Can't Help Falling in Love

It might be foolish,

But I love you like the sea

Loves the big river.

This song, set to the tune of "Plaisir d'Amour," was a big hit for Elvis Presley in 1961. Dylan's version was recorded during sessions for the "New Morning" album in 1970, and released on the "Dylan" album in 1973, without his input or approval. It's shambolic like most of the rest of the songs on that album, but I have affection for it in the way that I would have for a silly-looking dog. The haiku lines come from the verse of the song that says, "Like a river flows surely to the sea, Darling so it goes some things are meant to be." I ignored the famous line from the Bible about wise men saying that fools rush in (where angels fear to tread), figuring that it's overdone. I like the river/sea line, and thought it wouldn't hurt to suggest that the sea "loves" the fresh water the way the singer loves his honey.

Blue Moon

Thanks to the blue moon,

Lonely man gets the woman

He was hoping for.

This is Bob Dylan's rendition of Elvis Presley's 1956 version (or Frank Sinatra's version?) of a 1934 song by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. The original version of the song was meant for Jean Harlow to sing in the movie "Hollywood Party," expressing her hope to become a movie star. The song went unused in the film, and was copyrighted as "Prayer (Oh lord, make me a movie star)." I like its repeated use in the John Landis film, "An American Werewolf in London."

The song, as Bob recorded it for 1970's "Self Portrait," features a guy wishing on a blue moon to send him someone to fall in love with.

Blue moon You knew just what I was there for You heard me saying a prayer for Someone I really could care for And then there suddenly appeared before me The only one my arms will hold I heard somebody whisper please adore me And when I looked to the moon it turned to gold Blue moon Now I'm no longer alone Without a dream in my heart Without a love of my own

Here's a studio session from the time with Bob giving it a whirl. It's not what you hear on the final "Self Portrait" album.

A Fool Such As I

Sometimes you find fools

Who let their hearts get broken.

I am such a fool.

There are two commercially released recordings of Bob Dylan's performance of this delightful song, first popularized by country singer and proud Nova Scotian Hank Snow. The first to be released was on the 1973 album "Dylan." Columbia Records put the album out without Dylan's permission after the singer dropped his label in favor of a deal with David Gaffen's Asylum Records. Dylan returned to Columbia to release "Blood on the Tracks" and "Dylan" dropped from sight for a long time, the victim of fan disdain for saccharine overdubs and indifferent performances of these cover songs from recording sessions a few years earlier.

I like the album. It's not a coherent artistic vision unless you count a series of slapdash standards, folk songs and pop covers that the artist never intended to release as a unified idea, but I like the Dylan sound from "John Wesley Harding" in 1967 through to "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" in 1973. I'm no production expert, but there's a warm country-rock muffled sound from the combination of Nashville musicians and what I guess is the recording technology of the time that reminds me of when I was a little boy and everyone ate granola and wore a lot of denim while going camping and white-water rafting. You could call it the diffusion of hippie culture into the wider world of the middle class. I call it sweet.

Dylan's other recording of the song comes from 1967 The Basement Tapes sessions that were available on bootleg recordings for a long time and were more recently released in "The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete." It doesn't bounce around like the Dylan version, and Bob sings in a kind of talky way that nearly comes off as smart-ass irony. It makes me laugh more than it makes me cry, but the man still can bring the emotion in a way that makes the song sound new and different from Hank Snow, Elvis Presley, Jo Stafford and other singers who have covered it.

 

Can't Help Falling in Love

Dylan as Elvis.
Don't be surprised, dear reader.
He's done this before.

Blue Suede Shoes

Who knew Bob Dylan
Had a pair of blue suede shoes?
Don't step on them, pal.

Blue Moon

Channeling Elvis,
But failing. Who said Dylan
Had to sing this song?

Any Way You Want Me

Manipulation:
It's about persuading you
That I'm what you want.

Blue Suede Shoes

Who knew Bob Dylan
Had a pair of blue suede shoes?
Don't step on them, pal.