Bob Dylan’s Blues

Commentary

Bob Dylan’s Blues is a lively, Guthrie-influenced number. It’s funny, especially the first verse:

Well, the Lone Ranger and Tonto
They are ridin’ down the line
Fixin’ ev’rybody’s troubles
Ev’rybody’s ‘cept mine
Somebody musta tol’ ‘em
That I was doin’ fine

Note the crazy punctuation in the lyrics (below, copied from the official website). I suppose all the apostrophes are meant to be part of the joke, matching the Okie-accent Dylan employs to sing the song.

Dylan completely muffs the spoken introduction. It’s supposed to go “Unlike most of the songs nowadays being written uptown in Tin Pan Alley…..this wasn’t written up there…it was written somewhere down in the United States…” He says instead “this was written up there”. Mistakes like that are not an unusual occurrence on Dylan’s recordings. Perfection has never been a high priority.

Dylan shouts something after the “wind keeps a-blowin’ me” verse. Leave a comment if you can figure out what he’s saying. I can’t.

The line “Go away from my door and my window too”,  edited a bit, reappears in It Ain’t Me, Babe.

It’s never been played live.

A somewhat clever parody by Syd Barrett, ex-leader of Pink Floyd. Some more info on the recording.

And even more info. 

A kinda catchy cover by the Dingo Birds, with some Charlie Chaplin thrown in.

A somber cover by Ewan McLennan.


Lyrics

Well, the Lone Ranger and Tonto
They are ridin’ down the line
Fixin’ ev’rybody’s troubles
Ev’rybody’s ‘cept mine
Somebody musta tol’ ’em
That I was doin’ fine

Oh you five and ten cent women
With nothin’ in your heads
I got a real gal I’m lovin’
And Lord I’ll love her till I’m dead
Go away from my door and my window too
Right now

Lord, I ain’t goin’ down to no race track
See no sports car run
I don’t have no sports car
And I don’t even care to have one
I can walk anytime around the block

Well, the wind keeps a-blowin’ me
Up and down the street
With my hat in my hand
And my boots on my feet
Watch out so you don’t step on me

Well, lookit here buddy
You want to be like me
Pull out your six-shooter
And rob every bank you can see
Tell the judge I said it was all right
Yes!

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