11. Lay Down Your Weary Tune

 

Another song and another appearance by Bob Dylan. This time we go back to a live show at Carnegie Hall in 1963. The Dylan camp tightly guards his catalog so the Youtube version is for premium members only. I have also included the Spotify link so you have a few options. 

Solo acoustic and early in his career this is one of the earlier appearances of vivid imagery in a Dylan song. Many of his songs from this era were in the protest vein, but this is a song of life, song and music images woven together. I love the fact that the melody is so engaging, but that the guitar drives the rhythm with  primarily down strokes thereby letting the melody and lyrics do the talking. It is a fun song to play and to listen to. 

I know that Dylan's early fame was due to well written message songs, but the Dylan that I have become such a fan of is on early display here. Wordplay and imagery guiding you to wherever your mind takes you when you hear the lines. I like to think this song is about letting go and giving in after some exhausting experience. It could be work, it could be illness, a night out,  stress, a relationship, or life itself. It is whatever you want it to be which is what makes these Dylan songs so appealing. 

My favorite lines are "struck by the sounds before the sun, I knew the night had gone, the morning breeze like a bugle blew, against the drum of dawn". That takes me back to college and the few years post college where you have as little responsibility as you ever will have and staying up until dawn is essentially what the weekend demanded. A lust for living unbound by responsibility.  I commented on the sounds of the morning birds in another post and this song speaks to the sounds before the sun when you know the night was done and the drumbeat of a new day has arrived.  If you have lived it you will recognize and remember it in these lines. 

I also love "I stood unwound beneath the skies, and clouds unbound by laws".  Getting back to nature is always so restorative. Many a time I have found myself stressed and tired out by any of the various things that life can throw at me, but standing next to a lake staring at the sky allows your mind to unwind as you marvel at the freedom the endless sky is afforded. If only we could find the time to allow ourselves to let the music of the world set us free from time to time. 

Lay Down Your Weary Tune (Spotify)

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