Released August 8, 1964 Genre Folk, blues Label Columbia Records | Recorded June 9, 1964 Length 3:14 Writer(s) Bob Dylan | |
"Black Crow Blues" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan.
Usually considered a minor work in Dylan's oeuvre, "Black Crow Blues" is the first song he released in which he plays the piano. In fact, that – with the harmonica – is the only accompaniment for his voice, as he is alone in the recording, like in most of his first four albums. This song is in the key of G major. Author Oliver Trager calls this song "A funky little piano blues that Dylan plays in his wonderfully untutored style". Black Crown Blues, argues Trager, is reminiscent of "the lilting calypsos of Harry Belafonte and piano boogie-woogies of Meade "Lux" Lewis".
Michael Gray maintains thus:
"Black Crow Blues" is itself terrific for the way that it tears into the blues structure with something so fresh, so invigoratingly off the wall, that it makes you laugh just to hear it. At the same time, and without sacrificing any of the hipness paraded by "wasted and worn out" of "My wrist was empty / But my nerves were kickin' / Tickin' like a clock", he nevertheless brings to it, particularly in the last verse, a special rural feel: so that in the end it is a strange sort of country blues.Dylan has never performed "Black Crow Blues" live.