You Angel You

You're quite an angel.
If that's love you're bringing me,
I will buy in bulk.

Here's another lovey-dovey song off the 1974 album "Planet Waves." Let's take a look at "You Angel You":

She:
Has him under her wing
It's the way she walks and talks
Is fine as anything's fine
Is fine as can be
Smiles like a baby child

He:
Could almost sing
Let's her play on his mind
Can't sleep at night for trying
Never felt like this before
Gets up at night and paces
Wants more and more and more and more
Let's her love fall all over him.

Wedding Song

He loves you enough
To forsake everything else.
You should marry him.

"Wedding Song" appeared on the 1974 album "Planet Waves." Though it's not my job to connect real-life events to these songs, it's impossible to not associate the timing of this song with the coming split between Dylan and his wife, and see this more as an entreaty or a plea to keep things together than a literal wedding song. The sober tone of the song adds some weight to my view on this. Leaving all that aside, these are lovely, profound words. There's also a quick reference to how Dylan has never intended to "remake the world at large" or "sound a battle charge." This is of a piece with his desire to live a quiet family life, something he said he was often unable to do given how famous he became as the misnamed spokesman for a generation.

Tough Mama

I love you, mama,
I'm enlightened, not hungry.
Meet me when you're free.

"Tough Mama" is a gritty rock n' roll number that lurches around in the beat, or whatever you call it in music, giving the song a rough-edged sound that feels like he and the Band were right at home together. The song, which appeared on the 1974 album "Planet Waves," has a kind of crunch to it, and seems to be meant for playing loudly. It takes place out on the roads and the plains, not explicitly, but in feeling. It has grit on it.

Names for his lady:
Tough Mama: meat's shaking on her bones.
Dark Beauty: time for her to move over and make some room because he's going to bring her down to where the flowers broom. She came through the ashes and dust, flying all night to him. He wants to meet her at the border at night.
Sweet Goddess: born of bright light and changing wind. She shouldn't be modest about it.
Silver Angel: She's a refugee of the road. He wants to give her a wedding ring. And then one of his weirder rhymes: "Today on the countryside it was a-hotter than crotch. I stood alone upon the ridge and all I did was watch. Sweet goddess, it must be time to carve another notch."

Other characters:
Papa: he's in prison, his working days are through.
Jack the Cowboy: up north, buried in the past
Lone Wolf: "he went out drinking, that was over pretty fast."

And then this throwaway line, which is the greatest in the whole song: "The prison walls are crumblin’, there is no end in sight. I’ve gained some recognition but I lost my appetite."

Something There Is About You

Dylan's youth, Duluth...
Something about you baby,
Takes him back in time.

Bob Dylan takes a journey through the past in the rough-edged, but charming song "Something There Is About you." The song came out in 1974 on the album "Planet Waves," and the music of the Band suits the fractured mirror of memory that is this song.

1. Something about you lights me up. Maybe it's your body. Or your hair. You remind me of something that crossed into the present from another century.
2. I used to think that I had gotten past memories of my youth, but now I find myself thinking of rainy days on the Great Lakes and walking through Duluth and my buddies Danny Lopez and Ruth. Maybe you have a way of bringing back forgotten truths.
3. You make my spirit sing. I don't look anymore when I know I can see you. (At which point Dylan adds a line that I'm sure didn't sit well with Mrs. Dylan: "I could say that I'd be faithful, I could say it in one sweet easy breath. But to you that would be cruelty and to me it surely would be death.")
4. You move with style and grace. There is something about you that I can't quite put my finger on.

On a Night Like This

It's snowing outside.
This is the kind of night made
For loving and bliss.

"On a Night Like This" is the opener on the 1974 album "Planet Waves," which Bob Dylan recorded with the Band. It's a woodsy, wintery, swinging love song capturing the jubilation of being with your sweetheart in an old cabin on a snowy night. Some people say it's weak, but I love it.

Breakdown:
1. Glad you're here, holding me tightly. We're going to heat up some coffee and talk and reminisce.
2. Don't go away, run your fingers on my spine.
3. Why sleep? It's cold and there's lots of snow, so let's throw another log on the fire.
4. Stay close to me and keep me company. Then there's this weird line: "There is plenty of room for all so please don't elbow me." I thought he was singing "So please don't ever leave," but I wouldn't put it past him to use the former line. That said, I don't think they were expecting an orgy.
5. "If I'm not too far off, I think we did this once before." To me, that sounds like a sly reference to performing music with the Band again, which they hadn't done, other than in concerts, for the past few years. Meanwhile, there's more frost on the window every time the sweethearts kiss.

Never Say Goodbye

Snow and frozen lake
At dusk make setting for me
To say I love you.

"Never Say Goodbye" is one of those unadulterated love songs that Bob Dylan wrote so few of that he leaves you wondering what could have happened if he'd spent more time producing them. He might be the master of the abstract and the symbolic, not to mention the bitter and sour, but he knew how to write a simple love note like few others. This one is from the "Planet Waves" album of 1974. The only unusual note is the line about how his dreams "are made of iron and steel." I've always assumed that this is a personal reference to his metalwork sculptures. I've included the lyrics below, specifically to point out the third verse, which does not appear in the recording, but does appear on his website.

Twilight on the frozen lake
North wind about to break
On footprints in the snow
Silence down below

You’re beautiful beyond words
You’re beautiful to me
You can make me cry
Never say goodbye

Time is all I have to give
You can have it if you choose
With me you can live
Never say goodbye

My dreams are made of iron and steel
With a big bouquet
Of roses hanging down
From the heavens to the ground

The crashing waves roll over me
As I stand upon the sand
Wait for you to come
And grab hold of my hand

Oh, baby, baby, baby blue
You’ll change your last name, too
You’ve turned your hair to brown
Love to see it hangin’ down

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.

Forever Young

Anti-aging tricks:
Stay busy, stay swift,
Be strong, good and courageous.

There are few sweeter songs in the Bob Dylan collection than "Forever Young." It is the last song on side one of the 1974 album "Planet Waves"... and also the first song on side two. The first is solemn and sweet. It's the "make you cry" version. The second is a different take that chugs along on railroad track furnished by the Band, which collaborated with Dylan on the whole album. It's the "divorced from sentimentality" version, and feels completely different -- removed, odd, almost like discovering instructions for how to behave among the other items in your emergency ration pack. It's unfair of me to put such a superficial, glossy take on a song that means so well, but that's the poet's choice. 

"Forever Young," the diagram: 

God willing: bless and keep, fulfill wishes, help people and be helped, reach the stars, be right and true and aware of the goodness of the universe, be strong and brave, be busy and fleet footed, be a rock when the earthquake strikes, be happy, be known. And of course, be young at heart, if you should survive to a hundred and five.

Dirge

She sings freedom songs
And he hates the slavery
Of needing her love.

"In this age of fiberglass, I'm searching for a gem." Whoever the gem is, you won't find him or her in this song. This was a quickie, recorded with Bob (I think) on piano and Robbie Robertson on a prickly acoustic guitar for the 1974 album "Planet Waves." Its original title is "Dirge for Martha," but I don't know who Martha is. Self loathing starts and ends the song, with Dylan singing, "I hate myself for loving you and the weakness that it showed," and ends with "I hate myself for loving you, but I should soon get over that." The repeated up-and-down minor-key melody of the piano and Robertson's angry-Spaniard licks on the guitar are brilliant. The song sometimes feels like a collection of great phrases, any one of which would make an acrid cross-stitch homily to hang on any room in the house where you want people to feel alienated:

- You were just a painted face on a trip down Suicide Road.
- I hate the foolish game we played and the need that was expressed, and the mercy that you showed to me...
- Heard your songs of freedom and man forever stripped, acting out his folly while his back is being whipped.
- I've paid the price for solitude, but at least I'm out of debt.
- Can't recall a useful thing you ever did for me, except pat me on the back one time when I was on my knees.

Music for parties.