MIGHTY QUINN (Manfred Mann)
“Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)” is a folk-rock song written by Bob Dylan and first recorded during The Basement Tapes sessions in 1967. The song was first released in January 1968 as “Mighty Quinn” by the British band Manfred Mann and became a great success. It has been recorded by a number of performers, often under the “Mighty Quinn” title. The subject of the song is the arrival of the mighty Quinn (an Eskimo), who changes despair into joy and chaos into rest, and attracts attention from the animals. Dylan is widely believed to have derived the title character from actor Anthony Quinn’s role as an Eskimo in the 1960 movie The Savage Innocents. (More from Wikipedia)
Manfred Mann was one of the original British Invasion bands; they had a major hit in America (it was #1 in the U.K.) with a bizarre Bob Dylan song, “Mighty Quinn”, along with an earlier hit song called “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”.
(June 2014)
* * *
A few of the songs on Great White Wonder I knew already; alternate takes of “Man of Constant Sorrow” and “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” (which both appear on Bob Dylan’s first album, Bob Dylan) are included, and “Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)” I knew as a single, “Mighty Quinn” by Manfred Mann, released in early 1968. Another song on the album, “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” was also a single for Manfred Mann (“If You Gotta Go, Go Now”) and was a hit in England, though I am not sure I had heard it before. But that’s it.
(September 2017)
