This Wheel's On Fire

Album: Music From Big Pink (1968)
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Songfacts®:

  • Written by Bob Dylan and Band bassist Rick Danko, this was one of Dylan's famous "Basement Tapes" songs, recorded in April 1967 with the members of The Band in Big Pink (a house in upstate New York) after Dylan's near-fatal motorcycle accident in 1966. Fourteen different Basement Tapes became available as Bootleg recordings, and "This Wheel's On Fire" appeared on tapes labeled "Great White Wonder" and "Little White Wonder." >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Joey - Athens, GA
  • Band drummer Levon Helm's autobiography is called This Wheel's On Fire. In the book, he explains that the basement tapes sessions had a very loose feel - they didn't mind some bad notes and had to play relatively quiet, since they were really in a basement and too much sound echoing off the wall could be annoying. Helm adds that for this song, he was teaching himself to play the piano, and some of the music he wrote just seemed to fit with Dylan's lyrics.
  • Dylan's original version is much slower than The Band version on Music From Big Pink. When he recorded The Basement Tapes with The Band, many of the songs were covers of old Country or Blues tunes, and sometimes they jammed on different song ideas. "This Wheel's On Fire" was one of the few fully formed songs they came up with. Members of The Band credited Dylan with teaching them a great deal about songwriting during his time at Big Pink.
  • Like many songs Bob Dylan wrote, this one is open to interpretation. The wheel on fire seems to be the singer anticipating death, and who he's speaking to could be a friend, an enemy, or even God.
  • Many artists have covered this song, including Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity, whose version hit #5 in the UK in 1968. The Byrds covered it in 1969, and Siouxsie and the Banshees brought it back to the UK charts in 1987, with a version that hit #14.

    With so many cover versions, it was a very profitable song for the writers, and while Bob Dylan was used to large royalty payments, Rick Danko was not, and his check for about $200,000 was an astonishing amount of money. Danko would later say, "Those royalty checks almost killed some of us," referring to members of The Band who suddenly had easy access to drugs, alcohol, and a lifestyle of excess. Richard Manuel, who killed himself in 1986, was particularly prone to drinking and drug binges.
  • Julie Driscoll recorded the song again in the early 1990s as the theme to the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous. This new version was recorded with Adrian Edmondson, who is the husband of the show's creator and star Jennifer Saunders.
  • Kylie Minogue gave the track an euphoric disco-charged makeover. Her version was released as the official theme song for 2016's Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

Comments: 8

  • Jr from Toronto, OnOut of the many cover versions of this song, I've always found it surprising that the Siouxsie and the Banshees cover doesn't get more attention and respect. The arrangement does a fantastic job at highlighting the melody and lyrics, giving the song a real sense of propulsion, further elevated by an excellent guitar hook and brilliantly orchestrated sweeping strings. The one downside to the originally released version of Siouxsie's cover, which appeared on their excellent 1987 covers album, Through The Looking Glass (which also featured their equally inspired interpretation of Iggy Pop's The Passenger), is that the fantastic orchestral outro that brings the song to an epic climax was lopped off by an early fade-out. Although a 12" extended version that came out at the time of the single's release featured elements of the outro, the complete original version of track with the full outro restored didn't emerge until 2002 when it was included on The Best Of Siouxsie and the Banshees compilation. For me, it is the definitive version of their excellent cover and is well worth checking out for anyone who haven't heard it in its unedited form: https://youtu.be/rgNhcMjthoc
  • Monkeemadness from Lawrence Usa"If you find me in a gloom or catch me in a dream..."etc.:
    The above lyrics posted are not to "Wheels On Fire"; I believe these go with the song "Whispering Pines" from The Band's second album.
  • Matthew from Toronto, OnI preferred the version by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity. Fantastic arrangement & performance!
  • Andy from Omaha, NeThe Byrds also do a pretty good cover on their Fillmore West '69 CD. Clarence White's guitar is a standout of this version.
  • Guy from Wellington, New ZealandYeah, the Ab Fab version is the Driscoll, Auger & Trinity version -- way cool. Julie Driscoll is probably better known nowadays as a cultural commentator. She recently wrote a pretty embarrassing book on David Beckham -- rather destroyed her rep for being a gal who takes no sh*t and hates hypocrites!
  • Eb from Orlando Metro, FlOne of the other artist?s versions of this song was also used in the theme to the 90?s (?) BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous.
  • Tim from Tacoma, WaI think the most popular version was by:
    Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and
    The Trinity
  • Crem8r from Oly, WaThis song was covered by Siouxsie & the Banshees
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