Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You

Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You is an excellent song. Dylan wrote it at a Ramada Inn during a two-day break in the album’s recording sessions. It was released as the third single from the album.

Dylan, like many songwriters, seems to like trains. He mentions them numerous times, like in Slow Train Coming and Trying to get to Heaven.

The train is usually a symbol that represents the yearning to escape chains, to gain the freedom of the open road, although often with the acknowledgment of some undesirable side effects, such as loneliness. A few examples are Jimmy Rodger’s Waiting for a Train and Hank William’s (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle.

Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You reverses that. The pain is eliminated by rejecting the lure of the “train” and simply staying put and enjoying the satisfaction of home and marriage. A bit simplistic philosophy perhaps – one that appears on many Dylan songs from this era – but probably true, if you ask me. Quite a difference from many earlier songs, like Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright, for example.

Dylan incorporates yet another bridge in a Nashville Skyline song. He shifts from the key of G to C minor for the “Is it Any wonder” verse.

The song wasn’t played live until the Rolling Thunder Review shows. It was revived again during the Never Ending Tour in the mid-90s.

Bob Versions

This is good, right?

Covers

Cher does a lot of Dylan covers. I like this one a lot.

A “real” country version by Sugarland.

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