"This Wheel's on Fire" 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 ...
and
Rick Danko
Richard Clare Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter, and singer, best known as a founding member of the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
During ...
. It was originally recorded by Dylan and
the Band during their 1967 sessions, portions of which (including this song) comprised the 1975 album, ''
The Basement Tapes
''The Basement Tapes'' is the sixteenth album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and his second with the Band. It was released on June 26, 1975, by Columbia Records. Two-thirds of the album's 24 tracks feature Dylan on lead vocals backed b ...
''. The Band's own version appeared on their 1968 album, ''
Music from Big Pink
''Music from Big Pink'' is the debut studio album by the Band. Released in 1968, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, blues, and soul. The music was composed partly in "Big Pink", a house shared by bassist/sing ...
''. Live versions by the Band appear on their 1972 live double album ''
Rock of Ages Rock of Ages may refer to:
Films
* ''Rock of Ages'' (1918 film), a British silent film by Bertram Phillips
* ''Rock of Ages'' (2012 film), a film adaptation of the jukebox musical (see below)
Music
* ''Rock of Ages'' (musical), a 2006 rock ...
'', as well as the more complete four-CD-DVD version of that concert, ''Live at the Academy of Music 1971'', and the 2002 Box Set of ''
The Last Waltz
''The Last Waltz'' was a concert by the Canadian-American rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. ''The Last Waltz'' was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert a ...
'' (the song did not make it into the movie or the original soundtrack album).
Background
Danko recounted how the song was written: "We would come together every day and work and Dylan would come over. He gave me the typewritten lyrics to 'This Wheel's On Fire'. At that time I was teaching myself to play the piano.... Some music I had written on the piano the day before just seemed to fit with Dylan's lyrics. I worked on the phrasing and the melody. Then Dylan and I wrote the chorus together."
Danko continued to perform the song in concert during his solo career and recorded a new studio version, with
Garth Hudson
Eric "Garth" Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a ...
on accordion, for his posthumously released 2000 album, ''
Times Like These''. Hudson also recorded a new studio version, with
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...
on lead vocal and
the Sadies
The Sadies are a Canadian rock and roll / country and western band from Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of Dallas Good, Travis Good, Sean Dean and Mike Belitsky. Dallas and Travis are the sons of Margaret and Bruce Good, and nephews of Bria ...
as back-up band, for his 2010 all-Canadian compilation, ''Garth Hudson Presents a Canadian Celebration of The Band'' (re-released in 2012 as ''Chest Fever: A Canadian Tribute to The Band'').
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...
, who sang harmony with Danko on the Band's version and who used the title of the song for his memoir of his time with the Band, ''
This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of The Band'', performed the song live with the Levon Helm Band (later known as the Midnight Ramble Band). The Levon Helm Band performed the song after his passing at the ''
Love for Levon
Love for Levon: Benefit To Save The Barn was a benefit concert held on October 3, 2012 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The concert was a tribute to the life of The Band's co-lead vocalist and drummer Levon Helm, who died of ...
'' benefit concert and tribute held on October 3, 2012, that version appearing on the 2013 CD-DVD set Love For Levon: A Benefit to Save the Barn. The Midnight Ramble Band continued to perform the song during its live shows at least through 2016, opening with it at ''The Last Waltz 40th Anniversary Celebration'' at
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...
Out of Doors on August 6, 2016.
Dylan performed the song regularly during his live tours from 1996 through 2012.
Covers
In 1968, a version by
Julie Driscoll
Julie Driscoll Tippetts (born 8 June 1947) is an English singer and actress.
Career
Driscoll is known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan and Rick Danko's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's " Season of the Witch", both with Brian Auger an ...
with
Brian Auger and the Trinity
Brian Auger and the Trinity was a British band led by keyboardist Brian Auger. His duet with Julie Driscoll, the Bob Dylan– penned "This Wheel's on Fire", was a number 5 hit on the 1968 UK Singles Chart.
The song also reached number 13 in C ...
became a hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 5 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
, number 13 in Canada, and reaching number 106 on the U.S.
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles
Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...
chart. With its use of
distortion
In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...
,
phasing
A phaser is an electronic sound processor used to filter a signal, and it has a series of troughs in its frequency-attenutation graph. The position (in Hz) of the peaks and troughs are typically modulated by an internal low-frequency oscillat ...
, the evocative imagery of the song's title and the group's flamboyant dress, this version is closely associated with the
psychedelic era
The Psychedelic era was the time of social, musical and artistic change influenced by psychedelic drugs, occurring from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. The era was defined by the proliferation of LSD and its following influence in the development of p ...
in British music. The arrangement featured prominent use of both
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
and
mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...
. Driscoll recorded the song again in the early 1990s with
Adrian Edmondson
Adrian Charles Edmondson (born 24 January 1957) is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. He was part of the alternative comedy boom in the early 1980s and had roles in the television series ''The Young Ones (TV s ...
as the theme to the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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...
'', whose main characters are throwbacks to that era.
''. Released as the first single from that album, Siouxsie and the Banshees' version climbed to number 14 on the UK singles chart. The band did not know the song had been composed by Dylan before recording it: they covered it because they liked Driscoll's version.
Australian pop rock group
'' National Top 60 with their rendition in July 1970, which remained in the charts for 22 weeks.
. Australian singer
''.