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The title of this minor chord blues powerhouse is a quote from the Ancient Roman poet Ovid.
David Hidalgo from Los Lobos is featured on this track playing the accordion. In fact Hidalgo's soulful squeezebox playing can be heard throughout Together Through Life. Dylan got to know Hildago from when he and Los Lobos played some shows in Mexico a few years prior to the recording of the album.
The guitar work of Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is prominent on this track. Dylan and Tom Petty have a history together going back to their days with the Travelling Wilburys and Dylan knew Campbell through their connection. In an interview on his website, Dylan commented on the guitarist: "He's good with me. He's been playing with Tom for so long that he hears everything from a songwriter's point of view and he can play most any style." (Check out our
interview with Mike Campbell.)
In the same interview the interviewer commented that there is "wonderful playing" on this track. Dylan was asked how he approaches the instrumental sections on a record citing the Joe Perry solos on Aerosmith songs as an example. The singer-songwriter legend replied: "What can I say, if I had Joe Perry with me everything would obviously be different. As it is though, he wasn't there. Soloing is not a big part of my records anyway. Nobody buys them to hear solos. What I try to do is to make sure that the instrumental sections are dynamic and are extensions of the overall feeling of the song."
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