"You're a Big Girl Now"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album Blood on the Tracks
ReleasedJanuary 1975
RecordedDecember 27, 1974 at Sound 80 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
GenreFolk rock
Length4:36
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Bob Dylan
Producer(s)Bob Dylan
Blood on the Tracks track listing
10 tracks
Side one
  1. "Tangled Up in Blue"
  2. "Simple Twist of Fate"
  3. "You're a Big Girl Now"
  4. "Idiot Wind"
  5. "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go"
Side two
  1. "Meet Me in the Morning"
  2. "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts"
  3. "If You See Her, Say Hello"
  4. "Shelter from the Storm"
  5. "Buckets of Rain"

"You're a Big Girl Now" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his 15th studio album, Blood on the Tracks, in 1975. It is one of five songs on the album that Dylan initially recorded in New York City in September 1974 and then re-recorded in Minneapolis in December that year. The latter recording, made on December 27, 1974, became the album track.[1]

Composition and recording

Like most songs on Blood on the Tracks, "You're a Big Girl Now" tells a story about two lovers that are breaking up. In the lyrics, the first-person narrator begs his lover to give him one more chance.[2] Some critics have interpreted the song as being inspired by the tumult in Dylan's marriage to his then-wife Sara. Dylan vehemently denied this, however, in the liner notes to Biograph: “I read that this was supposed to be about my wife. I wish somebody would ask me first before they go ahead and print stuff like that. I mean, it couldn’t be about anybody else but my wife, right? Stupid and misleading jerks these interpreters sometimes are … I don’t write confessional songs. Emotion's got nothing to do with it. It only seems so, like it seems that Laurence Olivier is Hamlet".[3]

In their book Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon claim that the music in the song "carries the emotion. The melody reinforces this sense of melancholy, regret, and pain that emerges from the accompaniment. Dylan alternates between sweetness and power, and the intensity of every 'oh, oh' sounds almost like a complaint". They also note that, unlike the other full-band Minneapolis sessions for Blood on the Tracks, there is no bass player on the recording as Bill Peterson had already left the session "for an engagement in a jazz club".[4]

Personnel

In addition to Dylan who plays guitar, harmonica and sings, the session also features Kevin Odegaard and Chris Weber on guitar, Greg Inhofer on piano and Billy Berg on drums.

Critical reception and legacy

Rolling Stone placed the song 91st on a list of the "100 Greatest Bob Dylan songs". An article accompanying the list asks, "Is there a more desperately lovesick moment in Dylan’s entire catalog than the point in this Blood on the Tracks gem when he croons, 'I can change, I swear', and then howls like a wounded dog? Maybe only later in the same song, when he talks of 'pain that stops and starts, like a corkscrew to my heart'. Dylan’s stunning first pass at this, the hushed New York outtake included on Biograph, sounds wounded. But here, the pain is even sharper".[5]

The Big Issue placed the New York outtake version at #13 on a 2021 list of the "80 best Bob Dylan songs - that aren't the greatest hits" and noted that it "captures the sound of a heart being wrenched".[6]

Bedouine cited it as her favorite Dylan song in a Stereogum article, noting that the "oh, oh" Dylan sings in every verse on the Blood on the Tracks version (which she refers to as a "sonic battle wound") elevates it above the New York outtake version: "The biggest distinction for me is him humming versus moaning the 'ohhh!' They’re both great but the latter has a visceral effect of longing like hunger pangs".[7]

Other versions

Individual outtakes of "You're a Big Girl Now" from the New York sessions were released in 1985 on the compilation Biograph[8] and in 2018 on the single-CD and 2-LP versions of The Bootleg Series Vol. 14: More Blood, More Tracks, while the complete New York sessions were released on the deluxe edition of the latter album.[9] The deluxe version of The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 also included a remix of the December 1974 master issued on Blood on the Tracks.[9]

Live performances

According to his official website, Dylan performed the song 212 times in concert between 1976 and 2007.[10] A live version recorded in Fort Collins, Colorado on May 23, 1976, was officially released on the album Hard Rain.[11]

Cultural reference

The lyric "Love is so simple, to quote a phrase" refers to a line in Marcel Carné's Children of Paradise, one of Dylan's favorite movies: "You were right, Garance. Love is so simple". Dylan's painting teacher, Norman Raeben, had introduced him to the film shortly before he wrote the song.[12]

Cover versions

References

  1. ↑ Partridge, Kenneth (January 16, 2015). "Bob Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks' at 40: Classic Track-by-Track Album Review". Billboard. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ "You're a Big Girl Now | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  3. ↑ "You're A Big Girl Now; for Bob Dylan it's rain, it's pain. | Untold Dylan". 2018-11-06. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  4. ↑ Margotin, Philippe; Jean-Michel Guesdon (2015). Bob Dylan : all the songs : the story behind every track (First ed.). New York. ISBN 978-1-57912-985-9. OCLC 869908038.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ↑ ""You're a Big Girl Now" (1975)". Rolling Stone Australia. 3 July 2020. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  6. ↑ "The 80 best Bob Dylan songs – that aren't the greatest hits". The Big Issue. 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
  7. ↑ "80 Artists Pick Their Favorite Bob Dylan Song". Stereogum. 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  8. ↑ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Bob Dylan - Biograph". AllMusic. Retrieved March 28, 2018.
  9. 1 2 "More Blood, More Tracks – The Bootleg Series Vol. 14 to Be Released on November 2 | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  10. ↑ "Setlists | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  11. ↑ "Hard Rain | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  12. ↑ "Bob Dylan And The Children Of Paradise | Untold Dylan". 2018-08-04. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
  13. ↑ "Du är en stor tjej nu - song by Georga | Spotify". Open.spotify.com. 2016-06-13. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  14. ↑ "Georga | .se | Album audio : Vid Grinden". Archived from the original on 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  • Lyrics at Bob Dylan's official site
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