Planet Waves - Songs

Songs

Critic Bill Wyman described Planet Waves via Salon.com as "a spare but twisted collection of songs." As a whole, they deal with domestic themes with a few tracks seeming like straightforward love songs, particularly the opener "On A Night Like This" and "You Angel You" (which Dylan dismissed in 1985 as having "dummy lyrics"). However, as music critic Tim Riley notes, many of the songs take on darker overtones, with lyrics suggesting "death ('Dirge'), suicide ('Going, Going, Gone,' a song that doesn't toy around with the idea), and the brick wall that love collides with when possessiveness curdles into obsession (the overstated contradictions of 'Wedding Song')." Unlike the "settled-in homilies" of Nashville Skyline and New Morning, Planet Waves is "rounded out with more than one shade of romance: subterfuge, suspicion, self-hate ('Dirge,' 'Tough Mama'), and memory ('Something There Is About You') counter lighthearted celebration ('On A Night Like This')."

Many critics gave the performances on Planet Waves plenty of attention, perhaps more than the songs themselves. Dylan and The Band had performed on numerous occasions, most notably on tour in 1966 and during the "Basement Tapes" sessions of 1967, but at the time of Planet Waves' release, very few of these performances were officially released.

"The Band's windup pitch to 'Going, Going, Gone' is a wonder of pinpoint ensemble playing," writes Riley. "Robertson makes his guitar entrance choke as if a noose had suddenly tightened around its neck, and you get the feeling these guys could shadow Dylan in their sleep." Riley also writes that "'Tough Mama' is the track that exemplifies the best playing on Planet Waves, and a pitch of writing that shows Dylan can still challenge himself." Clinton Heylin also singled out Dylan's performances, noting that "Tough Mama" featured "one of his raunchiest vocals".

Arguably the most celebrated song on Planet Waves, "Forever Young", was originally written for his children, and a demo recording from June 1973 (released on Biograph in 1985) explicitly shows this. As described by Heylin, the song is "an attempt to write something hymnal and heartfelt that spoke of the father in him." Though two different versions were released on the album, most critics and listeners defer to the "beautiful slow waltz of a performance" recorded on November 8 as the primary recording. (It is not a waltz, it is in 4/4 time.)

"Dirge", "his most twisted song since the accident," writes Heylin, "represents a quite astonishing catharsis on Dylan's part. As the narrator expresses an underlying hatred for 'the need that was expressed' by her presence, he encapsulates all the ambivalence this popular artist felt for both muse and audience." Critics also singled out Dylan's piano playing in praising the recording. Some fans believe the song is attributed to his marriage with Sara Lownds that was ending.

The closing number on Planet Waves is "Wedding Song," and over the years, a number of critics have called it autobiographical. "It begins with the narrator attempting to convince his lady love that he loves her 'more than life itself,'" writes Heylin. "However, the focus begins to turn when he informs her, 'we can't regain what went down in the flood,' suggesting that their search for a new Eden was always doomed to failure. By the sixth verse we have come to the crux of the song—the singer's protestation that he does not wish 'to remake the world at large,' because he loves her 'more than all of that.'" Many critics have dismissed such claims of autobiographical content, making "Wedding Song" one of the more debated numbers on Planet Waves.