The Bob Dylan lyric that proved he blurred the lines between originality and reinvention
Originality is an interesting subject in music. Most of the time, originality doesn’t actually mean creating something new from scratch; rather, it means taking something preexisting and reinventing it authentically and uniquely. We hear such a contemporary remodelling of originality everywhere in today’s musical landscape, but what about the originators who we cannot extrapolate from the other definition, like Bob Dylan?
For many, the legacy of Bob Dylan stands on the principle of originality. In the context of his career, Dylan stands among a select few who seemed to truly invent what it meant to blend poetic lyricism, stark cynicism, and overt observational confessionalism with music, coming up with an entirely new sound and movement rooted in honesty and wit.
However, as original as Dylan’s artistry may seem, claiming him to be as such doesn’t just feel simplistic; it also runs the risk of ignoring the many that came before, not to mention those who enjoyed a brief time in a comparative spotlight before his reign far superseded theirs, like Joan Baez. In many ways, Dylan did create an entirely new stream of expression, placing narrative storytelling at the fore of his musical legacy.
However, while he transformed what it meant to be a true songwriter, he also found his roots in American folk traditions while using social protest as a vehicle for change, artistically and politically. When he first emerged onto the scene, many were attempting to do exactly what he was doing, but his writing didn’t just transform music; it pushed others to think more openly and critically about the world before them.
But whether Dylan could truly be regarded as an originator isn’t a matter of history; it depends on the contemporary parameters of originality and what we now regard as innovation versus reinvention. To understand this fully, looking at Dylan’s many references is a good place to start, and from there we can really begin to paint a picture of the singer’s own influences and how his artistry began to take shape from their collective visions.
In 1964, Another Side of Bob Dylan included the timeless hit ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’, signalling a new venture where Dylan began to lean more heavily into the symbolism of language and narrative. While it’s believed that the song was inspired by Dylan’s former girlfriend, he seemed to also mirror, albeit subtly, some of the musings echoed earlier by composer John Jacob Niles, specifically his 1958 piece ‘Go ‘Way From My Window’.
Dylan was certainly aware of Niles’ music at the time, especially since ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ seemed to deliver a direct reference in the line: “Go ‘way from my window / Leave at your own chosen speed,” paralleling Niles’ earlier song title and line: “Go away from my window / Go away from my door.” In fact, Dylan later confirmed that Niles was a significant source of inspiration, saying that much of what he was doing at the time influenced his own direction. “I thought folk music was delivering me something which was the way I always felt about life, and people, and institutions, and ideology,” he said.
Incidentally, ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ is often shepherded into Dylan’s usual category of songs deemed completely original, and while he never really hid the fact that some of the best lines in the song had already fallen from the lips of someone else, it was subtly yet deeply influenced by the folk tradition and the emotional honesty of earlier songwriters.
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