"Black Crow Blues" is a song written by

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

, 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 The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. 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 G major (or the key of G) is a major scale based on G, with the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. Its key signature has one sharp. Its relative minor is E minor and its parallel minor is G minor. The G major scale is: Notable composi ...

. 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 Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

and piano

boogie-woogie Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, developed in African-American communities since 1870s.Paul, Elliot, ''That Crazy American Music'' (1957), Chapter 10, p. 229. It was eventually extended from pi ...

s of

Meade "Lux" Lewis Anderson Meade Lewis (September 4, 1905 – June 7, 1964), known as Meade Lux Lewis, was an American pianist and composer, remembered for his playing in the boogie-woogie style. His best-known work, "Honky Tonk Train Blues", has been recorded by ...

". 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: ::''Black crows in the meadow'' ::''Across the broad highway.'' ::''It's funny, honey,'' ::''I don't feel much like a'' ::''Scarecrow today'' :so that in the end it is a strange sort of ''country'' blues. Michael Gray. ''Song & Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan''. New York: Continuum, 2000, . Dylan has never performed "Black Crow Blues" live.

References

External links

Bobdylan.com
{{authority control Songs written by Bob Dylan Bob Dylan songs 1964 songs Song recordings produced by Tom Wilson (record producer)