“Too Many Mornings” Finds the Right Sound

Inside a New Basement Tapes Track

Things Have Changed

The Basement Tapes Raw version of “One Too Many Mornings” accomplishes something extraordinary: It sounds truer to the lyrics than the original recording.

“One Too Many Mornings” sees Dylan’s poetic style abandoning traditional form and extending into abstraction. Unlike “Girl From The North Country,” the song isn’t centered around any particular character, nor does it rely on a narrative. The preaching of “Times They Are A-changin’” has been replaced with humility (“Everything I’m saying / You could say it just as good”) and unconditional acceptance. The lifeless tone of the song suggests feelings of regret and desire, but the exact source is left to the listener’s imagination. Like most of Dylan’s best songs, the lyrics are evocative without being explicit.

Sadly, the evolution of his words doesn’t extend to his vocals, harp or guitar. He’s talking more than singing, still learning how to use his harmonica and picking a traditional melody in a style similar to his previous work.

“One Too Many Mornings” is a poem aspiring to be a song. The music seems like it was inserted as an afterthought.

It was a rearrangement waiting to happen. So in the safety of the basement, and with some help from The Band, “One Too Many Mornings” was reborn into the song it was always meant to be.

The New Sound

Simple chords come slowly from one acoustic guitar, followed by the rest of The Band. The sound is still joyless, but faster and oddly hypnotic, almost soothing. Though Dylan sings the majority of the song himself, Rick Danko tries the first verse alone, and The Band shares a part of each chorus. Spreading out the vocals emphasizes the universal qualities within the lyrics. No one can claim to be a stranger to regret or desire.

The dead energy of Dylan’s voice in the original recording has transformed into a towering, raw, primal passion, comparable only to the voice he adopted eleven years later for Hard Rain. Just before the final verse, the guitar gets bolder and the snare gets stronger, causing the song to close on a slightly brighter note — one closer to acceptance than suffering.

More Bob Dylan articles arriving soon.

Alex Marshi is an American writer and journalist. His bylines include Rolling Stone and Port magazine. If you enjoyed this piece, he’d be awful grateful if you’d share it. Read the rest of his publication “Bob Dylan: His Music, The Band, and the Basement Tapes.”