Editing Bringing It All Back Home (section)

== Songs ==

=== Overview ===
''Bringing It All Back Home'' consists mainly of blues and folk and, as a result of Dylan's adoption of a more electric sound, is considered to have been instrumental in the birth of folk rock.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Revisiting Bob Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home' (1965) {{!}} Retrospective Tribute |url=https://albumism.com/features/bob-dylan-bringing-it-all-back-home-turns-55-anniversary-retrospective |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=Albumism |language=en-US}}</ref> On his following albums, ''[[Highway 61 Revisited]]'' and ''[[Blonde on Blonde]]'', he would further develop the genre, influencing American folk acts such as [[Buffalo Springfield]] and [[Simon & Garfunkel|Simon and Garfunkel]] as well as [[British Invasion]] bands like the Beatles and [[the Rolling Stones]] to innovate, producing more introspective lyrics and allowing the latter two groups to expand out of the confines of their [[pop rock]] roots. According to [[Pete Townshend]] of [[the Who]], Dylan's folk attitude also influenced the writing of one of their most successful songs, the 1965 single "[[My Generation]]". In the Beatles' case, the results of this innovation, namely the albums ''[[Help!]]'' and ''[[Rubber Soul]],'' would help push folk rock into the mainstream''.''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-01 |title=How Bob Dylan influenced The Beatles and The Rolling Stones |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-bob-dylan-influenced-the-beatles-the-rolling-stones-the-who/ |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Side one ===
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==== "Subterranean Homesick Blues" ====
The album opens with "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]", heavily inspired by [[Chuck Berry]]'s "[[Too Much Monkey Business]]". "Subterranean Homesick Blues" became a Top 40 hit for Dylan. "Snagged by a sour, pinched guitar riff, the song has an acerbic tinge … and Dylan sings the title rejoinders in mock self-pity," writes music critic [[Tim Riley (music critic)|Tim Riley]]. "It's less an indictment of the system than a coil of imagery that spells out how the system hangs itself with the rope it's so proud of."

==== "She Belongs to Me" ====
"[[She Belongs to Me]]" extols the bohemian virtues of an artistic lover whose creativity must be constantly fed ("Bow down to her on Sunday / Salute her when her birthday comes. / For Halloween buy her a trumpet / And for Christmas, give her a drum.")

==== "Maggie's Farm" ====
"[[Maggie's Farm]]" contains themes of social, economic and political criticism, with lines such as "Well I try my best to be just like I am/But everybody wants you to be just like them" and "Well, I wake up in the morning, fold my hands and pray for rain/I got a head full of ideas that are drivin' me insane". It follows a straightforward blues structure, with the opening line of each verse ("I ain't gonna work...") sung twice, then repeated at the end of the verse. The third to fifth lines of each verse elaborate on and explain the sentiment expressed in the verse's opening/closing lines. It references working for Maggie, her father, her mother, and her brother on a farm.

==== "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" ====
"[[Love Minus Zero/No Limit]]" is a love song. Its main musical hook is a series of three descending [[Chord (music)|chords]], while its lyrics articulate Dylan's feelings for his lover, and have been interpreted as describing how she brings a needed [[zen]]-like calm to his chaotic world. The song uses surreal imagery, which some authors and critics have suggested recalls [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s "[[The Raven]]" and the biblical [[Book of Daniel]]. Critics have also remarked that the style of the lyrics is reminiscent of [[William Blake]]'s poem "[[The Sick Rose]]".

==== "Outlaw Blues" ====
"[[Outlaw Blues (Bob Dylan song)|Outlaw Blues]]" is an [[electric blues]] song that lyrically follows a fugitive traveling through harsh conditions ("Ain't it hard to stumble and land in some muddy lagoon?/Especially when it's nine below zero and three o'clock in the afternoon") as he resents the life of being on the run.

==== "On the Road Again" ====
"[[On the Road Again (Bob Dylan song)|On the Road Again]]" catalogs the absurd affectations and degenerate living conditions of bohemia. The song concludes: "Then you ask why I don't live here / Honey, how come you don't move?"

==== "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" ====
"[[Bob Dylan's 115th Dream]]" narrates a surreal experience involving the discovery of America, "Captain Arab" (a clear reference to [[Ahab (Moby-Dick)|Captain Ahab]] of ''[[Moby Dick]]''), and numerous bizarre encounters. It is the longest song in the electric section of the album, starting out as an acoustic ballad before being interrupted by laughter, and then starting back up again with an electric blues rhythm. The music is so similar in places to ''Another Side of Bob Dylan''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "[[Motorpsycho Nitemare]]" as to be indistinguishable from it but for the electric instrumentation. The song can be best read as a highly sardonic, non-linear (historically) dreamscape parallel cataloguing of the discovery, creation and merits (or lack thereof) of the United States.

=== Side two ===

==== "Mr. Tambourine Man" ====
"[[Mr. Tambourine Man]]" is the first track on side 2 of the album. It was written and composed in early 1964, at the same approximate time as "[[Chimes of Freedom (song)|Chimes of Freedom]]", which Dylan recorded later that spring for his album ''[[Another Side of Bob Dylan]]''. The lyrics are surrealist and may be influenced by the work of [[Arthur Rimbaud]] (most notably for the "magic swirlin' ship" evoked in the lyrics).

==== "Gates of Eden" ====
"[[Gates of Eden (song)|Gates of Eden]]" is the only song on the album that is mono on the stereo release and all subsequent reissues. Dylan plays the song solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. It is considered one of Dylan's most surreal songs.

==== "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" ====
"[[It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)|It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)]]" was written in the summer of 1964, first performed live on October 10, 1964, and recorded on January 15, 1965. It is described by Dylan biographer [[Howard Sounes]] as a "grim masterpiece". The song features some of Dylan's most memorable lyrical images. Among the well-known lines sung in the song are "He not busy being born is busy dying," "Money doesn't talk, it swears," "Although the masters make the rules, for the wisemen and the fools" and "But even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked." Musically, it is similar to Dylan's cover of "[[Highway 51 Blues]]", which he recorded four years earlier and released on his debut album, ''[[Bob Dylan (album)|Bob Dylan]]''.

==== "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" ====
"[[It's All Over Now, Baby Blue]]" is the album's closing song. The song was recorded on January 15, 1965, with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and [[Bill Lee (musician)|William E. Lee's]] bass guitar the only instrumentation.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, 1960–1973|url=https://archive.org/details/bobdylanperformi00will|url-access=registration|edition=2nd|author=Williams, P.|page=[https://archive.org/details/bobdylanperformi00will/page/138 138]|year=2004|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-1-84449-095-0}}</ref>