In the Carter family biography, “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone?”, by Mark Zwonitzer and Charles Hirshberg, I remember reading the assertion that there was a fairly popular Bob Dylan song based on the melody of a Carter family song.
I can’t remember what these songs were, and I can’t find my copy of the book - does anyone know?
Midnight Special Dylan plays and it was a Carter Family song.
Pretty sure Dylan has covered several other Carter classics.
Dylan rewrote “Wayworn Traveller” as “Paths of Victory,” but that was never properly released until the first Bootleg Series box set in the ‘90s. Wikipedia claims that this is also the basis for "The Times They Are A-Changin’," but to my ear that’s such a major reworking that I think it’s a real stretch to call it the same song.
I checked the entry for the Carter Family in my copy of Michael Gray’s excellent “Bob Dylan Encyclopedia”, and while unsurprisingly there are several influences from songs the Carter’s did on Dylan songs, there doesn’t seem to be an actual popular one which came from the Carter Family to Dylan. The closest examples mentioned are Carter touches in Dylan’s Gonna Change my Way of Thinking, and the fact that both the Carter’s and Dylan recorded See that my Grave is Kept Clean and The Girl on the Greenbriar Shore, though both songs are neither Carter Family originals nor especially popular and well known from the Dylan canon.
Since this encyclopedia is very detailed and AFAICT accurate, I doubt that a song with such a direct Carter Family influence exists in Dylan’s work, but OTOH wouldn’t be surprised to be proved wrong, since Dylan always was a musical sponge, and it’s possible that since the time Gray’s book was released, some Dylanologist might’ve discovered such an influence.
The book may have been talking about “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, but I agree that it’s not a very obvious descent.
I will try to find my copy of the book. Thanks to all.
Possibly “Worried Man” by the Kingston Trio, not Dylan?