Editing 4th Time Around

{{Short description|1966 song by Bob Dylan}}
{{good article}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox song
| name     = 4th Time Around
| cover    =
| alt      =
| caption  = 
| artist   = [[Bob Dylan]]
| album    = [[Blonde on Blonde]]
| released = {{Start date|1966|06|20}}
| recorded = February 14 and June{{nbsp}}1966
| studio   = [[Bradley Studios#Columbia Studios|Columbia Studio A]] (Nashville, Tennessee)
| genre    = 
| length   = 4:35{{sfn|Margotin|Guesdon|2022|p=237}} 
| label    = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| writer   = Bob Dylan
| producer = [[Bob Johnston]]
| misc       = {{External music video|type=song|header=Audio|{{YouTube|7wSIboHqtXY|"4th Time Around"}}}}
}}
"'''4th Time Around'''" (also listed as "'''Fourth Time Around'''"){{sfn|Trager|2004|p=195}} is a song by the American singer-songwriter [[Bob Dylan]], which was released as the 12th track on his seventh studio album ''[[Blonde on Blonde]]'' on June 20, 1966. The song was written by Dylan and produced by [[Bob Johnston]]. Commentators often interpret it as a parody of [[the Beatles]]' 1965 song "[[Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)]]". [[John Lennon]]{{efn|name="NW"}} composed "Norwegian Wood" after being influenced by the introspective lyrics of Dylan. Lennon later reflected on his feelings of paranoia when Dylan first played him "4th Time Around".

Twenty takes of "4th Time Around", most of them incomplete, were recorded at Columbia Studio A, Nashville, on February 14, 1966. The last of these was used for the album. "4th Time Around" has received critical acclaim, despite being identified as one of the lesser tracks on ''Blonde on Blonde''.

==Background and recording==
A few weeks after the release of his sixth studio album ''[[Highway 61 Revisited]]'' (1965), [[Bob Dylan]]'s first recording session for his next album was on October 5, 1965, at [[Columbia Records|Columbia Studio A]], New York City. The producer was [[Bob Johnston]] who had supervised from the third, to the concluding sixth, recording session for ''Highway 61 Revisited'' at the same studio.{{sfn|Wilentz|2010}}<ref name="OLOF65">{{cite web |url=https://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20(65).htm |title=Still on the Road: 1965 Concerts, Interviews and Recording Sessions |last=Björner |first=Olof |website=bjorner.com |access-date=August 22, 2022 |archive-date=August 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220822153419/https://www.bjorner.com/DSN00785%20%2865%29.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> After this session, Dylan toured the United States and Canada; there was a second recording session in New York on November 30, during the tour.{{sfn|Wilentz|2010}} Three recording sessions in January (on the 21st, 25th and 27th) were not productive.<ref name="OLOF66">{{cite web |url=https://www.bjorner.com/DSN01225%20(66).htm |title=Still on the Road: 1966 Blonde on Blonde recording sessions and world tour |last=Björner |first=Olof |website=bjorner.com |access-date=August 22, 2022 |archive-date=June 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605143326/http://www.bjorner.com/DSN01225%20%2866%29.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

At Johnston's suggestion, the location for the sessions was changed to [[Nashville, Tennessee]].{{sfn|Wilentz|2010}} After two further concerts,<ref name="OLOF66"/> the fifth album session took place at [[Bradley Studios#Columbia Studios|Columbia Studio A]], Nashville.{{sfn|Sanders|2020|p=99}}<ref name="OLOF66"/> Johnston organized for experienced session musicians including [[Charlie McCoy]], [[Wayne Moss]], [[Kenneth Buttrey]] and [[Joe South]] to play with Dylan.{{sfn|Wilentz|2010}} They were joined by [[Robbie Robertson]] and [[Al Kooper]] who had both played at earlier sessions.{{sfn|Wilentz|2010}} Twenty takes of "4th Time Around", most of them incomplete, were recorded at the start of the first Nashville session, on February 14, 1966.<ref name="OLOF66"/> The twentieth take was used on ''[[Blonde on Blonde]]'',<ref name="OLOF66"/> with [[Overdubbing|overdubs]] recorded in June.{{sfn|Heylin|2011|p=264}} The album was released on June 20, 1966.{{sfn|Heylin|2017|p=288}}

Dylan biographer [[Robert Shelton (critic)|Robert Shelton]] wrote that "the guitar figure repeats a rippling, romantic Mexican cadence".{{sfn|Shelton|1987|p=324}} He related that Dylan told him that he had always been "hip to" [[Tejano music]] and a type of Mexican [[folk-pop]] music known as "cangacero", and that these had influenced his songs "[[It's All Over Now, Baby Blue]]" and "[[Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues]]" as well as "4th Time Around".{{sfn|Shelton|1987|p=324}}

==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}}

==Critical reception==
[[Ralph J. Gleason]] of the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' praised the song for "some great, grotesque and funny lines that dip into reality".<ref>{{cite news |title=Dylan's 'Blonde' broke all the rules |newspaper=The San Francisco Examiner |date=July 31, 1966 |page=TW.31}}</ref> Scholar [[Sean Wilentz]] wrote that "4th Time Around" sounds "like Bob Dylan impersonating John Lennon impersonating Bob Dylan", and is "slight" in comparison to Dylan's "[[Visions of Johanna]]'".{{sfn|Wilentz|2010}} Shelton described Dylan's voice on the track as that of "a tired, old bluesman" and commented that "The lyric is runaway fantasy, almost incongruous against the soft musical flow".{{sfn|Shelton|1987|p=324}} Rodgers finds that the "reprehensible" image presented by the narrator is "heavily distorted by boyish naiveté and Socratic irony and actually works in such a way as to make the whole affair extremely humorous".{{sfn|Rodgers|2012|p=21}} Although he writes positively about the song, Gray considers it one of the lesser tracks on ''Blonde on Blonde''.{{sfn|Gray|2002|p=149}} ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' rated the song as 54th in a 2015 ranking of the "100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs".<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=Rolling Stone |year=2015 |title=100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-bob-dylan-songs-65159/4th-time-around-1966-141191/ |access-date=August 23, 2022 |archive-date=August 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824155829/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-bob-dylan-songs-65159/4th-time-around-1966-141191/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Live performances==
According to his official website, Dylan has played the song in concert 37 times.<ref name="LIVE">{{cite web |title=Setlists that contain Fourth Time Around |url=https://www.bobdylan.com/setlists/?id_song=25828 |website=Bob Dylan's official website |access-date=August 23, 2022 |archive-date=August 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823192735/https://www.bobdylan.com/setlists/?id_song=25828 |url-status=live }}</ref> The live debut was on February 26, 1966, at [[Island Garden]], [[West Hempstead, New York]],<ref name="LIVE"/> and it featured regularly on setlists until the conclusion of his [[Bob Dylan World Tour 1966|1966 World Tour]], on May 26, 1966, at the [[Royal Albert Hall]], London.{{sfn|Heylin|2010|pp=357–358}}<ref name="LIVE"/> One-off acoustic performances in 1974 and 1978 have been criticized as "among Dylan's worst-ever live performances" by Heylin,{{sfn|Heylin|2010|p=358}} who praised the 1966 performances, where he felt Dylan was focused, and a 1975 [[Rolling Thunder Revue]] live rendition that he felt "came caressingly close to [the song's] corrosive core".{{sfn|Heylin|2010|p=358}} The song also featured in Dylan shows in 1999, 2000, and 2002.<ref name="LIVE"/>

==Personnel==
[[File:Joe South.png|thumb|alt=A head and shoulders picture of Joe South|Joe South (pictured in 1970) played on the track]]
The details of the personnel involved in making ''Blonde on Blonde'' are subject to some uncertainty.{{sfn|Wilentz|2010}} According to Daryl Sanders, the musicians on "4th Time Around" were as follows:{{sfn|Sanders|2020|p=279}}

'''Musicians'''
*[[Bob Dylan]]&nbsp;– vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
*[[Wayne Moss]]&nbsp;– acoustic guitar
*[[Charlie McCoy]]&nbsp;– acoustic guitar
*[[Joe South]]&nbsp;– electric bass
*[[Al Kooper]]&nbsp;– organ{{efn|According to Sanders, Kooper's organ part was included on the mono releases of the album in France and Canada, and on the initial stereo release, but was not included on later stereo releases.{{sfn|Sanders|2020|p=280}}}}
*[[Kenneth Buttrey]]&nbsp;– drums

'''Technical'''
*[[Bob Johnston]]&nbsp;– record producer{{sfn|Sanders|2020|p=276}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
'''Books'''
*{{cite book |last=Gray|first=Michael |author-link=Michael Gray (author) |title=Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan |year=2002|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |location=London|isbn=978-0-8264-6382-1}}
*{{cite book |last=Heylin |first=Clinton |author-link=Clinton Heylin |year=2010|title=Revolution in the Air – the songs of Bob Dylan Vol.1 1957–73|publisher=Constable & Robinson  |isbn=978-1-84901-296-6}}
*{{cite book |last=Heylin |first=Clinton |title=Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition |publisher=Faber And Faber |location=London |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-571-27240-2}}
*{{cite book|first=Clinton|last=Heylin|title=Judas!|publisher=Lesser Gods |location=New York|year=2017|isbn=978-1-944713-30-0}}
*{{cite book| last=MacDonald | first=Ian | author-link=Ian MacDonald | year=2008 | title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties | publisher=[[Vintage Books]] | location=London| edition=Third | isbn=978-1-84413-828-9}}
*{{cite book |last1=Margotin |first1=Philippe |last2=Guesdon |first2=Jean-Michel |date=2022 |title=Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track |publisher=Black Dog & Leventhal |edition=Expanded |location=New York |isbn=978-0-7624-7573-5}}
*{{cite book |last=Sanders |first=Daryl |title=That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound: Dylan, Nashville, and the Making of Blonde on Blonde |edition=epub |year=2020 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-1-61373-550-3}}
*{{cite book |last=Shelton |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Shelton (critic) |title=No direction home: the life and music of Bob Dylan |publisher=New English Library |location=London |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-450-04843-2  }}
*{{cite book | last = Thomas| first = Richard|author-link=Richard F. Thomas| title = Why Bob Dylan Matters| year = 2017| publisher = Dey Street |location=New York| isbn = 978-0-06-268573-5}}
*{{cite book |last=Trager |first=Oliver |title=Keys to the rain: the definitive Bob Dylan encyclopedia |year=2004 |publisher=Billboard Books |location=New York | isbn=978-0-8230-7974-2 }}
*{{cite book|first=Sean|last=Wilentz |author-link=Sean Wilentz|title=Bob Dylan in America |chapter=4: The Sound of 3:00&nbsp;am: The Making of Blonde on Blonde, New York City and Nashville, October 5, 1965 – March 10 (?), 1966 |publisher=Vintage Digital |location=London |year=2010|isbn=978-1-4070-7411-5 |url=https://www.popmatters.com/131206-bob-dylan-in-america-2496136966.html |access-date=August 21, 2022 |via=Pop Matters}}

'''Journal articles'''
*{{cite journal| last=Hartman |first=Charles O. |title=Dylan's Bridges |journal= New Literary History |volume=46 |number=4 |year=2015 |pages=737–57 |doi=10.1353/nlh.2015.0037 |s2cid=163223965 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Inglis |first=Ian |year=1996 |title=Synergies and Reciprocities: The Dynamics of Musical and Professional Interaction between The Beatles and Bob Dylan |journal=Popular Music & Society |volume=20 |issue=4  |doi=10.1080/03007769608591644 |pages=53–79}}
*{{cite journal |last=Rodgers |first=Michael|year=2012 |title=Relationships of Ownership: Art and Theft in Bob Dylan's 1960s' Trilogy |journal=Imaginations Journal |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=17–29| doi=10.17742/IMAGE.stealimage.3-1.5 |doi-access=free }}
{{Refend}}

'''Citations'''
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/fourth-time-around Lyrics] from Bob Dylan's official website.
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wSIboHqtXY Audio] from Bob Dylan's official YouTube channel.

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[[Category:1966 songs]]
[[Category:Songs written by Bob Dylan]]
[[Category:Bob Dylan songs]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by Bob Johnston]]
[[Category:Satirical songs]]
[[Category:Songs about John Lennon]]