New Morning - Songs

Songs

The album opens with "If Not For You," which was also covered on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. A sincere, sentimental love song with modest ambitions, it was Dylan's first and only single from New Morning.

"Day Of The Locusts" is a cynical piece of work inspired by his June experience at Princeton University. David Crosby was present, and later commented: "Sara was trying to get Bob to go to Princeton University, where he was being presented with an honorary doctorate. Bob did not want to go. I said, 'C'mon, Bob it's an honor!' Sara and I both worked on him for a long time. Finally, he agreed. I had a car outside, a big limousine. That was the first thing he didn't like. We smoked another joint on the way and I noticed Dylan getting really quite paranoid about it. When we arrived at Princeton, they took us to a little room and Bob was asked to wear a cap and gown. He refused outright. They said, 'We won't give you the degree if you don't wear this.' Dylan said, 'Fine. I didn't ask for it in the first place.'...Finally we convinced him to wear the cap and gown." The lyrics refer to the 17-year cicada infestation covering Princeton at the time:

"Sure was glad to get out of there alive.
And the locusts sang such a sweet melody.
and the locusts sang with a high whinin’ trill,
Yeah, the locusts sang and they was singing for me..."

It is often assumed that Dylan wrote "Went To See The Gypsy" after meeting Elvis Presley, as the song mentions visiting with a mysterious and important man in a hotel. The song also contains the line, "A pretty dancing girl was there, and she began to shout... 'He did it in Las Vegas, and he can do it here.'" This lyric was seen by some as a reference to Elvis' regular concerts in Las Vegas. However, in a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone's Douglas Brinkley, he stated, "I never met Elvis, because I didn't want to meet Elvis... I know The Beatles went to see him, and he just played with their heads." The "Gypsy" could also possibly be Jimi Hendrix, whose backup group was "Band of Gypsies". Strangely, the song was recorded a few months before Jimi's death in September 1970. In the final lines of the song, there is also a mention of a "little Minnesota town," a rare instance where Dylan references his childhood in Hibbing.

"Winterlude" verges on satirical, a humorous love song directed at a girl named Winterlude, and includes the chorus, "Winterlude, this dude thinks you're fine". The song was featured in The Comic Strip 1998 special "Four Men In A Car".

It is immediately followed by "If Dogs Run Free", a scatting beatnik send-up, featuring Maeretha Stewart as a guest vocalist and Al Kooper on piano.

The title track of New Morning is another one of the lighter tracks, a wry take on country life.

"Sign On The Window" expands on the joyous sentiments found in "New Morning", applying it to domestic bliss. "Beginning hesitantly, the last verse of 'Sign On The Window' builds towards its repeated last line not as a forced projection of false hope but as simple, matter-of-fact acceptance of middle-age sentiment," writes music critic Tim Riley. " offer a way of redefining one's values that doesn't mean copping out or giving up. The antithesis of the family man, at thirty a father of four, begins broaching homeliness without irony—and still convinces you not to hear it as strict autobiography."

Guitarist Ron Cornelius recalls, "Dylan had a pretty bad cold that week. You can hear it on, y'know, that bit about 'Brighton girls are like the moon,' where his voice really cracks up. But it sure suits the song. His piano playing's weird...because his hands start at opposite ends of the keyboard and then sorta collide in the middle—he does that all the time—but the way he plays just knocks me out."

In "The Man in Me", "Dylan surrenders to the person he sees when his lover looks through him," writes Riley. "He's not trying to impress this lover, so the title hook resonates enough to carry things... 'Take a woman like you to get through/To the man in me' is so direct in its expression of the unflinching cues of intimacy, you forgive him the occasional forced rhyme." The song was later featured during several scenes in the 1998 Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski.

"Three Angels" is gospel-tinged track that documents the sights on an urban street, including "a man with a badge", a "U-Haul trailer", and "three fellas crawling their way back to work". The final song, "Father of Night", is Dylan's interpretation of the Jewish prayer Amidah.