Born in Time

She's a dream lover,

But he can't be with her now.

They weren't born in time.

This is a difficult song from "Under the Red Sky," an album that underwhelmed many listeners. It's not hard to see why. Dylan veers between childish/childlike rhymes, songs about why TV is bad for you, and the usual assortment of enigmatic songs about enigmatic people. In "Born in Time," he sings to a woman that her vision is coming to his mind in the middle of the night, that whatever relationship they had failed in some way, and somehow she remains on his mind. He makes repeated references to how they were "born in time," but whether that means they were born on schedule, born in some more general temporal measure or whatever else he might have been thinking, the meaning goes slipping by.

You can see what I mean about ambiguity....

You're blowin' down a shaky street You're hearing my heart beat In the record breaking heat Where we were born in time Not one more night, not one more kiss And not this time babe, no more of this Takes too much skill, takes too much of will It's too revealing You came, you saw just like the law You married young just like your ma You tried and tried, you made me slide You left me reeling with this feeling

Here's a version of the song that was recorded for the album preceding "Under the Red Sky," "Oh Mercy." It was dropped and later released on the eighth volume in the Bootleg Series.