Dalton, whose heritage was Cherokee, was born Karen J. Cariker in Enid, Oklahoma. Her bluesy, world-weary voice is often compared to that of iconic jazz singer Billie Holiday. She sang blues, folk, country, pop, Motown - making over each song in her own style. She played the twelve string Gibson guitar and a long neck banjo.
In his 2004 autobiography, Bob Dylan wrote this in his description of discovering and joining the music scene at Greenwich Village's Cafe Wha? after arriving in New York City, New York, United States in 1961: "My favorite singer in the place was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed... I sang with her a couple of times."
Dalton's second album, In My Own Time (1971), was recorded at Bearsville Studios and originally released by Woodstock Festival promoter Michael Lang's label, Just Sunshine Records. The album was produced and arranged by Harvey Brooks, who played bass on it. (Harvey Brooks played bass also on the Miles Davis album Bitches Brew, on the Bob Dylan album Highway 61 Revisited and on the Richie Havens album Mixed Bag.) Piano player Richard Bell guested on In My Own Time. Its liner notes were written by Fred Neil and its cover photos were taken by Elliot Landy. Less well-known is Dalton's first album, It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best (Capitol, 1969), which was re-released by Koch Records on CD in 1996.
Both Dalton's albums were re-released in November 2006: It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best, on the French Megaphone-Music label, included a bonus DVD featuring rare performance footage of Dalton. In My Own Time was re-released on CD and LP on November 7, 2006 by Light In The Attic Records.
The version of the song Something on Your Mind (composed by Dino Valenti) that is sung by Dalton on her album In My Own Time is the soundtrack during the ending credits of the 2007 film Margot at the Wedding, which was written and directed by Noah Baumbach and starred Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Known as "the folk singer's answer to Billie Holiday" and "Sweet Mother K.D.", Dalton is said to be the subject of the song Katie's Been Gone (composed by Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson) on the album The Basement Tapes by The Band and Bob Dylan. She struggled with drugs and alcohol for many years. It has been widely reported that she died in 1993 on the streets of New York City after an eight-year battle with AIDS.
However, an article in Uncut magazine confirmed that Dalton was actually being cared for by the guitarist Peter Walker in upstate New York during her last months.
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A cult singer, 12-string guitarist, and banjo player of the New York 1960s folk revival, Karen Dalton still remains known to very few, despite counting the likes of Bob Dylan and Fred Neil among her acquaintances. This was partly because she seldom recorded, only making one album in the 1960s - and that didn't come out until 1969, although she had been known on the Greenwich Village circuit since the beginning of the decade. It was also partly because, unlike other folksingers of the era, she was an interpreter who did not record original material. And it was also because her voice - often compared to Billie Holiday, but with a rural twang - was too strange and inaccessible to pop audiences. Nik Venet, producer of her debut album, went as far as to remark in Goldmine, "She was very much like Billie Holiday. Let me say this, she wasn't Billie Holiday but she had that phrasing Holiday had and she was a remarkable one-of-a-kind type of thing.... Unfortunately, it's an acquired taste, you really have to look for the music."
Dalton grew up in Oklahoma, moving to New York around 1960. Peter Stampfel of the Holy Modal Rounders, who was in her backup band in the early '70s, points out in his liner notes to the CD reissue of her first album that "she was the only folk singer I ever met with an authentic 'folk' background. She came to the folk music scene under her own steam, as opposed to being 'discovered' and introduced to it by people already involved in it." There is a photograph from February 1961 (now printed on the back cover of the It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best reissue) of Dalton singing and playing with Fred Neil and Bob Dylan, the latter of whom was barely known at the time. Unlike her friends she was unable to even capture a recording contract, spending much of the next few years roaming around North America.
Dalton was not comfortable in the studio, and her Capitol album It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best came about when Nik Venet, who had tried unsuccessfully to record her several times, invited her to a Fred Neil session. He asked her to cut a Neil composition, "Little Bit of Rain," as a personal favor so he could have it in his private collection; that led to an entire album, recorded in one session, most of the tracks done in one take. Dalton recorded one more album in the early '70s, produced by Harvey Brooks (who had played on some '60s Dylan sessions). Done in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, it, like her debut, had an eclectic assortment of traditional folk tunes, blues, covers of soul hits ("When a Man Loves a Woman," "How Sweet It Is"), and contemporary numbers by singer/songwriters (Dino Valente, the Band's Richard Manuel). The Band's "Katie's Been Gone," included on The Basement Tapes, is rumored to be about Dalton.
How Did The Feeling Feel To You
Karen Dalton Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
would be
Every night has been like one night to me
You've got me feeling again
The feeling you gave me before
But to you those nights like any other night
Tonight is just one more
Don't try to tell me that you care enough to
When you can't even do the things I need you to
do
Don't make me listen to words you think will
please me
When pleasing me don't mean anything to you
Just one more night makes no difference
As long as there's another night
To make right what you did wrong
The last days we had of one another will have
to do
While you're on your way, while you're on your
way
How did the feeling feel to you
You've got me feeling again
The feeling you gave me before
But to you those nights like any other night
Tonight is just one more
Just one more night makes no difference
As long as there's another night
To make right what you did wrong
The last days we had of one another will have
to do
While you're on your way, while you're on your
way
How did the feeling feel to you
The lyrics of Karen Dalton's song How Did The Feeling Feel To You convey a sense of disillusionment and disappointment with a lover who cannot seem to reciprocate the intensity of emotions and love that the singer feels. The opening lines suggest that the act of making love has not lived up to the singer's expectations and that every night has felt the same, with no real connection or passion. Despite this, the singer admits to being reawakened to the feeling that the lover had given her before, suggesting that there was a time when the relationship was more meaningful and fulfilling.
However, the main theme of the song is the discrepancy between the singer's feelings and the lover's indifference. The singer accuses the lover of not caring enough to love her and failing to do the things that she needs from him. She rejects any attempts at empty words and pleasantries and implies that pleasing her does not mean anything to him. In the end, the singer resigns herself to the fact that there may not be any more meaningful nights between them and that the last days they shared will have to do.
Overall, the lyrics of How Did The Feeling Feel To You convey a sense of heartbreak and resignation, as the singer comes to terms with the end of a once passionate relationship and the realization that her lover does not feel the same way.
Line by Line Meaning
Making love has been as much as I could hope it would be
Having sex with you has been everything I hoped it would be
Every night has been like one night to me
Every night feels the same to me
You've got me feeling again
You've made me feel something again
The feeling you gave me before
The feeling you made me feel in the past
But to you those nights like any other night
But to you, those nights are no different from any other night
Tonight is just one more
Tonight is just another night for you
Don't try to tell me that you care enough to love me
Don't try to convince me that you love me enough to care
When you can't even do the things I need you to do
When you can't even do the things that I need you to do
Don't make me listen to words you think will please me
Don't make me listen to words you think I want to hear
When pleasing me don't mean anything to you
When pleasing me is not important to you
Just one more night makes no difference
Having just one more night doesn't matter
As long as there's another night
As long as there's another night with you
To make right what you did wrong
To fix the things you messed up
The last days we had of one another will have to do
The last few days we had together are all we have now
While you're on your way, while you're on your way
While you're leaving me
How did the feeling feel to you
How did you feel about what we had
Contributed by Hannah M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
j
I want the tabs for this so much
j
@Evan Hodge i didn’t say i wanted to do the work evan.
Evan Hodge
Hear the Key? Then go from there. 7 notes, Bud.
W. John Rogers
One of the best. Comme on you aficiandos. Such a shame she died too young.
Eric made of tin
Dylan admired her. Need I say more?
Evan Hodge
Let's have the BOOK, Bud.
Andrew Malcolmson
The first photo is Sibylle Baier, not Karen Dalton.
Hervé GUILLEMINOT
right Andrew ! well observed !
Vasileios Filis
!
GiorgiosP13
Only one exclamation Vasileios!?
Although I do love the brevity, and point of your comment...