A SATISFIED MIND
“A Satisfied Mind” is a song written by Joe “Red” Hayes and Jack Rhodes. Hayes explained the origin of the song in an interview: “The song came from my mother. Everything in the song are things I heard her say over the years. I put a lot of thought into the song before I came up with the title. One day my father-in-law asked me who I thought the richest man in the world was, and I mentioned some names. He said, ‘You’re wrong, it is the man with a satisfied mind.’” (More from Wikipedia)
One glance at the album cover for Saved proves beyond doubt that Bob Dylan was serious with his Christian period. The opening track, “A Satisfied Mind” is a rare cover by Dylan of someone else’s song; “A Satisfied Mind” dates from the mid-1950’s and was first recorded by Porter Wagoner. (Interestingly, the debut solo album by folksinger Hamilton Camp, Paths of Victory – which, at the insistence of Elektra Records, has seven covers of mostly obscure Bob Dylan songs – also includes a cover of “A Satisfied Mind”).
(August 2014)
