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By Tony Attwood
Part of my thesis in this series is that looking at Bob’s songs in the order in which he wrote them (which of course is quite different from the order in which they appeared on LPs) can give us a real insight into the way Bob was thinking about his music – and quite possibly about wider issues that he was considering.
For example, in 1964 and early 1965 Bob appeared to be focused very strongly on individualism, and the concept of moving on, as he composed a very varied set of songs, each of which in one way or another dealt with the individual doing what he wanted to do, irrespective of what his lover, his friends or indeed the rest of society said or did.
And he used this group of songs, all of which flow around the same subject to explore, to a greater or lesser extent, where else he could take the music to accompany his words.
The songs in question, in the order of composition were….
- All I really want to do (102 performances, July 1964 to December 1978)
- I’ll Keep it with Mine (never performed)
- My Back Pages (260 performances, July 1978 to July 2012)
- Gates of Eden (217 performances, October 1964 to March 2001)
- It’s all right ma (772 performances, September 1964 to October 2013
- If you gotta go, go now (9 performances, October 1964 to May 1965)
- Farewell Angelina (never performed)
These are all songs of moving on and self-sufficiency, and they are interesting in that they not only adopt the topic of the individual doing what he wants, they also give opportunities for Bob to explore his compositional technique as indeed I have sought to show in my last two articles in this series…
- No Nobel Prize for Music 13: Gates of Eden
- No Nobel Prize for Music 14: After the Revolution (It’s alright ma)
So it is with interest I looked back to see the songs Bob composed after those two majestic pieces each of which changed both Bob’s lyrical topic and the way he composed the music.
And I find it interesting to note that the next song he composed was “If you gotta go” which is a sort of “take it or leave it” song – as it were taking “All I really want to do” but adding the fact that the other option is to stay all night. In fact we could say that while most other composers of popular music were writing about love and lost love Bob was writing about love having nothing to do with it, and the need to move on when you are ready.
Now leaving aside the coughing interruption in “All I really want to do”, what really strikes me even now, is that sudden introduction of the falsetto, surely a very un-Bob-like musical addition to the lyrical line.
Indeed, lyrically the song turns away from the deeper political thoughts of the Gates of Eden and the concept in “It’s alright ma” that “to understand you know too soon there is no sense in trying.” For now it seems there really is no sense in trying, for “all I really want to do is baby be friends with you”. That’s it – there is nothing more to achieve.
The lyrics thus once more take us by surprise, but then so does the music. For while “Gates of Eden” leaves us unsure what key the song is in, and “It’s Alright ma” gives us a song which by and large is without a melody, here suddenly we are back to a three chord song, with a clear melody and easily understood lyrics. But also with the opposite of the love and lost love message that so dominated popular music then, and indeed now.
For in “All I really want to do” we have the individual standing without a lover, but happy to have friends. And this is not the way of the pop music world where love and lost love are the dominant topics.
But there is more. For this time the convention of rhyme is twisted for instead of the rhyme being with the last word of the line it is with an earlier word, with the last word of the line being repeated as with…
I ain't lookin' to compete with youBeat or cheat or mistreat youSimplify you, classify youDeny, defy or crucify youAll I really want to doIs, baby, be friends with you
Also intriguing is that the song 6/8 time -= again unusual for a song, as is the form of the song. For although Dylan has once more created a song in strophic form (ie verse – verse – verse etc) he has done it with four lines of verse and then two repeated chorus lines. But even with a fairly familiar form, what strikes us most of all is that this is the reverse of the love song. Most popular songs are love songs, and their form is verse and chorus. This is not an anti-love song- that would be a hate song – but a song that actually says I want to be friends, not your lover.
And of course maybe things are different in this regard in the USA, but here in the UK I rather think it is rare for a man in the UK to say I want to be friends not lovers; I think it is normally the woman who says that – (although I am getting on a bit so I could be wrong in this regard.)
So, an unusual Dylan song. A “let’s be friends” song, with the last two lines of each verse always the same, with a spot of falsetto, with two lines repeated and then a two-line chorus. Are there any other Dylan songs in this musical format?
So then we had Gates of Eden and It’s all right ma, which I have written about recently, and then suddenly Bob goes back to the issue of a relationship for “If you gotta go, go now” – an ultimatum to a potential lover. None of the usual pop song approaches to love – this is as brutal and direct as it can get.
“If you gotta go, go now” was probably Dylan’s last composition of the year (Jack o Diamonds was evolved from the sleeve notes to the “Another Side” album and the date of writing those is uncertain so I am leaving that out.
But in case anyone were to think that Bob had got his new directions out of his system with these radical songs, clearly he hadn’t because the first song of 1965 once again emphasised saying goodbye, moving on, and being oneself. The antithesis of the traditional pop song in fact. Bob also clearly hadn’t finished with using old folk songs, and odd elements of his own past compositions as a base for him music, as his next song Farewell Angelina, was to show. And indeed he was certainly ready to start exploring a few new chords as well. It was in fact as if with “Gates of Eden” and “It’s alright ma” he had spun off in new musical directions, and now was trying to reign himself back in toward his folk roots – but maybe not too much.