| Ballad of Hollis Brown | |
| Artist: | Bob Dylan |
| Album: | The Times They Are A-Changin' |
| Recorded: | August 7, 1963 |
| Genre: | Folk |
| Label: | Columbia |
| Producer: | Tom Wilson |
"Ballad of Hollis Brown" is a folk song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1964 on his third album The Times They Are A-Changin'. The song tells the story of a South Dakota farmer who, overwhelmed by the desperation of poverty, kills his wife, children and then himself.
The Times They Are A-Changin version was recorded on August 7, 1963. The song had been recorded during sessions for Dylan's previous album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, in November 1962, but remained an outtake. On this earlier version, Dylan played the harmonica and just strummed the chords, rather than picking the strings. (The live versions between 1962 and 1964 were also played that way, but without the harmonica.) According to Michael Gray, the guitar work and melodic structuring in "Hollis Brown" are taken from the Appalachians, "where such forms and modes had evolved, in comparative isolation, over a period of almost two hundred years".[1] More specifically, the chords, tune and verse-structure of "Ballad of Hollis Brown" are based on the ballad "Pretty Polly", a song Dylan performed at the Gaslight Club in New York City prior to recording "Ballad of Hollis Brown".[2] [3] [4]
The album version of the song is performed as a solo piece by Dylan with his vocal accompanied by an acoustic guitar in the flatpicking style. The guitar is in 'double-dropped D tuning': Both the first and sixth strings, which normally play two Es separated by two octaves, are tuned down a whole step, down to D. Also, Dylan uses a capo on the first fret. Therefore, while his fingers are positioned as if he were playing in the key of D minor, the song is actually in the key of Eā minor.[5]
Lyrically, this song consists of 11 verses which bring the listener to a bleak and destitute South Dakota farm, where a poor farmer, his wife and five children, already living in abject poverty, are subjected to even more hardships. In despair, the man kills his wife and children and himself with a shotgun. Critic David Horowitz commented:[6]
Dylan played "Hollis Brown" live from 1962 to 1964, including on a Westinghouse television special in 1963[7] and at Brandeis University in May 1963 (released in 2011 on Bob Dylan in Concert ā Brandeis University 1963). He also performed it in 1965, during the "comeback" Bob Dylan and the Band 1974 Tour, and at Live Aid in 1985. The song was regularly featured during the Never Ending Tour through 2012. Dylan has played it over 200 times total.[8]
Some of the prominent musicians and groups that have covered "Ballad of Hollis Brown" include:
Let It All Out (1965)
Chante Dylan (1965), Trans Dylan (1995), Au Casino de Paris (1996)
Kalle Holm (1974, Swedish)
Loud 'N' Proud (1974)
Stop All That Jazz (1974)
Death Trip (1987), Open Up and Bleed (1995), Wild Love (2001)
Yellow Moon (1989)
Stills Alone (1991)
The Ballad of Hollis Brown (1992)
Legacy (1995)
The BBC Sessions Volume 1 (1969ā1970) (1998)
Wreckage (EP, 1997), Black Juju (EP, 1998)
The Flower and the Knife (2000)
A Tribute to Bob Dylan, Volume 3: The Times They Are A-Changin (2000)
Swamp Music: The Complete Monument Recordings (disc 4) (2006)
Balboa Island (2007)
The Village (2009)
Vise Le Ciel (2012)
Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International (2012)
The Big Dream (2013)
Wishing Well (2013)
Ballads (2017)
Hieroglyphs That Tell the Tale (2018)