Album: Bringing It All Back Home.
Year: 1965.
This utterly sublime break-up song ends Bringing it All Back Home with almost the complete opposite mood from how Dylan opened it. Side one was nearly all uptempo rock songs, many of them absurdly fun, but on side two – with "Mr Tambourine Man,“ (not sleepy, but weary) as the transition – the mood darkens and darkens until it’s finally capped by the final kiss-off of "It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”
You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun
Crying like a fire in the sun
“Crying like a fire in the sun.” Such an amazingly mean line. Cry all you want, but nobody is even going to notice.
Oh, and just to make sure you’re still paying attention, he sings the first two lines of every verse loudly, the next two quietly, and then alternating loud and quiet on the last two. It’s an amazing singing performance, and a fantastic way to end his first fully great album.
Also: I love the melody of this song so much that Beck’s sample of the organ on Them’s cover version is what fuels my favorite Beck song, “Jack-ass”
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” on Spotify
My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist: