Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that the land that I live in
Has God on its side

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
l’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side

I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side

Through many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side

So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war

With God on Our Side

“With God on Our Side” is a song by Bob Dylan, released as the third track on his 1964 album The Times They Are A-Changin’. Dylan first performed the song during his debut at The Town Hall in New York City on April 12, 1963. Dylan is known to sing the song only rarely in concert.

Lyrics

The lyrics address the tendency of nations, tribes, or societies to believe that God will invariably side with them and oppose those with whom they disagree, thus leaving unquestioned the morality of wars fought and atrocities committed by their country. Dylan mentions several historical events, including the slaughter of Native Americans in the nineteenth century, the Spanish–American War, the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, The Holocaust, the Cold War and the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot; the song made no explicit reference to the Vietnam War until live renditions in the 1980s, when an additional verse ran thus:

In the nineteen-sixties came the Vietnam War
Can somebody tell me what we’re fightin’ for?
So many young men died
So many mothers cried
Now I ask the question
Was God on our side?

Music critic Tim Riley once wrote: “‘With God on Our Side’ manages to voice political savvy mixed with generational naivete” as it “draws the line for those born long enough after World War I to find its issues blurry (‘the reasons for fightin’/I never did get’) and who view the forgiveness of the World War II Germans as a farce.”

Controversy over composition

The melody of “With God on Our Side” is essentially identical to the traditional Irish folk song “The Merry Month of May”, which was also used by Dominic Behan in his song “The Patriot Game“. The opening verse is also similar to the second verse of Behan’s song, in which the narrator gives his name and age. Behan criticized Dylan publicly by claiming the melody as an original composition.^[1] Behan took the view that the provenance of Dylan’s entire body of work must be questioned. Behan exercised the same folk tradition as Dylan in writing the song, having himself borrowed the melody.^[2]

Censorship in US Military

Anthony B. Herbert, Vietnam War veteran and psychologist, reported an incident related to Joan Baez’s 1963 recording of “With God on Our Side” in a 1984 interview with David Barsamian:

I was called to Vietnam [in 1968] from the Middle East…While I as in Spain [en route], I bought some Joan Baez records. I went to my room in the Bachelor Officer’s Quarters to listen to [to them]…There was a knock on the door. It was an individual in civilian clothes. He asked me my name and rank. I just looked at him. I was [then] a major [US Army].

He asked, “[Are] those Joan Baez records?”

I said, “Yeah”.

He said, “She’s like anti-military…”

He then identified himself. He was a one-star brigadier general. He outranked me by far.

He said, “You a fan [of Joan Baez]?”

I said, “How many records do you have to have to be a fan?”

He said, “I guess three.”

I said, “I guess I’m a fan. I’ve got five.”

He said, “You have to get rid of the records or leave the building.”

I couldn’t believe it.

I said, “I can’t play the music I want, music that was made in the USA?”

He said, “No, you’ll have to leave the building. That’s anti-military music.” She was singing “[With] God on Our Side“, I think, at the time.

I said, “I think I agree with [the lyrics]. I’m not anti-military, and I agree with what she’s singing in her songs.”

He said, “You’ll have to leave the building.”

I said, “Hey, it’s okay with me.”

So he gave me a [transfer]…I went down to the Hilton Castille in Madrid and I stayed in one of the best rooms they had, and the government had to pick up the tab.^[3]

Live recordings

Dylan and Joan Baez performed the song as a duet at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1963 and July 1964, and their July 27, 1963 performance was released on Newport Broadside: Topical Songs at the Newport Folk Festival 1963 (Vanguard VSD-79144). The liner notes by Stacy Williams mention Dominic Behan’s “Patriot Game”, which Williams points out that Behan had borrowed from the traditional “The Merry Month of May”. Another live recording of Dylan and Baez performing “With God on Our Side”, recorded on October 31, 1964, can be found on the album The Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964, Concert at Philharmonic Hall, released in 2004.

Dylan’s performance of the song on the album Bob Dylan Unplugged, released in 1995, significantly omits verses about the Germans and the Holocaust, and the Russians and the Cold War, for unspecified reasons.

Covers

• Joan Baez included the song on her 1963 live album In Concert, Part 2 (recorded shortly after Dylan wrote it).
• Chad Mitchell Trio recorded it on their 1965 album Typical American Boys
• Odetta covered the song on her 1965 album Odetta Sings Dylan.
• In 1965, Manfred Mann covered the song on their The One In The Middle EP. The notes on the EP’s sleeve state “In May 1964 Bob Dylan dropped in at London’s Marquee Club to listen to the Manfreds, declaring them to be ‘real groovy’. They returned the compliment with their performance of Dylan’s controversial With God On Our Side.”^[4]
• Ramblin’ Jack Elliott released a cover on his 1970 album “Bull Durham Sacks & Railroad Tracks
• Wire Train released a cover on their 1985 album Between Two Words
• The Neville Brothers released a cover on their 1989 album Yellow Moon.
• Judy Collins released a cover on her 1993 tribute album Judy Sings Dylan… Just Like a Woman.
• Ramblin’ Jack Elliott released a cover on his 1999 album The Long Ride.
• British band Half Man Half Biscuit released a parody of the song, titled With Goth On Our Side, on their 2000 album Trouble Over Bridgwater.
• Jonah Matranga has performed the song live on numerous occasions. It is available (with Matranga performing as onelinedrawing) on the compilation album Sound Relief, Volume One: From CA to NYC (released 2001 on the Sound Relief Records label cat. 631037060028) – the compilation was originally put together to benefit the United Way‘s September 11th Fund, but the proceeds went to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina, as that disaster has occurred in the meantime.
• Buddy Miller performed the song on his 2004 album Universal United House of Prayer, adding an Irish dirge-like arrangement.
• In 2004, indie rock band Straylight Run covered the song.
• Burton Cummings covered this song and released it as a single in 2004.
• Minneapolis band The Brothers Frantzich recorded a version of the song on their album “Heartwing”.
• Singer/songwriter Derek Webb has performed the song live on numerous occasions.
• Bon Iver covered the song for the first time on September 24, 2011 at McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, Oregon.^{[citation needed]}
• Barb Jungr covered the song on her 2011 album Man in the Long Black Coat.
• In 2012, K’naan covered the song for the compilation, Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International.

Use in films and documentaries

• “With God on Our Side” plays over the closing credits of two films, Oren Jacoby‘s 2007 documentary on anti-Semitism, Constantine’s Sword, and Oliver Stone‘s 2008 biography of George W. Bush, W.
• Used several times in Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War. An instrumental version featuring David Cieri is also used.

End

[Verse 1]
When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez
When it’s Easter time too
And your gravity fails
And negativity don’t pull you through
Don’t put on any airs
When you’re down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there
And they really make a mess outta you

[Verse 2]
Now if you see Saint Annie
Please tell her “Thanks a lot”
I cannot move
My fingers are all in a knot
I don’t have the strength
To get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor
Won’t even say what it is I’ve got

[Verse 3]
Sweet Melinda
The peasants call her the Goddess of Gloom
She speaks good English
And she invites you up into her room
And you’re so kind
And careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice
And leaves you howling at the moon

[Verse 4]
Up on Housing Project Hill
It’s either fortune or fame
You must pick one or the other
Though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you’re lookin’ to get silly
You better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don’t need you
And man, they expect the same

[Verse 5]
Now all the authorities
They just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the Sergeant-at-Arms
Into leaving his post
And picking up Angel
Who just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first
But left lookin’ just like a ghost

[Verse 6]
I started out on Burgundy
But soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they’d stand behind me
When the game got rough
But the joke was on me
There was nobody even there to bluff
I’m going back to New York City
I do believe I’ve had enough

Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues

“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan. It was originally recorded on August 2, 1965, and released on the album Highway 61 Revisited. The song was later released on the compilation album Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II and as two separate live versions recorded at concerts in 1966: the first of which appeared on the B-side of Dylan’s “I Want You” single, with the second being released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert. The song has been covered by many artists, including Gordon Lightfoot, Nina Simone, Barry McGuire, Judy Collins, Frankie Miller, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, The Black Crowes, and Bryan Ferry. Lightfoot’s version was recorded only weeks after Dylan’s original had been released and reached #3 on the national RPM singles chart. In addition, the song was sampled by the Beastie Boys for their song “Finger Lickin’ Good.”

“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” has six verses but no chorus. The song’s lyrics describe a nightmare vision of the narrator’s experience in Juarez, Mexico, in which he encounters sickness, despair, prostitutes, saints, shady women, corrupt authorities, alcohol and drugs, before finally deciding to return to New York City. The lyrics incorporate literary references to Malcolm Lowry‘s Under the Volcano, Edgar Allan Poe‘s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and Jack Kerouac‘s Desolation Angels, while the song’s title references Arthur Rimbaud‘s “My Bohemian Life (Fantasy)”. William Ruhlmann of the AllMusic website has described the song as a comic tour de force and music journalist Toby Creswellincluded it on his list of the 1001 greatest songs of all time. Music critic Dave Marsh ranked the live version of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” from Liverpool that was released as the B-side of “I Want You” as the number 243 greatest single of all time.

Lyrics and music

“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” was recorded on August 2, 1965, at Columbia Studios in New York, the same day Dylan recorded “Ballad of a Thin Man“, “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Queen Jane Approximately“, three other songs that would appear on Highway 61 Revisited.^[1][2][3] However, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” took more attempts to perfect than the other songs recorded that day; it wasn’t until take 16 that Dylan and his band captured on tape the version that was released on the album.^[2] The backing musicians on the take that was used on Highway 61 Revisited were Mike Bloomfield on electric guitar, Al Kooper on Hohner Pianet; a type of electro-mechanical piano, Paul Griffin on piano, Harvey Brooks on bass guitar and Bobby Gregg on drums.^[2]

According to Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin, on early takes of the song, Sam Lay was the drummer and Frank Owens played piano.^[2] In Heylin’s opinion, Gregg’s jazzier drumming and Griffin’s more fluid piano playing better communicated the feeling of dislocation that Dylan desired for the song.^[2] Take 5 of the song, which, according to Heylin, featured both Lay and Owens, was included on the 2005 album The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack.^[2] In 2015, the entire recording session was released on the 18-disc edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966, while the 2-disc version of the album featured Take 3 and the 6-disc edition contained Takes 1, 3 and 13.^[4]

Lyrically, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” continues the theme of road weariness from the album’s previous song, “Highway 61 Revisited.”^[5] The singer finds himself in Juarez, Mexico, at Easter time, amidst sickness, despair, whores and saints.^[6] While there, he encounters corrupt authorities and women of dubious character, named in the song as “Saint Annie” and “sweet Melinda”, before seeking succor in drugs and alcohol.^[7] The song establishes a nightmare vision as the singer is influenced by gravity, negativity, sex, drugs, drink, illness, remorse and memory.^[6][8] In the song’s final verse, the singer decides he has had enough and finds the means to leave it all behind and head back to New York City, where things may be better.^[6] Author Paul Williams has noted that scene and situation are combined into a gorgeous evocation of muddied consciousness in “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”, without ever resolving into a clear picture of what the song is about.^[9] Despite the sordid details of the singer’s experiences in Juarez, the lyrics maintain a sense of humor, and William Ruhlmann of the AllMusic website considers the song a comic tour de force.^[7][10]

During a concert in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in April 1966, Dylan said of the song, “This is, this is called Tom Thumb. This story takes place outside of Mexico City. It begins in Mexico City and it ends really in Des Moines, Iowa, but it’s all about this painter, he’s a quite older fellow, he comes from Juarez, Juarez is down cross of Texas border, some few feets, and he’s a painter. He’s very very well-known painter in the area there and we all call him Tom Thumb and when Tom Thumb was going through his blue period, this is one of the most important times of his whole life and he’s going to sell many many paintings now taken from his blue period and this is all about Tom Thumb and his early days and so we name this Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”^[11]

Like many of the songs on Highway 61 Revisited, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” has abundant literary references, including images recalling Malcolm Lowry‘s novel Under the Volcano and a street name taken from Edgar Allan Poe‘s short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue“.^[6][12] The song also uses the phrase “housing project hill” which is taken from Jack Kerouac‘s novel Desolation Angels.^[12][13] A number of Dylan biographers, including Colin Irwin, Robert Shelton and Andy Gill, have suggested that the song’s title makes reference to Arthur Rimbaud‘s poem “My Bohemian Life (Fantasy)”, in which Rimbaud refers to himself as “Tom Thumb in a daze.”^[7][12][14] In addition, some commentators have suggested that there may be a musical reference in the lines “And she takes your voice/And leaves you howling at the moon,” since “Howlin’ at the Moon” is the title of a song by Hank Williams, a musician whom Dylan admired.^[12][15]

Musically, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” consists of no chorus, but six verses, varied by a handful of chords and Dylan’s vocal emphasis.^[9] Keyboards, drums and vocals provide texture, while Mike Bloomfield plays Latin Americanesque fills on electric guitar.^[3][14] The keyboard parts in particular make innovative use of two different pianos, with Al Kooper playing an electric Hohner Pianet and Paul Griffin adding a bar room feel on tack piano.^[3][14] In all but the final verse, the even lines rhyme and the odd lines are unrhymed.^[16] In the final verse, however, the odd numbered lines rhyme on “ee” and all the even lines rhyme on “uf.”^[16] This change in the rhyming pattern provides a subtle sense of finality to the final two lines:^[16]

I’m going back to New York City

I do believe I’ve had enough.

Other appearances and acclaim

In addition to its appearance on the Highway 61 Revisited album, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” was also included on the compilation album Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II (known as More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits in Europe)^[7] and on another compilation released exclusively in Europe titled Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits 2. Alternate takes of the song from the August 2, 1965 recording session have been released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack^[2][17] and The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966.^[4]

The song has also been popular live in concert. Clinton Heylin has stated that “as performed live in 1965–66, ‘Tom Thumb’ became an inferno of pain. As if pain were indeed art.”^[2] A live version recorded at a concert in Liverpool, England on May 14, 1966, featuring Dylan backed by The Band, was released as the B-side to the “I Want You” single in 1966, and later also appeared on the Masterpieces compilation.^{[2][7][9][18]} The song was also performed on May 17, 1966 by Dylan and The Band at the famous and controversial so-called ‘Albert Hall‘ concert (which in fact took place at the Manchester Free Trade Hall) and consequently it appears on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The “Royal Albert Hall” Concert.^[19] Dylan also played “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” regularly during his 1974 tour, and has played it in concert occasionally ever since.^[7]

In a 2005 reader’s poll published in Mojo magazine, “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” was listed as the number 13 all-time greatest Bob Dylan song.^[20] In 2002, Uncutmagazine listed it as the number 38 all-time best Bob Dylan song.^[21] Music journalist Toby Creswell included “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” on his list of the 1001 greatest songs of all time and music critic Dave Marsh ranked the live version from Liverpool as the number 243 greatest single of all time and as one of the dozen or so truly great B-sides, noting that it demonstrated Dylan’s prowess as a great live performer.^[10][18]

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot covered “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” in 1965 in a version that reached number 3 on Canada’s national RPM singles chart, and number 8 on Toronto’s CHUM Chart.^[13][22][23] Other covers recorded in the 1960s include those by Barry McGuire, on his 1966 album This Precious Time, and Judy Collins, on her 1966 album In My Life.^[13] Nina Simone also covered it in 1969 on her To Love Somebody album.^[13] Nina Simone’s version differs considerably in tone from Dylan’s: while Dylan’s version is sympathetic, if sneering, towards the foolish subject, Simone’s version is an intense, first-person account of illusions being crushed, until she is finally helpless in the hands of fate.^[24]

Frankie Miller covered “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” in 1973 on Once in a Blue Moon, Linda Ronstadt covered it in 1998 on We Ran and Bryan Ferry covered it on his 2007 album Dylanesque.^[13][25] The Grateful Dead have, on occasion, covered “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” live in concert, with bassist Phil Lesh taking a rare turn as lead vocalist, and a recording of the song by the band appears on the album View from the Vault, Volume One.^[13] Additionally, Neil Young covered the song for the Bob Dylan tribute concert The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration in 1992.^[7] The Beastie Boys sampled the last two lines of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” for their song “Finger Lickin’ Good“, which appeared on their 1992 Check Your Head album.^[26]

End

Should my heart not be humble
Should my eyes fail to see
Should my feet sometimes stumble
On the way, stay with me
Like the lamb that in springtime
Wanders far from the fold
Comes the darkness and the frost
I get lost, I grow cold
I grow cold, I grow weary, and I know I have sinned
And I go seeking shelter and I cry in the wind
And though I grope and I blunder and I’m weak and I’m wrong
Though the road buckles under where I walk, walk along
Till I find to my wonder every path leads to thee
All that I can do is pray, stay with me
Stay with me

End

[Verse 1]
We live in a political world
Love don’t have any place
We’re living in times where men commit crimes
And crime don’t have a face

[Verse 2]
We live in a political world
Icicles hanging down
Wedding bells ring and angels sing
Clouds cover up the ground

[Verse 3]
We live in a political world
Wisdom is thrown into jail
It rots in a cell, is misguided as hell
Leaving no one to pick up a trail

[Verse 4]
We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank
Life is in mirrors, death disappears
Up the steps into the nearest bank

[Verse 5]
We live in a political world
Where courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted, children are unwanted
The next day could be your last

[Verse 6]
We live in a political world
The one we can see and can feel
But there’s no one to check, it’s all a stacked deck
We all know for sure that it’s real

[Verse 7]
We live in a political world
In the cities of lonesome fear
Little by little you turn in the middle
But you’re never sure why you’re here

[Verse 8]
We live in a political world
Under the microscope
You can travel anywhere and hang yourself there
You always got more than enough rope

[Verse 9]
We live in a political world
Turning and a-thrashing about
As soon as you’re awake, you’re trained to take
What looks like the easy way out

[Verse 10]
We live in a political world
Where peace is not welcome at all
It’s turned away from the door to wander some more
Or put up against the wall

[Verse 11]
We live in a political world
Everything is hers or his
Climb into the frame and shout God’s name
But you’re never sure what it is

End

(Intro)

Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block
I’d ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don’t talk
And the ladies treat me kindly
And they furnish me with tape
But deep inside my heart
I know I can’t escape
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Well, Shakespeare, he’s in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells
Speaking to some French girl
Who says she knows me well
And I would send a message
To find out if she’s talked
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine
And I said, “Oh, I didn’t know that
But then again, there’s only one I’ve met
And he just smoked my eyelids
And punched my cigarette”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Grandpa died last week
And now he’s buried in the rocks
But everybody still talks about
How badly they were shocked
But me, I expected it to happen
I knew he’d lost control
When I, he built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Now the senator came down here
Showing everyone his gun
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son
And me, I nearly got busted
And wouldn’t it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Now the tea preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest
But he cursed me when I proved to him
Then I whispered, said “Not even you can hide
You see, you’re just like me
I hope you’re satisfied”
Aw, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues againNow the rainman gave me two cures
Then he said, “Jump right in”
The one was Texas medicine
The other was just railroad gin
And like a fool I mixed them
And it strangled up my mind
And now people just get uglier
And I have no sense of time
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues againWhen Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon
Where I can watch her waltz for free
’Neath her Panamanian moon
And I say, “Aw come on now
You know ya’ know about my debutante”
And she says, “Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb
They all fall there so perfectly
It all seems so well timed
And here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice
Oh, Mama, is this really the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

“Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” is a song written by Bob Dylan that appears on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde.^[2] The album version also appears on 1971’s Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II. An early studio take, done in a faster cut-time, was released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack in 2005. As the recording indicates, Dylan had difficulty fitting the words to the tempo, and evidently this led to its rearrangement, as heard on Blonde on Blonde, in a more “rock”-oriented 4/4 time.

A live version of this song appears on the 1976 album Hard Rain, and was also released as a single with “Rita May” as the B-side.

Recording

All twenty takes of “Stuck Inside of Mobile” were recorded in the early hours of February 17, 1966, in Columbia’s Music Row Studios in Nashville. Dylan continuously reworked the song in the studio, revising lyrics and changing the song’s structure as he recorded different takes. Eventually, after recording for three hours, a master take, the twentieth and final take, was chosen.^[3] Take five would eventually be released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7.

The entire recording session was released on the 18-disc Collector’s Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 in 2015, with highlights from the outtakes appearing on the 6-disc and 2-disc versions of that album.^[4]

Cover versions

The Grateful Dead covered the song in their live shows during the 1980s and 1990s, and performed it when Dylan himself toured with them in 1987. Cat Power covered the song on the soundtrack of the film I’m Not There. Spanish artist Kiko Veneno covered this song in a rumba (a subgenre of Flamenco) version. North Mississippi Allstars cover it on their 2011 album Keys to the Kingdom. Elvis Costello performed a solo version of the song live in Mobile, AL on March 13, 2015. Old Crow Medicine Show covered the song on their 2017 tribute album 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde.

In popular culture[edit]

• “Stuck Inside of Mobile” is used in the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and is mentioned in the book by Hunter S. Thompson.
• John Lennon wrote a spoof titled “Stuck Inside of Lexicon with the Roget’s Thesaurus Blues Again,” pointing out that Dylan was using obscure lyrics too extensively.^[5] This line is found in the song “Satire #2” on the John Lennon Anthology.
• The Sisters of Mercy song “Dominion/Mother Russia” features the line “stuck inside of Memphis with the mobile home”, as a play on words on this song’s title.
• The song also inspired the name of the Memphis Group, a 1980s design movement, with its title.^[6][7]
• The song was also used as the first and final songs of Mobile radio station 97.5 WABB on February 5, 1973 and February 29, 2012 respectively.

“Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”
Single by Bob Dylan
from the album Hard Rain
B-side	“Rita May“
Released	November 30, 1976[1]
Format	7-inch single
Recorded	May 16, 1976
Venue	Tarrant County Convention Center Arena, Fort Worth, Texas
Genre	Folk rock
Length	3:35
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Bob Dylan
Producer(s)	Don DeVito Bob Dylan

Music video by Bob Dylan performing Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again – Take 13 (audio). Originally recorded 1966 & released 2015. All rights reserved by Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

End

Down in some lone valley
In a sad lonesome place
Where the wild birds do all
Their notes to increase

Farewell pretty Saro
I bid you Adieu
But I dream of pretty Saro
Wherever I go

Well my love she won’t have me
So I understand
She wants a freeholder
Who owns a house and land

I cannot maintain her
With silver and gold
And all of the fine things
That a big house can hold

If I was a poet
And could write a fine hand
I’d write my love a letter
That she’d understand

And write it by the river
Where the waters overflow
But I dream of pretty Saro
Wherever I go

Pretty Saro (Roud 417) is an English folk ballad originating in the early 1700s.^[1] The song died out in England by the mid eighteenth century but was rediscovered in North America in the early twentieth century where it had been preserved in the Appalachian Mountains through oral traditions.^[2] The work of Cecil Sharp is credited for keeping songs such as Pretty Saro and others, alive well into modern times.

During his Self Portrait sessions in March 1970 at Columbia Records’ New York studio, Bob Dylan ran through “Pretty Saro” six consecutive times. While none of those versions made the final cut for the album, the song remained in Columbia’s vault, until it was released on Another Self Portrait, a 35-track box set of songs cut for Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait and New Morning.^[3]

Bob Dylan recorded this English folk song over six times for Columbia in 1970. This track would not be released until 2013 on the Bootleg Series, Vol. 10, “Another Self Portrait.” Watch the official music video for “Pretty Saro” now.

End

[Verse 1]
Well, I had to move fast
And I couldn’t with you around my neck
I said I’d send for you and I did
What did you expect?
My hands are sweating
And we haven’t even started yet
I’ll go along with the charade
Until I can think my way out
I know it was all a big joke
Whatever it was about
Someday maybe
I’ll remember to forget

[Verse 2]
I’m going to get my coat
I feel the breath of a storm
There’s something I’ve got to do tonight
You go inside and stay warm

[Verse 3]
Has anybody seen my love
Has anybody seen my love
Has anybody seen my love
I don’t know
Has anybody seen my love?

[Verse 4]
You want to talk to me
Go ahead and talk
Whatever you got to say to me
Won’t come as any shock
I must be guilty of something
You just whisper it into my ear
Madame Butterfly
She lulled me to sleep
In a town without pity
Where the water runs deep
She said, “Be easy, baby
There is nothing worth stealing in here”

[Verse 5]
You’re the one I’ve been looking for
You’re the one that’s got the key
But I can’t figure out whether I’m too good for you
Or you’re too good for me

[Verse 6]
Has anybody seen my love
Has anybody seen my love
Has anybody seen my love
I don’t know
Has anybody seen my love?

[Verse 7]
Well, they’re not showing any lights tonight
And there’s no moon
There’s just a hot-blooded singer
Singing “Memphis in June”
While they’re beating the devil out of a guy
Who’s wearing a powder-blue wig
Later he’ll be shot
For resisting arrest
I can still hear his voice crying
In the wilderness
What looks large from a distance
Close up is never that big

[Outro]
Never could learn to drink that blood
And call it wine
Never could learn to hold you, love
And call you mine

“Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)” is a song by Bob Dylan that was released on his 1985 album Empire Burlesque. As a single, it was a Top 40 Hit in New Zealand and Belgium. An earlier version of the song, entitled “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart”, was recorded for Dylan’s 1983 LP, Infidels, but was not included on that album; it later appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.

Development and recording

“Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart”

An early version of “Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)” was recorded during sessions for Infidels, Dylan’s 1983 album, as “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart”.^[1] A total of thirteen takes of the song were recorded at the Power Station Studio in New York City, in three of the recording sessions, on April 16, April 25, and April 26.^[2] On the recording sheet, the song was listed as “Hold of My Heart”.^[2] One of the April 25 takes was released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.^[1]

Personnel

The following musicians played on the recording released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991:^[3]

• Bob Dylan – Guitar, harmonica, vocals
• Mick Taylor – Guitar
• Mark Knopfler – Guitar
• Alan Clark – Keyboards
• Robbie Shakespeare – Bass
• Sly Dunbar – Drums

“Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)”

Music

Dylan used the basic track from one of the “Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart” takes from 1983, and added vocal overdubs in January 1985, including vocals by female backup singers.^[4]

Lyrics

Dylan biographer Michael Gray notes that, as elsewhere on the Empire Burlesque album, “Tight Connection to My Heart” includes references to a number of lines of dialogue from Humphrey Bogart films.^[5] In Sirocco, Bogart says, “‘I’ve got to move fast: I can’t with you around my neck”, which becomes “Well I had to move fast / And I couldn’t with you around my neck” in the song. Also in Sirocco, Bogart says, “I don’t know whether I’m too good for you or you’re too good for me”, changed to “But I can’t figure out if I’m too good for you / Or if you’re too good for me” in “Tight Connection to My Heart”.^[5] In The Maltese Falcon, when Bogart’s character [Sam Spade] is told, “We wanna talk to you, Spade”, he replies, “Well, go ahead and talk”; Dylan turns this into “You want to talk to me, / Go ahead and talk”.^[5] Gray writes that Dylan’s line “I’ll go along with the charade / Until I can think my way out” is said in the movie Tokyo Joe^[5] (this line has elsewhere been attributed to another Bogart film, Sahara).^[6] A variation on this same line was also used in the Star Trek episode “The Squire of Gothos” in 1967.^[5] In The Oklahoma Kid, Bogart says to James Cagney, “I wanna talk to you, kid,” and Cagney replies “Go ahead and talk.” Cagney is later arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, and kills two men for attempting to get away when he is arresting them for the crime. The song includes the lines, “You wanna talk to me / Go ahead and talk /… I must be guilty of something” and “Later he’ll be shot for resisting arrest.”

Gray additionally hears references to some non-Bogart films in the song. In Now and Forever, from 1934, Gary Cooper says about some police officers that “Close up they don’t look as large as they do from a distance”; in the song this becomes “What looks large from a distance / Close up ain’t never that big.”^[5] Other references are to “Memphis in June”, the Hoagy Carmichael song used in Johnny Angel, and to the film title Town Without Pity.^[5]

About the film references, biographer Clinton Heylin complains of Dylan’s “reliance on the dialogue of Hollywood scriptwriters for any lyrical gaps, as he replaced blazingly original lines from ‘Someone’s Got a Hold of My Heart’ with excerpts from Humphrey Bogart movie scripts”.^[7] Jonathan Lethem, contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan, is likewise disappointed that the rewrite “replaces the original’s vulnerable tone with a Bogartishly hardboiled one”.^[8] Gray writes that “these film script snatches… are so unmemorable and unarresting as content yet are mostly so attractive, tersely energetic and imitable as conversational rhythms, and offer cadences of heightened moment: they are great movie lines, in fact, and understandably appealing to [Dylan].”^[5] He adds that in some of the instances, “Dylan’s sub-editing, his tightening-up, gives [the lines] their radiance. You might feel that they’re easy building blocks for writer’s-block sufferers, or for singer-songwriters with nothing special to say. Or you might feel that Dylan has made himself inward with, and then re-expressed creatively, yet another branch of American popular culture: one that may have been handed down from above, from the on-highs of Hollywood, but one that has inhabited the shared minds of millions of ordinary people.”^[5]

Personnel

The following musicians played on the recording released on Empire Burlesque:^[9]

• Bob Dylan – Keyboards, vocals
• Mick Taylor – Guitar
• Ted Perlman – Guitar
• Robbie Shakespeare – Bass
• Sly Dunbar – Drums
• Carol Dennis – Backing vocals
• Queen Esther Marrow – Backing vocals
• Peggi Blu – Backing vocals

Release and appraisal

“Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)” was released as the opening track on Empire Burlesque on May 30, 1985.^[9] As a single, it was released with “We Better Talk This Over” as the B-side;^[10] this song first appeared on 1978’s Street-Legal.^[11] The single reached the Top 10 in New Zealand^[10] and the Top 40 in Belgium;^[12] it also reached No. 71 in Canada.^[13] In the 2000s, the song was put on the Dylan compilation The Ultimate Collection,^[14] as well as on certain editions of The Essential Bob Dylan, including the “Limited Tour Edition”^[15][16] and the “Australian Bonus Tracks Edition”.^[17]

AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes “Tight Connection to My Heart” as a “subtle gem”,^[18] while for Thomas Ward, also of AllMusic, the song is “tremendous fun”.^[19] The writers of The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, include the composition in “the all-time canon of great Dylan songs on lousy Dylan albums”.^[20] Similarly, critic Anthony Varesi, for whom “the bulk of [Empire Burlesque] is unattractive”, characterizes “Tight Connection to My Heart” as “fantastic”.^[21]The editors of Mojo magazine likewise praise the song, calling it “deeply ’80s but entertainingly breezy” while lamenting that Empire Burlesque “fails to scrape even modest heights thereafter”.^[22]

Live performances and covers

Dylan performed “Tight Connection to My Heart” 14 times in the early 1990s. He first performed it on January 12, 1990, in New Haven, Connecticut, and then 11 more times in 1990.^[23] On November 16 and 17, 1993, he played the song twice in New York City.^[23]

John Martyn released a cover on the first pressing of his album Piece by Piece .^[24]

The song makes an appearance in the Dylan-sanctioned Dustbowl play Girl from the North Country by Conor McPherson, hauntingly sung by Sheila Atim and arranged by Simon Hale in performances at London’s Old Vic theatre in August 2017.^[25]

Charts

End

[Verse 1]
Look out across the fields, see me returning
Smoke is in your eye, you draw a smile
From the fireplace where my letters to you are burning
You’ve had time to think about it for a while

[Verse 2]
Well, I’ve walked two hundred miles, now look me over
It’s the end of the chase and the moon is high
It won’t matter who loves who
You’ll love me or I’ll love you
When the night comes falling from the sky

[Verse 3]
I can see through your walls and I know you’re hurting
Sorrow covers you up like a cape
Only yesterday I know that you’ve been flirting
With disaster that you managed to escape

[Verse 4]
I can’t provide for you no easy answers
Who are you that I should have to lie?
You’ll know all about it, love
It’ll fit you like a glove
When the night comes falling from the sky

[Verse 5]
I can hear your trembling heart beat like a river
You must have been protecting someone last time I called
I’ve never asked you for nothing you couldn’t deliver
I’ve never asked you to set yourself up for a fall

[Verse 6]
I saw thousands who could have overcome the darkness
For the love of a lousy buck, I’ve watched them die
Stick around, baby, we’re not through
Don’t look for me, I’ll see you
When the night comes falling from the sky

[Verse 7]
In your teardrops, I can see my own reflection
It was on the northern border of Texas where I crossed the line
I don’t want to be a fool starving for affection
I don’t want to drown in someone else’s wine

[Verse 8]
For all eternity I think I will remember
That icy wind that’s howling in your eye
You will seek me and you’ll find me
In the wasteland of your mind
When the night comes falling from the sky

[Verse 9]
Well, I sent you my feelings in a letter
But you were gambling for support
This time tomorrow I’ll know you better
When my memory is not so short

[Verse 10]
This time I’m asking for freedom
Freedom from a world which you deny
And you’ll give it to me now
I’ll take it anyhow
When the night comes falling from the sky

Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, and painter who has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when he became a reluctant “voice of a generation”^[2] with songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’” that became anthems for the Civil Rights Movement and anti-war movement. In 1965, he controversially abandoned his early fan-base in the American folk music revival, recording a six-minute single, “Like a Rolling Stone“, which enlarged the scope of popular music.

Dylan’s lyrics incorporate a wide range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop-music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the performances of Little Richardand the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has amplified and personalized musical genres. In his recording career, Dylan has explored many of the traditions in American song—from folk, blues, and country to gospel, and rock and roll, and from rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and the Great American Songbook. Dylan performs on guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing lineup of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed “the Never Ending Tour“. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his songwriting is considered his greatest contribution.

Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which mainly consisted of traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of the 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, featuring “Blowin’ in the Wind” and the thematically complex composition “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” alongside several other enduring songs of the era. Dylan went on to release the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin’ and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964. In 1965 and 1966 Dylan encountered controversy when he adopted the use of electrically amplified rock instrumentation and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde.

In July 1966, Dylan withdrew from touring after being injured in a motorcycle accident. During this period he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had previously backed Dylan on tour; these were eventually released as the collaborative album The Basement Tapes in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 70s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes in John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline and New Morning. In 1975 Dylan released his career-defining album Blood on the Tracks followed by the critically and commercially successful Desire the following year. In the late 1970s, Dylan became a born-again Christian and released a series of albums of contemporary gospel music, notably Slow Train Coming, before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom with Infidels. Dylan’s major works during his later career include Time Out of Mind, “Love and Theft” and Tempest. His most recent recordings have comprised versions of traditional American standards, especially songs recorded by Frank Sinatra.

Since 1994, Dylan has published seven books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. Dylan has sold more than 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has also received numerous awards including eleven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power”. In May 2012, Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, and, in 2016, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.^[3]

End

[Intro]
The light in this place is really bad
Like being at the bottom of a stream
Any minute now
I’m expecting to wake up from a dream

[Verse 1]
Means so much, the softest touch
By the grave of some child, who neither wept or smiled
I pondered my faith in the rain
I’ve been dreaming’ of you, that’s all I do
And it’s driving me insane

[Verse 2]
Somewhere dawn is breaking
Light is streaking across the floor
Church bells are ringing
I wonder who they’re ringing for

[Verse 3]
Travel under any star
You’ll see me wherever you are
The shadowy past is awake and so vast
I’m sleeping in the palace of pain
I’ve been dreaming’ of you, that’s all I do
But it’s driving me insane

[Verse 4]
Maybe they’ll get me, maybe they won’t
But whatever it won’t be tonight
I wish your hand was in mine right now
We could go where the moon is white

[Verse 5]
For years they had me locked in a cage
Then they threw me onto the stage
Some things just last longer than you thought they would
And they never, ever explain
I’ve been dreaming’ of you, that’s all I do
And it’s driving me insane

[Verse 6]
Well, I eat when I’m hungry, drink when I’m dry
Live my life on the square
Even if the flesh falls off my face
It won’t matter, long as you’re there

[Verse 7]
Feel like a ghost in love
Underneath the heavens above
Feel further away than I ever did before
Feel further than I can take
Dreaming’ of you is all I do
But it’s driving me insane

[Verse 8]
Everything in the way is so shiny today
A queer and unusual fall
Spirals of golden haze, here and there in a blaze
Like beams of light in the storm

[Verse 9]
Maybe you were here and maybe you weren’t
Maybe you touched somebody and got burnt
The silent sun has got me on the run
Burning a hole in my brain
I’m dreaming’ of you, that’s all I do
But it’s driving me insane

“Dreamin’ of You” is a song by Bob Dylan recorded in January 1997 during the sessions for Time Out of Mind but not released until 2008. In that year, the song was featured on Dylan’s The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs collection, and released as a single. (Prior to its official release members of the Bob Dylan community could download the song for free.)

A promotional music video, which starred Harry Dean Stanton, premiered on Amazon.

A 7″ vinyl single release of the song (in radio edit form) was available as a bonus with advance orders of the deluxe edition of Tell Tale Signs from Dylan’s website. This release featured an alternative version of “Ring Them Bells” as the B-side.

End

[Verse 1]
Come they told me
Pa rum pum pum pum
A new born King to see
Pa rum pum pum pum
Our finest gifts we bring
Pa rum pum pum pum
To lay before the King
Pa rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum
So to honor Him
Pa rum pum pum pum
When we come

[Verse 2]
Little Jesus Christ
Pa rum pum pum pum
I am a poor boy too
Pa rum pum pum pum
I have no gift to bring
Pa rum pum pum pum
That’s fit to give our King
Pa rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum
Shall I play for you!
Pa rum pum pum
On my drum (2x)

[Verse 3]
Mary nodded
Pa rum pum pum pum
The ox and lamb kept time
Pa rum pum pum pum
I played my drum for Him
Pa rum pum pum
I played my best for Him
Pa rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum
Rum pum pum pum
Then He smiled at me
Pa rum pum pum pum
Me and my drum

In 2009, Bob Dylan released his thirty-fourth studio album, Christmas in the Heart, a holiday album for which all the proceeds went to feeding America. Watch the official music video for the holiday classic “Little Drummer” now.

Christmas in the Heart is the 34th studio album and first Christmas album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on October 13, 2009 by Columbia Records. The album comprises a collection of hymns, carols, and popular Christmas songs. All Dylan’s royalties from the sale of this album benefited the charities Feeding America in the USA, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme.^[1]

Dylan said that, although he was born and raised Jewish (he converted to Christianity in the late 1970s before returning to observing Judaism^[2]), he never felt left out of Christmas during his childhood in Minnesota. Regarding the popularity of Christmas music, he said, “… it’s so worldwide and everybody can relate to it in their own way.”^[3]

The album opened at  No.  1 on Billboard’s Holiday and Billboard’s Folk Album Chart,  No.  10 on Rock Album charts and  No.  23 on overall album charts.

Recording

The album was recorded in a Santa Monica studio owned by Jackson Browne.

In an interview published by Street News Service, journalist Bill Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward style, and Dylan responded:

There wasn’t any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too.

When Flanagan reported that some critics thought the album was an ironic treatment of Christmas songs, Dylan responded:

Critics like that are on the outside looking in. They are definitely not fans or the audience that I play to. They would have no gut level understanding of me and my work, what I can and can’t do—the scope of it all. Even at this point in time they still don’t know what to make of me.^[4]

Release and promotion

Dylan released a music video for the song “Must Be Santa” directed by Nash Edgerton. In the video, Dylan and some other people are having a Christmas house party, until two of the guests start fighting and smashing things around and one of them running away. In the closing scene, we see Dylan and Santa Claus.^[5]

A music video was also released for the song “Little Drummer Boy” directed by Jeff Scher.

A music video ecard^[6] was also released for the song “Must Be Santa”.

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	62/100[7]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[8]
The A.V. Club	B−[9]
Robert Christgau	[10]
The Guardian	[11]
Paste	7.5/10 [12]
Pitchfork Media	6.8/10[13]
PopMatters	[14]
Rolling Stone	[15]
Slant Magazine	[16]
Tiny Mix Tapes	[17]

At Metacritic, the album currently holds a score of 62 out of 100 based on 17 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.^[18]

While the unexpected move by Dylan to record a Christmas album was received with skepticism at first, the outcome of the project was lauded by critics for bringing a fresh breath of air into these classics.^[19]

Slant Magazine‘s critic Jesse Cataldo awarded the album 4 stars out of 5 and said:

This enjoyable sense of exploration, which prizes levity in a genre that usually amounts to an artistic wasteland, is invaluable. It also proves how much life is left in the songs, and how much other artists have succeeded at butchering them.^[20]

Se7en magazine’s critic agreed, writing:

The arrangement of his band mixes up the style of the songs, resulting in a repertoire of Christmas songs that genuinely sound like modern material, while avoiding ever being cliché.^[21]

The critic for Tiny Mix Tapes rated the album 4 stars out of 5, writing:

On Christmas in the Heart…it’s not the heat, but the bitter cold, the kind you feel in northern Minnesnowta[sic]. These are traditional numbers, aged but not antiquated. In keeping with releases like Good as I Been to You and World Gone Wrong, the album features Dylan exorcising the musical spirits of the land. Some will rank it among other gimcrack releases, like Dylan & the Dead. Still others will categorize it as an oddity, like Self Portrait. It’s all and none of these. These songs are Dylan’s latest exploits, but they’re deathly sincere (and jolly), as serious and kitschy as Theme Time Radio Hour. It’s the music that introduces old Disney films, an album as dense and allusive as his other recent outings.^[17]

Charity project

Feeding America received Dylan’s royalties from sales in the USA, while two further charities, the United Nations’ World Food Programme and Crisis in the UK, received royalties from overseas sales.

Dylan said:

“That the problem of hunger is ultimately solvable means we must each do what we can to help feed those who are suffering and support efforts to find long-term solutions. I’m honoured to partner with the World Food Programme and Crisis in their fight against hunger and homelessness.”^[23]

 

End