Sweet November: Part 2

Bob Dylan: Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

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And here it’s Joan Baez’s interpretation:

Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you anymore
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But goodbye’s too good a word, gal
So I’ll just say fare thee well
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

The greatest call of artistic creation is to build an environment for analysis, to bring one to think about the work of art. That in itself is a journey. It may take years, and many changes in ones opinion about deeper meaning and message. Take the case of Mona Lisa Portrait: People have contemplated for centuries the meaning of  her smile. Among many other quests for truth I have been fascinated by the depth of the poem ” Don’t think twice” composed by Bob Dylan and interpreted by Bob Dylan, song that was meaningful to other well known singers, such as Johnny Cash.
 If one so chooses one may not give  to much significance, enjoy the song, the challenge of the one man band, playing the guitar, voice, and the harmonica, (for which Bob created the hand free neck wire rack to hold his harmonica. But is the song just about a break-up of an half- lived, ever more demanding relationship between a man and a woman, or is there a much more fundamental circumstance of moving on and away from an unwinning position in life, singing, playing the harmonica, free to choose the direction and the place  of your next breath, in confidence that you have what it takes to undertake such enterprise, to find a more suitable ground on which to build your life.  One thing is sure: I find value in this composition, beyond eyes and ears meet and a good place to start in life when determined to succeed where others just survive.   It is about the optimistic attitude one needs in life in order to be able to jump over the self-pity place where loss hold you and into to a spot suitable for a fresh start, ready to meet the consequences.

Therefore when I wake up early morning I tell myself that I will search for excellence, for truth, for meaning with every breath I take: Sometimes it helps to tell myself: “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right…Everything will Turn Out fine”. So far it did work:

 Thanks Bob, 

George. 🙂 

Related Articles

• Bob Dylan’s great tale of musical memories (telegraph.co.uk)