Working on a Guru

It's raining outside
And I need an umbrella.
So does the guru.

This is just a two-man guitar workout between George Harrison and Bob Dylan, recorded during the "New Morning" sessions in, I guess, 1969 or 1970. The words don't mean a whole lot, but they're fun anyway. This song appeared in 2013 on volume 10 of the Bootleg Series.

Rain on the ground, windshield wipers movin', 
Water on the ground, sure don't feel like groovin'. 
Working on a guru, 
Working on a guru, 
Working on a guru, before the sun goes down. 

Rain all around, I need me an umbrella. 
Water on the ground, I am that kind of fella. 
Looking for a guru, 
Working on a guru, 
Working on a guru, before the sun goes down. 

Walking on the street, I need me an umbrella. 
Just to keep it sweet, I am that kind of fella. 
Looking for a guru, 
Working on a guru, 
Working on a guru, before the sun goes down. 

Rain on the ground, windshield wipers movin', 
Water all around, I sure don't feel like groovin'. 
I'm working on a guru, 
Yes, I'm working on a guru, 
But I'm working on a guru, before the sun goes down. 

Working on a guru, 
Working on a guru, 
Well, it's true, it could be you ... 
I'm working on a guru.

Winterlude

Man marries his gal
In the middle of winter.
Then they build a fire.

Some clunky rhymes aside, this is a charming waltz from the 1970 album "New Morning." It's all about cuddling up on a cold night with the one you love, just like the song "On a Night Like This" that came out four years later.

Winter interlude dude:
- Tonight no fight. Everything all right.
- Angel tells me love has reason to shine.
- You I adore, you give me more.
- This dude thinks you're fine.
- You: little apple, let's go to chapel, come back and cook.
- Ice skating later, our love bold in cold, please be mine.
- You: little daisy, let's sit by logs in fire.
- Moonlight in window, snowflakes on sand, let's get tight tonight, you are grand.

Went to See the Gypsy

Bob visits gypsy
They party with dancing girl.
Girl and gypsy leave.

This song from 1970 remains ambiguous to observers because they think that this a story of Bob Dylan meeting Elvis or Jimi Hendrix or someone. Maybe it’s just a gypsy. It is an atmospheric tale, moving through the night as he tells it with suitable music to match, and then bursting into dawn with a sudden freedom of daylight reflecting in the band’s approach. And just as soon as this song starts, it’s over. That’s a pity as it’s one of the most beautiful songs in his catalogue, and certainly one of the best on “New Morning.” To me, it feels like a song about the discovery of what’s possible and what you can do out there in the world, especially as a young person. Or in other moods, it reminds me of what an adult would feel who has never gone anywhere, upon meeting people who have wandered everywhere and given him a taste of what could be. When he makes up his mind to join the gypsy and his pretty dancing girl, he finds them gone, so what else to do but watch the sun rise and prepare for another day at a dull job in a dull town in a dull life? Or  third angle: the gypsy is indeed Elvis. Bob hears the music that will define his life for the first time, thanks to whatever serendipity brought him to a party. He knows his life will change now as he turns away from the “river of tears” and watches the sun rise.

Goes to the gypsy’s party at a big hotel. He says hello from the dark, crowded room where the party’s happening.
Bob goes to the lobby to make a call. A pretty dancing girl promises him that the gypsy can “drive you from your fear, bring you through the mirror. He did it in Las Vegas and he can do it here.”
Lights shine on the river of tears. He hears the music.
He return to the gypsy just before dawn -- ready to commit in some way, I think, and leave the past behind. But the gypsy and the dancing girl are gone. So he watches the sun rise in his “little Minnesota town.”

Time Passes Slowly

My sweetheart and I
Enjoyed the country life. Now,
We just do our best.

“Time Passes Slow” is supposed to be one of the happy domesticity songs from the 1970 album “New Morning,” along with “If Not for You,” “Winterlude,” “New Morning,” “Sign on the Window” and “One More Weekend.” I find the song a little too uncertain to be an unequivocal endorsement and reflection on family life, which Dylan at the time of the writing of these songs was getting his fill of. In fact, the more I listen to it, the more I hear a contrast between how things are and how they were. Or maybe it’s not even the contrasts between times that is catching me. Maybe it’s this:

Up here in the mountains: time passes slowly, we sit and take walks in paradise, catch fish in the stream and lose ourselves in a dream. This sounds lovely.
Once, my sweetheart and I sat in her mother’s kitchen and gazed at the stars while she was cooking. Time was passing slowly then too, on the search for love. Very nice, but this is something that happened and is done.
No reason to go to town, the fair, up, down, or anywhere. Sounds nice.
Time still passes slowly. “We stare straight ahead and try so hard to stay right.” That to me sounds like an effort to retain the appearance of happiness. This is a key line to the haiku tone, as is the next line, which implies the end of something: “Like the red rose of summer that blooms in the day, time passes slowly and fades away.”

Three Angels

Angels play their horns
While commuters ignore them
And a driver sighs.

This song reminds me of being wrapped in the fog of narcotics as a busy day goes by on the street and nobody knows that you're high. "Three Angels," released in 1970 on the album "New Morning," uses a funereal organ backed by the sustained notes of Dylan's backup singers. He intones a story over these church-like sounds of three angels blowing their horns and dressed in green robes and protuberant wings, hovering over the city while no one in the busy streets below notices them because each is wrapped in his or her own fog.

- The angels have been there since Christmas morning.
- A wildcat from Montana flashes by.
- Then a lady in a bright orange dress.
- A U-Haul trailer, a wheeless truck and the Tenth Avenue bus going west.
- Dogs, pigeons, a man in a badge, three guys on their way back to work.
- Nobody asks why the angels are there.
- The angels are standing on poles and a bakery truck parks near them. The driver's looking for one recognizable face.
- The angels keep playing all day long and they watch the earth and the people on it pass them by.
- Nobody even tries to hear the music that they play.

Thirsty Boots

One crash pad needed
For a civil rights worker
Who's returning home.

This is a song by Eric Andersen about a civil rights activist returning from the field. Bob Dylan recorded it for the "Self Portrait" album in 1970, but it was not included. It was released on volume 10 of the Bootleg Series, titled "Another Self Portrait."

You've long been on
the open road,
sleepin' in the rain
From dirty words
and muddy cells,
your clothes
are smeared and stained
But the dirty words and muddy cells
will soon be judged insane
So only stop to rest yourself
til you are off again

(Chorus)
And take off
your thirsty boots and stay
for a while
Your feet are hot and weary
from a dusty mile
And maybe I can
make you laugh, maybe I can try
I'm just lookin' for the evening
The morning in your eyes

But tell me of the ones you saw
as far as you could see
Across the plain from fields
to town a-marchin' to be free
And of the rusted prison gates
that tumbled by decree
Like laughin' children one by one
They looked like you and me

I know you are no stranger down
the crooked rainbow trails
From dancing cliff-edged
shattered sills of slander
shackled jails
For the voices drift up from
below as the walls are being scaled
Yes, all of this and more, my friends
your song shall not be failed

These Hands

My workingman's hands
Can vouch for me even if
My track record can't.

This song by Eddie Noack appears on the 10th volume of the Bootleg Series, combining recording session releases from the "Self Portrait"/"New Morning" albums in 1969 and 1970. He wrote it while on guard duty in the Army in Texas. It was meant as a patriotic song, but Johnny Cash's version turned it into a working man's praise. 

These hands aren't the hands of a gentleman
These hands are calloused and old
These hands raised a family, these hands built a home
Now these hands raised to praise the Lord
These hands won the heart of my loved one
And with hers they were never alone
If these hands filled their task then what more could you ask
For these fingers have worked to the bone
Now don't try to judge me by what you'd like me be
For my life hasn't been a success
Some people have power but still they grieve
While these hands brought me happiness
Now I'm tired and I'm old and I haven't much gold
Maybe things ain't been all that I planned
Lord above hear my plea when it's time to judge me
Take a look at these hard working hands
Take a look at these hard working hands

Tattle O'Day

Man buys animals
That can't possibly exist.
Then he plays with them.

I would think that "Tattle O'Day," which surfaced on the Bootleg Series in 2012 when Sony/Columbia released the recordings from Dylan's 1969-1970 "Self-Portrait"/"New Morning" studio sessions, was meant as a children's song. But that doesn't make it perfectly charming for adults. This song, which I think was written by Eric Andersen, contains the following:

- A little brown dog. He can whistle, sing, dance and run. His legs are 14 yards long, allowing him and the singer to go around the world in 12 hours.
- A four-inch-tall bull whose lowing shakes London to the ground.
- A flock of sheep of all wethers who produce wool and feathers. They also bring him lots of "increase" as they give birth to lambs and geese every autumn and every time the moon changes.
- A four-acre box that the singer carries in his pocket, having filled it with silver and guineas that he saved up to buy himself a trip to Turkey.
- A speckled hen who sits on an oyster until out springs a 15-hands-high hare.

Take Me As I Am (Or Let Me Go)

When we date people,
They want to change us. Please don't.
I am who I am.

Here's a Boudleaux Bryant song from the 1970 album "Self-Portrait," the second cover by him to appear there. It's a complaint about a lover who keeps trying to reshape the singer's image to suit him (or her).

Why must you always try to make me over
Take me as I am or let me go
White lilies never grow on stalks of clover
Take me as I am or let me go

You're trying to reshape me like your old love
In the image of the one you used to know
But I won't be a stand in for an old love
Take me as I am or let me go

You're trying to reshape me like your old love
In the image of the one you used to know
But I won't be a stand in for an old love
Take me as I am or let me go

Take a Message to Mary

Frontier lad gone bad
Goes to jail, and hopes Mary
Doesn't find out why.

"Take a Message to Mary" is an Everly Brothers song, written by the songwriting team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. Bob Dylan covered it in the 1970 album "Self Portrait." He and producer Bob Johnston give the song a sappy arrangement typical of the times with saccharine female backup vocals and various other accoutrements that you would expect from a TV variety show special of the time. In short: frontier boy turns bad, robs a stagecoach, presumably shoots someone by accident, goes to jail for life, and asks someone to please not tell his girlfriend Mary what he did because he's ashamed of himself. He would rather she believe that he abandoned her, which to me seems at least as bad as saying you turned into a criminal. At least a prison sentence would convey the idea that he's still in love with her, but a victim of his own stupidity, whereas leaving her because he had wandering feet makes him sound like an asshole. But you know what? This has never happened to me, so I can't speak for this young man.

These are the words of a frontier lad
Who lost his love when he turned ba-ad
Take a message to Mary but don't tell ‘er where I am
Take a message to Mary but don't say I'm in a jam
You can tell her I had to see the world or tell ‘er that my ship set sail
You can say she better not wait for me but don't tell her I'm in jail
Oh, don't tell her I'm in jail
Take a message to Mary but don't tell ‘er what I've done
Please don't mention the stagecoach and the shot from a careless gun
You can tell her I had to change my plans and cancel out the wedding day
But please don't mention my lonely cell where I'm gonna pine away
Until my dying day
Take a message to Mary but don't tell ‘er all you know
My heart's achin?for Mary, Lord knows I miss her so
Just tell her I went to Timbuktu, tell her I'm searchin?for gold
You can say she better find someone new to cherish and to hold
Oh, Lord, this cell is cold
Ma-ary, Ma-a-a-a-ary
Oh, Lord this cell is cold

Sign on the Window

The meaning of life:
Family yes, girlfriend no, go
Fishing, catch some trout.

This is a knockout song from an album that I already love from stem to stern, 1970's "New Morning." I've read accounts that say this song is about domestic bliss, and while I think that this is true in part, I sometimes wonder if Dylan's expressing doubt just underneath the sentiment. I don't have any reason to say this other than parsing the phrase that he sings regarding raising some kids, being married, having a cabin in Utah and fishing for trout: "That must be what it's all about." That's an observation more than an affirmation, at least to me. But what about the rest of the song? 

Verse 1:
Signs say the following things: Lonely, no company allowed, You don't own me, Three's a crowd. If this is about marriage, then I suppose all those might apply to various phases of that domestic arrangement.
Verse 2:
A woman and her boyfriend "change their tune" and go to California. Then Bob's best friend says, "Now, didn't I warn you, Brighton girls are like the moon." I guess that this is some reference to the single life and its discontents. Or something else. What do I know.
Verse 3:
The weather report. It's raining tonight on Main Street. Hopefully there won't be sleet.
Verse 4: 
Utah, cabin, wife, kids, trout, life.

Railroad Bill

I fear Railroad Bill.
He'll take whatever he wants
And kill everyone.

Here's a portrait of a bad man named Bill who rides the railroad like the mean old hobo he is. Bob Dylan recorded this old folk song in 1969 or 1970 during the "Self Portrait"/"New Morning" sessions, but it sat on the shelf until 201X when it was released on volume 10 of the Bootleg Series.

The crimes of Railroad Bill:
- Never worked
- Never will
- Mighty mean
- Shot the midnight lantern out of the brakeman's hand
- Took my wife, threatened to kill me if I resisted

The revenge of the singer:
- He bought a .38 and is taking it out West, presumably to find Bill and shoot him.
- As the singer notes, "Honey honey honey, think that I'm a fool? Think I would quit you when the weather is cool? Ride ride ride..."

Here's a cover of the song. I couldn't find one by Dylan.

Pretty Saro

Man must leave woman

Whom he can't afford. He dreams

About her and moans.

"Pretty Saro" is an 18th-century English ballad that survived among in the Appalachian mountain region of America. Dylan recorded it in 1969 or 1970 during his sessions for the albums "Self-Portrait" and "New Morning," but it went unreleased until it appeared in 2012 on the 10th volume of the Bootleg Series. It's one of his most tender vocal performances, making a sad song even sadder. The gist: poor man loves Sarah, but she would prefer a freeholder with house and land. He knows he can't afford what she wants, so he can't have her. He wishes he were a poet so he could write her a poem that would make her fall in love with him, but he can't write a poem, so he wanders the riverbank and dreams of Sarah wherever he goes.

One More Weekend

Leave the kids at home
And come out for the weekend.
We're gonna have fun.

You've heard of date night. This is date weekend, courtesy of Bob Dylan. "One More Weekend" is one of the domestic bliss songs on the 1970 album "New Morning," a rollicking rock n' roll ode to taking the wife out for a few days and leaving the kids home. I don't know why they have to be "slippin' and slidin' like a weasel on the run," but if muskrat love is a thing, then I suppose other mustelid impersonators can do what they like.

Plan:
- They'll have some fun for one more weekend
- They'll hang out on the deck of his boat
- They'll take a trip on the ocean, just as she suspected
- They'll hang out all night long followed by the next day too
- They'll have a blast
- They'll go someplace they haven't been before
- They'll leave the kids home
- They'll come and go like rabbits (hint hint)

As far as he is concerned, she's like a needle in the haystack, but he's going to find her. Not only that, she's the "sweetest gona mama that this boy's ever gonna get."

New Morning

Days in the country,
Rabbits, groundhogs, blue skies and
You in the morning.

The title song from the "New Morning" album of 1970 is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. Most of the album contains songs that live in the country, with sunlight pouring out of them, along with rural dirt roads and old cars, running water, blue skies, cool mornings and hot days, and old wooden houses on the farm. This one is the epitome of the feeling, an impressionist's painting from the middle of the meadow on a day where you can see forever. The phrase "new morning" must be more than just a literal new morning. I would assume that he's talking about a new chapter in life -- wife, family, a dog, all that kind of thing. But why load meaning into a song that is crystal clear? The music matches the mood. It's just great, and every musician and singer sounds like they're into the vibe. Go listen to it. (Separately, there is an alternate version released on "Another Self Portrait," volume 10 of the Bootleg Series, which contains a horn section. It gives the song a completely different sound, but I can't decide which one I like better. I'm only sorry that I couldn't find a version of that to post here. The album version retains Al Kooper's French horn solo, which can warm you up in the middle of the coldest winter.)

Can’t you hear that rooster crowin’?
Rabbit runnin’ down across the road
Underneath the bridge where the water flowed through
So happy just to see you smile
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you

Can’t you hear that motor turnin’?
Automobile comin’ into style
Comin’ down the road for a country mile or two
So happy just to see you smile
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you

The night passed away so quickly
It always does when you’re with me

Can’t you feel that sun a-shinin’?
Groundhog runnin’ by the country stream
This must be the day that all of my dreams come true
So happy just to be alive
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you

So happy just to be alive
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you
New morning . . .

Minstrel Boy

Minstrel sings for cash
While Lucky's stuck on a hill,
Lonely with ladies.

"Minstrel Boy," which appears on the 1970 album "Self Portrait," is not the same song as "The Minstrel Boy," an Irish song written by Thomas Moore in the late 18th or early 19th century to commemorate the men from Trinity College in Dublin who fought in and were killed in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (So says Wikipedia). This is an all together stranger song whose words to me are unclear and disjointed. Dylan sang it with the Band at the Isle of Wight festival in 1969, and it's that version that appears on the album.

Chorus:
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?
Who’s gonna let it roll?
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?
Who’s gonna let it down easy to save his soul?

Story 1: Lucky
Lucky has 12 gears on his rig, and he's been driving a long time. He's stuck on top of a hill now with a bunch of ladies, yet he's lonely.

Story 2: Mighty Mockingbird
Mighty is "deep in number and heavy in toil," and he has a large load to bear. Dylan says he's underneath his own boundaries and that there's no more to the story other than his traveling. And then he changes the words to first person, saying "I'm still on that road."

I didn't see an effective way to handle the song, so I stuck with the story of Lucky and the plight of the minstrel boy.

The Man in Me

Bob often will hide
Himself from other people.
You could coax him out.

This is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. "The Man in Me" appeared on the 1970 album "New Morning," and is known to many people for its prominent appearance in the Coen Brothers movie "The Big Lebowski." It comes in with bang, Dylan la-la-la-ing as the backup singers moan sweetly. In its three short minutes, he credits his woman with bringing out his good qualities.

The lyrics:

The man in me will do nearly any task
And as for compensation, there’s little he would ask
Take a woman like you
To get through to the man in me

Storm clouds are raging all around my door
I think to myself I might not take it anymore
Take a woman like your kind
To find the man in me

But, oh, what a wonderful feeling
Just to know that you are near
Sets my heart a-reeling
From my toes up to my ears

The man in me will hide sometimes to keep from bein’ seen
But that’s just because he doesn’t want to turn into some machine
Took a woman like you
To get through to the man in me

Living the Blues

They all let him know
His gal has a new lover.
Now he has the blues.

This is one of Bob Dylan's milder songs, released in 1970 on the "Self Portrait" album. It's a relaxed country song that tells a familiar tale.

1. My head's been down to my shoes since you've left. In fact, I've been living the blues.
2. I know where you are and what you're doing because strangers tell me what you're up to.
3. I need to forget my pride and take some time off to recover, but I still have feelings.
4. If you knew just how upset I was because of your departure, you surely would come back.

Let It Be Me

Don't break up with him.
There's no life without your love.
Don't leave him lonely.

This is an English version of the song "Je t'appartiens" by Gilbert Becaud and Pierre Delanoe. Tons of singers have done this one. Dylan recorded it for the 1970 album "Self Portrait." It's one of the numerous cover versions of middle-of-the-road pop music that people see as Dylan's confounding attempt to shed his status as a seer and a musical visionary, and to take on the guise of just another singer who's not beset by batshit-crazy fans. I've also included a rare version from the sessions for the 1981 album "Shot of Love." 

I bless the day I found you
I want to stay around you
And so I beg you
Let it be me

Don't take this Heaven from one
If you must cling to someone
Now and forever
Let it be me

Each time we meet, love
I find complete love
Without your sweet love
What would life be?

So never leave me lonely
Tell me you love me only
And that you'll always
Let it be me

Each time we meet love
I find complete love
Without your sweet love
What would life be?

So never leave me lonely
Tell me you love me only
And that you'll always
Let it be me

It Hurts Me Too

I can feel your pain.
You should be with me. If not,
You will hurt us both.

I find it fairly engaging, but this take on the Tampa Red song can't measure up to the original. This appears on the 1970 album "Self Portrait."

1. Don't change your mind about me.
2. I want to be your lover, baby, I don't want to be your boss.
3. Come back to me.
4. I wouldn't mistreat you.

"When things go wrong, so wrong with you,
It hurts me too."