It takes a lot of guts to tell Bob Dylan to change his song.
But, guitarist Kevin Odegard says he did during the Minneapolis sessions for Dylan’s classic 1975 album “Blood on the Tracks.”
Odegard is one of the uncredited musicians who played on the album in 1974 at Sound 80, a studio in south Minneapolis. He recalls the musicians going over a version of one of Dylan’s songs, but the singer didn’t care for it.
Dylan then asked Odegard what he thought.
“And I said, ‘Well, it’s passable,’ “ Odegard told AP Radio. “I got ‘the look,’ and began to sweat right through my clothes.”
Odegard, 53, offered a suggestion — moving the song up a key, from G to A. The musicians played it halfway through the first verse and Dylan liked it, Odegard said.
The song, “Tangled Up in Blue,” ended up kicking off “Blood on the Tracks” and is still performed by Dylan in concert.
Odegard and some of the musicians on the album are reuniting for a March 3 performance in Minneapolis. Dylan isn’t on the lineup, though.
Odegard also has co-written a book on those recording sessions called “A Simple Twist Of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of ’Blood on the Tracks.’