Bill Broonzy made this song famous but was not the first to record it.  A friend of his Jazz Gillum recorded in the 1930's who was harmonica player with Bill Broonzy on the guitar. Gillum was the first to make it into a 8 bar blues.  When you hear these 2 recordings, you will see why this was such a big influence on Dyland's style. This old Blue Bird 78 was in my Uncle's old collection of records and he loved this song and would play it when I was little. I had fun looking this one up because I thought it was Jazz Gillum who made it famous.  I had not thought about that record collection in years. 

"Deep Ellum Blues," is another song that has it's roots in early jazz.  There was a black business community on Elm Street in Dallas, Tex.  It had a wonderful night life of jazz clubs in the 1920's. Instead of saying going down to the end of Elm Street, the locals shortened it to "going deep ellum."  Here is one of the early recordings of it but the lyrics are a little different from the 1920's. Many famous jazz bands recorded this during the 30's and was danced to as a fox trot.  I chose the Grateful Dead version of it because it sticks with the melody and has the modern lyrics to it. 

Herb Wiedoeft Dallas "Deep Elm"

This is a European Band called the Zipps from the mid 1960's.  They copied the style from Bob Dylan performance of "Roll The Cotton Down."  They never caught on in this country and they are still together playing.  

THIS IS WONDERFUL!

DAMN!

I of course, got into his first albums, including Blond on Blond and Highway 61 Revisited...

And I hope this does not sound trite....

But as a kid in his new teens, the AM menu on the radio just would catch 2 minutes of a song and all of a sudden (before FM) here was a long, long song that is silly as I perceive it now although metaphors were present of course, I mean who is Dylan without metaphors?

WHERE IN THE HELL DID HE COME UP WITH THIS STUFF?

Well Johnny Cash and a host of others like he said.

It brings tears to my eyes.

But I am an old man now and tears come much more easily!