Audio Example 8.8:

"Blind Willie McTell," early take, opening

Dylan establishes the E-flat minor key like a pianist or organist setting the key for a hymn: a couple broken chords to get the congregation's ears pointed in the right direction. Once he starts singing, his piano playing settles into the looped progression he'll play throughout the song, with a funereal B-flat tolling as the highest pitch of the right hand.