Notes and Quotes: "Baby Let Me Take You Home"

Mickie Most: It wsn't easy to convince them that I should produce them, and I think the main thing was my enthusiasm really, because once they realised I knew what they were into musically, and liked what they were were doing, we straightaway had a relationship. I said, "Listen, I don't know how many offers you've had, but I'll bring you down to London and I'll pay for the recording session, and if you don't like it, then that's it--you've got nothing to lose that way." They were willing to do that, but their manager was looking for some different sort of arrangement, so I had to talk him into it, telling him that it would be better with me than with a record company that didn't understand, and eventually, they all said OK. (Tobler and Grundy 1982: 126b).

The Animals were one of the first groups to create rock/blues versions of Bob Dylan's folk songs. (Note: This is about a year before the "folk rock" boom.) Here they take his "Baby Let Me Follow You Down," which is Dylan's version of Eric Von Schmidt's take on Snooks Eaglin’s "Moma, Don’t You Tear My Clothes." They may also have been working from versions of the song by the Reverend Gary Davis and/or Blind Boy Fuller.

Mickie Most [on US trip in 1963]. That was when I found "Baby Let Me Take You Home" [which Bob Dylan had recorded, but] the version I found was on a single I picked up at Chess Records in Chicago. It was a new version of an old song — it's a traditional tune…. I liked it — the feel of it, the (backing) track more than the melody… (Tobler and Grundy 1982: 127a).

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3 March, 2014