Bob Dylan and The Band was a long-lived collaboration with few official rel… Read Full Bio ↴Bob Dylan and The Band was a long-lived collaboration with few official releases, their recordings together often released under Dylan's name alone.

The members of The Band first worked together as The Hawks, the backing band of rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins from 1959 until 1963. Shortly afterwards, Bob Dylan came to Toronto and recruited the quintet for his history-making 1965/1966 world tour. The Band also worked with Dylan on the initial Blonde on Blonde sessions which, bar two tracks, were ultimately abandoned in favour of versions recorded with Nashville session musicians.

After a motorcycle accident in mid-1966, Dylan retreated from the public eye to his country house near Woodstock, New York. He was joined by the Band for some informal jam sessions starting in the autumn of 1967, nearly all of which were recorded. After being heavily bootleged, Columbia Records finally released The Basement Tapes in 1975, a selection of the better tracks recorded during the sessions along with new recordings by The Band.

Bob Dylan and The Band were reunited in 1974, recording Planet Waves for Asylum Records, Dylan's first album recorded for a record label other than Columbia. Although the album was released under Dylan's name alone, The Band joined Dylan for his first tour in eight years in support of Planet Waves, with some of the material recorded and released on the 1975 concert record Before the Flood.

Columbia Records finally released The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete in November 2014, featuring every surving recording from the original sessions in Woodstock.

Johnny Todd
Bob Dylan and The Band Lyrics

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Johnny Todd he took a notion
For to cross the ocean wide
And he left his love behind him
Walkin' down by the Liverpool tide.

For a week she wept full sorrows
Tore her hair and wrung her hands
Till she met another sailor

Walkin' down by the Liverpool sands.

Why fair maid are you a-weeping
For your Johnny gone to sea?
If you wed with me tomorrow
I'll be by you constantly.

I will buy you clothes and blankets
I'll buy you a wedding ring.
You shall have a gilded cradle
For to rock you baby in.

Johnny Todd came home from sailin'
Sailin' on that ocean wide
And he found his fair and false one
Was another sailor's bride.

Now, all you men who go a-sailing
For to fight the foreign foe.

Never leave, never leave love like Johnny
Marry her before you go.

Overall Meaning

"Johnny Todd" is a traditional English ballad, later adapted and popularized by Bob Dylan in his 1992 album "Good as I Been to You". The song narrates the story of Johnny Todd, a sailor who decided to cross the ocean leaving his beloved behind. The girl is devastated by Johnny's departure and weeps for weeks until she meets another sailor, who offers to marry her and take care of her. The stranger promises to be by her side, buy her clothes, blankets, a wedding ring, and even a gilded cradle for their future children.

Johnny Todd eventually returns to Liverpool and is heartbroken to find that his beloved had married another man. The song concludes with Johnny's advice to fellow sailors: "never leave love like Johnny; marry her before you go."

Johnny ToddBob Dylan and The Band Lyrics

Johnny Todd
Bob Dylan and The Band Lyrics