Bye and Bye

"Bye and Bye" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 2001 as the fourth track on his album Love and Theft.

"Bye and Bye"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album Love and Theft
ReleasedSeptember 11, 2001
RecordedMay 2001
GenreFolk rock, jazz
Length3:16
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Bob Dylan
Producer(s)Jack Frost
Love and Theft track listing
12 tracks
  1. "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum"
  2. "Mississippi"
  3. "Summer Days"
  4. "Bye and Bye"
  5. "Lonesome Day Blues"
  6. "Floater (Too Much to Ask)"
  7. "High Water (For Charley Patton)"
  8. "Moonlight"
  9. "Honest With Me"
  10. "Po' Boy"
  11. "Cry a While"
  12. "Sugar Baby"

Critical reception

Musically, "Bye and Bye" is what Oliver Trager calls an "easygoing, lilting ballad...something one would expect from Leon Redbone or, from an earlier era, Bing Crosby. Some Dylanologists have traced the musical source for 'Bye and Bye' to 'Having Myself a Time,' a song popularized by Billie Holiday and written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger".[1]

Lyrically, however, "Bye and Bye" appears to have darker concerns. According to Trager again: "['Bye and Bye'] slowly gives way to the sentiments of a scary stalker. As Richard Harrington wrote in his September 16, 2001, The Washington Post review of Love and Theft:

In "Bye and Bye," Dylan sings "The future for me is already past / You were my first love, you will be my last." Take him literally and it's about obsessional desire for a particular woman. But it's also about American roots music and Dylan's abiding appreciation for it, and inspiration from it, over the course of half a century".[2]

Cultural references

Historian Richard F. Thomas sees the line "I'll establish my rule through civil war" as a reference to the Roman civil wars that brought about the transition from republic to empire (with Dylan speaking in the first person as Julius Caesar). References to Ancient Rome would become increasingly prevalent on Dylan's subsequent albums of original material.[3]

Live performances

Dylan first performed the song live in concert on October 17, 2002 and last performed it live exactly three years later on October 17, 2005. Having only played the song 78 times, it is one of the least performed live songs from Love and Theft.[4]

References
  1. Trager, Oliver. (2004). Keys to the rain : the definitive Bob Dylan encyclopedia. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-7974-0. OCLC 56751184.
  2. Trager, Oliver. (2004). Keys to the rain : the definitive Bob Dylan encyclopedia. New York: Billboard Books. ISBN 0-8230-7974-0. OCLC 56751184.
  3. "Richard Thomas, "And I Crossed the Rubic". mysite. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  4. "Bye and Bye | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  • Trager, Oliver. Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. Billboard Books, 2004.
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