Released September 11, 2001 Genre Folk rock Label Columbia | Recorded May 2001 Length 5:21 Writer(s) Bob Dylan | |
"Mississippi" is the second song on Bob Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft. The song was originally recorded during the Time Out of Mind sessions (demo sessions in Fall 1996; official album sessions in January 1997), but it was ultimately left off the album. Dylan rerecorded the song for Love and Theft in May 2001. Described as having beauty and gravitas, the song features a pop chord progression and with a riff and lyrical theme similar to "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again".
Three outtakes of the song from the Time Out Of Mind sessions were included in Dylan's 2008 "official" bootleg album Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 (two versions on the generally released discs and one on a bonus disc included with the Deluxe Edition of the album).
Dylan offered the song to Sheryl Crow, who recorded it for her The Globe Sessions, released in 1998, before Dylan revisited it for Love and Theft. Crow's version reworked the song's melody, phrasing, and arrangement, and has been described contrastingly as "remarkable" and as "forgettable, head-bopping pop".
Subsequently, the Dixie Chicks would make it a mainstay of their Top of the World, Vote for Change, and Accidents & Accusations Tours, in an approach that substantially followed Crow's. They began including the song after their political controversy and their backing arrangement includes on keyboard a guitar riff from The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again".
In 2009, Rolling Stone named "Mississippi" the 17th best song of the decade, calling it "A drifter's love song that seems to sum up Dylan's entire career, and a rambling classic that ranks up there with 'Tangled Up in Blue'."
It is also listed at number 260 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.