Hi guys. I think I must be one of those weirdos that actually pay attention to the lyrics, rather than have them wash over me. Probably why I am no hell as a musician. I love "Don't Think Twice", but it is a deeply sick song, which is probably why people are mesmerized by Dylan -- how can anyone so openly display their own sleaziness, what kind of narcissism makes you do that? ("Idiot Wind" is another good example). The problem is that everyone who sings it or listens to it thinks of themselves as the leaver, and not the leavee. If you think about it from the point of view of the leavee -- the one addressed by the song -- you can see what a depraved song it is.

Its insidiousness begins with the title ("Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"). Notice that it isn't "don't give it a second thought" or "forget about it, get on with your life", it is "don't think twice". Is the person to think once about it? How do you keep someone from thinking twice about something? No, the whole idea of the song is to make the person being left not only feel guilty, but to make them obsess about what they did wrong interminably, and so wreck the rest of their life. So that it is more than punishment, it is a poisoned hook. It is designed to keep the person being left haunted by the leaver -- so the leaver doesn't really ever leave. The song is left like a slowly exploding hand grenade. "You just sort of wasted my precious time" is a good example of the whole tenor of the thing -- the vagueness of the opening of the line (Oh I don't care) contrasts with the tightness of the end of the line (but I do). So don't really worry, except do. "Goodbye is too big a word, so I'll just say fare thee well" -- can there be a more poisoned line -- "goodbye is too big a word" -- why? Because you don't deserve it? Because I may be back? -- so I'll just say fare thee well -- Oh, the romantic gypsy with his faretheewells, I'll be back from shipwreck someday, maybe, so it isn't really the final goodbye, so just keep standing at the window, thinking about the one you drove away.

And there are all these beautiful knife twists. That sneaky slide into the third person: "I once loved a woman, etc..." Not you, of course. Or is it you...? And the poison seeps: Am I the one who got his heart but I wanted his soul, or did I not even get that far? Is this some other woman he came into my life carrying around, who already had his heart, and that is why I couldn't get to him? Or is he accusing me of taking his heart but trying to get his soul? BUT HE ISN'T EVEN TELLING ME THAT!!! What was going on in him? And so on.

Truly one of the great sadistic masterpieces. Nothing to do with misogyny. Just deeply vicious, and all BOB.

yours, Peter T.