Tour the World via the Hotel Stationery Bob Dylan Wrote Songs On — Continued
Part 2: The Rest of the World
Today, the second part of our World Tour of all the locations where Bob Dylan wrote songs on hotel stationery. This part travels outside North America, to songs written in hotels in the UK, Europe, and beyond.
(If you missed part one, I would definitely start there, at least the intro. It explains the premise—which probably does require some explanation.)
Onward in our journey…
Stop 6: London, England
Hotel: The May Fair
Song: “It Ain’t Me, Babe”
When was he there?
We leave North America for our first visit overseas, and the second-earliest lyrics we will see, after last entry’s “Chimes of Freedom.” Unlike many of these hotels, the May Fair looms large in Dylan lore. He most famously stayed there in 1966, giving a press conference and doing a photoshoot in one of its rooms. Many well-known Dylan photos come from that May Fair stay. How well-known? I can think of six Dylan books that use May Fair 1966 photos on the cover:
But that May Fair Hotel stay won’t come until 1966, a few years after “It Ain’t Me Babe.” He first stayed at the May Fair in 1962, when he was put up there by the BBC while in town to film Madhouse on Castle St. He wasn’t there long though—the hotel kicked him out. From The Guardian:
[Albert] Grossman was already in London, along with the singer Odetta, and saw Dylan put up in the raffish Mayfair Hotel near Berkeley Square.… Dylan moved from the Mayfair after complaints about his strumming his guitar in the lobby and according to Phillip Saville, “he was also having problems with his smoking habit and the management of the hotel sort of lent on his manager, Grossman, and indeed Bob, and asked if he would refrain from that kind of smoking.”
Bob didn’t hold it against them, apparently. This “It Ain’t Me Babe” draft comes from a visit in between those two, in Spring 1964, when he was in town for his performance at the Royal Festival Hall (a show I wrote about here). In fact, he first performed “It Ain’t Me, Babe” live at that very show—right after he’d been writing it at the hotel!
Hotel history:
The May Fair Hotel opened in 1927 with King George V and Queen Mary (she’s my friend…) in attendance. So, you know: Fancy.
And it’s remained so in the almost-a-century since. Just Luxe calls it “the London home for show business royalty.” Lady Gaga “lives there” when in town, one article notes. Another that Whitney Houston “favoured the Azure Suite, which has gold-leaf tiles on the bathroom walls and its own kitchen, while the penthouse has an 80ft roof terrace.” A Daily Mail article titled “Paris Hilton's favourite hideaway” notes that the May Fair is so well known for hosting celebrities that a couple dozen paparazzi typically hang out outside. I suspect that’s not a selling point for Bob.
Alternate lyrics:
Jackpot! We’ve got full unused verses here. Four of ‘em, no less. And I can make out at least most of the words.
Oh you say that you are looking
For a heart to be so true
One you can count on not to leave
And to love nothing else but youYour eyes they tell your fortune [“they tell” crossed out and replaced with “they run”]
Your words like water they’re flowing
Your whispering(?) tell your wishes
but I’m afraid I’ve got to be goingI won’t let you have a diamond ring
I won’t let you have a nun that sings
I won’t let you buy a dress brand new
But oh babe I’ll let you be youI can’t give you the morning sun
If you don’t [want?] it now you better run
I can’t let you apologize when it’s through
But oh babe I can let you be you
It’s possible those latter two verses, on the reverse of the page, were for a different song. The cadence doesn’t quite seem to fit the melody of “It Ain’t Me, Babe” (if you try singing it, it’s awkward). Unless there was a different bridge or something he was considering.
I love the scrawled line below all that:
How many times
do I have to
repeat that
I am not a folksinger
Before people
stop saying
“He’s not a folksinger”
Reads like an unused—and very off-topic—verse from “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
Stationery review:
A coat of arms = fancy. I rate it two mints on the pillow.
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Stop 7: Bilbao, Spain
Hotel: Hotel Lopez de Haro
Song: “Long and Wasted Years”
When was he there?
This seems straightforward at first. Bob played Bilbao, Spain, in summer 2012, at a venue right near this hotel. Tempest came out in fall 2012. Easy enough, right?
Not so fast. Dylan reportedly recorded Tempest from January to March. That Bilbao show was July. So what’s he doing working on the lyrics to “Long and Wasted Years” four months after the album is supposedly done? My guess: The album wasn’t done. Mostly done, maybe, but he could have snuck in a final quick session between July and September to (re-)record this track. He hasn’t played Bilbao much; the timing seems too much of a coincidence for this sheet to have come from any other time than July 2012.
Bob kept busy on that stop in Bilbao. He also traveled to a private club, the Sociedad Bilbaina, five minutes from the hotel. It’s described as “a gentlemen's club in the purest British style, founded in 1839. A place out of time, a fascinating and decadent relic that should appear in every tourist guide to the city...if entry were allowed. But, as I say, this is a Bilbao recreation of a sanctum sanctorum of English privacy. So members, members' families on special occasions, and a very few others have the privilege of stepping into its halls.”
Why was he at this private gentlemen’s club? For a photoshoot that would run Rolling Stone to promote Tempest:
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