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All the Tired Horses

ALL THE TIRED HORSES
 
 
“All the Tired Horses”  is a song written by Bob Dylan, released on his 1970 double album Self Portrait.  The song was featured in the 2001 film Blow.  The song is the first track on the album.  It is most notable for its absence of Dylan’s singing.  It consists of a small choir of female voices (Hilda Harris, Albertine Robinson, and Maeretha Stewart) repeating the same two lines to the same melody for 3 minutes and 14 seconds, with varying instrumental accompaniment.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

To put these ratings in context, Self Portrait (1970) is the only Bob Dylan album to get just ** before Saved, other than some live albums (Allmusic shows low ratings for most of the Rolling Stones live albums also).  To this day, no one seems to understand Self Portrait – I certainly don't.  The music seems as off-putting as the splashes of color in the cover art.  The first few times I played it, I really only enjoyed the live version of “Like a Rolling Stone”; I have heard several others since that I enjoy more.  Some years later, the opening track “All the Tired Horses” stood out, but probably only because I couldn’t discern a hint of Bob Dylan anywhere in the song. 

 

(August 2014)