Editing 4th Time Around (section)

==Composition and lyrical interpretation==
Dylan biographer [[Clinton Heylin]] speculated that "4th Time Around"  was written either hours or days before the Nashville recording session.{{sfn|Heylin|2010|p=357}} The song has five verses, each with nine lines.{{sfn|Rodgers|2012|p=21}} The lyrics appear to address a [[love triangle]], and the narrator's memories of a separation from a former lover.{{sfn|Rodgers|2012|p=21}} Scholar of English literature Michael Rodgers wrote that "the song is notable for its vitriol and how much the speaker acts the clown".{{sfn|Rodgers|2012|p=21}} In the first verse, a woman that the narrator has been arguing with says "Everybody must give something back/For something they get".{{sfn|Rodgers|2012|p=21}} The narrator questions why, and in the second verse, responds immaturely as he relates that he "gallantly handed her/My very last piece of gum".{{sfn|Rodgers|2012|p=21}} Critic [[Michael Gray (author)|Michael Gray]] refers to the start of the track as a "cold, mocking put-down of a woman and a relationship untouched by love".{{sfn|Gray|2002|p=147}} He writes that the song contains instances of sexual [[innuendo]] that highlight "Dylan's skill in pursuing the suggestive".{{sfn|Gray |2002|p=147}}
[[File:John Lennon in 1966 (cropped).jpg|thumb|alt=A head and shoulders picture of John Lennon, wearing sunglasses|[[John Lennon]] in October 1966]]
Commentators often interpret "4th Time Around" as a response to [[the Beatles]]' song "[[Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)]]",{{sfn|Trager|2004|p=195}} written by [[John Lennon]] for the 1965 album ''[[Rubber Soul]]''.{{sfn|Inglis|1996|pp=66–67}}{{efn|name="NW"|In 1980, Lennon claimed full authorship of the song, but [[Paul McCartney]] may have co-written the lyrics and/or music.{{sfn|MacDonald|2008|p=164}}}} "Norwegian Wood" obliquely addresses Lennon's romantic affair with a journalist.{{sfn|MacDonald|2008|p=165}} Dylan and the Beatles first met each other in August 1964, in New York.{{sfn|Inglis|1996|p=61}} They were appreciative of each other's work,{{sfn|Inglis|1996|p=63}} and some commentators have identified Dylan, whose lyrics contained "honest self-scrutiny and melancholy" as an influence on Lennon's writing in particular, first evidenced in "[[I'm a Loser]]" (1964).{{sfn|Inglis|1996|p=63}} Heylin has suggested that Dylan, having noticed his influence on ''Rubber Soul'', wrote "4th Time Around" as "a way of showing that he could raise the bar lyrically on Lennon".{{sfn|Heylin|2010|p=356}}

Both songs share a similar melody, although their orchestrations differ.{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2022|p=237}} Scholar of English Charles O. Hartman wrote that the song is "made of [[stanza]]s each of which is an [[Thirty-two-bar form|AABA]] structure, placing the song among Dylan's most baroque concoctions".{{sfn|Hartman|2015|p=749}} Lennon was asked about the track in a 1968 ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' interview, in which he stated:{{blockquote|I was very paranoid about that. I remember he played it to me when he was in London. He said, what do you think? I said, I don't like it. I didn't like it. I was very paranoid. I just didn't like what I felt I was feeling – I thought it was an out and out skit, you know, but it wasn't. It was great. I mean he wasn't playing any tricks on me. I was just going through the bit.<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Cott|first=Jonathan|date=1968-11-23|title=John Lennon: The Rolling Stone Interview|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/john-lennon-the-rolling-stone-interview-186264/|access-date=2022-02-14|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US|archive-date=August 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824155836/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/john-lennon-the-rolling-stone-interview-186264/|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Gray comments that "it says something{{nbsp}}... that Dylan was suspected (not least by Lennon) of parodying rather than copying".{{sfn|Gray|2002|p=147}} Heylin regards Dylan's song as "altogether darker, more disturbing".{{sfn|Heylin|2010|p=356}} [[Classics]] scholar [[Richard F. Thomas]] considers that the Beatles track "sounds coy, almost innocent in comparison to the sophistication of Dylan's voice and lyrics".{{sfn|Thomas|2017|p=146}} Thomas argued that if indeed "4th Time Around" is addressed to the Beatles, then its closing couplet, "I never asked for your crutch/Now don't ask for mine", is "devastating", and a message to the Beatles to "[s]tay away from what I'm doing".{{sfn|Thomas|2017|p=147}} He believes that it rings true to hear that Lennon was "unhappy at what must have seemed like mockery and parody",{{sfn|Thomas|2017|p=146}} and that Dylan does in fact "parody the simple rhyme of the Beatles song".{{sfn|Thomas|2017|pp=146–147}}