Gotta Serve Somebody

"Gotta Serve Somebody"
Single by Bob Dylan
from the album Slow Train Coming
B-side	"Trouble in Mind"
Released	August 20, 1979
Recorded	May 1979 Muscle Shoals Sound Studios
Genre	Gospel rock
Length	5:25
Label	Columbia Records
Writer(s)	Bob Dylan
Producer	Jerry Wexler Barry Beckett
Bob Dylan singles chronology

"Gotta Serve Somebody" is a song by Bob Dylan from his 1979 studio album Slow Train Coming. It won the Grammy Award for best rock vocal performance by a male in 1980. The album peaked at #2 on the charts in the UK and went platinum in the US, where it reached #3. The song was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. It stands as Dylan's last hit single, peaking at #24 on the Billboard Magazine Hot 100 singles chart. The b-side, "Trouble In Mind" was a Dylan original that did not appear on the album.

This song was featured in HBO's The Sopranos.

New wave band Devo covered this song in some concerts as their Christian rock alter-egos DOVE - The Band of Love. This cover was sung by Mark Mothersbaugh's alter-ego Booji Boy. The song was also performed by Mavis Staples for the 1996 Dylan blues-covers album Tangled Up In Blues. The song was also covered by Candyrat recording artist Nicholas Barron on his 2007 album As I Am. In 1999, Natalie Cole recorded a cover of the song for her Snowfall On The Sahara album, featuring a new verse Dylan had written especially for her.

In response to "Gotta Serve Somebody", John Lennon wrote and recorded the song "Serve Yourself," which was a parody that mocked the injection of religion into Dylan's songwriting.[1] In his diary, Lennon said of Dylan's song, "The backing was mediocre by Jerry Wexler, the singing was really pathetic, and the words were just embarrassing."[2]

References

1. ^ Turner, Steve. The Gospel According to the Beatles, Westminster John Knox Press (August 1, 2006), ISBN 978-0664229832
2. ^ Lennon's Lost Diary Tape (5th September 1979), The Complete Lost Lennon Tapes, Vol. 17