I Shall Be Released

"I Shall Be Released" is a 1967 song written by Bob Dylan.

The Band played it on their debut album, Music from Big Pink (1968), with Richard Manuel singing lead vocals, and Rick Danko and Levon Helm harmonizing in the chorus. A legendary performance of the song was performed near the end of The Band's farewell concert, The Last Waltz, in which all the night's performers (with the exception of Muddy Waters) plus Ringo Starr and Ronnie Wood graced the same stage.

Bob Dylan recorded two primary versions. The first is the Basement Tapes intial recording, recorded in 1967 and released on Bootleg Series 1-3 in 1991. Dylan recorded the song a second time in 1971, releasing this new recording on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II.

Other versions

"I Shall Be Released" has been covered many times by many different artists.

• One of the earliest recorded versions of the song was Joan Baez' cover, which she included on her 1968 Dylan tribute album Any Day Now (the title of the album coming from a line in the song). Baez also frequently performed the song live, often dedicating it to political prisoners.

• "I Shall Be Released" was also used by Bette Midler as the closing song of her concert tours throughout the mid to late 1970's. The hopeful message connected with her large following of gay fans that related the lyrics to being released from discrimination. Midler included the recording on her second, self-titled CD, as well as a live version on her concert film Divine Madness as part of a medley with The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

• Coheed and Cambria also covered this song, and was released on the band's MySpace as a Christmas present to their fans.

• A recording of "I Shall Be Released", sung by Jeff Buckley over the phone on live radio, was released on the album For New Orleans. A solo, acoustic version was also released in Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition).

• The Magic Numbers and Martha Wainwright performed a live version of this at the most recent Secret Policeman's Ball.

• Wilco played this song fifteen times on their A Ghost Is Born tour from December 31, 2004 to October 22, 2005.

• Nina Simone covered the song on her album To Love Somebody (1969).

• On April 21, 2007, Jack Johnson and various other artists including Ernie Cruz, The Girlas, and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder performed the song live at the Kokua Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii.

• The Slackers (New York based ska-band) made a cover of the song on their album Peculiar released in 2006

• Other notable cover versions were done by Paul Weller and Sting.

External links

• Lyrics
• Lyrics and tab