Temporary Like Achilles

"Temporary Like Achilles" is a song by Bob Dylan. It was released as the second track of side three of his double album Blonde on Blonde on 20 June 1966.[lower-alpha 1] The song was written by Dylan, and produced by Bob Johnston. It was recorded at Columbia Music Row Studios, Nashville on 9 March 1966.[1][2]

"Temporary Like Achilles"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album Blonde on Blonde
ReleasedJune 20, 1966 (1966-06-20)
RecordedMarch 9, 1966
StudioColumbia Music Row, Nashville, Tennessee
Length5:03[1]
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Bob Dylan
Producer(s)Bob Johnston

As of August 2020, Dylan has never played the song live in concert,[3] and it is the only track from Blonde on Blonde not to have been played by him in tour rehearsals.[4]

Background and recording

In October 1965, Dylan recorded two versions of a song called "Medicine Sunday" in New York with Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel of The Band,[5] both versions consisting of one verse and chorus, and neither lasting more than a minute.[6]

Several months later, on 9 March 1966 between 9:00 pm and midnight, four versions of "Temporary Like Achilles" were recorded by Dylan and a band.[2] "Temporary Like Achilles" finishes with the lines "You know I want your lovin’/Honey, but you’re so hard",[3] a reworking of "I know you want my lovin’/Mama, but you're so hard" from "Medicine Sunday."[7] Take 4 was released on Blonde on Blonde,[2] and Take 3 was later released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966.[8]

The song is described as a "slow, smoky blues" by Gill.[7] It seems to be narrated by someone who has been rejected by a woman who is now with another person.[1] In 1987, lyrics for "Temporary Like Achilles", handwritten by Dylan, were sold at auction for $7,577.[9] They were bought from a collector by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1988.[10][11]

Lyrical interpretation

Classics scholar Owen Ewald has suggested that the song is inspired by the Iliad,[12] and Thomas Strunk, noting that Dylan was a member of the Latin club at High School also believes that the classical poetry influenced Dylan, borrowing from the song in the title of his paper "Achilles in the Alleyway: Bob Dylan and Classical Poetry and Myth."[13] Dylan mentioned The Odyssey, and specifically Odysseus' trip to see Achilles in the underworld, in his Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech.[14]

Geoff Ward says that "the layered ironies of 'Temporary Like Achilles' or 'Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again' mock both the authenticity cult of folk music, and the waftings of the incoming hippie generation, in one swoop."[15]

Critical reception

The album Blonde on Blonde was positively received by critics.[16] Craig McGregor in The Sydney Morning Herald praised the song as "entirely successful, uniquely and unmistakably Dylanish, a gentle and moving love song."[17] An opposing view was expressed by Norman Jopling in Record Mirror, who said in his review of the album that "One of the worst tracks on the set is 'Temporary Like Achilles' .... There's some good Fats Domino styled piano for the intro, but the pleading, almost whining lyric is not very special."[18] The piano on the track, by Hargus "Pig" Robbins, has been praised by Margotin and Guedson[1] and by Gill, who calls it "beautifully evocative,"[7]

Personnel

Credits adapted from the Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track book.[1]

Musicians

Technical

Notes
  1. See Blonde on Blonde regarding uncertainty about the release date.

References
  1. Margotin, Philippe; Guedson, Jean-Michel (2015). Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. p. 235. ISBN 978-1579129859.
  2. Björner, Olof. "Still on the Road: 1966 Blonde on Blonde Recording Sessions and World Tour". bjorner.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  3. "Temporary Like Achilles". bobdylan.com. Sony Music Entertainment. Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  4. Heylin, Clinton (1995). Revolution in the Air – the songs of Bob Dylan Vol.1 1957–73. Constable & Robinson. pp. 121–127. ISBN 9781849012966.
  5. Heylin, Clinton (1995). Dylan: Behind Closed Doors – the Recording Sessions (1960–1994). Penguin Books. pp. 45–53. ISBN 978-0140257496.
  6. Sanders, Daryl (2 October 2018). That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound: Dylan, Nashville, and the Making of Blonde on Blonde. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-61373-550-3.
  7. Gill, Andy (1995). Bob Dylan: the stories behind the songs 1962–1969. London: Carlton. pp. 148–149. ISBN 9781847327598.
  8. "Bob Dylan – The Cutting Edge 1965–1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12, A Deluxe 6CD Anthology, To Be Released By Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings On November 6". Legacy Recordings. PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  9. "Doors keyboardist an echo fan". Fort Lauderdale News. Fort Lauderdale. 2 October 1987. p. 20.
  10. Bream, Jon (23 May 1991). "Bob Dylan:a golden oldie". Star Tribune. Minneapolis. p. 1E,3E.
  11. Williamson, Lori (24 May 2011). "Bob Dylan's Lyrics for Temporary Like Achilles". Minnesota Historical Society. Archived from the original on 24 July 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  12. White, Anna (8 February 2017). "New lyrics incorporate classics". The Falcon. Seattle: Seattle Pacific University.
  13. Strunk, Thomas E. (2009). "Achilles in the Alleyway: Bob Dylan and Classical Poetry and Myth". Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics. Trustees of Boston University. 17 (1): 119–136. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  14. Dylan, Bob (5 June 2017). "Bob Dylan – Nobel Lecture". nobelprize.org. The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  15. Ward, Geoff (2004). "Review: Bob Dylan Among the Professors". The Cambridge Quarterly. Oxford University Press. 33 (3): 261–269. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  16. Kooper, Al (20 May 2020). "Bob Dylan". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  17. McGregor, Craig (8 October 1966). "Pop scene". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney. p. 19.
  18. Jopling, Norman (13 August 1966). "Bob Dylan: Blonde On Blonde (CBS)". Record Mirror. London. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
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