Winterlude by Bob Dylan. The meanings and implications

By Tony Attwood

  • WINTERLUDE is a Finnish Dylan Forum. ..
  • Michael Gray, an expert on Bob Dylan and contributor to Telegraph Travel, is planning a series of “Winterlude Weekends” at his home in south-west France next February and March.
  • The song was featured in The Comic Strip‘s 1998 special “Four Men In A Car”.
  • Winterlude is a song on New Morning.

Yep, I found all of those on the internet when researching this song.   And I can tell you there is no agreement anywhere on what Winterlude (the song) is, although the one thing it most certainly is (a waltz, one of only a few in the Dylan canon) is only mentioned in two of three places.

One thing is for sure though, the people who comment all over the place saying this is a Dylan made up word (you know who you are) are wrong.  It is the winter festival held in Canada’s National Capital Region.   Come celebrate winter in the Capital during three fun-filled weekends in February. Grab your skates or rent some here and glide along…   you get the idea.

Is Dylan singing his waltz to a woman, or to a celebration in February?  The latter seems odd but I wouldn’t put anything past Dylan.

Winterlude, Winterlude, oh darlin’
Winterlude by the road tonight
Tonight there will be no quarrelin’
Ev’rything is gonna be all right
Oh, I see by the angel beside me
That love has a reason to shine
You’re the one I adore, come over here and give me more
Then Winterlude, this dude thinks you’re fine

In one sense the song sounds a bit like Ramona, almost as if someone had heard Ramano and was messing about with it, trying to make fun of what Dylan is and what he does.  Which when you think about it, is thoroughly odd.  But as we know Dylan could write waltzes, such as Sara, so why do this?  Or at least why, having done it, preserve it on an album?

Unless, unless, Sara is the key.  A nickname for her?  Certainly it is a very comfortable easy going piece of music that hardly stretches us.  A song between a couple who have become very comfortable with each other?

Certainly this is a turn away from the world, a cozy up by the fire.  In fact it is like You Angel You – its a nice little love song, either about a place, or a time of year or about a woman.  It’s a stroll along the roadside with all sorts of odd rhymes thrown in for good measure.

Winterlude, Winterlude, oh darlin’
Winterlude by the road tonight
Tonight there will be no quarrelin’
Ev’rything is gonna be all right
Oh, I see by the angel beside me
That love has a reason to shine
You’re the one I adore, come over here and give me more
Then Winterlude, this dude thinks you’re fine

It is three chords simple pop.  It is a song about the simple life, and why not.  Whoever said everything should be intellectual a deep in meaning?

Whoever said that every line should have a meaning?  I mean, what does

The snow is so cold, but our love can be bold
Winterlude, don’t be rude, please be mine

actually imply?

I really have no idea.

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4 Comments

  1. You got it wrong, Tony. the Winterlude Festival in Canada began in 1979, nine years after the release of Dylan’s New Morning, the album that featured the song Winterlude, in 1970. Bob is a songwriter. The idea of putting the words winter and interlude together popped into his mind, and made him giggle (or maybe someone else made it up, and he liked it). An interlude in winter would be a brief romance with some pretty girl…he wrote a lot of songs like that back then….TONIGHT I’LL BE STAYING HERE WITH YOU being one. The rest is just fun rhyming of pretty winter images in the country to the oldest progression in popular music 1-5-1 (1-7) 4-1-5-1 There is an old-fashioned German country waltz, and old-fashioned lyrics that tickle the mind and heart. I just plyaed it tonight at a pub. It’s amazing how people like it, though most have never heard it. Last week, a couple of couples got up and started dancing to it…just me and a folk guitar.

  2. I was at a Mexican restaurant this evening (in Duluth, coincidentally) and one of the Mexican songs that played over the PA system sounded just like “Winterlude.” It made me think that Dylan used the Mexican song as a model for his own. Listen to “Winterlude” again: It’s not hard to imagine it as a Mexican song, is it? Just think of it with passionate Spanish-language singing and briskly strummed guitars. I suppose it’s possible that the Mexican song I heard was modern and was a copy of Dylan’s song, or that the resemblance was a coincidence. It seems more likely to me, though, that the Mexican song came first and was used as a model for Dylan’s song. Dylan has always been a master at using other people’s ideas and putting his own stamp on them.

  3. This is the artistic build up to the mid seventies. He had a large family. Moved to the country. Got over a bike accident. Lived a normal (well, you ARE Dylan!) life with a white picket fence. The beginning of BOTT and Desire are felt through the songs of this period. We can critique individual phases of an artist – the critic always looks back while the artist is always striving forward into new expression.

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