| "Mighty Quinn" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Manfred Mann | ||||
| from the album Mighty Garvey! (UK) The Mighty Quinn (US) |
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| B-side | "By Request - Edwin Garvey" | |||
| Released | 12 January 1968 | |||
| Format | 7" 45 RPM | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 2:51 | |||
| Label | Fontana | |||
| Writer(s) | Bob Dylan | |||
| Manfred Mann singles chronology | ||||
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| "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by Bob Dylan from the album Self Portrait | ||||
| Released | June 8, 1970 | |||
| Recorded | August 31, 1969, Isle of Wight Festival | |||
| Length | 02:48 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Writer | Bob Dylan | |||
| Producer | Bob Johnston | |||
| Self Portrait track listing | ||||
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"Quinn the Eskimo (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[1] 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. 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 1960 movie The Savage Innocents. Dylan has also been quoted as saying that the song was nothing more than a "simple nursery rhyme." A 2004 Chicago Tribune article[2] also claimed that the song was named after Gordon Quinn, co-founder of Kartemquin Films, who had given Dylan and Howard Alk uncredited editing assistance on Eat the Document.
Dylan makes further reference to the song in his 2004 autobiography Chronicles Volume One: "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."[3]
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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 14 February 1968 and remained there the following week.[4] 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 "The Mighty Quinn (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,[5] 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.[6]
When Columbia finally released The Basement Tapes in 1975, the song 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 5 LP Biograph set (this time titled "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)").[7] This version from the Basement Tapes was used again on The Essential Bob Dylan, a compilation released in 2000.
The first release of the song and #1 hit by Manfred Mann, which topped the UK charts in February 1968, was released as "Mighty Quinn". When Dylan released a live version of this song on his album Self Portrait, in June 1970, the song was titled "The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo)." This title was repeated when the same live recording was released on the album Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 in November 1971. When Dylan's original "basement tapes" recording of the song, backed by The Band and recorded in West Saugerties, New York in 1967, was eventually released as part of the compilation album Biograph, in October 1985, it was entitled "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)."
| Chart (1968) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 75)[8] | 4 |
| Germany (Media Control AG)[9] | 1 |
| Netherlands (Mega Single Top 100)[10] | 2 |
| Norway (VG-lista)[11] | 2 |
| UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)[12] | 1 |
| US Billboard Hot 100[13] | 10 |
Over the years, the song has been recorded by numerous artists.
| Preceded by "Everlasting Love" by Love Affair |
UK number one single 14 February 1968 (Manfred Mann version, 2 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Cinderella Rockefella" by Esther & Abi Ofarim |
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