The Ballad Of The Gliding Swan

The other night I watched the BBC’s documentary about The Madhouse On Castle Street, a TV play that was broadcast in the winter of 1963, and happened to be one Bob Dylan’s first appearance on television. In their infinite wisdom, the beeb managed to wipe the tapes of the show at some point in the intervening years, so much of the programme was dedicated to the search for fan-made tapes. There don’t seem to be any video recordings out there, but a few audio recordings, from microphones put in front of the TV speakers, have surfaced. Dylan sings four songs – “Blowin’ In The Wind”, “Hang Me Oh Hang Me” (a song he’s played in concert a few times in recent years, “The Cookoo” (a blues standard and an early favourite of Dylan’s) and “The Ballad Of The Gliding Swan”, which apparently was written by the play’s author, with additions from Dylan.

It’s a rather macabre song, but it’s been going round in my head since I heard it on Wednesday (I must try to find an mp3 somewhere). The play was about a group of disparate people in a London boarding house, who go slowly mad one-by-one, and I suppose the images in the song (“…he opened her head with a butchers knife..”, “…a twenty pound baby without any head…”) were intended to complement this air of insanity. I have no idea of the merits of the play (those who recorded it seemingly only taped Dylan’s songs, so we can’t hear the whole thing), but this song, and Dylan’s performance of it, is particularly powerful.

THE BALLAD OF THE GLIDING SWAN

Tenderly William kissed his wife.
Then he opened her head with a butcher's knife.
And the swan on the river went gliding by.
The swan on the river went gliding by.

Lady Margaret's pillow was wet with tears.
Nobody's been on it in twenty years.
And the swan on the river goes gliding by.
The swan on the river goes gliding by.

Little Billy Brown will shake with fright.
He's got a new daddy and mommy every night.
And the swan on the river goes laughing by.
The swan on the river goes laughing by.

"I've got a sad surprise" the doctor said.
"A twenty-pound baby without any head."
The swan on the river went lookin' ..