You're No Good

You're sweet and evil.
You please me and tease me too.
What am I to do?

The first song on Bob Dylan's first album from 1962, "You're No Good" is an old Jesse Fuller song. It's part of the expansive "hardheaded woman" canon of songs written by guys who feel like their girlfriends and wives boss them around.

Well I don't know why I love you like I do
Nobody in the world can get along with you.
You got the ways of a devil sleeping in a lion's den
I come home last night you wouldn't even let me in.

Well sometimes you're as sweet as anybody want to be
When you get a crazy notion of jumpin' all over me
Well you give me the blues I guess you're satisfied
An' you give me the blues I wanna lay down and die.

I helped you when you had no shoes on your feet, pretty mama
I helped you when you had no food to eat.
You're the kind of woman I just don't understand
You're takin' all my money and give it to another man.

Well you're the kinda woman makes a man lose his brain
You're the kinda woman drives a man insane
You give me the blues, I guess you're satisfied
You give me the blues, I wanna lay down and die

Well you give me the blues, I wanna lay down and die

Talkin' New York

I went to New York,
Tried to be a great singer.
Now I'm in Jersey.

This one is from Dylan's 1962 debut album. It explains itself.

Song to Woody

Bob finds out how big
Woody Guthrie's shoes are, and
Prepares to fill them.

This is Bob Dylan's salute to Woody Guthrie, the folksinger who provided so much of Dylan's early inspiration, not to mention his image of a wandering troubadour chronicling the America of his times. He mentions that he's been wandering around the USA as well and acquainting himself with the things that Woody has seen. He offers his world-weary comments on a weary world, notes that Woody probably knows all this stuff already, and tips his hat to other folk musicians such as Leadbelly and Cisco Houston. He says he's going to keep traveling, and hopes that it won't be hard. The song appeared on Dylan's debut album, which was released in 1962. 

See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

Once I'm dead, I'm dead,
And I won't care about much.
But please clean my grave.

This is a famous blues song by Blind Lemon Jefferson from 1927. It has one point: I'm going to die, and once that's done, it's done. But it would be nice for someone to keep my grave clean. This song appeared on Bob Dylan's debut album in 1962.

Pretty Peggy-O

Captain falls for girl.
Lieutenant suddenly leaves.
Captain dies for girl.

This peppy song comes from Bob Dylan's debut album, released in 1962. He notes as he begins his song that a key geographical locator within it, the town of Fennerio, is a place he's never heard of. Then he tells the story of a bunch of soldiers marching to Fennerio, and while they're marching, the captain falls in love with a "lady like a dove" who of course is our title character, Pretty Peggy-O. The singer asks Peggy what her mother would think if she ran away with a soldier. Whatever, ma. She comes running down the stairs with her blonde hair all combed back. Meanwhile, a lieutenant who hasn't made an appearance before is reportedly gone from town, and has gone to Texas and joined the rodeo. And of the captain? He died for a woman's love, and is buried in Louisiana. He doesn't say whether the woman is Peggy. The song is based on an old Scottish folk song called "The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie," and the song's lyrics call Fennerio "Fyvie-o." The old song also notes that there are many beautiful women in the Howe of Auchterless, Garioch and Aberdeen, but the prettiest one is Peggy in Fyvie. In this version, the captain promises her many fine things, but she won't go away with him because she says she was never meant to be a soldier's wife. He goes away and is killed in battle. 

In My Time of Dyin'

I'm going to die.
Heaven awaits, but I'm bad.
Meet me halfway, God.

"In My Time of Dying," or "Dyin'," as Dylan stylized it on his first album, is a gospel music song that sounds like it has been around for ages. It probably has. Its alternate title is "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed." 

Well, in my time of dying don't want nobody to mourn
All I want for you to do is take my body home
Well, well, well, so I can die easy
Well, well, well
Well, well, well, so I can die easy
Jesus gonna make up, Jesus gonna make up
Jesus gonna make up my dying bed

Well, meet me Jesus, meet me, meet me
in the middle of the air
If these wings should fail to me
Lord, won't you meet me with another pair
Well, well, well, so I can die easy
Well, well, well
Well, well, well, so I can die easy
Jesus gonna make up, Jesus gonna make up
Jesus gonna make up my dying bed

Lord, in my time of dying don't want nobody to cry
All I want you to do is take me when I die
Well, well, well, so I can die easy
Well, well, well
Well, well, well, so I can die easy
Jesus gonna make up, Jesus gonna make up
Jesus gonna make up my dying bed

I can't find Dylan's version so here's one by the unparalleled Blind Willie Johnson. 

House of the Risin' Sun

Girl from poor family
Falls in with drunken gambler
And ruins her life.

I find it strange that I had to write an obscure haiku for such a well known song, but "House of the Rising Sun" never reveals the nature of its location. First, here are the lyrics as Dylan sang them on his debut album in 1962:

There is a house down in New Orleans they call the rising sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I'm one.

My mother was a tailor, she sowed these new blue jeans
My sweetheart was a gambler, Lord, down in New Orleans.

Now the only thing a gambler needs is a suitcase and a trunk
And the only time when he's satisfied is when he's on a drunk.

He fills his glasses up to the brim and he'll pass the cards around
And the only pleasure he gets out of life is rambling from town to town

Oh tell my baby sister not to do what I have done
But shun that house in New Orleans they call the rising sun.

Well with one foot on the platform and the other foot on the train
I'm going back to New Orleans to wear that ball and chain.

I'm going back to New Orleans, my race is almost run
I'm going back to end my life down in the rising sun.

There is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor girl and me, oh God, I'm one.

To me, it sounds like her boyfriend or husband was a gambler, most likely indebted, and that she became a prostitute to keep them solvent. But it could be anything. The song has been performed so many times by a so many people, with different lyrics, that it is unclear what the hell of the Rising Sun is.

The possibilities that I've read are:
- Brothel
- Prison
- Plantation slave pens/plantations/plantation houses
- Casino

I'm sure that there are others.

Highway 51

Bob's baby lives here.
If she dumps him, he won't go
Down that road no more.

"Highway 51" comes from Dylan's debut album. The reference is to the U.S. Route 51, which runs from west of New Orleans north to the Michigan-Wisconsin border (Laplace, Louisiana nearly to Ironwood, Michigan). It was one of the major routes of black migration after the Civil War as people sought jobs in the industrialized north. The song has been ascribed to Curtis Jones, but there's no proof of this that I'm aware of.

Highway 51 runs right by my baby's door
Highway 51 runs right by my baby's door
If I don't get the girl I'm loving
Won't go down to Highway 51 no more.

Well, I know that highway like I know my hand
Yes, I know that highway like I know the back of my hand
Running from up Wisconsin way down to no man's land.

Well, if I should die before my time should come
And if I should die before my time should come
Won't you bury my body out on the Highway 51.

Highway 51 runs right by my baby's door
I said, Highway 51 runs right by my baby's door
If I don't get the girl I'm loving
Won't go down to Highway 51 no more.

Hazel

She has what he wants,
But she makes him wait around.
Hazel don't, he says.

I haven't looked around, but I'm willing to bet that there aren't many pop songs out there about gals named Hazel. Bob Dylan recorded this song with the Band for his 1974 album "Planet Waves," and it's one more of his earnest love songs -- though I wonder who thought that he might not want to be seen with her, given his comment that "I wouldn't be ashamed to be seen with you anywhere."

A little more about Hazel:
She has dirty-blonde hair. She has something he wants plenty of -- a little touch of love. She also has stardust in her eyes, and he would give her the sky in return for some of her love. Now, at this point we gather that his love for her is making him blind, and he sure doesn't need anyone to remind him of how he feels. Most significantly, he's on a hill and she's not there with him. That's too bad because she was the one who called him there, and he doesn't like waiting. 

There's a remarkable live version of this from the Band's "The Last Waltz" album, not recorded by Martin Scorsese's cameras, but by a black-and-white camera that Bill Graham had installed at the Winterland venue in San Francisco. Below is the studio version, followed by a rehearsal performance of the song from the MTV Unplugged show.

Gospel Plow

Keep your hand on it.
(I'm talking about your plow)
Think about heaven.

Some people must wonder if the rest of us must spend so much time incorporating juvenile sex innuendo into our art. I wonder why we don't spend more. Given the chance, a cheap laugh gets you a big laugh. Well, maybe it does if you're a more talented comedian than I am. In any case, this is "Gospel Plow," a traditional American song and one of the songs on Bob Dylan's debut album from 1962. The title, Wikipedia informs me, comes from Luke 9:62 in the Bible:

And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Context? In the book of Luke, Jesus has just spent some quality time exorcising a demon from a child. The disciples argue about one thing or another. Jesus gives them a ration of shit about this. He then gets pissed off because John says to him that they saw another exorcist getting busy with an exorcism, and then didn't allow him to follow Jesus. Jesus says, he who is not against us is for us, so what is your problem? Then they decide to go to Jerusalem, and they pass through villages in Samaria where he and the disciples are unwelcome. James and John suggest asking God to rain fire on their houses and burn the people to death. Jesus explains why this is somewhat Old Testament-style thinking. Then they find another guy who wants to follow them. Jesus complains that he has nowhere to sleep that night. Another guy wants to join up, but says he has to bury his father first. Jesus says, are you kidding? Let the dead bury their dead. You're with me or not with me. Another guy says, "Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house." At that point, Jesus lectures him about the man with the plough. 

The song, like the verse, equates holding the plough with keeping your eyes on the heavenly reward. In other words, once you have your hand on the plough, you need to keep looking forward. Looking backward makes you screw up the straight line. Now you know.

Freight Train Blues

I'm a train person.
When the freight trains start moving,
I do the same thing.

"Freight Train Blues" is the template for songs about men who can't keep stay home and maintain healthy relationships because they're always catching a train somewhere. Dylan's wandering/train songs/ship songs usually deal with men who are traveling because they're sad, because they're seized by wanderlust, because they're trying to get out of a bad relationship, because they're looking for work and so on. This train song, which Dylan performed on his debut album, is more like a justification of rambling for the sake of rambling. The flaneur must flaner because of his inherent flanerie. Hank Williams and Roy Acuff have done the song as well.

1. Lived in a shanty by the railroad track.
2. Train taught me to cry.
3. Driver's holler my lullaby.
4. Train blues in my shoes.
5. Will never lose these blues.
6. Daddy was a fireman. Mama was an engineer's daughter.
7. Sweetheart a brakeman.
8. Only southbound train whistles make me laugh.

Fixin' to Die

This man will die soon
And will leave his kids alone.
He doesn't like that.

Bukka White's 1940 blues song about wondering what it feels like to die appeared on Bob Dylan's first album in 1962. It's full of blues tropes, and if doing so is wrong, why would anyone want to be right? White's lyrics differ in some respects from Dylan's variation. I posted Dylan's below, and posted links to each song.

Feeling funny in my mind, Lord,
I believe I'm fixing to die, fixing to die
Feeling funny in my mind, Lord
I believe I'm fixing to die
Well, I don't mind dying
But I hate to leave my children crying
Well, I look over yonder to that burying ground
Look over yonder to that burying ground
Sure seems lonesome, Lord, when the sun goes down

Feeling funny in my eyes, Lord,
I believe I'm fixing to die, fixing to die
Feeling funny in my eyes, Lord
I believe I'm fixing to die
Well, I don't mind dying but
I hate to leave my children crying
There's a black smoke rising, Lord
It's rising up above my head, up above my head
It's rising up above my head, up above my head
And tell Jesus make up my dying bed.

I'm walking kind of funny, Lord
I believe I'm fixing to die, fixing to die
Yes I'm walking kind of funny, Lord
I believe I'm fixing to die
Fixing to die, fixing to die
Well, I don't mind dying
But I hate to leave my children crying.

Edge of the Ocean

On the ocean's edge,
Something is on its way
When the seagulls come.

This 1967 Basement Tapes track wasn't included on the old bootlegs of those sessions, I think. Its first appearance, therefore, was in 2014 on the official release of the sessions in volume 11 of the Bootleg Series. It's a melancholy track with lyrics that don't make all that much sense. I think, and have said before, that Dylan was experimenting with words as sounds and rhythm, and creating feelings out of words that weren't necessarily arranged in sentences that you could diagram. Or he was stoned. Or he was messing around. Or something. I haven't tried transcribing the words of this song, but someone did on the Stevehoffman.tv discussion forum:

upside down....we're living on the edge of the ocean with a mockingbrew
ready to frown...with a fleet right over my window...well, always ocean round
well, ever up on every morning...brother, brother was in my sound...but let me tell you, 
brother, it won't be when the seagulls cross over town

If life hands you corned beef hash, open the can and see what comes out.

Baby Let Me Follow You Down

I’ll do what you want.

I’ll follow you to your house.

Be my future wife.

This is one of my favorite songs that Bob has performed. It gets right to the point and each version that I've heard, the one on his debut album in 1962 and the other on his performance with The Band in The Last Waltz, is full of energy and passion:

1. Baby let me follow you down. I'll do anything in this God-almighty world if you'll just let me follow you down.
2. Let me come home with you. I'll do anything in this etc etc etc
3. I'll buy you a diamond ring and a wedding gown if you'll....

As Boz Scaggs might reply: "What do you want the girl to do?"

Note, there are various live versions of this song kicking around, including one on the Bootleg Series, Vol. 4, the infamous Manchester 1966 concert in which he changes the lyrics significantly. You can see them here (He would buy her a serpent skirt and a velvet shirt, for instance).

Here's the hardcore version from The Last Waltz.

Death Is Not the End

Things might suck now, but
Don't worry. They'll suck much more
After you are dead.

Death Don't Have No Mercy

Death is one cold cat.
He takes mothers and won't spare
Sisters and brothers.

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt

Woody writes a song
For Eleanor Roosevelt,
Praising her husband.

Dear Landlord

Bob's eloquent plea
To his landlord to please keep
His monthly rent down.

Dead Man, Dead Man

Your fashion and fear
Only make me mock you, man.
You're a Philistine!

Days of '49

Bawdy goldminer
Remembers his grubby pals
And gets liquored up.