I Want You (Bob Dylan song)

American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan started to move away from the contemporary folk music sound that had characterized his early albums with his fourth LP Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964). Bringing It All Back Home (1965) included both electric and acoustic tracks, and was followed by the purely electric Highway 61 Revisited later that year.[2] In 1965, Dylan hired the Hawks as his backing group for live shows,[3] but recording sessions in New York for a new album were not productive with them, and he accepted a suggestion from his producer Bob Johnston that the sessions should transfer to Nashville, Tennessee.[4] Dylan went to Nashville in February 1966, with Al Kooper and Robbie Robertson from the New York sessions also making the trip.[4]

The track was recorded in Columbia Music Row Studios in Nashville in the early hours of March 10, 1966,[5] starting as dawn was approaching.[6] Whilst some of the songs on Blonde on Blonde are in the established Tin Pan Alley "A-A-B-A" form, an extra section at the end of "I Want You" gives it an A-A-B-A-A format .[7] Dylan demonstrated the song to his accompanying musicians using an acoustic guitar.[8] After Johnston had announced that recording had started, and confirmed the song's title with Dylan, guitarist Charlie McCoy asked about the song's intro, which had not been established; Dylan replied and played the chord progression.[9] There were three complete takes of "I Want You" and two incomplete ones.[9] The final take, possibly with a guitar overdub, was the master.[9][lower-alpha 1] It was the last song recorded for Dylan's seventh album, Blonde on Blonde,[10] with the session concluding at around 7:00 a.m.[9]

Sean Wilentz wrote that numerous failures were documented in early drafts for the lyrics; "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".[11] However, once recording started, the only notable change between the takes was to the tempo.[12] The song's sentimental aspect was partially explained in a 1966 interview: "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."[13]

Despite the straightforward title, Mike Marqusee found the song to be "packed with enigmatic imagery and haunted by ambivalent emotions".[14] For literature scholar Richard Brown, "the song shows a mastery of its apparently casual form ... it is neatly balanced between the directness of the repeated refrain and the mystery and interest of the material in the stanzas."[15] Andy Gill observed that the song's tension is achieved through the balance of the "direct address" of the chorus, the repeated phrase "I want you," and a weird cast of characters, including a guilty undertaker, a lonesome organ grinder, weeping fathers, mothers, sleeping saviours, the queen of spades, and "a dancing child with his Chinese suit".[16][17] Gill reports that "the dancing child" has been interpreted as a reference to Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, and his then girlfriend Anita Pallenberg.[18] Clinton Heylin agrees there may be substance to this interpretation because the dancing child claims that "time was on his side", as an allusion to "Time Is On My Side", the Stones' first U.S. hit.[19]

Noting Dylan's interest in classical literature, English professor Graley Herren hypothesized that the song, which references an undertaker, is about the narrator's failure to accept the death of a loved one, echoing the ancient tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.[20] However, commentators have typically taken the song to be an expression of lust,[8][21][22] perhaps for a new love,[23] or someone other than the narrator's current partner.[19] Mellers felt that "The timbre generates an overwhelming erotic compulsion from what on paper is no more than a series of oscillation between two tones."[24]

A version of "I Want You" was released as a single with a duration of 2 minutes and 57 seconds,[25] on June 13, 1966, with a live version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues recorded in Liverpool on May 14, 1966 as the B-side.[26] Blonde on Blonde, Dylan's seventh studio album, was issued as a double album on June 20, with "I Want You" as the first track on side two.[27][28] The album version had a duration of three minutes and eight seconds.[29] It was later included on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (1967).[30] The recording session was released in its entirety on the 18-disc Collector's Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966 in 2015, with the penultimate take of the song also appearing on the 6-disc and 2-disc versions of that album.[31]

The reviewer for Cash Box described the song as a "medium-paced, blues-soaked plea for romance with an infectious, repeating rhythmic riff" that it considered a "sure-fire blockbuster candidate."[25] Billboard magazine recorded the release of "I Want You" in its June 25 issue, and predicted it would reach the Top 20.[32] The track entered the Billboard Hot 100 charts on July 2, 1966, at number 90, and Billboard identified the single as a "star performer"—a side "registering greatest proportionate upward progress this week".[33] It peaked at 20th on July 30.[34] "I Want You" entered the Cash Box charts at number 59 on July 2, and was tipped for strong upward movement.[35] It peaked at number 25 on August 6.[36] It was also a hit in the UK, where it peaked at number 16.[37]

Richard Goldstein of The Village Voice found that despite the "complex" imagery, the song should appeal to teenagers in Dylan's expanding fanbase as it expressed its subject in straightforward phrasing.[38]Not all critics were positive. Craig McGregor of The Sydney Morning Herald found the song unremarkable,[39] and Peter Murray's brief assessment was that the track was "rather disappointing".[40]

In 2013, Jim Beviglia rated it as the 70th-best of Dylan's songs, and praised Dylan's "ingenious poetic techniques".[22] Neil Spencer gave the song a rating of 5/5 stars in an Uncut magazine Dylan supplement in 2015.[41] Highlighting Dylan's harmonica part and Wayne Moss's guitar, Dylan discography author John Nogowski gave the song an "A" rating.[23]

Dylan first performed "I Want You" live in concert in 1973, accompanied by Neil Young and members of the Band, at a benefit concert for Students Need Athletic and Cultural Kicks (SNACK).[42] Three years later, he performed it during the Rolling Thunder Revue, in a manner that journalist Oliver Trager called a "painful dirge."[42] During his 1978 World Tour Dylan performed "I Want You" as a torch song, while in 1981 it appeared in his live performances in a more up-tempo version.[42] After this, he next performed it during the Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead 1987 Tour, with it remaining part of his live repertoire for the 1987 Temples in Flames Tour.[42]

A 1978 performance, featuring Dylan accompanied by Steve Douglas on recorder, was released on the live album Bob Dylan at Budokan (1978).[43] One of the performance with the Grateful Dead was issued on Dylan & the Dead (1989),[44] and an incomplete rehearsal from 1975 was included on Bob Dylan – The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings (2019).[45] According to his official website, Dylan has performed the song live 294 times, from its debut in 1976 to his most recent live rendition in 2005.[46]

The track was written by Dylan.[47] The credits below are adapted from That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound: Dylan, Nashville, and the Making of Blonde on Blonde.[48]

Musicians

• Bob Dylan – vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica
• Charlie McCoy – acoustic guitar
• Wayne Moss – electric guitar
• Al Kooper – organ
• Hargus "Pig" Robbins – piano
• Either Henry Strzelecki or Joe South – electric bass
• Kenneth Buttrey – drums

Technical

• Bob Johnston – record producer

"I Want You"
Single by Sophie B. Hawkins
from the album Tongues and Tails
B-side	"Live and Let Love"
Released	January 1993 (1993-01)
Length	4:19
Label	Columbia
Songwriter(s)	Bob Dylan
Producer(s)	Rick Chertoff Ralph Schuckett
Sophie B. Hawkins singles chronology
"California Here I Come" (1992) "I Want You" (1993) "Right Beside You" (1994)
Music video
"I Want You" on YouTube

American singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins recorded "I Want You" for her 1992 debut album, Tongues and Tails, produced by Rick Chertoff and Ralph Schuckett, on Columbia records.[49][50] In Rolling Stone, Paul Evans described the style of her version as "breathy techno-MOR";[51] the Associated Press reviewer called it "quasi hip-hop".[52] Issued as a single in January 1993,[53] it reached No. 49 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1993.[54][55] The single version had a duration of 4 minutes and 19 seconds, and was backed with "Live and Let Love" as the B-side.[56] The music video, which was shot in Paris, was directed by Lydie Caller and produced by Odille DeVars.[57]

"I Want You" was one of Hawkins's favourite songs, but when a friend suggested that she cover it for the album, she was reluctant, feeling that the original was "perfect", but after persuasion by the friend she recorded a version using a different melody, and used her first vocal take on the album.[58] Hawkins has said of Dylan's lyrics, "Each time I sing [the] song I struggle to grasp what the words are saying."[59] She elaborated, "I completely feel the song, but I don't understand it."[60]

According to Hawkins, she was told by Dylan's manager that Dylan liked her version. She was invited to perform the song at Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration at Madison Square Garden, New York City, in October 1992.[61] Rolling Stone reviewer David Wild wrote that Hawkins's inclusion on the bill "struck some as a case of label boosterism by Columbia",[62] and Wayne Robins of Newsday felt that her performance was "superfluous",[63] while Tom Moon characterised the performance as "listless" in The Philadelphia Inquirer.[64] Hawkins' performance was one of a number of omissions from the 1993 double-album and VHS releases of the concert.[61]

Larry Flick, writing for Billboard, praised Hawkins' version for being "deliver[ed] with chatty finesse, amid a cushiony synth arrangement".[49] Randy Clark, reviewing for Cash Box, noted that despite Dylan's "obvious lyrical/poetic style", Hawkins' "sultry performance style permeates the recording".[65] Music & Media felt Hawkins "manages to completely transform the Bob Dylan classic" and noted it "sounds like Cyndi Lauper in a Sinéad O'Connor setting".[66] Amongst the negative reviews, Adam Sweeting of The Guardian described Hawkins's vocals as a "cloisterish drone" where she attempted but failed to match Dylan's delivery,[67] Parry Gettelman dismissed the track as "putrid" in The Orlando Sentinel,[50] and Richard Plunkett of The Age predicted that Dylan's fans would dislike the "quite bad" cover.[68] The Associated Press review suggested that the idea for the cover should have been discarded, and anticipated that Dylan fans would be upset by the track.[52]

• Lyrics at Bon Dylan's official website.