Stay With Me

If I lose my way,
If I wander and do wrong,
I hope you stay close.

By Jerome Moross and Carolyn Leigh.

Should my heart not be humble
Should my eyes fail to see
Should my feet sometimes stumble
On the way, stay with me

Like the lamb that in springtime
Wanders far from the fold
Comes the darkness and the frost
I get lost
I grow cold

I grow cold, I grow weary
And I know I have sinned
And I go seeking shelter
And I cry in the wind
Though I grope and I blunder
And I'm weak and I'm wrong

Though the road buckles under
Where I walk, walk along
Till I find to my wonder
Every path leads to Thee
All that I can do is pray
Stay with me
Stay with me

Some Enchanted Evening

If you find true love
Laughing in a crowded room,
Dont leave her; seize her.

By Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers. From "South Pacific."

Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger
You may see a stranger across a crowded room
And somehow you know, you know even then
That somewhere, you'll see her again and again

Some enchanted evening, someone may be laughing
You may hear her laughing across a crowded room
And night after night, as strange as it seems
The sound of her laughter will sing in your dreams

Who can explain it, who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try
Some enchanted evening, when you find your true love
When you feel her call you across a crowded room

Then fly to her side and make her your own
Or all through your life you may dream all alone
Once you have found her, never let her go
Once you have found her, never let her go

The Night We Called It a Day

It's the end of us:
The moon and stars went away,
The sun didn't rise.

By Matt Dennis and Tom Adair.

There was a moon out in space
But a cloud drifted over it's face
You kissed me and went on your way
The night we called it a day

I heard the song of the spheres
Like a minor lament in my ears
I hadn't the heart left to pray
The night we called it a day

Soft through the dark
The hoot of an owl in the sky
Sad though his song
No bluer was he than I

The moon went down stars were gone
But the sun didn't rise with the dawn
There wasn't a thing left to say
The night we called it a day
There wasn't a thing left to say
The night we called it a day

I'm a Fool to Want You

It's wrong to want you
Every time I leave, I wish
I had you again

By Frank Sinatra, Jack Wolf and Joel Herron.

I'm a fool to want you
I'm a fool to want you
To want a love that can't be true
A love that's there for others too

I'm a fool to hold you
Such a fool to hold you
To seek a kiss not mine alone
To share a kiss that Devil has known

Time and time again I said I'd leave you
Time and time again I went away
But then would come the time when I would need you
And once again these words I had to say

Take me back, I love you
I need you
I know it's wrong, it must be wrong
But right or wrong I can't get along

Without you

Autumn Leaves

Had you in summer,
Missed your sunburned hands in fall,
Winter's worst of all

By Joseph Kosma and the French poet Jacques Prévert. English lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

The falling leaves
Drift by my window
The falling leaves
Of red and gold

I see your lips
The summer kisses
The sunburned hands
I used to hold

Since you went away
The days grow long
And soon I'll hear
Old winter's song

But I miss you most of all
My darling
When autumn leaves
Start to fall

French lyrics -- quite different:

Oh ! je voudrais tant que tu te souviennes

Des jours heureux où nous étions amis.

En ce temps-là la vie était plus belle,

Et le soleil plus brûlant qu'aujourd'hui.

Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle.

Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié...

Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle,

Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi

Et le vent du nord les emporte

Dans la nuit froide de l'oubli.

Tu vois, je n'ai pas oublié

La chanson que tu me chantais.

C'est une chanson qui nous ressemble.

Toi, tu m'aimais et je t'aimais

Et nous vivions tous deux ensemble,

Toi qui m'aimais, moi qui t'aimais.

Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s'aiment,

Tout doucement, sans faire de bruit

Et la mer efface sur le sable

Les pas des amants désunis.

Les feuilles mortes se ramassent à la pelle,

Les souvenirs et les regrets aussi

Mais mon amour silencieux et fidèle

Sourit toujours et remercie la vie.

Je t'aimais tant, tu étais si jolie.

Comment veux-tu que je t'oublie ?

En ce temps-là, la vie était plus belle

Et le soleil plus brûlant qu'aujourd'hui.

Tu étais ma plus douce amie

Mais je n'ai que faire des regrets

Et la chanson que tu chantais,

Stealin'

Some people don't change.
They say they will, but they go
Back to what they were.

This song was recorded in 1963, but it didn't get any wide release. In short: She doesn’t believe that he loves her. She doesn’t believe that he’s sinking (and needs her). He’s gradually turning back into the same kind of person that he used to be, which presumably is not such a good kind of person. Evidence: the woman whose love he needs is married, so you can be sure that she treats him properly. It reminds me of that old movie title, “I could never sleep with a man who had so little respect for my husband.”

You Win Again

Everytime you cheat,
I can't bring myself to go.
So you keep winning.

This cover of the Hank Williams song "You Win Again" appears on the 11th volume of the Bootleg series, which compiles the Basement Tapes recordings of Bob Dylan and the Band from 1967.

The news is out, all over town
That you've been seen, a-runnin' 'round
I know that I should leave, but then
I just can't go, you win again

This heart of mine, could never see
What everybody knew but me
Just trusting you was my great sin
What can I do, you win again

I'm sorry for your victim now
'Cause soon his head, like mine will bow
He'll give his heart, but all in vain
And someday say, you win again

You have no heart, you have no shame
You take true love, and give the blame
I guess that I, should not complain
I love you still, you win again

You Wanna Ramble

Leave me. It's your life.
Oh, if you need someone killed,
I know what it costs.

"You Wanna Ramble," from the 1986 album "Knocked Out Loaded," was a great choice for the first track because it promised 40-odd minutes of solid rock n' roll. Too bad the next song was "They Killed Him." If I had to guess, I'd say it's about a man who realizes that his lover is leaving him, and rather than dealing with it, threatens to keep her around by force, and absolves himself of responsibility for whatever might happen next.

Well I told my baby

I said "Baby, I know

where you been

Well, I know who you are

And what league you played in"

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn.

Well, the night is so empty

So quit and still

For only fifteen

hundred dollars

You can have anybody killed

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn.

Well, I told my baby

Further down the line

I said, "What happens tomorrow

Is on your head, not mine"

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn

You wanna ramble

To the break of dawn.

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

You're Gonna Quit Me, Baby

Babe, if you leave me,
I'll kill you and go to jail.
You think I'm kidding?

"You're Gonna Quit Me, Baby" is a short, violent song of what most people would consider spousal abuse. It's by Blind Arthur Blake. Dylan's version appears on the 1992 covers album "Good As I Been to You."

You're gonna quit me, baby,
Good as I been to you, Lawd, Lawd.
Good as I been to you, Lawd, Lawd.
Good as I been to you.

Give you my money, honey,
Buy you shoes and clothes, Lawd, Lawd.

You're gonna quit me, baby,
Put me outta doors, Lawd, Lawd.

Six months on the chain gang,
Believe me, it ain't no fun, Lawd, Lawd.

Day you quit me, baby,
That's the day you die, Lawd, Lawd.

Jailhouse ain't no plaything,
Believe me, ain't no lie, Lawd, Lawd.

Day you quit me, baby,
That's the day you die, Lawd, Lawd.

You're a Big Girl Now

He's sighing, crying,
And learning to love too late --
You're already gone

"You're a Big Girl Now" has got to be the saddest breakup song that I've ever heard. The third song on "Blood on the Tracks" from 1975, it is often nearly too much to take, at least for me. It's a great song, but I can understand where Dylan was coming from when he said in his cranky way to an interviewer that he doesn't understand how people can consider the projection of such pain "entertainment."

Some excerpts:
Bird on the horizon, sittin’ on a fence
He’s singin’ his song for me at his own expense
And I’m just like that bird, oh, oh
Singin’ just for you
I hope that you can hear
Hear me singin’ through these tears

Time is a jet plane, it moves too fast
Oh, but what a shame if all we’ve shared can’t last
I can change, I swear, oh, oh
See what you can do
I can make it through
You can make it too

A change in the weather is known to be extreme
But what’s the sense of changing horses in midstream?
I’m going out of my mind, oh, oh
With a pain that stops and starts
Like a corkscrew to my heart
Ever since we’ve been apart

Young But Daily Growing

Girl marries young boy
Half her age. They have some kids.
He's dead at 18.

"Young But Daily Growing," also known as "The Trees They Do Grow High," "Daily Growing" and "Bonny Boy is Young (But Growing)", dates back at least to the 18th century, according to the ever reliable Wikipedia. The entry for this song says it was found in the Scottish manuscript collection of the 1770s of David Herd. It also formed the basis of the Robert Burns poemm, "Lady Mary Ann" from 1792. The song is about a boy who is married to a girl who is a bit older than he is. He's usually 11 or 12 or some absurdly young age to get married. It's a moving, haunting song, particularly in the sucker punch near the end:

At the age of sixteen, he was a married man
And at the age of seventeen he was a father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen the grass grew over him,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.
Growing, growing,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.


Version One
The trees they grow high,
the leaves they do grow green
Many is the time my true love I've seen
Many an hour I have watched him all alone
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Father, dear father,
you've done me great wrong
You have married me to a boy who is too young
I'm twice twelve and he is but fourteen
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Daughter, dear daughter,
I've done you no wrong
I have married you to a great lord's son
He'll be a man for you when I am dead and gone
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Father, dear father, if you see fit
We'll send him to college for another year yet
I'll tie blue ribbons all around his head
To let the maidens know that he's married.

One day I was looking o'er my father's castle wall
I spied all the boys a-playing at the ball
My own true love was the flower of them all
He's young, but he's daily growing.

And so early in the morning
at the dawning of the day
They went out into the hayfield
to have some sport and play;
And what they did there,
she never would declare
But she never more complained of his growing.

At the age of fourteen, he was a married man
At the age of fifteen, the father of a son
At the age of sixteen, his grave it was green
Have gone, to be wasted in battle.
And death had put an end to his growing.

I'll buy my love some flannel
and I will make a shroud
With every stitch I put in it,
the tears they will pour down
With every stitch I put in it,
how the tears will flow
Cruel fate has put an end to his growing.

Version Two
The trees they grow so high and the leaves they do grow green,
And many a cold winter's night my love and I have seen.
Of a cold winter's night, my love, you and I alone have been,
Whilst my bonny boy is young, he's a-growing.
Growing, growing,
Whilst my bonny boy is young, he's a-growing.

O father, dearest father, you've done to me great wrong,
You've tied me to a boy when you know he is too young.
O daughter, dearest daughter, if you wait a little while,
A lady you shall be while he's growing.
Growing, growing,
A lady you shall be while he's growing.

I'll send your love to college all for a year or two
And then in the meantime he will do for you;
I'll buy him white ribbons, tie them round his bonny waist
To let the ladies know that he's married.
Married, married,
To let the ladies know that he's married.

I went up to the college and I looked over the wall,
Saw four and twenty gentlemen playing at bat and ball.
I called to my true love, but they would not let him come,
All because he was a young boy and growing.
Growing, growing,
All because he was a young boy and growing.

At the age of sixteen, he was a married man
And at the age of seventeen he was a father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen the grass grew over him,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.
Growing, growing,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.

And now my love is dead and in his grave doth lie,
The green grass grows o'er him so very, very high.
I'll sit and I'll mourn his fate until the day I die,
And I'll watch o'er his child while he's growing.
Growing, growing,
And I'll watch o'er his child while he's growing.

Dylan's version, recorded during the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions with the Band, is not substantially different.

You Changed My Life

I ate with the pigs
Until God gently told me:
Pay now, skip dessert.

If you ever wanted to hear God compared to Errol Flynn, "You Changed My Life" is the song for you. This song from 1981 was part of the sessions for the album "Shot of Love," but was held over for a decade until it appeared on the first volume of the Bootleg Series. It's one of his more ponderous Christian songs, and it probably was a wise decision to leave it off the album, though I would have taken it over "Lenny Bruce" any day. Regardless of its middling nature, it has some good zingers in it.

- He was listening to the voices of death walking proudly and talking of conspiracy and trying to frighten him. 
- He was working for a system that he couldn't trust and didn't understand, suffering ridicule and feeling disgust.
- At that point: "But you changed my life, came along in a time of strife. In hunger and need, you made my heart bleed, you changed my life."
- "Talk about salvation, people suddenly get tired. They got a million things to do, they're all so inspired. You do the work of the devil, you got a million friends. They'll be there when you got something, they'll take it all in the end."
- "Well, the nature of man is to beg and to steal. I do it myself, it's not so unreal. The call of the wild is forever at my door. Wants me to fly like an eagle while being chained to the floor."
- My favorite verse: "I was eating with the pigs off a fancy tray. I was told i was looking good and to have a nice day. It all seemed so proper, it all seemed so elite. Eating that absolute garbage while being so discreet."
- You, meanwhile, were treated as an outcast.
- An enemy possessed my body and made decisions for me. I was held back. I couldn't stand. I felt like a stranger in a strange land. (Robert Heinlein, tip of the hat)
- Attributes of the Lord and Savior: companion, friend, heart fixer, mind regulator, true blue, creator, comforter, cause for joy.

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.

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Stay right where you are.
Your bride's coming. Genghis Khan
Has other problems.

I don't know how to describe this song, which Dylan and the Band recorded during the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions. Here are the lyrics, which are a masterpiece of sweet and weird at the same time. The lyrics will have to do.

Clouds so swift
Rain won’t lift
Gate won’t close
Railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

I don’t care
How many letters they sent
Morning came and morning went
Pick up your money
And pack up your tent
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

Buy me a flute
And a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes
Strap yourself
To the tree with roots
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

Genghis Khan
He could not keep
All his kings
Supplied with sleep
We’ll climb that hill no matter how steep
When we get up to it
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

Ye Shall Be Changed

You work too hard and
You need a new beginning.
Go get born again.

This romp through judgment day promises that you shall be changed if you're able to hang on until then. The song was recorded in 1979, but didn't appear commercially until 1991 when it was included on the first volume of the Bootleg Series.

You:
Harbor resentment
Don't feel many thrills
Want contentment, but get emptiness instead
Are through with hatred
Have broken bones, ain't nothing sacred
Work with blood, sweat and muscle, and do your hustle
No more loved ones, including maybe your wife and kids
Drink bitter water, eat the bread of sorrow
Don't live for today, but the false promise of tomorrow.
Walk a rough path.

Consider:
The past doesn't control you, but you don't know the future
A new beginning, without emigrating to Russia or Iran
Surrendering to God 

How does it work? Tell me more:
"Ye shall be changed, ye shall be changed
In a twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet blows
The dead will arise and burst out of your clothes
And ye shall be changed"

Ye Fair and Tender Ladies

Bob warns the ladies
That men will love them and
Leave them afterward.

Watch out, ladies, those men can be dawgs. That is the message in this warning song - that men will love you and leave you, and that this woman in particular was the victim of a "false true-lover." You can find a version of this from the Basement Tapes sessions on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series. There's also a commercially released version performed in 1964 with Eric von Schmidt that appears on the rare third volume of the copyright extension collection, "The 50th Anniversary Collection 1964."

Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Be careful how you court young men
They're like a star on a summer's morning
They'll first appear and then they're gone
They'll tell you some loving story
They'll declare to you their love is true
Then they will go and court some other
And that's the love they have for you

Do you remember our days of courting
When your head lay upon my breast
You could make me believe with falling of your arm
That the sun rose in the west
I wish I was a little sparrow
And I had wings with which to fly
Right over to see my false true-lover
And when he's talking I'd be nigh

But I'm not a little sparrow
I have no wings with which to fly
So I sit here in grief and sorrow
To weep and pass my troubles by
If I had known before I courted
That love was such a killing thing
I'd a-locked my heart in a box of golden
And fastened it up with a silver pin

Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread

Catch the bus with Bob.
Pack the bread and the meat and
Go fishing for trout.

You can't ignore a song with a name like "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread." What Bob Dylan was thinking about when he and the Band came up with this in 1967 is anybody's guess, but many of the Basement Tapes songs are like that. Apparently a bottle of bread is a thing, by the way. This is also a thoroughly charming song. It was one of the ones selected for release on the double-album "The Basement Tapes" in 1975, and also appears on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

Story:
Comic book and I get on a bus. The chauffer stays home with a nose full of pus. YEA! Heavy and a bottle of bread!
This is a brown one-track town. Let's pack up the meet, sweet. We're off to Wichita to catch a trout.
See that drummer behind the bottle? Pull him out. Gonna shake my pipe, then slap the drummer with a smelly pie. Then let's go to California.

Worried Blues

Don't leave me, baby.
I need to go where it's warm.
I've never been there.

"Worried Blues," which showed up on the first Bootleg Series album in 1991, was recorded in 1962 for "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" album, but ultimately didn't make it. It's an old folk song that riffs off the line in "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" about going somewhere warm, as in, "I'm going where the climate suits my clothes." That's the line that Fred Neill used and Harry Nilsson sang in "Everybody's Talkin'," the theme song to "Midnight Cowboy." 

I got those worried blues
And I got those worried  blues
I got those worried blues
I got those worried blues, Lord
I'm a-going where I never been before.
I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow
I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow
I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow
I'm going where the chilly winds don't blow
I'm going where the climate suits my clothes.

Honey baby don't leave me now
Honey baby don't leave me now
Oh honey baby don't leave me now
Honey baby don't leave me now
I got trouble in my mind.

Listen to that cold whistle blow, Lord
Listen to that cold whistle blow
Listen to that cold whistle blow
Listen to that cold whistle blow
I'm a-going where I never been before.

So I got those worried blues, Lord
I got those worried blues
I got those worried blues
I got those worried blues
I'm going where I never been before.

World Gone Wrong

You left and I said
I'd kill you. It's a bad world.
It's clearly gone wrong.

"World Gone Wrong," by the Mississippi Sheiks, is the source of the name that Bob Dylan used for his 1993 album of blues covers, as well as its first song. The song turns a breakup into a biblical event, not in a grandiose way, but in a style that is very, very sparing.

1. "Strange things have happened, like never before. My baby told me I would have to go. I can't be good no more, once like I did before. I can't be good, baby, Honey, because the world's gone wrong."
2. Feel bad now. No home.
3. I told you if I didn't leave you, I would have to kill you.
4. I tried to be loving, but you weren't loyal.
5. If this happens to you, ask God to get her off your mind.
6. When you are so irritated with her that you can no longer behave, show her the door.
7. Actually, scratch that. Show YOURSELF the front door.