Any in-depth discussion of Bob Dylan inevitably comes to the supposedly controversial and dramatic “going electric”, where he was booed at some concerts and called “Judas” at another. The above single, “Mixed Up Confusion” – the very first 45 released by Dylan – muddies those waters considerably, and this is perhaps the reason that this ground-breaking recording is given short shrift in both Wikipedia and Allmusic. In fact, I found almost nothing about the song except YouTube videos, lyric sheets, download sites, and the other usual Internet folderol.
I did find this brief mention of the song on the Wikipedia article on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan: “Unlike the other material which Dylan recorded between 1961 and 1964, ‘Mixed Up Confusion’ attempted a rockabilly sound. Cameron Crowe described it as ‘a fascinating look at a folk artist with his mind wandering towards Elvis Presley and Sun Records.’”
The first Bob Dylan album, Bob Dylan was released with great fanfare by Columbia Records in March 1962; it is a relatively conventional folk album that is not unlike those that Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Peter, Paul and Mary were recording at the time, with just two original songs. The album was produced by John H. Hammond, the legendary talent scout who signed Bob Dylan to Columbia. Though excellent in every way – for instance, the album includes “Man of Constant Sorrow”, the song (as performed by the Soggy Bottom Boys, with George Clooney on lead vocals) that was made famous in the 2000 Coen Brothers film O Brother Where Art Thou – Bob Dylan sold just 5,000 copies initially; and Columbia Records executives began grumbling about Dylan’s being “Hammond’s folly”.
Legend has it that Bob Dylan wrote “Mixed Up Confusion” on the way to the recording session, and the single was recorded on November 14, 1962 with an electric band: three guitars (including Dylan’s), bass, drums, and a lively piano. “Mixed Up Confusion” was omitted from both versions of his second, much more successful album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan; interestingly, the “B” side was “Corrina, Corrina”, the only song on the album that Bob Dylan didn’t write (another was co-written).
The “Mixed Up Confusion” single was released on December 14, 1962 – a full 5 months before the album was released – but was almost immediately pulled from the market. Though not electric in the same way as, say, “Like a Rolling Stone”, “Mixed Up Confusion” is rock and roll all the way. Had this song been given any exposure at all, the folk-rock movement could have been started years earlier.
I encountered “Mixed Up Confusion” on one of the first Bob Dylan bootleg albums that I bought (though it was not Great White Wonder). However, it was not officially re-released until the box set Biograph was released in 1985. A pristine copy of the “Mixed Up Confusion” 45 brought $1,225 at auction in 2008.
(June 2013/2)
