Love in Fourteen Songs
Standing in the Doorway | Flaming September
‘Short Letter, Long Farewell’, the title of a 1972 novel by Peter Handke, could well serve as a leitmotif for many a Dylan song.
Creep | Milk
‘Milk’ is a dark siren song. Sure of the allure of her emptiness, the lover is adept at feminine wile: ‘I am weak but I am strong, I can use my tears to bring you home’.
You Never Knew Me | Get Gone
‘We are always tempted to simplify our emotional lives in order to diminish the constant conflict we are in.
Layla | Why Do You Love Me
Passion devours. It is possessive, excessive, exclusive, unique. Out-of-time, out-of-the-world, it is ecstatic delirium, a waking dream.
Love Will Tear Us Apart | Divorce Song
In this vision of the couple as curving parallels, is the man simply being realistic, is he rationalizing, or is he refusing responsibility?
Bare | Cup of Coffee
When a love story ends, it’s the one who leaves who assumes the right to define the story.
Wild Horses | Pissing in a River
‘Wild Horses’ echoes both the lyric poetry of courtly love and the confessional poetry of sixties America.