A few years ago, I came across a video clip somewhere of Bob Dylan and his band doing Hallelujah, I’m Ready To Go live in 1999. I looked for it on YouTube today, and, to my shock, I didn’t find it. It’s reached the point where it’s more surprising not to find something there, hasn’t it?

Well, hallelujah! It’s there now. It’s with the Sexton/Campbell iteration of the band, of-course, and it makes for great listening. The shaky camera work is another matter, but it’s not like we’re paying for it.

Interestingly, I’ve heard this song from the Stanley Brothers, and Dylan and the boys, while following the Stanleys’ arrangement pretty closely, do a slightly more artful version, in a certain sense.

The chorus call and response is sung twice, but first it’s sung one way, and then it is reversed. In other words (where the backing singers’ response is in brackets):

Hallelujah (I am ready!)
I am ready (Hallelujah)
Halelujah, I’m ready to go!

is followed by

I am ready (Hallelujah!)
Hallelujah (I am ready!)
Hallelujah, I’m ready to go

A small thing, maybe, but it keeps the singers and the listeners on their toes.

The inestimable Stanley Brothers don’t reverse the call and response (at least when they recorded the tune for King Records), although they do use a line variation that Dylan doesn’t use in this performance, namely: “I can hear the voices singing soft and low.” (Dylan did use that line in some other live performances.) The refrain in their version goes:

Hallelujah (I am ready)
I am ready
I can hear the voices singing soft and low

Hallelujah (I am ready)
I am ready
Hallelujah I’m ready to go!

Either way, it’s a great little tune.

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Posts which might be related to this one based on a mysterious algorithm:

• A Song on Sunday, Volume 3
• Voice from on High
• A good old Hallelujah