Song to Bonny: another Dylan lyric that needs music adding

By Aaron Galbraith

Here is another Dylan lyric with no music, plus an invite to you to create the song and have it published here.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say it was probably set to the same music as Song To Woody…but who knows so if you are of a musical frame of mind you can do what they want with it!

It’s called Song To Bonny and was written in December 1960. I’ve transcribed the lyrics from the source material here to make it easier to read…

Song To Bonny

My Mother raised me tenderly
I was her pride and joy
She never meant for me to be
No wanderin’ homeless boy

I’m writing a song to a girl I once knew
It wasn’t so long but it seems so long ago
This ain’t no love song or none of its kind
It’s a song of remembrance of a girl in my mind

Hey hey Bonny I’m singing to you now
This song I’m singing is the best I know how
The song birds are singing their voices do ring
And I’ll think of you as long as they sing

Hey Bonny Beecher I think that you know
What I am doing and where I must go
Can’t give you no ring of diamond or gold
But I’ll think about you wherever I go

Springtime’s a comin’ and the grass’ll turn green
The flowers’ll bloom and the leaves on the trees
Will all turn in colors and all seem to shade
The Wild Mississippi where you sit and wait

Hey hey Bonny I wrote you a song
Cause I don’t know if I’ll see you again
I want you to know whatever I do
I’ll always remember that I once was with you

Remember me baby I’s good to you one time
I’m a wandering boy and you’re in my wandering mind
Or the last verse could be the other way round..I’m not sure!
I’m a wandering boy and you’re in my wandering mind
Remember me baby I’s good to you one time
I really love the verse that begins “Springtime’s…”

The lyrics date from about the same time as “Talkin’ Hugh Brown and “Bonnie Why’d you Cut my Hair?” and Heylin says it “appears to be Dylan’s first serious attempt to put a real girl into one of his own songs.   

Heylin also ventures the notion that the song may have been sung to the tune of “1913 Massacre” and tells us that Bonny later married Hugh Romney.

So if you feel in song writing mood and want to put your music to this set of lyrics please do so and send it in to Tony@schools.co.uk and we will publish it here.

Untold Dylan: who we are what we do

Untold Dylan is written by people who want to write for Untold Dylan.  It is simply a forum for those interested in the work of the most famous, influential and recognised popular musician and poet of our era, to read about, listen to and express their thoughts on, his lyrics and music.

We welcome articles, contributions and ideas from all our readers.  Sadly no one gets paid, but if you are published here, your work will be read by a fairly large number of people across the world, ranging from fans to academics who teach English literature.  If you have an idea, or a finished piece send it as a Word file to Tony@schools.co.uk with a note saying that it is for publication on Untold Dylan.

We also have a very lively discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook with around 5500 active members. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

You’ll find some notes about our latest posts arranged by themes and subjects on the home page of this site.  You can also see details of our main sections on this site at the top of this page under the picture.  Not every index is complete but I do my best.

But what is complete is our index to all the 604 Dylan compositions and co-compositions that we have found, on the A to Z page.  I’m proud of that; no one else has found that many songs with that much information.  Elsewhere the songs are indexed by theme and by the date of composition. See for example Bob Dylan year by year.

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