"Million Dollar Bash" - Bob Dylan and The Band

SONG: "Million Dollar Bash"

WRITTEN BY: Bob Dylan

PERFORMED BY: Bob Dylan and the Band

APPEARS ON: "The Basement Tapes" (1975)

In 1966, 25 year-old Bob Dylan crashed his red and silver Triumph Tiger 100 motorcycle outside of Woodstock, New York. His injuries were miraculously benign, but there was a marked change in the young singer-songwriter from that point forward. “When I had that motorcycle accident,” he recalls, “I woke up and caught my senses. I realized that I was just working for these leeches and I didn’t want to do that. Plus, I had a family and I just wanted to see my kids.” Dylan entered a period of seclusion that lasted for nearly seven years. During that time he continued to write and record some of his very best work. The material that formed “The Basement Tapes” came from this period.

“Million Dollar Bash” was first recorded in 1967 in the basement of a house in West Saugerties, New York. The house was, of course, the famous “Big Pink,” then occupied by Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson. As Robertson explains, “The Basement Tapes” started out as Dylan and The Band “just killing time”, but soon flourished into a creative outpouring of new material and inspired covers. The album was cobbled from these friendly jam sessions and officially released to the public on June 26, 1975. On “The Basement Tapes” Dylan sounds more playful and joyous then perhaps on any entry of his catalogue. It is an historical irony that this double LP ode to life’s simple pleasures came out just five months after his bleak divorce drama, “Blood on the Tracks”.

“Million Dollar Bash” stood out to me the very first time I heard “The Basement Tapes”. It seems like the spiritual summation of the entire affable affair. Dylan’s lyrics are as light-hearted as the tune is lovely. He sings as though he feels free for the first time in ages to revel in absurdity and humor just for the fun of it, as is only fitting for a song about the biggest party imaginable. But I see another side to the song that explains its curious and elusive poignancy. Over the course of two minutes and thirty-three seconds Dylan refers to no fewer than seven characters and two or three vaguely defined groups. He makes it clear that this isn’t just a big party it’s the biggest party to which “everybody from right now” is going. Near as I can tell, “Million Dollar Bash” is a little ditty about dying and heading off for a big party in the sky. It’s a song about resigning one’s self to fate, but enjoying the ride as you go and that’s what makes it so uplifting.

I suppose my theory is tenuous at best, but as such it reflects the key to Dylan’s staying power and that is his music’s tolerance for reinterpretation. Like many of his finest works, “Million Dollar Bash” stands as a blank slate for the listener’s imagination. The raw ingredients of a deeper meaning are temptingly displayed daring you to make something of them.

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MILLION DOLLAR BASH

-Bob Dylan

Well, that big dumb blonde

with her wheel in the gorge

and turtle that friend of theirs

with his checks all forged,

and his cheeks in a chunk

with his cheese in the cash

they're all gonna be there

at that million dollar bash

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

It's that million dollar bash

Everybody from right now

to over there and back

the louder they come

the bigger they crack

come on now, sweet cream

don't forget to flash

we're all gonna meet

at that million dollar bash

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

It's that million dollar bash

Well, I took my counselor

out to the barn

Silly Nelly was there

she told him a yarn

then along came jones

emptied the trash

Everybody went down

to that million dollar bash

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

It's that million dollar bash

Well, I'm hitting it too hard

my stones won't take

I get up in the morning

but it's too early to wake

first it's hello, goodbye

then push and then crash

and we're all gonna make it

at that million dollar bash

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

It's that million dollar bash

Well, I looked at my watch

I looked at my wrist

I punched myself

in the face with my fist

I took my potatoes

down to be mashed

then I made it over

to that million dollar bash

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee,

It's that million dollar bash.

c. 1967

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I could only find three covers of "Million Dollar Bash" on youtube and none of them satisfied, so I recorded my own version. In the original's absence, here is the best I can offer.