Bob Dylan / 3:23
Musicians
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar
Charlie Daniels: guitar
Norman Blake: guitar
Pete Drake: pedal steel guitar
Bob Wilson: piano (?)
Hargus Robbins: piano (?)
Charlie McCoy: bass
Kenneth Buttrey: drums
Recording Studio
Columbia Recording Studios, Nashville: February 17, 1969
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Johnston
Sound Engineers: Charlie Bragg and Neil Wilburn
Bob Dylan wrote most of “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” at the Ramada Inn, where he lived during the sessions for Nashville Skyline, but finished the tune at the last minute in the studio. Charlie Daniels told Manfred Helfert, “[He] wrote most of ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You’ after we started the session.”36 This last track on the album reflects Dylan’s state of mind in the late 1960s. The song shows a change from his more sentimental songs, expressing a restless search for ideal love, and thousands of reasons to break up. “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” reflects the basic happiness of falling in love and one’s devotion to staying with one’s lover. Consequently, the narrator no longer feels the need to travel, but expresses his willingness to stay put with her: “Throw my ticket out the window / Throw my suitcase out there, too / Throw my troubles out the door.” Obviously, the narrator is Dylan, who found peace and a sense of fulfillment with Sara and his children. “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” is a song about happiness regained, allowing Dylan to draw a line under his past and to cast aside his image as the spokesman of the protest generation.
“Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” was the second title recorded on February 17. Country with a pop-rock sound, it is reminiscent of “Down Along the Cove” from Dylan’s previous album, John Wesley Harding. It emphasizes electric guitars, probably performed by Charlie Daniels on the lead, alternating between rhythm and solo. Among the other six-strings, there are two acoustic guitars (Dylan and Blake). Pete Drake plays pedal steel guitar and provides the first solo. As usual, Bob Wilson plays honky-tonk piano style, or maybe it was Hargus Robbins, as he is mentioned in the studio notes. Dylan’s interpretation is excellent. His voice mixes his new vocal style with soulful accents, an intonation already featured in other songs on the album.
Dylan performed the song live for the first time at Shapiro Gymnasium in Waltham, Massachusetts, on November 22, 1975. This live version from the Rolling Thunder Revue was released on The Bootleg Series Volume 5: Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue in 2002. Since then, he has performed the tune nearly 150 times.