"Blind Willie McTell" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Named for the blues singer of the same name, the song was recorded in the spring of 1983, during the sessions for Dylan's album Infidels; however, it was ultimately left off the album and did not receive an official release until 1991, when it appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. It was also later anthologized on Dylan (2007). Composition and recording The song's melody is loosely based on the jazz standard "St. James Infirmary Blues". For the version included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3, Dylan plays piano and is accompanied only by Mark Knopfler on acoustic guitar. The lyrics are comparable to later Dylan songs "High Water (For Charley Patton)" and "Goodbye Jimmy Reed" in that they pay tribute to the titular blues singer indirectly. Dylan sings a series of plaintive verses depicting allegorical scenes which reflect on the history of American music and slavery. Each verse ends with the same refrain: "Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell". There was also an electric version of the song recorded with Mick Taylor playing slide guitar. Critical reception and legacy Following three albums with overt Christian themes, Infidels struck most major rock critics as dealing largely with secular concerns, and they hailed it as a comeback. When bootleggers released the outtakes from Infidels, the song was recognized as a composition approaching the quality of such classics as "Tangled Up in Blue", "Like a Rolling Stone" and "All Along the Watchtower". According to Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin, the song is regarded by many as "Dylan's one indisputable masterpiece of the early eighties". Spectrum Culture included the song on a list of "Bob Dylan's 20 Best Songs of the 1980s". In an article accompanying the list, critic Peter Tabakis describes it as "a six-minute repudiation of any argument that somehow insists Dylan’s ‘80s output was fallow. The song, with its spare and dramatic piano backbone by Dylan himself, accented with Knopfler’s haunting guitar notes, seems performed in an open field at midnight. The tableau is as cinematic as Dylan gets. An arrow swings on a doorpost. An owl hoots. Feathered maidens strut. Martyrs fall. A canopy of stars hovering over 'barren trees' transforms into an uproarious crowd". Greil Marcus, from the vantage point of 2021, wrote of the song: "Over three