When Bob Dylan‘s publisher called Michael Bolton in 1990, asking him if he’d like to collaborate with Dylan, he thought Diane Warren was playing a practical joke on him. Warren and Bolton had recently scheduled a meeting to work on material for his seventh album Time, Love & Tenderness. Once Bolton realized that the call was legit, the next thing he knew he was driving to Dylan’s compound in Malibu, California to write a song.
The clear his mind, Bolton called off his writing sessions with Warren and with songwriting legends Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil to prepare for Dylan. “It wasn’t difficult to get out of those sessions,” said Bolton. “Anybody in their right mind would stop whatever they were doing and would have driven to Malibu.”
Before their meeting, Warren told Bolton “Make sure you write something Dylan really likes,” remembered Bolton, “because otherwise you will never hear from him again.”
[RELATED: 8 Songs You Didn’t Know Michael Bolton Wrote for Other Artists]
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Out-of-Body Experience
Within the first few moments of meeting Dylan, Bolton says he didn’t hear anything he was saying because all he could think was “Oh my God, it’s Bob Dylan Bob Dylan is talking to me.’” After a half hour of chatting, they started working. Bolton started playing some chords and humming some melodies he had prepped before meeting Dylan.
“And he said ‘Oh yea, steel bars … steel bars, wrapped all around me,’” recalled Bolton. ‘I said to myself ‘Well, that’s not what I was singing, but that’s so Dylan.”
He continued, “It was just an out-of-body, great experience.”
“Steel Bars”
Bolton said he “was awed,” to work with Dylan. “I told him, ‘I don’t even know how I could write a lyric when working with you. I’m too intimidated,’” said Bolton. “It took us two sessions to write, and when I left, I was told, ‘Bob likes you and he wants you to come back.’”
After messing around with some chords, the two wrote “Steel Bars,” a song about obsession.
In the night I hear you speak
Turn around, you’re in my sleep
Feel your hands inside my soul
You’re holding on and you won’t let go
I’ve tried running but there’s no escape
Can’t bend them, and I just can’t break these
Steel bars, wrapped all around me
I’ve been your prisoner since the day you found me
I’m bound forever, till the end of time
Steel bars wrapped around this heart of mine
Trying hard to recognize
See the face behind the eyes
Feel your haunting ways like chains
‘Round my heart, they still remain
“I found that he respected me for my contemporary sensibilities,” said Bolton. “I think he’s aware that he needs to collaborate with people who are not just in touch with the marketplace but who he’ll be compatible with.”
Photo: Michael Bolton makes an appearance on American Bandstand in 1985 by MediaPunch/Shutterstock/13508695a
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