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.

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.

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 . . .

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

If Not for You

If you weren't around,
It would be cold and rainy.
Life would be pointless.

It's impossible to hate "If Not for You." Don't try. It's everything that a sappy love song should be. It's the first song on 1970's "New Morning" album, and if I remember correctly, originally written for George Harrison to use. Harrison did use it, somewhere in the middle of "All Things Must Pass," his first album to come out after the Beatles broke up. I love both versions, and neither sounds like the other. There's also a recording of the two trying out the song in the studio, and you can find it on the first release in the Bootleg Series. 

If not for you:
- No find door
- No see floor
- Yes sad blue
- Awake all night
- Morning light no new
- Sky fall through
- Rain gather too
- Lost but for you
- No winter spring
- No robin sing
- No have clue
- No ring true

Here are several versions, starting with the one from the album. This is my favorite, but the rest are good too.

If Dogs Run Free

If dogs can do it,
We can too. Running free is
Good for harmony.

"If Dogs Run Free" is a singular song in the Bob Dylan catalogue. The last song on side one of 1970's "New Morning," it is the only jazz arrangement that he's ever done, at least that I can think of. The loose tone is accentuated by some truly inspired (and strange) scat vocalizing from Maeretha Stewart. I can't say what the song is about, but it gives any aspiring interpreter plenty of material to comb through.

If dogs run free, then:
- Why not we?
- Why not me?

Received wisdom:
- "The best is always yet to come / That's what they explain to me / Just do your thing, you'll be king."
- "To each his own."
- "What must be must be."
- True love can make grass stand up.
- True love needs no company. "It can cure the soul."

Miscellany:
- Ears hear symphony scored for two mules, trains and rain
- Mind weaves symphony/tapestry
- Winds rush his tales to you.
- The swamp of time and the cosmic sea... if dogs run free.

Here's the studio version:

Here is an unexpected live version of the song from Newcastle, England, in 2002:

Father of Night

Bob lists the blessings
Of God in nature, hitting
Most of the big ones.

"Father of Night" closes the 1970 album "New Morning." It's a short song, with Dylan accompanying himself on piano. The repetitive and short melody is transfixing, but what gives the song its real power are the backup singers, moaning like a chorus of ghosts as he sings. It's a chilling song, but lodged in the comfort of faith. I don't know any other song like it, and as a child, I found it mysterious and deep. I think that is ever more so, the older I get. The song, says the ever-handy Wikipedia, is "Dylan's interpretation of the Jewish prayer Amidah." The Amidah, Wikipedia goes on to say, is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy, and contains 19 blessings.

They are, as the entry for the Amidah puts it (with edits by me):
1. Avot ("Ancestors"): praise of the God of the patriarchs.
2. Gevurot ("powers"): God is powerful, heals the sick and raises the dead. AKA Tehiyyat ha-Metim. This includes the power to make it rain, spoken in winter. This changes to dew in the summer for some Jews.
3.Kedushat ha-Shem ("the sanctification of the Name"): praise of God's holiness.
4. Binah ("understanding"): God grant me wisdom and understanding.
5. Teshuvah ("return", "repentance"): Help the Jews return to a life of repentance.
6. Selichah: God forgives.
7. Geulah ("redemption"): God is the rescuer of the Israelites.
8. Refuah ("healing"): Prayer to heal the sick.
9. Birkat HaShanim ("blessing for years [of good]"): Bless the crops. Another prayer for rain.
10. Galuyot ("diasporas"): Bring back the Jewish exiles to Israel.
11. Birkat HaDin ("Justice"): Restore the righteous judges.
12. Birkat HaMinim ("the sectarians, heretics"): Destroy heretics and the slanderers of and informers on Jews.
13. Tzadikim ("righteous"):; Have mercy on those who trust in God. Support the righteous.
14. Bo'ne Yerushalayim ("Builder of Jerusalem"): Rebuild Jerusalem, restore the Kingdom of David.
15. Birkat David ("Blessing of David"): Put David's closest descendant on the throne. He (presumably) becomes the Messiah.
16. Tefillah ("prayer"): God, accept prayers and have mercy and compassion.
17. Avodah ("service"): Restore the Temple services and sacrificial services.
18. Hoda'ah ("thanksgiving"): Thank God for our lives, for our souls, and for daily miracles.
19. Sim Shalom ("Grant Peace"): peace, goodness, blessings, kindness and compassion.

Dylan invokes God 26 times, one for each letter of the alphabet.

1. Night
2. Day
3. Takes away darkness
4. Teaches the bird to fly
5. Builds rainbows
6. Loneliness
7. Pain
8. Love
9. Rain
10. Black
11. White
12. Builds mountains
13. Shapes clouds
14. Time
15. Dreams
16. Rivers and streams
17. Grain
18. Wheat
19. Cold
20. Heat
21. Air
22. Trees
23. Lives in our hearts and memories
24. Minutes
25. Days
26. Father whom we praise

Day of the Locusts

Bob takes a road trip

After getting a degree

That he didn't want.

Dylan's songs don't usually add sound effects to underscore a literal point, but "Day of the Locusts" is an exception. This song from the 1970 album "New Morning" opens with what Dylan calls the "high whining trill" of locusts before he starts singing a song about showing up at a college to pick up an honorary degree that he doesn't want or believe in.

This is one of the first songs by Bob Dylan that I ever heard, and it's stuck with me for years as a favorite. I don't like the idea that he is showing up to be honored by people whom he seems to hold in contempt, but many of us can identify with having to endure a procedure when all we really want is to hop in the car and leave responsibilities and other people behind. And that's just what Bob and his girl do in this song.

1. Benches stained with tears and perspiration. Birds in the trees. No talking, just picking up the degree. Locusts are singing for Bob.
2. Judges in a dark room talking, it smells like a tomb. Dylan's about to walk out when he sees light. I suppose that this means there is something good to say about these fusty academics after all.
3. Trucks unloading outside in the heat. It's 90 degrees. A man's head explodes (I'm not sure what that means), and Bob hopes the pieces don't fall on him.
4. Bob takes off the robe, gets the diploma and drives to the Black Hills of South Dakota with his sweetheart. Very lucky.

You will notice in the photograph below Dylan on the stage of Princeton University in 1970, accepting the degree. He looks much happier there than he sounds in the song, where he's essentially complaining about being stuck. For ornithologists in the audience, this cicada brood was apparently known as Brood X.

The Day of the Locusts

Bob gets a degree,
It's a hot day. He wants to
Hit the road quickly.

Father of Night

If you pray to God
For good, then accept the bad.
You must pay to pray.

Cupid

Cupid, shoot Bob now.
You did it for Sam Cooke, so
Shoot Bob and his girl.