Bob Dylan’s greatest song of 1986: To fall in love with you. With lyrics.

So why do I love this so much, while Bob doesn’t care for it enough to finish composing the piece and then putting it on an album?   Of course I can’t read his mind, and of course I would mostly bow to his decision-making, although I am arrogant enough occasionally to think that he can get his musical decision-making wrong.  And here I am at one of those points where I want to scream out, “Bob – please finish this and record it properly.”   But somehow my voice from the English east midlands doesn’t seem to carry to wherever Bob is today.

In the Bob one recorded version we have, however, I think it is the accompaniment that is going wrong – and certainly the percussion, to my ear, is totally wrong (although maybe that is just me.   I am absolutely not a percussionist.)   And all this makes me think, “What a shame that Bob doesn’t read my blog, and then go back and finish the song off, and record it, but of course, he’s get better things to do…”

In short, this is one of those songs that I just wish that somehow Bob had persevered with, not least because there was so much more that could be derived from it.   Maybe Bob just needed a new producer to walk in at that moment.   And if the version I have chosen below is not available for you, I most certainly would urge you to search on Google and work through the various versions you find.  Something should work.

It is stated in some places that the song is incomplete – if that is so, then we can only wonder what on earth was going through Bob’s head during the creation and rehearsal of such a wonderful piece.

But also try searching for  “To fall in love with you” by Janileigh Cohen if the copy I have presented below is not available – that is a most stunning version.

As far as I know, Bob recorded the song during the Hearts of Fire sessions 27-28 August 1986.  The lyrics are not clear, but I have worked primarily from them, and the Cohen version noted above.

And it was the issue of the lyrics that made me ignore this song down for a long time, thinking that wasn’t worth the effort transcribing it, and that it’s a shame that such a beautiful tune has such undecipherable lyrics, presumably improvised on the spot.

But ultimately I couldn’t resist it, of course. Most of the lines below are just reasonably close approximations to sounds that could have made sense in a better world. But the music is a delight. And in fact very interesting, harmonically: the tune is in B major, but for the first eight lines the tune isn’t anywhere near a B chord.

It would have made a beautiful song had Bob bothered to finish it–certainly the best song from that soundtrack. It is also quite similar to Almost done, another discarded gem-to-be.

Eyolf Østrem who has written out the music for all Dylan’s songs in guitar tab form, enters into what is, I feel, something of a long discussion (for him) in relation to this song noting it was “Recorded during the Hearts of Fire sessions 27-28 aug 1986″.  His transcription of the lyrics is slightly different from mine – and he’s the expert.  You can take your choice.

And it does raise the point, not for the first time, that even though none of us could ever write such wonderful pieces of music as Bob has done, we are able to reach a view that sometimes Bob doesn’t have the belief, or maybe desire, or maybe just the energy to complete a wonderful piece of music.  Maybe he just had another song rushing into his mind, forcing this one out…

The wonderful bonus we get from the Janileigh Cohen cover (below) is that the lyrics are provided, and these are not just the lyrics of some guy like me listening to the song, but of a performer who has to make sense of the song.

  
My deal goes down, my day is real
like a dying eye upon the stage
and me just roll from me from you
what paraise what can I do
there's dynamite and the day is dark
I can't believe far in the touch
what I could find for time is silent
I fell in love, to fall in love
to fall in love with you.

The day is dark, our time is right
day in the night, deep in the night
I cleaned every bag I had in my supply
I see it in your lips I knew it in your eyes
and need just road for me from you
what paradise what can I do?
But I feel your heart and I feel no shame
I cannot eat your heart or call your name
What good's a name, what can I do
To fall in love, to fall in love
To fall in love with you.

Ande its just talk upon the stars
Like a distant heart, it may not die
And maybe it should be what I could find
I know it in my day in my very mind

But the aching love like the aching fire
I hear your name where the angels lie
What do I know what will come true
To fall in love, to fall in love, to fall in love with you

The above is my transcription – which is to say what I think Ms Cohen is singing, rather than the lyrics that appear on the screen as the song plays.

But let us move on from the lyrics, for as I noted before the music is an absolute delight as well as being very interesting harmonically: the tune is in B major, but for the first eight lines the tune isn’t anywhere near a B chord.

I said in an earlier review, “It would have made a beautiful song had he bothered to finish it” – but the fact is that is IS a beautiful song, and the beauty of the song is revealed in this performance.   I am not suggesting that my transcription of these lyrics adds anything to the beauty, but maybe they will encourage one or two performers to include the song in their repertoire.

Certainly I have played it to a few friends and got the comment back “that’s beautiful” – and I am sure they were not commenting on my singing or performance on the piano.