Bob Dylan / 5:06
Musician: Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica / Recording Studio: The Power Station / Studio B, New York: March 3, 1985 / Producer: Bob Dylan / Sound Engineer: Josh Abbey Remix: Arthur Baker (?)
In a 1985 interview with Denise Worrell for Time magazine, Dylan revealed why he composed “Dark Eyes”: “This last record I just did, Empire Burlesque, there were nine songs I knew belonged on it, and I needed a tenth. I had about four songs, and one of those was going to be the tenth song. I finally figured out that the tenth song needed to be acoustic, so I just wrote it, because none of the other songs fit that slot, that certain place.”
The inspiration came to him one night at the Plaza Hotel on Fifty-Ninth Street in New York City. As he stepped out of the elevator a call girl was coming toward him in the hallway. He writes in Chronicles, “She had blue circles around her eyes, black eyeliner, dark eyes. She looked like she had been beaten up and was afraid that she’d get beat up again.” He continues, “Later that night I sat at a window overlooking Central Park and wrote the song ‘Dark Eyes.’ I recorded it the next day with only an acoustic guitar and it was the right thing to do.” The mood of the song is sordid, like a film noir.
As if he wanted to return to his roots, Dylan ends this album with a tenth song, entirely acoustic, worthy of his first albums and musically very different from the other songs on the record. “Dark Eyes” was recorded on March 3, 1985, in six attempts. Playing alone on acoustic guitar (Martin D-28?) and harmonica (in G), he gives an intimate interpretation. He sang the tune for the first time live in concert on February 25, 1986, at the Sydney Entertainment Center, in Australia.