Nina Simone: The Ballad of Hollis Brown

2008.Oct.18

the number 7, bob dylan, lyle lofgren, sudden death and/or murder, nina simone, south dakota, suicide

Remember that time when Bob Dylan shot a fire full of holes? Well he’s not always super fun like that. In The Ballad of Hollis Brown he drops some bleak rurality on us:

There's seven breezes a-blowin' All around the cabin door There's seven breezes a-blowin' All around the cabin door Seven shots ring out Like the ocean's pounding roar

Ok, ok, it’s easy to poke a shotgun into a stanza for some immediate backwoods cred. But to have “seven breezes blowing” around the door and then this punchline:

There's seven people dead On a South Dakota farm There's seven people dead On a South Dakota farm Somewhere in the distance There's seven new people born

…oof!

This first appeared on The Times They Are a-Changin’ in 1964, just after The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963 - “Blowin’ in the Wind” and all that) and here’s what happened1 at Columbia:

  • Exec
  • Bob, Bob, great stuff. *Great* stuff. Listen, the boys and I were wondering about the seven dead. Thinking maybe -- maybe that number could come down a little.
  • Dylan
  • [rambles on about a bunch of bullshit - truth and whatnot]
  • Exec
  • Sure, sure, babe. We get that. It's cool. Of course. It's just...yeah, that's all cool, babe, but maybe it could go a little more like Blowin', whaddya think? Just a little more, uh, hopeful, you see?

    • MAPPING IT

    Although Lyle Lofgren and others seem convinced (and are probably right) that the origin of the song could be traced to a true crime, nobody can find any evidence of it. So here it goes in rando rural South Dakota - northeast cuz maybe news of a crime like this would have reached Hibbard that way.

    HEARING IT

    So you’re getting “The Ballad of Hollis Brown”, but guess what: it’s a Nina Simone performance (from 1966’s Let it All Out) instead of Dylan’s. Why? Because Nina Simone is a kick-ass mama. Take it up with her.

    1. More lies. ↩