Song of the Day 1/20: Bob Dylan and Clydie King, “Abraham, Martin and John”

Everybody who’s old enough remembers the Dion version of this response to the twin assassinations of 1968, penned, incongruously, by Baton Rouge musician Dick Holler, the same guy who wrote “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.” Dion’s harp-filled production laid on the schmaltz, but many singers over the years, from Marvin Gaye to Emmylou Harris, have recognized the song’s foundation of true emotion.

In 1980, at the height of his critically scorned evangelical Christian period, Bob Dylan embarked on a tour that sounded like a gospel show, highlighted by his top-drawer female backup singers, including Clydie King, who sang behind everyone from Sinatra to the Stones. During the fall leg of the tour, 18 of the 19 shows ended with this duet with Bob at the piano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFkXYgm03LY

Dion’s record was released in August 1968, just two months after RFK’s murder; it reached No. 4 in the Hot 100. You could tell it touched people by the range of people who soon charted with it, from Smokey Robinson to comedian Moms Mobley, whose rendition was dead serious. None outdid Marvin Gaye, whose version was inexplicably released as a single in the UK, where it reached No. 9, but only as an album track in the United States. The Motown arrangement sounds like it’s aiming for Gamble & Huff.

Ray Charles gave it a conversational solemnity on his 1972 album “A Message to the People.”

And it made an excellent showcase for the emotive voice of Emmylou Harris at the Ryman Auditorium in 1991.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3kdVmO2F7o

In fairness to Dion, the recorded version doesn’t do justice to his skills. Here he is performing a much better arrangement on the Smothers Brothers TV show in fall 1968.