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Caroline Bourg

Professor Barents/Yudkin

Bob Dylan: Music and Words

27 November 2018

The Unlove Songs of Another Side of Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, especially early Bob Dylan, has a reputation for being a man difficult to read,

often deflecting the blame in a relationship and maintaining a persona un-phased by the

heartbreak around him. Christopher Ricks coined the term “unlove song” in his book Dylan’s

Visions of Sin, in regards to Dylan’s biggest hit from Highway 61 Revisited, “Like a Rolling

Stone” (Ricks 189). This term is very suitable for many of Dylan’s passive aggressive, infatuated

records, and is a concept most clear in his album Another Side of Bob Dylan. For most of

Dylan’s albums, there is a clear concept behind it, whether it be Christianity, a Woody Guthrie

Tribute, or Christmas. However for this album, the concept is at first unclear. The core of this

album is the three primary “unlove songs” Dylan puts out: “To Ramona”, “Ballad in Plain D”,

and “It Ain’t Me Babe”. While on Each song displays three different tactics Dylan uses to

convey “unlove”, whether it be the scorning of a failed relationship or condescending

indifference.

“To Ramona” is the first distinct song on Another Side of Bob Dylan to uphold the

qualities of an “unlove song”. While it is audibly gentle, tender, and caring, the song depicts

Dylan essentially telling Ramona that he is not interested. It opens with the line “Ramona / come

closer / shed softly your water eyes”, implying that his words are in reaction to her tears, which

are most likely in reaction to Dylan rejecting her. In this song Dylan is showing a great deal of
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empathy for Ramona, and includes lyrics like “But it grieves my heart, love / to see you tryin’ to

be a part of / A world that just don’t exist”. However, the world in this case is likely him, and she

merely cannot be a part of it. The “it grieves my heart, love” more so serves to precede that

sentiment than to genuinely reflect his feelings of pain. Thomas E. Strunk touches on the concept

of the “unlove” song in his journal article, “Achilles in the Alleyway: Bob Dylan and Classical

Poetry and Myth” when he says “In ‘It Ain't Me Babe,’ ‘Farewell Angelina,’ and ‘To Ramona,’

the speaker is either gently or harshly telling an admirer that he is not interested. However, in

‘Don't Think Twice, It's All Right’ the voice belongs to the admirer, who realizes that his

affections have been misplaced and his love unrequited” (Strunk 121). While Dylan is not

harshly denouncing the love interest à la “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”, he is still

projecting what is arguably the exact opposite of love: indifference, this fulfills the role of the

“unlove” song, yet conveying a heartfelt, gentle tactic to let her down. The music also fits

perfectly with the soft, careful approach he takes to console Ramona. It is largely simplistic, with

no long intro and gentle guitar strumming, with a brief harmonica solo that resembles sobbing. It

is in C major, generally considered a happy key area, however at the end of many phrases there

is a development from the dominant (G) to a dominant 6 (G6) to a dominant 7 (G7), giving it

more of an dissonance, as well as a wistful sound, which adds to Dylan’s attempt to sympathize

with the pain that Ramona is feeling. In his book Hard Rain, A Dylan Commentary, Tim Riley

remarks on the song. He refers to this song as a “sweeter waltz that extends the romance from

ideals of emotional honesty out into issues of conditioned conformity…trying to save his lover

from herself if only because he knows he may soon need the same comfort he’s giving her”

(Riley 88-89). While the song is musically an endearing waltz, the “conditioned conformity” that
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she falls under is rather a reference to himself rather than Ramona’s friends and family. The

claim that he feels he will soon need comfort from her as well comes from the last line “And

someday maybe / who knows, baby / I’ll come and be cryin’ to you”, however it is mentioned

almost in passing at the end, preceded with “someday”, “maybe”, and “who knows”, insinuating

that he does not in fact know he will need consoling as well. In this instance Dylan is merely

applying another tactic to deflect the discomfort from a woman he has just rejected.

The last song of the album is “It Ain’t Me Babe”, another depiction of Dylan attempting

to let a love interest down easy. Here Dylan takes a slightly different approach, more self-

deprecating in nature. This is essentially Dylan’s version of “it’s not you, it’s me”. Here Dylan

brings more of a dramatic element to the record, both musically and textually. The tempo is

faster and has a sense of anxiety, featuring a combination of quick strumming and light,

interwoven finger picking. The pitch range is also stretched, especially vocally. Whereas in “To

Ramona”, the voice and rhythm were fairly stagnant, not creeping above a D4, Dylan sustains an

F#6 in each chorus before wailing a descending “no, no, no”. This represents an outcry on

Dylan’s part, showing the recipient that he is clearly unfit to be with her and positive enough of

it to shout it out. Tim Riley states, “‘It Ain’t Me, Babe’ is the sound of a lover whose epiphany

brings release, someone who can walk away from a relationship without remorse” (Riley 91-91),

while this holds truth in that Dylan feels release in independence, it is less of an epiphany and

more of a justification for his actions. There is a sense of urgency in what he is saying, shown

when he says softly “go lightly from the ledge babe / go lightly on the ground” suggesting that

she is, at the very least, metaphorically suicidal over the breakup, and urging her to relax,

because it is merely his own fault. While Dylan approaches this breakup seemingly taking
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responsibility, he still places blame on the lover, inferring that she has unreasonable expectations

in lines such as “You say you’re lookin’ for someone…Someone who’ll die for you an’ more /

But it ain’t me babe”. He does not stop at “someone who’ll die for you”, he even adds “an’

more” to signify just how much she wanted from him. Clinton Heylin notes that Dylan’s draft of

the song initially contained another verse (shown below):

Your talking turns me off, babe.

It seems you’re trying out of fear,

[ Your terms are time behind ]

And you’re looking too hard for what’s not here.

You say you’re looking for someone

That’s been in your dreams, you say,

To terrify your enemies

An scare your foes away,

Someone to even up your scores.

But it ain’t me babe … (Heylin 181).

The first four lines of the verse are significantly out of character with the rest of the song. While

talking to the woman in the previous verses he is more ambiguous in suggesting it is her fault, he

blatantly snubs her by stating “your talking turns me off, babe”. The contrast of the insulting line

and the allegedly endearing term “babe”, Dylan patronizes the woman even further, and suggests

that she is trying much too hard. The exclusion of this verse keeps the song more open to

interpretation, and shows Dylan in a less demeaning light, rendering it a more suitable “unlove”

song. In “Achilles in the Alleyway: Bob Dylan and Classical Poetry and Myth”, Thomas E.

Strunk states, “Saying goodbye to a lover is a sub-genre of love poetry for which Dylan has

displayed remarkable talent. Recall such lyrics as “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “Farewell Angelina,” and

“To Ramona.” These goodbyes range from the sympathetic (“To Ramona”) to the acerbic (“It
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Ain’t Me Babe”)” (Strunk 120-121). By saying this, Strunk touches on the concept of the

“unlove song”, and notes that it is the art of saying goodbye. The common denominator between

these unlove songs is the aim to end the relationship, whether or not Dylan directly wants to

appear that way. Paul Davies also touches on this notion in “It Ain’t Me Babe” in his article

“‘There’s no success like failure’: From Rags to Riches in the Lyrics of Bob Dylan”. He notes

that Dylan chooses to say “A lover for your life and nothing more” rather than the cliché “love of

your life”, suggesting that the woman addressed seeks Dylan for utilization rather than a partner.

This subtle change in words compels the audience to empathize slightly less with the woman

addressed, and understand Dylan’s point of view even more.

The most explicitly unloving song on the album is the penultimate song, “Ballad in Plain

D”. Author David Horowitz claimed the song was not “not really a song at all…only the raw

material for a song”. (Heylin 186) By saying this, Horowitz diminishes any artistic value from

the song, perhaps rightfully so, as the song is more of an account of Dylan’s rough breakup with

Suze Rotolo, the woman who inspired many of his songs and appeared on the cover of The

Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and less of a subtle, nuanced explanation than the two songs previously

discussed. While “Ballad in Plain D” clearly references Suze Rotolo, as the pair had recently

broke up prior to its composition, the most peculiar aspect of the song is its harsh fixation on the

sister described, clearly being Suze’s older sister Carla Rotolo. Dylan immediately drafted the

song out of anger, jotting down lines on Mayfair Hotel (near Piccadilly) notepaper, explaining

the red-hot tone of the song (Heylin 186). The first mention of Carla is in the song is in the

second stanza, in which he says “I stole her away / From her mother and sister, though close they

did say … With strings of guilt they tried hard to guide us”. Here Dylan gently mentions the

animosity between them, acting passive aggressively when referencing how close the said, and
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implying its bad effects. He confirms this when adding that they tried to guide Suze and him,

insinuating they became part of the relationship and ultimately led to their split. The most callous

line comes in the fourth stanza, “For her parasite sister, I had no respect”. Clinton Heylin refers

to this as “its most embarrassing line...postdating his visit to Berlin the last week in May”

(Heylin 186). Here Dylan completely disregards the art of subtly, and unambiguously insults the

sister of his ex-girlfriend, a tactic that is harsher than insulting Suze herself. Carla later stated

that “he’d find their vulnerable spots and just demolish them…he’d make them feel that he was

right and they were wrong” (Heylin 187) This claim is upheld in the song, as Dylan applies the

tactic publicly to attack Carla, even referring to her as a parasite. This malice is revisited later in

the song with the stanza “‘The tragic figure!’ her sister did shout / ‘Leave her alone, God damn

you, get out!’ / And I in my armor, turning about / And nailing her to the ruins of her pettiness”.

By writing “tragic figure”, Dylan depicts the sister formally mocking his intellectual status, and

then colloquially shouting at him to leave in the following line. His referring to her as petty is

ironic, as the song was born out of pettiness towards Carla and Suze, just after their breakup.

Dylan seems to reserve the forthright cruelty in the song for Carla, however he still subtly slights

Suze. He begins the song with classic folk language, almost riddle-like and mockingly formal; “I

once loved a girl, her skin it was bronze / With the innocence of a lamb, she was gentle like a

fawn / I courted her proudly but now she is gone / Gone as the season she’s taken”. The old-

fashioned, sweet folklore style provides a stark contrast for the harsh statements he makes,

condescending Suze even more. By saying “I courted her”, he paints the relationship like a

fairytale, and therefore as something that was inherently unreal and make-believe. With that

depiction of what they had, Suze appears as a naïve young girl, furthered by his description that

she had “the innocence of a lamb”. This is later affirmed in the song with the line “The timeless
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explosion of fantasy’s dream / At the peak of the night, the king and the queen / Tumbled all

down into pieces”. Clinton Heylin notes that Dylan’s last stanza is a reference to the following

traditional riddle:

My friends, my friends, they say unto me,

How many strawberries grow in the salt sea?

And I answer them, with a tear in my e’e,

How many ships sail in the forest?

Dylan modifies this for his last stanza, “Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me / “How

good, how good does it feel to be free? / And I answer them most mysteriously / “Are birds free

from the chains of the skyway?” While this seems disconnected from the rest of the song, it adds

more emotional depth and indicates that love is similar to a prison.

Bob Dylan’s album Another Side of Bob Dylan is largely not regarded as his finest

musical and poetic work, however it showcases an art that Dylan has nuanced carefully: the art

of farewells. The songs “To Ramona”, “It Ain’t Me Babe”, and “Ballad in Plain B” epitomize

how cautiously thought out his techniques to bid farewell to women are, deeming them “unlove

songs”. Whether they be gentle and subtle like “To Ramona”, or angry and overt like “Ballad in

Plain B”, these songs represent a poetic art in their own right, and by doing so changed the

course of Dylan’s lyrical and musical journey.

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Works Cited
Davies, Paul. “'There's No Success like Failure': From Rags to Riches in the Lyrics of Bob
aaaDylan.” The Yearbook of English Studies, vol. 20, 1990, pp. 162–181. JSTOR, JSTOR,
aaawww.jstor.org/stable/3507528.

Dylan, Bob. “Ballad in Plain D”. Recorded June 9, 1964. Columbia Records, CD.

Dylan, Bob. "Ballad in Plain D." The Official Bob Dylan Site. Accessed November 2018.
aaahttps://www.bobdylan.com/songs/balladinplaind/.

Dylan, Bob. "It Ain't Me Babe." Recorded June 9, 1964. Bob Dylan. Columbia Records.

Dylan, Bob. "It Ain't Me Babe." The Official Bob Dylan Site. Accessed November 2018.
aaahttps://www.bobdylan.com/songs/itaintmebabe/.

Dylan, Bob. “To Ramona”. Recorded June 9, 1964. Columbia Records, CD.

aaaDylan, Bob. "To Ramona." The Official Bob Dylan Site. Accessed November 2018.
aaahttps://www.bobdylan.com/songs/ramona/.

Heylin, Clinton. Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973. Chicago, Il:
aaaChicago Review Press, 2012.

Masters Of War | The Official Bob Dylan Site. Accessed December 11, 2018.
aaahttps://www.bobdylan.com/songs/ramona/.

Riley, Tim. Hard Rain: A Dylan Commentary. New York: Da Capo Press, 1999.

Ricks, Christopher B. Dylan's Visions of Sin. London: Penguin, 2004. Print.

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Strunk, Thomas E. “Achilles in the Alleyway: Bob Dylan and Classical Poetry and
aaaMyth.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, vol. 17, no. 1, 2009, pp. 119–
aaa136. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/29737433.