Jan 20, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: To Romona
What you should know about this song: There is not a hint of politics in this love song, which seems odd given that it was recorded for the Another side of Bob Dylan album in 1964 alongside a number of his most famously outspoken political pieces. Jackson Brown described this love song as “a song imbued with the struggle for personal freedom and the perpetual trap of co-dependence…. a moment when people wanted a leader and spokesman to point the way, but in this song, Dylan dismantles that.” (Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1131).
“That was just somebody I knew. I think I’d played this for the first time at the Gaslight, probably after hours.” – Bob Dylan, 1985*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: YouTube
Jan 19, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Here is the version he performed in Renaldo and Clara: It Ain’t Me, Babe
What you should know about this song: One of Dylan’s “most elegant women-don’t-get-me-songs,” as dubbed by Rolling Stone Magazine, is a catchy tune that is most famously remembered from Dylan’s performance in the panoramic film Renaldo & Clara. On a side note, Rolling Stones Magazine also indicated that while Dylan used 16th century poetic formulas in the lyrics, he also pulled form contemporary artists to write the song. For example, it has been suggested that the “no, no, no” in the song was likely meant to parody the “yeah yeah, yeah,” from the Beatles’ “She Loves You.”
“My songs are just talking to myself. Maybe that’s an egotistical thing to say, but that’s what it is. I have no responsibility to anybody except myself.” – Bob Dylan, 1965.*
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
Jan 18, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: My Back Pages
What you should know about this song: Wait, a protest song to his protest songs?? Well, essentially that’s what “My Back Pages” is – it is an alternative to Dylan’s regular political agenda-filled songs during which he pokes fun at himself for being so serious.
“There aren’t any finger pointing songs on here…I don’t want to write for people anymore. You know – be a spokesman. From now on, I want to write from inside me. The way I like to write is for it to come out the way I walk or talk.” – Bob Dylan, 1964*
Photo Source: Don Hunstein
Jan 17, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: Spanish Harlem Incident
What you should know about this song: Dylan wrote this song about his brief crush on a fortune teller. Since recording it for the Another Side of Bob Dylan album in 1964, has only played it live once: at New York’s Philharmonic Hall that October. I like how Rolling Stone Magazine describes it: “The ‘incident’ of its title seems to be as tiny as incidents come: the ‘gypsy gal’ holding his hand in hers, and sparking a flurry of associations…” (issue 1131).
“It’s hard being free in a song, getting it all in. Songs are so confining. That’s why I write a lot of poetry, if that’s the word.” – Bob Dylan, 1964*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
Jan 16, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
What you should know about this song: This song was originally recorded for the Another Side of Bob Dylan album in 1964, but was ridically re-arranged two years later into an electric version which Dylan incorporated into his live tour repertoire for 12 years.* The song was also a major influence on the writing of “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” by the Beatles, which was featured on their Help! album. You can see the lyrical resemblance when you compare the two:
“I can’t understand, she let go of my hand
And left me here facing the wall
I’d sure like to know why she did go
But I can’t get close to her at all.”
– Bob Dylan, “I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)”
“Here I stand, head in hands
Turn my face to the wall
If she’s gone I can’t go on
Feeling two foot small”
– The Beatles, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”
“‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ is my Dylan period. It’s one of those that you sing a bit sadly to yourself, ‘Here I stand, head in hand…’ I’d started thinking about my own emotions. I don’t know when exactly it started, like I’m A Loser or Hide Your Love Away, those kind of things. Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself, which I’d done in my books. I think it was Dylan who helped me realise that – not by any discussion or anything, but by hearing his work.” – John Lennon (source).
“Bob loomed absolutely the largest. The strength and breadth of his writing during that period, it just eclipses everybody.” – John Sebastian, The Lovin’ Spoonful*
*Source: “Dylan: 100 Songs and Pictures” by Fine Communications
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
