Q is for "Quinn the Eskimo"

Bonjour from Campagne Maison

"Q" is for "Quinn the Eskimo"

......Come all without.....

....Come all within....

You'll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn.....

"Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)" is a 1967 folk-rock song written by Bob Dylan during "The Basement Tapes" sessions. The song became a hit in 1968 for the British band Manfred Mann, who released it as a single using the title "Mighty Quinn".

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. The metaphorical lyrics have prompted suggestions that Quinn is a village elder. Dylan himself has said that the title character refers to actor Anthony Quinn's role as an Eskimo in the 1959 movie "The Savage Innocents". Dylan has also been quoted as saying that the song was nothing more than a "simple nursery rhyme".

Anthony Quinn 1915-2001

"The Mighty Quinn" with Denzel Washington

More recently, Dylan in his autobiography Chronicles Volume One (published 2004), makes further reference to the song: "On the way back to the house I passed the local movie theater on Prytania Street, where The Mighty Quinn was showing. Years earlier I had written a song called "The Mighty Quinn" which was a hit in England, and I wondered what the movie was about. Eventually I'd sneak off and go there to see it. It was a mystery, suspense, Jamaican thriller with Denzel Washington as the "Mighty Xavier Quinn", a detective who solves crimes. Funny, that's just the way I imagined him when I wrote the song--- The Mighty Quinn, Denzel Washington".

Dylan originally recorded the song in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions, but did not release a version for another three years. Meanwhile, the song was picked up and recorded by the British band Manfred Mann, who released it under the title "Mighty Quinn." The Manfred Mann version reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart for the week of February 14, 1968, and remained there the following week. It also charted on the American Billboard chart, peaking at #10, and reached #4 in Cash Box.

A later incarnation of Manfred Mann, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, included a dramatically different live version of the song on their 1978 album Watch.

A demo of 14 of the Basement Tape recordings, including the first of two takes of "Quinn the Eskimo", was produced in 1968, but was not intended for release. Recordings taken from the demos began appearing on bootlegs, starting with Great White Wonder, a double-album bootleg that came out in July 1969. The first official release of the song was in 1970 on Dylan's Self Portrait album, a live recording from 1969's Isle of Wight Festival. The live version was also selected in 1971 for the second compilation of Dylan's career, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II.

When Columbia finally released The Basement Tapes in 1975, "Quinn the Eskimo" was not among the double-album's 24 songs (although an Eskimo was featured on the album cover, alongside Dylan, The Band, and several other people meant to represent certain characters from some of Dylan's songs). However, ten years later, in 1985, the second of the original takes appeared on the three-disc Biography set. This version from the Basement Tapes was used again on The Essential Bob Dylan, a compilation released in 2000.

...when Quinn the Eskimo gets here, everybody's gonna jump for joy...

I am linking up with Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday. Please grab her button on my sidebar and head on over to class to read about all the other "Q"s today!

Thanks for stopping by the farmhouse for a visit. We love having company.

Au revoir,

http://www.wikipedia.com/