“Love is only mine” when it’s in an unused key. Bob Dylan messes with the band.

By Tony Attwood

“Love is only mine” appears to have been improvised at the start but gradually gets sorted to some degree, giving the impression that Dylan had done a bit of work on this piece before he settles down to play it – but had forgotten where he was going.  At  the end he asks “What key haven’t we played in yet?”

And that question has a relevance here as this song is in C sharp major and occasionally is seems (although it is unclear as the instruments clash) C sharp minor, and quite honestly of all the thousands of pop and blues songs I’ve played, the only time I ever played in C Sharp major or minor was at an audition with band and they were trying me out with deliberately impossible requests.  I didn’t get the gig.

In fact one can hear members of the band playing odd notes here and there at the start which is exactly what it is like when one band member starts to play and says nothing to the rest of the ensemble who are left to work out what key it is in and what chord sequence is being used.

Except here not only is the key uncertain, so is the chord sequence, with one or two notable exceptions near the end, when a possibly rather interesting few elements of a song emerge.  But then Bob stops.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that given Bob was on the keyboards the chances are the band couldn’t see his hands and so took a while to find out where they were in terms of the key.  And even then since pop and rock musicians don’t often (if ever) play in C# or C#m they were then trying to find what chords naturally followed.

So this really is a rambling affair that stops after meandering around hither and yon, and you can hear from the tone of Bob’s voice that he’s not impressed by the result any more than we might be today.  In fact I suspect he was wondering why he started this in the first place.

As such I don’t think there was ever any serious attempt to pull the disparate elements of this song together as it meanders through chord after chord, Bob’s vocal line trying to keep up with what his fingers pick out on the electric piano.  Indeed I suspect that Bob forgot part way through what key he was actually meant to be in, and so it stops.

To make it harder Bob actually starts a minor third higher and suddenly switches.  Talk about messing with your band!

I know the lyrics below make no sense, but this is the best I can do and if you can evolve a better version please do send it in.  It’s pretty nonsensical, but then so is the music.