"Bob Dylan's Dream" is a song written by

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

in 1963. It was recorded by Dylan on April 24, 1963, and was released by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

a month later on the album ''

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on May 27, 1963, by Columbia Records. Whereas his self-titled debut album ''Bob Dylan'' had contained only two original songs, this a ...

''. The song was also recorded as a demo for Dylan's publishing company, M. Witmark & Sons. The demo version, taped the day before the album track, was officially released on '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964'' in October 2010. A May 10, 1963 live version of the song was also released that month on '' In Concert – Brandeis University 1963''. An April 12, 1963 concert performance was included on ''Live 1962–1966: Rare Performances From The Copyright Collections'', released in 2018.

Background

Various accounts have been proposed regarding the song's inspiration, none of them being conclusive. In one, "Bob Dylan's Dream" recalls the times Dylan had spent in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

with comedian Hugh Romney and their friends during the early 1960s. Romney, later to become Wavy Gravy of

Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

and Merry Pranksters fame, lived above

The Gaslight Cafe The Gaslight Cafe was a coffeehouse in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York. Also called The Village Gaslight, it opened in 1958 and became a venue for folk music and other musical acts. Al Aronowitz. . Retrieved June 25, 2 ...

MacDougal Street MacDougal Street is a one-way street in the Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the nort ...

, where he worked as entertainment director.Sounes, ''Down the Highway'', pp. 92–93 The two first met at the Gaslight in the spring of 1961. Dylan approached Romney about the possibility of performing and began appearing regularly at the Gaslight's hootenannies. Within a few months, he debuted at the Gaslight as a featured act. Dylan frequently hung out upstairs in Romney's apartment and wrote one of his most significant songs there, "

A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" is a song written by American musician and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962 and recorded later that year for his second studio album, '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963). Its lyrical structure is based ...

", in August 1962 . The next winter, in late January or early February 1963, he wrote "Bob Dylan's Dream" possibly as a nostalgic remembrance of his early days in the Village when his life was less complex. A differing account, by biographer and critic Robert Shelton, posits that the song concerns the lost innocence of Dylan's adolescence in Hibbing, Minnesota.Shelton, ''No Direction Home'', p. 156 John Bucklen, one of Dylan's closest friends in Hibbing in the mid-1950s, told Shelton he and Dylan used to venture out to his sister's house, where they would play guitar and sing verses. "When I heard the song 'Bob Dylan's Dream'," he said, "I couldn't help but think that some of the sessions we had at my sister's house were part of that 'Dream.'"Heylin, ''Revolution in the Air'', p. 124

The song's origins

According to Shelton, Dylan credited the melody of "Bob Dylan's Dream" to the

traditional A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

broadside ballad A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between the ...

"Lord Franklin" (also known as " Lady Franklin's Lament" and "The Sailor's Dream"), which he learned from British folksinger

Martin Carthy Martin Dominic Forbes Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in English folk music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as later ar ...

, while visiting London in late December 1962. However, Dylan may have learned the song even earlier from his Village friend Paul Clayton, who had recorded it in 1957 for his album ''Whaling and Sailing Songs: From the Days of Moby Dick'' for Folkways (later remastered on

Tradition A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common e ...

). In either case, after returning from London two weeks later, Dylan began playing "Bob Dylan's Dream" for Gil Turner during after-hours sessions at

Gerde's Folk City Gerdes Folk City, sometimes spelled Gerde's Folk City, was a music venue in the West Village of Manhattan in New York City. Initially opened by owner Mike Porco as a restaurant called Gerdes, it eventually began to present occasional incidental m ...

, where Turner was emcee. Besides the melody, Dylan's song also shares lyrical similarities with "Lady Franklin's Lament", as in the song's closing lines: "Lady Franklin's Lament" concludes on a similar note: Within a short time, Dylan made the song a regular part of his repertoire, performing it for his first major New York concert at

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

on April 12, 1963. Less than two weeks later, on April 24, he recorded two takes of the song at Columbia's Studio A, one of which was selected for the album ''Freewheelin' Bob Dylan''.

Notable cover versions

* Peter, Paul, and Mary on '' Album 1700'', 1967 *

Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...

on ''Judy Sings Dylan...Just Like a Woman'', 1993 * Phil Carmen on ''Bob Dylan's Dream'', 1996 * Kinky Friedman on ''Classic Snatches from Europe'', 2003 *

Bryan Ferry Bryan Ferry (born 26 September 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. He became known as the frontman of the band Roxy Music and also launched a solo career. His voice has been described as an "elegant, seductive croon". He also established ...

on '' Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International'', 2012

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

Lyrics
*

, on

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...