DYLAN & US: BEYOND AMERICA
by Wouter van Oorschot
Translated by Brent Annable
A list of the previous articles in this series is given at the end
What you really don’t want – part 2 (continued)
In the final track from Another side…, which forms the complementary bookend to ‘All I really want to do’, Dylan did do something, by rejecting this kind of possessive behaviour outright. Though it is hard to argue against him, listen first and judge for yourself:
Go ’way from my window Leave at your own chosen speed I’m not the one you want, babe I’m not the one you need You say you’re lookin’ for someone Never weak but always strong To protect you an’ defend you Whether you are right or wrong Someone to open each and every door But it ain’t me, babe No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe Go lightly from the ledge, babe Go lightly on the ground I’m not the one you want, babe I will only let you down You say you’re lookin’ for someone Who will promise never to part Someone to close his eyes for you Someone to close his heart Someone who will die for you an’ more But it ain’t me, babe No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe Go melt back into the night, babe Everything inside is made of stone There’s nothing in here moving An’ anyway I’m not alone You say you’re lookin’ for someone Who’ll pick you up each time you fall To gather flowers constantly An’ to come each time you call A lover for your life an’ nothing more But it ain’t me, babe No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe
By way of comparison: when Dylan wrote this song, The Beatles were still producing hit after hit, devoid of any substantive claims concerning traditional relationships. All well and good: their service to music was a different one, as was that of the Rolling Stones.
Dylan did make such claims, for although he would always deny being a moralist, he was one nonetheless, as evidenced by numerous songs that lack an I-figure and that therefore resemble sermons, or are replete with single-line admonitions. He would remain so his whole life.
I am certain that there will be experts by now who argue that he cannot possibly have realised at the outset that ‘It ain’t me babe’ was addressing possessiveness in relationships as a universal problem. Granted, at the time the material was perhaps too close to home for him to have been fully aware of it while writing. My counterproposal is that the idea is not so far-fetched after all, since his mind was already open to the idea of anti-possessiveness. The dimension he had already added to the centuries-old love song made it clear that a fine alternative was available: that it is good and proper to end a relationship – as tragic as it may seem – if another’s love comes at the cost of surrendering your soul and becoming a trophy which, of course, is not love at all.
But although he revolutionised the genre, his efforts unfortunately did not result in the prompt eradication of this brand of possessiveness from society. Even disregarding the overly adulated conservative horror Tammy Wynnette, both she, and Dylan’s much-adored contemporary Dusty Springfield (1939-1999), demonstrated as much in 1966, with her universally nauseating world hit ‘You don’t have to say you love me’, whose misogynistic sentiment trumps even ‘Stand by your man’:
When I said I needed you You said you would always stay It wasnt' me who changed but you And now you've gone away Don't you see That now youve gone And Im left here on my own That I have to follow you And beg you to come home? You don't have to say you love me Just be close at hand You don't have to stay forever I will understand Believe me, believe me I cant help but love you But believe me Ill never tie you down Left alone with just a memory Life seems dead and so unreal All thats left is loneliness Theres nothing left to feel You don't have to say you love me Just be close at hand You don't have to stay forever I will understand Believe me, believe me
This was two years after ‘It ain’t me, babe’. It is almost as though Springfield listened to Dylan and thought: I need a countermove, but what? Oh, I know: ‘Believe me, I’ll never tie you down’.
Notice the contrast with The Four Tops, who were actually begging to be tied to the ‘apron strings’. But here, too, appearances are deceiving, for although Springfield refuses to tether her man – who does not even need to say he loves her nor stay forever and is, therefore, no ‘lover for your life and nothing more’ – he does, however, need to ‘be close at hand’, like a pack of tissues ready to wipe up her blubbering.
If this is not enough to make you sick, I don’t know what is. The you-figure in her song therefore had every right to flee, though he applied Dylan’s ‘Go away from my window’ to himself. Or who knows: perhaps he clambered out of her window to make as quick a getaway as possible. None of this reflects personally on Dusty Springfield herself, of course – like Presley, she had a formidable voice. But she could simply have refused to sing it. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine had the nerve to include this originally Italian drivel (‘Io che non vivo senza te’ – I who cannot live without you) as number 491 in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It no longer featured in the 2021 revised edition, so clearly finding a replacement was not that difficult after all.
There are lighter – and therefore more underhanded – variations on this possessive theme, such as ‘You are the sunshine of my life’ (1973) by Stevie Wonder. In the 2021 Greatest 500 list, Rolling Stone awarded it position no. 183. Quoting the full song is not even necessary to convey its suffocating qualities, the opening two lines are enough. Incidentally, I have rejected Sony Music’s risible demand that I pay €20 per 10,000 copies to quote those two lines in this narrative essay – they are freely available online.
But surely their import does not bear thinking about: somebody who will hover about you like an insect or orbit you like a planet for your whole life, on pain of combustion in the fire of your so-called love? This is clearly an example of love being taken, not shared.
Previously in this series…
- Amuse bouche
- Who the book is (not) for – part 1
- Who this book is (not) for – part 2
- Anything but idolatry – part 1
- Anything but idolatry – part 2
- Love, Dancing, Sex, Sadness, TR-63 – part 1
- Love, Dancing, Sex, Sadness, TR-63 – part 2
- Love, Dancing, Sex, Sadness, TR-63 – part 3
- Love, Dancing, Sex, Sadness, TR-63 – part 4
- The unchanging (heterosexual) love song – part 1
- The unchanging (heterosexual) love song – part 2
- What was the public to do? – part 1
- What was the public to do – part 2
- 1962-1964: Teenager chooses sides part 1
- 1962-1964: Teenager chooses sides – part 2
- Teenager finds a hero – part 1
- Teenager finds a hero – part 2
- Teenager finds a hero – part 3
- What you really want
- What you really don’t want – part 1
Wouter’s book is only available in Dutch for now:
Dylan en wij zonder Amerika, Wouter van Oorschot | 9789044655179 | Boeken | bol
We will publish more chapters from it in English on Untold Dylan in the coming weeks