4 Bob Dylan Songs That Keep the Lyrics Simple and Still Soar

Bob Dylan immeasurably raised the level of songwriting in popular music when he came on the scene. We often think of Dylan spitting out torrents of words to make his points. But he hasn’t always gone the verbose route.

These four songs find Dylan keeping his words to a minimum. And they still find ways of hitting hard with listeners.

“I Threw It All Away”

You could pick several of the songs from Dylan’s 1969 album Nashville Skyline and possibly put them on this list. At the time, his willingness to simplify both his musical and lyrical approach dovetailed with his desire for a calmer overall existence away from the spotlight. He was listening to a lot of Hank Williams at the time, which you can sense when you listen to the LP. “I Threw It All Away”, despite being about as minimal lyrically as Dylan had even been to that point, still ranks as one of his most heartbreaking ballads. The narrator lets us know he’s at fault for the devastating dissolution of his romance. Something about that admission, without any elaboration, really twists the knife.

“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”

Dylan’s love of Western movies made it nearly impossible for him to turn down director Sam Peckinpah. Peckinpah not only enlisted Dylan to do the soundtrack for the 1973 film Pat Garrett & The Kid, but he also nabbed Bob for a role as the mysteriously named character of Alias. Dylan did himself plenty proud with his acting in the film. But he shone the most when providing the film’s music. That included an evocative score that captured both the beauty and the heartbreak of the Old West. He also wrote a few new individual songs for different scenes. With the simple yet haunting “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”, he provided the touching soundtrack for a cowboy’s dying moments. And he walked away with one of his most indelible hits.

“Forever Young”

By 1974, Dylan once again felt the urge for the limelight that he’d mostly avoided since the mid-60s. His big move was to reunite with his old buddies in The Band and to go on a massive tour. To help sweeten that deal, he recorded the album Planet Waves with them serving as his backing group. It’s a record that finds Dylan very much in between phases. On some songs, you can hear the restless intensity he’d bring to future triumphs like Blood On The Tracks. But he also reached back to the simple, domestic themes of his most recent albums at times, including on the straightforward, wise lullaby “Forever Young”. The mandolin-drenched version is the better of the two takes of this track included on the LP.

“Emotionally Yours”

You won’t find a more polarizing album from Dylan than Empire Burlesque. Many fans were turned off by the LP’s maximalist production that relied on some of the decade’s most excessive recording techniques. We’re in the camp that believes that the record is one of the most underrated in his vast catalog. Songs like “Emotionally Yours”, unfussy, straightforward, and affecting, are part of the reason we feel that way. The soulful gleam of the production matches up nicely with the hopefulness inherent in Dylan’s charming lead vocal performance. The simple exhortations and basic rhymes in the verses give way to the refrain that makes its point without unnecessary complexity: “I will always be emotionally yours.”

(Photo by Fiona Adams/Redferns)