‘All the Tired Horses’: the Bob Dylan song he never sang himself
‘Distinctive’ is the word most often used to describe Bob Dylan’s vocal style. The folk devotee’s immediately identifiable tones are certainly not the most skilful from across the music industry, but his gritty, nasal tones are almost superfluous when you take into account his utter genius when it comes to songwriting. Dylan might not be the greatest singer, but his words triumph over all, even when performed by other vocalists.
Collaboration and coalition have been an unavoidable part of Dylan’s musical career going back to the very beginning. During those early days, having just relocated to New York City, the young performer would regularly perform alongside other notable folk artists of the period, most notably Joan Baez. Over the years, the pair would often tour and record together, though their collaborations were most often kept to the live stages rather than studio recordings.
If you look across Dylan’s discography, there are countless collaborative efforts ranging from the captivating to the bizarre. Everybody from Johnny Cash to Gene Simmons has worked with the folk singer at some point over the past six decades, each adding a new layer to the ever-enigmatic persona of Bob Dylan. Some of the songwriter’s most enjoyable collaborations have come from his work with female artists, the likes of Fiona Apple, Emmylou Harris, and Scarlet Rivera, to name only a few examples.
His much-maligned 1970 album Self-Portrait best exemplifies Dylan’s clear desire to work with more women in music. Marking a stark departure from his earlier work, the 1970 record was largely composed of traditional songs and covers of various pop and folk tracks from years prior. Embracing the bizarre and surreal aspects of his songwriting, the record was universally panned by the mainstream upon its release, but it certainly has its moments of genius.
In fact, the album’s opening track, ‘All The Tired Horses’, was revolutionary in its own right. Built around two repeating lines–“All the tired horses in the sun/How’m I s’posed to get any ridin’ done? Hmm”–along with a simple C-Am-Em-G chord structure, the song encapsulated Dylan’s attitude towards performance and the music industry at that time period. Most interestingly, though, the songwriter chose not to sing the song himself.
Rather than putting his own voice onto the track, Dylan instead employed a choir of female vocalists made up of Hilda Harris, Albertine Robinson, and Maeretha Stewart. While this is not the only Dylan track to feature female backing vocalists, 1974’s ‘Hurricane’ being another prominent example, it is the only Dylan album track to be performed by women rather than the songwriter himself.
The exact reason why Dylan chose to remove himself from this song remains pretty cloudy. However, it has often been noted that Self-Portrait, on the whole, was written by Dylan as a way of denouncing expectations of himself. ‘All The Tired Horses’ is a clear comment on the performer’s burnout and alienation within the industry, and he himself admitted, “I wasn’t going to be anybody’s puppet, and I figured this record would put an end to that.”
In that sense, the three-minute track achieved its aims, turning off a lot of Dylan’s more mainstream audience. Inevitably, though, his songwriting genius eventually shone through, with Self-Portrait viewed by many hardcore fans among his most revolutionary works. Either way, his choice to involve a choir on ‘All The Tired Horses’, rather than sing the track himself, was certainly a bold move on the performer’s part.
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