'To Fall In Love With You' by Bob Dylan

[Skywalker]

When I first heard this song a couple of years ago, I froze in what I was doing and listened hard to try to catch Dylan's slurred lyrics. What I could discern made the hairs stand up on my arms however, because I felt he was divulging something very personal. Dylan has always been guarded in what he chooses to offer of himself in his songs, so...fascinated as to what he was saying , I looked up the lyrics, only to find the only offering there was gobbledygook, based on some belief that the song was a jam session recording based around a song with half written lyrics.

Listening and re-listening to the song with headphones on, I believe I have the actual lyrics down with only a few words I'm not sure about, and gobbledygook it most definitely isn't, rather, as I first sensed, I believe this song comes as close to a self confession....or self explanation as we are ever likely to get from the man.

As I already said, there are a few lyrics I'm not certain of, but this is what I'm hearing.

My feel( feet ?) go down
My day is real
Like a dying eye
Upon this sail ( day?)
And it just rolls
From me from you
What paradise
What can I do
That dying am I
And the day is dark
I can't believe
Far in the touch
What I could find
All time is around
For feel in love
To fall in love
To fall in love
With you

That day is dark
Our time is right
Day in the night
Deep in the night
I cleaned every bag ????
I here add my supply
I see it in your lip
I knew it in your eyes
But I feel your love
And I feel no shame
I can't release your heart
I call your name
What good to me
What can I do
To fall in love
To fall in love
To fall in love
With you.

It just rolls
Upon the sand
Ever this and now
Hath made the man
And makes you be
What I could find
I know it in my days
Ah!.. in my daily mind
Where ages roll
Where ages fly
I hear your name
Where angel lie
What do I know
Whatta come it's true
To fall in love
To fall in love
To fall in love
With you

How can the door
Trust on a nail
I tend'ta be surprised
Most every day
I read it in this road
I can't be the same
I feel your love
I feel no shame
I dunno what's to pay
And am I in owe
With a dusty man
I gave my tears to go
I did all I could buy
All I could do
To fall in love
To fall in love
To fall in love
With you.

I think that this song has just gone under the radar, because we're not used to Dylan writing in this poetic style.... we're used to him spelling it out for us.

 

[Skywalker]

Seems this song has an invisibility spell placed on it !

 

[kitniyatran]

I found it on YouTube and listened to it. There are a lot of different takes on what the lyrics are, but it seems to be a universal that it's a beautiful song

 

[Skywalker]

Well I think this song it a particularly fascinating song coming from Dylan, and even in view of some of its lyrics being beyond clarification . If it were a Leonard Cohen song, then it would just be one of many exploring the trials and dichotomies of loving and relating to others, but as a song from Dylan I would say it's a one-off. This song appears to contain an extraordinary expression of desire, impotence and resignation. It is a song addressing the most complex of human struggles and one full of contradictions and obstacles, namely that of achieving and maintaining a state of grace through the ability to love. More specifically it's about failing at that. That's something that haunts us all to a greater or lesser degree.

" I did all I could buy... all I could do.... to fall in love with you."

I have little doubt that the " You" here is a general "You"...but then, anyone with the individual genius of Dylan is likely going to go through life with a sense isolation and frustration in the company of others. Not feeling that he's understood seems to have been a lifelong condition with Dylan and he's probably largely right there.