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Recorded amid such hedonistic revelries as Yea! Heavy And A Bottle Of Bread and Please Mrs Henry, I’m Not There (1956) has probably excited more discussion than just about any other unreleased Dylan song. Part of this is the inevitable result of a set of lyrics that always seem on the verge of meaning something. The sense – half-sense might be a more accurate phrase, the lyrics slide in and out of coherence – is one of regret and remorse as the singer reflects on a girl who shone “like a raindow yesterday.” Many have sought to interpret some significance to the (1956) subtitle. A seemingly authentic typescript of a skeletal version of the song (published in The Telegraph) seemed to confirm what I long suspected, that Dylan had the bare outlines to the song and free-associated the rest. That said, it is the ghostly backing and an equally haunting vocal that gives the song its enticing majesty. Of course, the real question, which can never be resolved, is why Dylan would leave such a half-formed masterpiece unfinished (certainly the nightmare of transcribing this song may explain why it took until 1970 for it to be copyrighted).
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