Band, The Basement Tapes Leave a comment »I was in college the first time I heard this song. I was watching a documentary about the letters sent home by Vietnam soldiers, and the version by The Band was used as backing music for one of the letters. I can remember the chills rising as I listened; I still get those chills every time I hear Richard Manuel’s voice on that song, which I assumed, on that first day I heard it, was a traditional spiritual like “Amazing Grace,” such was is timelessness.
Of course, that’s not what it was at all; ”I Shall Be Released” was written by Bob Dylan in 1967. He performed it with The Band during The Basement Tapes sessions. He then taped a version with Happy Traum in 1971 for inclusion on Greatest Hits Volume 2. In the latter version, Dylan deflates some of the song’s grandeur and presents it in a jaunty way, as if it’s no big deal whether he gets released or not.
Of the two Dylan versions, I’ll take the one from The Basement Tapes (on which this ranking is based,) with Manuel adding those high harmonies that remind you why he is, hands down, the most underrated singer in rock history. He only comes in on the chorus though, and Dylan presents a fine, understated reading of the bulk of the material.
And what wondrous material it is. I think that people get lost sometimes in the gospel-like refrain and miss the more prickly parts of the lyrics. The narrator, trapped in a metaphorical prison, shoots down the wisdom he has been offered that might put his suffering in perspective: “So I remember ev’ry face/Of ev’ry man who put me here.”
Yet his resiliency and faith wins out over these dark thoughts: “Yet I swear I see my reflection/Some place so high above this wall.” That leads directly into that refrain for the ages: “Any day now, any day now/I shall be released.” Like I said: Chills.
The Band’s version will always be the one for me; Manuel’s loneliness breaks my heart in the best possible way every time. I would imagine that version of the song has been played at more than a few funerals, and you can see the reason why. Dylan’s words and Manuel’s voice: The perfect combination to transcend whatever prison life throws at you.
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