‘Brownsville Girl’: When Bob Dylan silenced a room full of musicians
Bob Dylan‘s career as an American folk luminary has spanned six decades. Much of Dylan’s longstanding appeal lies the fact that he does things in his own way, something that has been commonplace across his discography. While his poetic commentary and brilliant storytelling remain consistent, themes and style may vary.
Dylan has navigated markedly different eras. His catalogue serves as a public diary which reflects changes in both his life and artistic growth. He started the 1960s with traditional acoustic folk on his debut, Bob Dylan, before ending on electric with Blonde on Blonde. His early claim to fame came from political songs, but after a few years, he was tired of talking about politics. In the late 1970s, Dylan found God and released three gospel albums, and then he entered the 1980s. By this point, the change was too drastic, much like the sudden onset of a midlife crisis.
The 1980s is widely considered to be Dylan’s lost decade. His work was perceived as conceptually messy and inconsistent. His lyricism lacked impact. His early bluesy grit and folk balladry were lost to the polished pop sound of the time. Nonetheless, public criticism rolled off of Dylan’s back. It was his musical journey. But during an exclusive interview for in 2017, the songwriting mogul revealed that ‘Brownsville Girl’ from his ’86 release Knocked Out Loaded didn’t get the attention that it deserved.
Written with playwright Sam Shephard, the song is poised like a monologue. In eleven minutes, Dylan moves through the narrative as a friend telling you a story for the first time. In attempting to recall the name of a Gregory Peck film, reflections on a past relationship unravel through visions of treks across the American Southwest. It seems unreal, a desert mirage. Identities feel transient, and the disorienting passage of time leads you to question the reliability of the narrator. The track accentuates Dylan’s ability to saturate stream of consciousness with vivid imagery, creating a tale that you want to engage with – one of his greatest qualities.
Based on Dylan’s belief that ‘Brownsville Girl’ received a lacklustre response, it would seem that the damage had been done, and it could not be repaired by returning to his roots. There wasn’t enough interest in what ’80s Dylan had to say. However, his musical counterparts held a different opinion. Before ‘Brownsville Girl’ came to be, it was ‘New Danville Girl’, an outtake from Empire Burlesque that was re-written and re-recorded.
Guitarist Ira Ingber played on the track, and in an interview with Uncut, he recalled what it was like to go through the entire song for the first time. “We started it at Cherokee Studios in those first sessions in late 1984. Before we got into the studio,” he continued, “we had practised it during the rehearsal sessions at his house, but we had never played the whole thing up there. When we got to the studio, Bob said he wanted to do it.”
But the songwriter was not yet fully prepared: “During the recording, Bob said he was short a verse. I said, ‘let’s come back to it tomorrow or whenever you finish it.’ He said, ‘wait a second.’ He took out this incredibly small pen or pencil – like, maybe an inch and a half long – and this tiny scrap of paper. He went off into the corner of the studio, and we’re waiting maybe five or ten minutes. He comes back up and says, ‘OK, let’s go.’ We start playing the song again, and all of a sudden here comes this new verse that he’d written, and it was breathtaking.”
It was a landmark moment for the guitarist: “At that very moment, I remember thinking: ‘That’s why he’s Bob Dylan. That’s what the guy does.’ We all looked at each other and we were thinking, well – this is one for the ages.”
Dylan stopped a room of fellow musicians in their tracks with the first play of ‘Brownsville Girl’. So on some level, it was recognised as a great track to emerge from his fabled lost decade. The moment that Ingber shared is an easy testament for why Bob Dylan should just keep being Bob Dylan, telling stories exactly as they come. It will definitely be unpredictable, but that is just what Bob Dylan does.
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