Jan 28, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
What you should know about this song: After he was famously booed offstage for using his electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan came back on stage with an acoustic and played this song as his response to the crowd. Since then, it has become one of Dylan’s most famously-covered songs, with artists such as The Grateful Dead, Them (with Van Morrison), Joan Baez, The Byrds, Leon Russell, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, and The Animals recording their own versions.* As with yesterday’s song (“She Belongs to Me”), there is much speculation over who this song is really about but many sources point to Joan Baez or possibly singer-songwriter David Blue.
“In staying with the theme of ending albums with farewell songs (both The Times They Are A-Changin and Another Side of Bob Dylan ended on this note, with “Restless Farewell” and “It’ Ain’t Me, Baby” respectively), this is the concluding song for Bringing it All Back Home. Rolling Stone Magazine described the song as “his devastating farewell to innocence, kicking Baby Blue out into the street, whether that means the end of a friendship or his abandonment of the folk scene.” (Issue 1131)
“I had carried that song around in my head for a long time, and I remember that when I was writing it, I’d remembered a Gene Vincent song, ‘Baby Blue.’ It had always been one of my favorites.” – Bod Dylan, 1985*
Photo Source: Beat Generation Gallery
Jan 27, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: She Belongs to Me
What you should know about this song: This is Dylan’s first recorded anti-love song and also the first song in which he mentions the “witchy woman.” There is much speculation over who this woman could be, though many believe it refers to his fellow folk singer Joan Baez. In this 12-bar blues song, the gentleness of Dylan’s voice heavily offsets the bitterness of the lyrics. While the song rings with irony, there is something striking about the way Dylan delivers it – it’s subtle yet very well articulated. For example, while the song is titled “She Belongs to Me,” Dylan talks about how the woman belongs to no one at all: “She’s nobody’s child / The law can’t touch her at all.”
“I love that song, it’s beautiful. I really think that you can hear his Buddy Holly influence coming out of that one.” – Donovan*
Photo Source
Jan 26, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Love Minus Zero/No Limit
What you should know about this song: This is one of Dylan’s most lastingly popular hits from the Bringing It All Back Home album he recorded in 1965. Joan Baez and The Turtles are among the other artists who have covered this song on record. Some sources say it was originally written as a tribute to Dylan’s future wife, Sara Lowndes, to exemplify how she brought him calm in the midst of chaos. What I also found interesting was that some sources have pointed to a number of famous authors from which Dylan possibly pulled to create the surreal imagery found in this song’s lyrics. For example, some of the lyrics seem to recall Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and the book of Daniel from the Bible. Also, there is some speculation that the style of the song’s lyrics are reminiscent of William Blake’s Poem “The Sick Rose”(source).
“Songwriting is like fishing in a stream: you put in your life and hope you catch something. And I don’t think anyone downstream from Bob Dylan ever caught anything.” – Arlo Guthrie*
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
Jan 25, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: Gates of Eden
What you should know about this song: Rolling Stones Magazine listed “Gates of Eden” under the five most inscrutable lyrics by Dylan that “keep Dylanologists guessing” (Issue 1131), and if you listen to the song there’s no wondering why. The song is very majestic and the lyrics mysterious. The allure of the acoustic guitar will draw you in, and the lyrics will leave you lost in a Dylan daze.
“It’s an amazing song. So many of the songs he wrote around that time were influenced by people like Martin Carthy, and by his trips over to England and his absorption of traditional forms. It is not a giant step from what bob played on ‘Gates of Eden’ to an Irish or Scottish tune.” – Ralph McTell*
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
Jan 24, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Link to Song: It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
What you should know about this song: Dylan debuted “It’s Alright Ma” at the New York’s Philharmonic Hall in October 1964 just before recording it for Bringing It All Back Home. It is an excellent example of his transition from the politically-driven music to a more all-encompasing theme of life. The lyrical composition coupled with the unique rhyme scheme and melody in this song is astounding, really. Dylan drew from Arthur Koestler (author of Darkness Sat Noon), the Book of Ecclesiastes, and even some Elvis Presley tunes to create this masterpiece. “He not busy being born is busy dying”…. by far my favorite line of this bluesy Dylan song. I feel like I would need to listen to the song hundreds of times before I could even begin to understand all that poured out of Dylan’s heart when he wrote this piece.
“I’ve written some songs stat I look at, and they just give me a sense of awe. Stuff like “It’s Alright Ma’, just the alliteration in that blows me away.” – Bob Dylan, 1997*
“He has, at certain moments in his writing career, crystallized stuff so well that it will last for a thousand years of human history. If we don’t destroy ourselves by then, in the year 3000 someone somewhere will be singing, ‘He not busy being born is busy dying.’ That’s significant. That’s really making a contribution to your art.” – David Crosby*
“I don’t know how I got to write theses songs. Try to sit down and write something like that. I did it once, and I can do other things now. But I can’t do that.” – Bob Dylan in 2004 about “It’s Alright, Ma” (Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1131).
“It’s always been a tricky song for Dylan to sing- a snapshot of a particular moment in his artistic development, a jewel that he’s lucky enough to own rather than a machine whose workings he understand from having built it.” – Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1131.
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
Jan 23, 2012 | 100 Days with Bob Dylan
Links to Song: Mr. Tambourine Man
The Byrds’ version: Mr. Tambourine Man
What you should know about this song: This is another one of Dylan’s most famous songs. It’s a beautiful song, really, composed with poetic grace that was unique and monumental for the time. Dylan debuted the song during a concert in London in 1964, but some would attribute its popularity to the success of The Byrds’ folk-rock version in 1965.
“On one session, [producer] Tom Wilson had asked Bruce to play tambourine. And he had this gigantic tambourine, it was as big as a wagon-wheel. He was playing, and this vision of him playing this tambourine just stuck in my mind.” – Bob Dylan, 1985*
“When I heard him sing that song, I started crying. I knew I was seeing the emergence of a major artist.” – Liam Clancy*
“Bob’s lyrics were exquisite. ‘To dance beneath he diamond sky with one hand waving free’ – that was the line that got me. At the time of ‘Mr. Tambourine Man,’ I think he was finding himself as a poet. He was learning to be beautiful.” – David Crosby (taken from Rolling Stone Magazine, Issue 1131)
Photo Source: Daniel Kramer
