One Too Many Mornings (The Times They Are A-Changin’, 1964)Ĥ4. While structurally and performatively of a piece with his finest protest poems, lyrically at least, he’s aching to move on – to a fine tune the Byrds found easy to embellish.Ĥ5. Is Dylan shying away from the wisdom imputed by his early “finger-pointing” songs? The repeated line “ I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now” would certainly suggest as much. My Back Pages (Another Side Of Bob Dylan, 1964) Was Dylan atoning for the way 1960s pop was then veering off the rails? Maybe he’s the martyr of the piece.Ĥ6.
I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine (John Wesley Harding, 1967)Ī song of repentance – although for what is unclear as history records the real Saint Augustine wasn’t martyred as the lyric suggests – combines with the frugal nature of the setting (acoustic guitar, harmonica, drums) to dazzle in a most unconventional manner. A wonderfully nuanced song, ably addressed by Mark Knopfler’s sinuous guitar playing.Ĥ7. The writer presents himself as simultaneously a lover and a disciple in this hymn to devotion – and the dangers therein – for which he only asks the strength to prevail. I Believe In You (Slow Train Coming, 1979) Either way, it’s a potent poem that warns pointedly against self-regard.Ĥ8. The “immigrant” is the victim of the unexamined life, a chaser of status and “stuff”, and the “pity” of which Dylan sings seems in rather short supply, indeed wholly ironic – setting him up as either a vengeful God or the subject of His ire.
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