Dylanology No. 12 (April 2022): In The Garden · Stuttgart 1991 – The weirdest Song · The Worst Concert
The God of Small Intervals and Botched Shows
The theme of this issue of Dylanology is Easter. First an exploration of “In The Garden”, Dylan’s song from Saved about the questions that might have been asked when the Romans came to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The song may in fact ask similar questions in music.
Then a topic where the connection with Easter is admittedly far-fetched: the infamous Stuttgart show from 1991, held by most to be the worst show Dylan has ever played, as the crown of what by most is considered to be his weakest touring year. In the light of what happened later, it may be possible to regard Stuttgart as the Hell to which Dylan descended, in order to rise again to the glory of the Never-Ending Tour. Besides, I happen to like it, so this is my small attempt at a resurrection.
In The Garden
Semitones are wondrous things. They’re the smallest intervals in music, and yet they have tremendous powers. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that they control everything that happens in music.
They do three things, more specifically: they create tension, they establish lines, and they distinguish between major and minor.
In the song “In the Garden”, from Saved (1980), this triple function of the semitone comes to expression in ways that are worth looking into more closely.
The song is played in B major, on the album and in every single live rendition I have come across. For reasons that should become obvious, I have transcribed it in C major instead.
Lines and Progressions
So what are the lines that run through “In The Garden”, at times leading us to expect a certain continuation, but mostly thwart our expectations?
The beginning is simple: the bass moves stepwise down from the keynote to the relative minor:
The simple way to follow up this would be to continue stepwise down through the tones of the scale. But this is where “In the Garden” deviates: the bass line goes not to G, as expected, but a semitone down, to G sharp. G# is is not a tone that belongs to the C major scale, and so we are forced to think (at least musically speaking) – G sharp is a question that requires an answer.
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