It's the Golden Rule.
Use it, don't lose it.
And don't touch me.
This is an ultra-slick, ultra-smooth song from "Slow Train Coming," the 1979 album that marked Bob Dylan's entrance into the world of born-again Christianity. Whether he ever left that world is up to anyone to figure out, but he recorded three albums between 1979 and 1981 that were stamped indelibly with the results of his conversion. Some of the songs lecturing, annoying drags. "Do Right Unto Me Baby" is one of the best, and as I recall, was used to good effect in the movie "North Country" with Charlize Theron.
The song emphasizes adherence to the so-called Golden Rule, and comes with a list of things that Bob doesn't want to do, indicating that he believes in the Golden Rule too.
Things Bob doesn't want to do:
- Judge/Be judged
- Touch/Be touched
- Hurt/Be hurt
- Treat people like dirt
- Shoot/be shot
- Buy/Be bought
- Bury/Be buried
- Marry/Be married
- Burn/Be burned
- Learn/Stuff that must be unlearned
- Cheat/Be cheated
- Defeat/Be defeated
- Wink/Be winked at
- Be used for a doormat
- Confuse/Be confused
- Amuse/Be amused
- Betray/Be betrayed
- Play/Be waylaid
- Miss/Be missed
- Put faith in people
Use it, don't lose it.
And don't touch me.
This is an ultra-slick, ultra-smooth song from "Slow Train Coming," the 1979 album that marked Bob Dylan's entrance into the world of born-again Christianity. Whether he ever left that world is up to anyone to figure out, but he recorded three albums between 1979 and 1981 that were stamped indelibly with the results of his conversion. Some of the songs lecturing, annoying drags. "Do Right Unto Me Baby" is one of the best, and as I recall, was used to good effect in the movie "North Country" with Charlize Theron.
The song emphasizes adherence to the so-called Golden Rule, and comes with a list of things that Bob doesn't want to do, indicating that he believes in the Golden Rule too.
Things Bob doesn't want to do:
- Judge/Be judged
- Touch/Be touched
- Hurt/Be hurt
- Treat people like dirt
- Shoot/be shot
- Buy/Be bought
- Bury/Be buried
- Marry/Be married
- Burn/Be burned
- Learn/Stuff that must be unlearned
- Cheat/Be cheated
- Defeat/Be defeated
- Wink/Be winked at
- Be used for a doormat
- Confuse/Be confused
- Amuse/Be amused
- Betray/Be betrayed
- Play/Be waylaid
- Miss/Be missed
- Put faith in people
Hello Robert, thank you for posting this interesting analysis. Come and join us inside Bob Dylan's Music Box http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/157/Do-Right-To-Me-Baby-Do-Unto-Others and listen to every version of every song composed, recorded or performed by Bob Dylan plus all the great covers and so much more.
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