14. Never Say Goodbye
Bob Dylan returns with my favorite song from the previously mentioned Planet Waves. The lyrical imagery of this once again brings me back to the cold winter nights of my youth. Blasting this song in my first car while out looking for girls. Icy nights, cold still air, fogged up windows and great music.
The Band backs Dylan on the entire album and on this song in particular their talents show through. The thumping bass lead of Rick Danko, the wailing guitar of Robbie Robertson winding throughout the song and the joyous piano of Richard Manuel all make this song special.
The song itself is under 3 minutes, but despite the length there is a lot to unpack musically. We start with Bob and his solitary acoustic guitar strumming, followed by Roberston's piercing lead guitar and then Danko's melodic bass lead kicks in just before Dylan hits us with some beautiful lyrics. Then Richard Manuel's piano twinkles as if it were the stars on a cold winter night. The entire song builds with the wild accompaniment that feels chaotic, but organized at the same time. It is something that sounds so simple, but is tough to recreate. A solo guitar can't do it. A teenaged me and my two cousins couldn't do it nor should we have even tried it. Hahahaha! (Somewhere on a tape in the back of a drawer there is our ill advised attempt at this song and other of our originals.) You need the magic mix of Dylan and The Band to get it right.
One of the things I really love about this song is the melody and aside from the first verse every other time he sings it is almost as if the rest of the song is a chorus. I love the the images and melody. They are some of my favorite Dylan lines. No surrealistic stuff here, just snapshots of the scenery and the truth. I love this song. The music and melody wailing about the love of his lady and the need for her to never leave. Musically the song feels unstructured and chaotic, but isn't that what life and love are all about? Beauty and chaos and love.
North wind about to break
On footprints in the snow
Silence down below.
You're beautiful to me
You can make me cry
Never say goodbye. "
Due to the difficulty of getting a video here is the Spotify link, YouTube Premium Link and another source. Give it a listen or 10.
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