4th Time Around
Encyclopedia
"4th Time Around" is a song by Bob Dylan
on his 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde
.
' song "Norwegian Wood
" - written by John Lennon
and Paul McCartney
for the 1965 album Rubber Soul
- as the two tracks share a reasonably similar melody and lyrical premise. "Norwegian Wood" was one of the first Beatles tracks where the lyrics are more important than the melody and showed an obvious Dylan-influence. "4th Time Around" has been seen as either a playful homage, or a satirical warning to Lennon about co-opting Dylan's well-known songwriting devices. Lennon expressed a range of opinions on this topic in interviews between 1970 and 1980. He initially felt it to be a somewhat pointed parody of "Norwegian Wood", but later he considered Dylan's effort to be more a playful homage. Still, the last line of "4th Time Around" ("I never asked for your crutch / Now don't ask for mine.") played into Lennon's deep but misplaced paranoia about Dylan in 1966-67, when he interpreted this line as a warning not to use Dylan's songs as a "crutch" for Lennon's songwriting.
However, this line can also be read as a comment aimed at Joan Baez
. During his early career, Baez had championed Dylan as a rising talent and regularly called him on stage with her when touring. As Dylan became the more popular artist, she expected the same treatment, but Dylan was reluctant to share the spotlight. In "4th Time Around", Dylan may have been commenting on their break-up and the feeling that he had never relied on her support (or "crutch"), while Baez was now leaning on her Dylan connection for credibility.
But simply in the context of the song, "crutch" could just mean a physical "crutch" contrasted with Dylan's "crutch." There are probably two people in the song. "Her" would refer to the person the song is about, while "you" would refer to the person he is singing the song to, who happens to own a "wheelchair", symbolically or perhaps physically. He leaves one person to end up at another person's house, where he tells his story about the first person.
.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
on his 1966 album, Blonde on Blonde
Blonde on Blonde
Blonde on Blonde is American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's seventh studio album, released in May or June 1966 on Columbia Records and produced by Bob Johnston. Recording sessions commenced in New York in October 1965, with a plethora of backing musicians, including members of Dylan's live backing...
.
Narrative
With lyrics that contrast the mundane with the absurd, "4th Time Around" is suggestive of a young romance. The song revolves around the actions and brief spoken phrases of a man and a woman, who are presumably in the midst of a lover's quarrel. It opens with what could be interpreted as the climax of an argument "When she said/ Don't waste your words, they're just lies/ I cried she was deaf." The narrator refers to the woman as "she" throughout the song, but in the last stanza begins to address someone directly, using the pronoun "you", i.e. "you took me in,/you loved me then". Musically speaking, the simple folk melody of the song contrasts with the more blues-rock oriented sound of most of Blonde on Blonde.Comparisons to "Norwegian Wood"
"4th Time Around" was commonly speculated to be a response to The BeatlesThe Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' song "Norwegian Wood
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
"Norwegian Wood " is a song by The Beatles, first released on the 1965 album Rubber Soul....
" - written by John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
for the 1965 album Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released in December 1965. Produced by George Martin, Rubber Soul had been recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market...
- as the two tracks share a reasonably similar melody and lyrical premise. "Norwegian Wood" was one of the first Beatles tracks where the lyrics are more important than the melody and showed an obvious Dylan-influence. "4th Time Around" has been seen as either a playful homage, or a satirical warning to Lennon about co-opting Dylan's well-known songwriting devices. Lennon expressed a range of opinions on this topic in interviews between 1970 and 1980. He initially felt it to be a somewhat pointed parody of "Norwegian Wood", but later he considered Dylan's effort to be more a playful homage. Still, the last line of "4th Time Around" ("I never asked for your crutch / Now don't ask for mine.") played into Lennon's deep but misplaced paranoia about Dylan in 1966-67, when he interpreted this line as a warning not to use Dylan's songs as a "crutch" for Lennon's songwriting.
However, this line can also be read as a comment aimed at Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
. During his early career, Baez had championed Dylan as a rising talent and regularly called him on stage with her when touring. As Dylan became the more popular artist, she expected the same treatment, but Dylan was reluctant to share the spotlight. In "4th Time Around", Dylan may have been commenting on their break-up and the feeling that he had never relied on her support (or "crutch"), while Baez was now leaning on her Dylan connection for credibility.
But simply in the context of the song, "crutch" could just mean a physical "crutch" contrasted with Dylan's "crutch." There are probably two people in the song. "Her" would refer to the person the song is about, while "you" would refer to the person he is singing the song to, who happens to own a "wheelchair", symbolically or perhaps physically. He leaves one person to end up at another person's house, where he tells his story about the first person.
Also
A performance of "4th Time Around" from The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert appeared on the soundtrack for the film Vanilla SkyVanilla Sky
Vanilla Sky is a 2001 American psychological thriller film directed, co-produced and co-written by Cameron Crowe. The film is an English-language remake of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre los ojos , the screenplay for which was written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil...
.
Covers
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: Terry Melcher (1974) - The SportsThe SportsThe Sports were a popular Australian rock group that performed and recorded between 1976 and 1981.Based in Melbourne, Victoria, the group released a number of successful singles and albums. Their sound fitted well with both 1970s British pub rock bands and British New Wave...
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