I Want You (Bob Dylan song)
"I Want You" is a 1966 song recorded by Bob Dylan. It was issued as a single in June 1966, shortly before the release of its accompanying album, Blonde on Blonde. A live version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" was included as a B-side. Dylan revisited the song in 1987 on a tour that was a collaboration with the Grateful Dead; that live version was released in 1989 on the Dylan and the Dead album.
Lyrics
Analyzing the evolving drafts of the lyrics, Sean Wilentz writes that there are numerous failures, "about deputies asking him his name... lines about fathers going down hugging one another and about their daughters putting him down because he isn't their brother".[1] Finally Dylan arrives at the right formula. Heylin points out that the gorgeous tune illustrates what Dylan explained to a reporter in 1966: "It's not just pretty words to a tune or putting tunes to words... (It's) the words and the music (together)—I can hear the sound of what I want to say."[2]
Andy Gill notes that the song displays a tension between "the most direct address" of the chorus, the repeated phrase "I want you", and a weird cast of characters, "too numerous to inhabit the song's three minutes comfortably", including a guilty undertaker, a lonesome organ grinder, weeping fathers, mothers, sleeping saviors, the Queen of Spades, and "a dancing child with his Chinese suit".[3] Gill reports that "the dancing child" has been interpreted as a reference to Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones.[4] Clinton Heylin agrees there may be substance to this because the dancing child claims that "time was on his side", perhaps a reference to "Time Is On My Side", the Stones' first U.S. hit.[5]
Chart performance
Billboard magazine noted the release of "I Want You" in its June 25 issue, and predicted it would reach the Top 20.[6] "I Want You" entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts on July 2, 1966 at #90, and Billboard tapped the single as a "star performer"—a side "registering greatest proportionate upward progress this week".[7] It peaked at #20 on July 30.[8]
"I Want You" was also successful on other charts. It entered the Cash Box charts at #59 on July 2, and was also tapped for strong upward movement.[9] It rose slowly, and peaked at #25 on August 6.[10] It was also a major hit in the UK, where it peaked at #16.
Covers
- The song was covered by Sophie B. Hawkins on her album Tongues and Tails
- Brazilian band Skank did a Portuguese version entitled "Tanto" in 1993, and covered the song in 2004.
- Bruce Springsteen covered this song live, prior to his success with Born to Run, during the famous "Main Point show" held on February 5, 1975 and released unofficially on numerous bootleg albums
- Les Fradkin released a cover of it on his 2006 CD "Jangleholic"
- Arjen Anthony Lucassen covered this song on his 1997 album Strange Hobby
- Ralph McTell did a slower, piano-based version on his album Water of Dreams
- Dutch singer Herman van Veen, on the 1969 album Herman van Veen II (as Ik wil jou - Dutch Translation by Rob Chrispijn)
- Belgian singer Bart Peeters did a Dutch version entitled "Ik Wil Je (Nooit Meer Kwijt)" on his album Slimmer Dan De Zanger
- Icelandic rock musician Árni Steinsson covered this on Þjóðhátíð in 1988
- Icelandic Singer Hjálmar Benónýsson covered this on Paddys 2003
- English singer-songwriter James Blunt covered the song on the 2005 tribute album Listen to Bob Dylan: A Tribute
- Cher recorded the song for her 1966 album Cher
- The Hollies covered the song for their album "Hollies Sing Dylan"
- The Tallest Man on Earth covered this song.
- ^ Wilentz 2009, p. 124
- ^ Heylin 2009, pp. 312–313.
- ^ Gill 1998, pp. 99–100
- ^ Gill 1998, p. 100
- ^ Heylin 2009, p. 312
- ^ Billboard magazine, June 25, 1966; p. 16
- ^ Billboard magazine, July 22, 1966; p. 19
- ^ Billboard magazine, July 30, 1966
- ^ "Cash Box Magazine Charts (July 2, 1966)". Cash Box Magazine (charts)/cashboxmagazine.com (website). http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/60s_files/19660702.html. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
- ^ "Cash Box Magazine Charts (August 6, 1966)". Cash Box Magazine (charts)/cashboxmagazine.com (website). http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/60s_files/19660806.html. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
References
- Gill, Andy (1998). Classic Bob Dylan: My Back Pages. Carlton. ISBN 1-8586-8599-0
- Heylin, Clinton (2009). Revolution In The Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, Volume One: 1957–73. Constable. ISBN 1-8490-1051-X
- Wilentz, Sean (2009). Bob Dylan In America. The Bodley Head. ISBN 9781847921505
- Allmusic.
- Allmusic.
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The Bootleg Series |
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Books about Dylan |
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Related articles |
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- Book:Bob Dylan
- Category:Bob Dylan
- Portal:Bob Dylan
- WikiProject:Bob Dylan
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1962 |
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1963 |
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1966 |
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1967 |
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1980s |
1980 |
"Slow Train" / "Do Right to Me Baby" · "Solid Rock" / "Covenant Woman" · "Saved" / "Are You Ready?"
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1981 |
" Heart of Mine" / "Let It Be Me" · "Dead Man, Dead Man" / "Lenny Bruce"
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1983 |
"Union Sundown" / "Angel Flying too Close to the Ground"
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1984 |
"Jokerman" / "Isis"
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1985 |
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1986 |
" Band of the Hand" / "Joe's Death" (Michael Rubini) · "Got My Mind Made Up" / "The Usual"
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1988 |
" Silvio" / "Driftin' too Far from the Shore"
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Book:Bob Dylan · Category:Bob Dylan · Portal:Bob Dylan · WikiProject:Bob Dylan
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