Dog Days: If Dogs Run Free

Back in 1972, I got the cassette of Bob Dylan’s “New Morning” cassette at F.W. Woolworths. One of my favorite cuts on this album is the jazz influenced, beat poetry named “If Dogs Run Free” that closed out side one. I was anxiously looking for some more songs for dog days and found this classic by Dylan.

Although released in 1970, Dylan neglected to perform “If Dogs Run Free” in concert until thirty years later in 2000. The jazzy piano was supplied by Al Kooper and the female scat singing is courtesy of Maeretha Stewart. Ed Ward’s review in Rolling Stone mused, “‘If Dogs Run Free’ puts me in mind of a beatnik poetry reading at the Fat Black Pussy Cat Theatre in Greenwich Village.” Great stuff – “If dogs run free, why not we across the swooping plain?”