Absolutely Sweet Marie

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"Absolutely Sweet Marie" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released on his 1966 double album Blonde on Blonde. The song is an exuberantly up-tempo number.

Background[]

During a 1991 interview published in Paul Zollo's book Songwriters on Songwriting, Expanded Fourth Edition (New York: Da Capo Press, 1997), Dylan gives an idea of how he sees the song in his explanation of a line about a "yellow railroad":

That's about as complete as you can be. Every single letter in that line. It's all true. On a literal and on an escapist level.... Getting back to the yellow railroad, that could be from looking someplace. Being a performer, you travel the world. You're not just looking out of the same window everyday. You're not just walking down the same old street. So you must make yourself observe whatever. But most of the time it hits you. You don't have to observe. It hits you. Like, "yellow railroad" could have been a blinding day when the sun was so bright on a railroad someplace and it stayed on my mind.... These aren't contrived images. These are images which are just in there and have got to come out.

"Absolutely Sweet Marie" was recorded on March 8, 1966, in Nashville, Tennessee. Only two complete takes of the song were recorded. The first take was released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 in 2015.^[1]

Dylan did not perform "Absolutely Sweet Marie" live until 1988, and has intermittently played it since, including during a session for his MTV Unplugged appearance.

George Harrison, the former Beatle, sang "Absolutely Sweet Marie" on October 16, 1992 at Madison Square Garden in New York City at a concert marking the 30th anniversary of Bob Dylan's first Columbia Records album. The track appears on the 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration album issued in 1997—and again in 2014.

"To live outside the law you must be honest"[]

The song contains the phrase "To live outside the law you must be honest". Jonathan Lethem points to a very similar line by the screenwriter Stirling Silliphant in the 1958 film The Lineup: "When you live outside the law, you have to eliminate dishonesty"; without attribution, Lethem imagines that Dylan "heard it…, cleaned it up a little, and inserted it into" this song.^[2] In the 1940s, in notes on his lyrics page for the song "Pretty Boy Floyd", Woody Guthrie wrote: "I love a good man outside the law, just as much as I hate a bad man inside the law." Dylan, who has acknowledged being heavily influenced by Guthrie, may have been honoring his predecessor.^{[citation needed]}

Cover versions[]

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• C. J. Chenier: Blues on Blonde on Blonde (2003)^[3]
• Ducks Deluxe: Side Tracks & Smokers (2010)^[4]
• Flamin' Groovies: Jumpin' in the Night (1979)^[5]
• George Harrison: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration (1993)
• Jason & the Scorchers: Fervor (EP, 1984)^[6]
• Ola Magnell (Swedish): Gaia (1983)^[7]
• David Nelson Band: Visions Under the Moon (1999)^[8]
• Robin Williamson: Just Like The River And Other Songs For Guitar (2008)^[9]

Notes[]

External links[]

• Lyrics