YouTube Dylan— Cold Irons Bound...

[Clete Ritta]

Avoid the ten second loud commercial, which is very distracting, so mute the volume before clicking! I warned you haha

Cold Irons Bound
Theres no steel guitar here, but I like the live mix of these three electric guitars.
Its Charlie Sexton on left, and not sure who is on the right.

Clete

I've grown to like the way Bob sings too, after all these years, even when he wears his hat backwards.

[Joachim Kettner]

If it's the studio version from "Time Out Of Mind" there's no Larry Campbell, he was not on the record according to the credits.
Btw what does cold irons mean?

[Mike Schwartzman]

Just a guess Joachim...Cold Irons might be the 2 steel rails on a train track(s)...Slim

[Mike Neer]

Amazing intensity in that video. Love Tony Garnier and the drummer, George Receli.

[Joachim Kettner]

Thanks Mike! The guitarist on the right is Larry Campbell.

[Alvin Blaine]

Btw what does cold irons mean?

Cold Iron Bound is saying when you do something illegal and your about to get caught, by the police, and put in shackles & chains(cold Iron) then sent to prison(cold Iron bars).
In the song he's upset that his love doesn't love him back and he's ready to kill her, or already has, and now he's running from the cops and he's "20 miles from town and cold irons bound!"

[robert kramer]

Alvin - I had it wrong all this time - I thought "Cold Irons Bound" referred to railroad tracks.

I bet at one time - Dylan could sing through every song on Harry Smith’s “The Anthology of Folk Music.” Time and time again Dylan adds depth to his music by juxtaposing images from pre-war country & blues records into his own songs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology_ ... Folk_Music

The reference for “Cold Irons Bound” could be from “Cold Irons Bed” by Jack Kelly & His South Memphis Jug Band and the image of cold iron shackles - cold iron prison cell bars - cold iron prison beds) “Cold Irons Bed” was reissued on Volume 4 of “The Anthology of Folk Music.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Smit ... ic,_Vol._4

“Cold Irons Bed” Jack Kelly & His South Memphis Jug Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49uePhhJ7rU



Here are some other familiar references:

“Highway 61 Blues” Jack Kelly & His South Memphis Jug Band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT9tiIqx23s

(or was Dylan thinking of Big Joe Williams' "49 Highway Blues"?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLOwvv3fos4

“I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground” where Bascom Lamar Lunsford sings: “A railroad man will kill you if when he can and drink up your blood like wine”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juOt8a_Mxf8

“Obviously Five Believers" (Blonde on Blonde) is Memphis Minnie’s “Me and My Chauffeur Blues”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiRoNuw5x4M

[Joachim Kettner]

Thanks Robert, interesting stuff!

“A railroad man will kill you if when he can and drink up your blood like wine”

I guess Jack London was very influential on those lyrics, or maybe Bascom Lamar experienced this by himself?