Bob Dylan / 2:50
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Charlie McCoy: bass
Kenneth Buttrey: drums
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: November 6, 1967
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Johnston
Sound Engineer: Charlie Bragg
With this song, inspired by the famous love poem “As I Walked Out One Evening” by W. H. Auden, Dylan once again prompts intense speculation about his intent. “As I Went Out One Morning” is indeed a piece that has given rise to countless interpretations.
The narrator gets up one morning and decides “to breathe the air around Tom Paine’s.” Did he wish to breathe the air of the revolution or the air of reason? Then he meets an attractive “lady” in chains. He offers her his hand. She takes him by the arm. But when he wants to leave and take back his freedom, she does not listen. He insists. She begs and promises to fly south. “Just then Tom Paine, himself / Came running from across the field,” commanding her to release her grip, and she apologizes to the narrator for what she has done.
The reference to the early American pamphleteer Thomas Paine is certainly not made lightly. It is likely that this song refers to the memorable banquet in December 1963 organized by the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee during which Dylan received the Tom Paine Award for his actions supporting freedom and equality. For fear of being flagged as a leader of the protest intelligentsia because of this nomination, Dylan, under the influence of alcohol, delivered an acceptance speech attacking the audience of progressive intellectuals, driven less by conviction than by opportunism. His statements caused a scandal. He was booed and rushed from the stage. Dylan was always suspicious of institutions and movements, feeling that they sought, by indoctrination, to abrogate the individual’s free will. The theory of Thomas Paine, who placed the rights of man at the center of revolutionary thought, is affirmed. Paine’s “My own mind is my own church” echoes Dylan’s “I believe that the best things get done by individuals.”24
But, as always with Dylan, there are many interpretations of this wonderful text. The lyrics can be understood as a denunciation of slavery, a sermon championing freedom, an allegory about temptation and seduction, an evocation of the emancipation of women, and as referring to his relationship with Joan Baez. As long as Dylan does not offer up the secrets of his text, interpretations will not cease.
“As I Went Out One Morning” does not have the same lightness as “John Wesley Harding.” Dylan uses the minor key for the harmony to express a dark thoughtfulness. The intonation of his voice is different from that on previous albums, expressing a new maturity. This song is also one of the first times he sings with vibrato. Despite the difference in tone between “John Wesley Harding” and “As I Went Out One Morning,” both songs have a similar rhythm and tempo. McCoy played bass and Buttrey drums, demonstrating a true symbiosis between these two excellent musicians. With only the harmonic support of Dylan’s guitar and harmonica (in F) in the chorus, they succeed in performing the entire piece without any loss of intensity. The only small error comes from McCoy mistaking a chord change on the second verse after no choice at 1:20.
After two unsuccessful takes, an interrupted take, and a false start, the fifth attempt was successful and chosen for the album. Dylan has performed this song only once onstage on January 10, 1974, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.