Jamoof: Boots of Spanish Leather (B. Dylan)

How does one choose from amongst all the beautiful love songs in the world? This lament has a special quality that aches with a stark longing each time I hear it. In this two-chord song, the hypnotic quality is a metaphor for the numbness of lost love. Heartbreak is numbing, and yet, love endures and perhaps even evolves in spite of loss, stronger for it.

LYRICS:
I'm sailing away my own true love
'm sailing away in the mornin'
Is there something I can send you to remember me
by
From the place where I'm a-goin'

There's nothin' you can send me my own true love
There's nothin' that I'm wishin' to be ownin'
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled
From across that lonesome ocean

Oh, but I just thought you might like somethin' fine
Made of silver or of golden
Maybe from the mountains of Madrid
Or from the coast of Barcelona

Well, if I had the stars from the darkest night
And the diamonds from the deepest ocean
I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss
That's all that I'm wishin' to be ownin'

But I might be gone a long, long time
And it's only that I'm askin'
Is there somethin' I can send you to remember me by
To make your time more easy passin' ?

How can, how can you ask me again
When it only brings me sorrow?
For the same thing I would want today
I would want again tomorrow

I got a letter on a lonesome day
It was from his ship a-sailin'
Sayin' I don't know when I'll be comin' back again
It depends on how I'm feeling

If you, my love, must think that-a-way
It's clear that your mind is a roamin'
It's clear your thoughts--they're not with me
But with the country where you're goin'

So take heed, take heed, of the western wind
Take heed of stormy weather
And yes, there is somethin' you can send back to me Spanish boots of Spanish leather

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Folk
• folk music
• Bob Dylan
• Dylan
• lyrics
• lament
• heartbreak
• lovesongs
• love
• singing
• guitar
• covers
• poetry

[elstroker]

Nice tone. One of Dylan's finer love songs. Pretty sure he wrote that one about his first girlfriend in NYC, the gal who just released that kiss-and-tell...

[Jamoof]

Senor Stroke,

Yeah, if you mean the guitar's tone, I capoed it on the fifth fret and played it through an amp with reverb... weird, huh?

(and why the heck didn't you give me any starz????)

[violinhag]

Do you play the harmonica also? Hey, check out Brendan Power, not that you would do exactly that (what he does), but the possiblities are endless

[jewelsgewels249]

I really like the tone of the guitar and the overall way you recomposed it!

[whyiknowimawino]

Love the echo! (not the buzz). Not a bad rendition, J.M. Bobby D. would like it, I think.

[CooterJuneBug]

It's kinda up close and personal, but I like the echo and twang. Good version.

[elstroker]

I don't know shit from stars. But I did catch the reverb...almost sounded like a touch of chorus. But by tone what I really meant was the whole unhurried, relaxed...dare I say "nuanced"?... approach.