She Belongs to Me
Encyclopedia
"She Belongs to Me" is a song by Bob Dylan
, and was first released as the second track on his 1965
album
Bringing It All Back Home
. It was one of the first anti-love songs and one of Dylan's first of many songs that describe a "witchy woman". The song may be about fellow folk singer, Joan Baez
or experimental artist Nico
.
and a bass part played by William E. Lee
in addition to Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica. However, like the other love song on side one, "Love Minus Zero/No Limit
", "She Belongs to Me" was recorded a day earlier in an acoustic version. It was also recorded earlier in the day on January 14 with the full band that is used on the rest of side one of the album. An unreleased outtake of the song from the Bringing It All Back Home sessions is known to exist where Dylan is supported only by Langhorne's guitar, with no bass, drums or third guitar.
The lyrics describe how the woman cuts her man down to size but leaves him proud to serve her, as he "bow[s] down to her on Sunday" and "salute[s] her when her birthday comes." Other lines celebrate the woman's assertiveness and moral conviction as the singer's tone alternates between devotion and contempt. Some of the lyrics appear to reference Dylan's former lover, folk singer
Joan Baez
, particularly the line about the woman wearing an "Egyptian ring", since Dylan had given Baez such a ring. Other lines that may refer to Baez are a line describing her as "an artist" and a reference to being a "walking antique", which may be a reference to Baez' desire to keep Dylan writing protest songs.
John Cale
of the Velvet Underground has stated that he believes the song to be about Nico
, with whom Dylan spent some time around the time of the song's composition.
An alternate interpretation of the song is that it is a paean to Dylan's muse
, depicting it as unapproachable but domineering.
form. Music critic Robert Shelton has described the song as having a melody that is gentle, with relaxed phrasing and a swaying, waltz
-like rhythm, although it does not use a the 3/4 time signature
of a waltz but rather a 4/4 time signature.
in 1965, it has been subsequently released on several Dylan compilation and live albums since, including Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II
in 1971. A live performance from Dylan's 1969 Isle of Wight Festival
performance was released on Self Portrait
in 1970. It was the opening song of the famous May 17, 1966 concert in Manchester's Free Trade Hall, England (popularly but mistakenly known as the "Royal Albert Hall" concert) that has been released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert in 1998. It was also included in Martin Scorsese
's film No Direction Home
and released on its soundtrack album, The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack
in 2006.
, The Grateful Dead, The Flying Burrito Brothers
, Tom Tom Club
, Leon Russell
, Harry Connick, Jr.
, The Nice
, Richard Shindell
, Billy Preston
, Buddy Greene
, Ariel Gardner, Ricky Nelson
, Buffalo Tom
, Ane Brun
and The Rose Garden
. It has also been translated into a French version by Francis Cabrel
, titled "Elle m'appartient (C'est une artiste)". Ricky Nelson's country version was a Top 40 hit.
, She Belongs to Me was listed as the #98 all time Bob Dylan song, and a similar poll of artists ranked the song #53. In 2002, Uncut
listed it as the #14 all time Bob Dylan song. The aggregation of critics' lists at acclaimedmusic.net did not place this song in its list of the top 3000 songs of all time, but rated it as one of the 1965
songs "bubbling under" the top 3000.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, and was first released as the second track on his 1965
1965 in music
-Events:*January 4 – Fender Musical Instruments Corporation is sold to CBS for $13 million.*January 12 – Hullabaloo premieres on NBC. The first show included performances by The New Christy Minstrels, comedian Woody Allen, actress Joey Heatherton and a segment from London in which Brian Epstein...
album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Bringing It All Back Home
Bringing It All Back Home
Bringing It All Back Home is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's fifth studio album, released in March 1965 by Columbia Records. The album is divided into an electric and an acoustic side. On side one of the original LP, Dylan is backed by an electric rock and roll band - a move that further alienated...
. It was one of the first anti-love songs and one of Dylan's first of many songs that describe a "witchy woman". The song may be about fellow folk singer, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
or experimental artist Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
.
Recording
The version of the song that appears on Bringing It All Back Home was recorded on the evening of January 14, 1965 and produced by Tom Wilson. This version included electric guitar parts played by John Hammond Jr. and Bruce LanghorneBruce Langhorne
Bruce Langhorne is an American folk musician. He was active in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s, primarily as a session guitarist for folk albums and performances...
and a bass part played by William E. Lee
Bill Lee (musician)
William James Edwards "Bill" Lee III is an American musician. He has played the bass for many artists including Cat Stevens, Harry Belafonte, Chad Mitchell Trio, Gordon Lightfoot, Aretha Franklin, Odetta, Simon and Garfunkel, and Bob Dylan...
in addition to Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica. However, like the other love song on side one, "Love Minus Zero/No Limit
Love Minus Zero/No Limit
"Love Minus Zero/No Limit" is a song written by Bob Dylan for his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home, released in 1965 . The song was originally written as a tribute to Dylan's future wife Sara Lowndes...
", "She Belongs to Me" was recorded a day earlier in an acoustic version. It was also recorded earlier in the day on January 14 with the full band that is used on the rest of side one of the album. An unreleased outtake of the song from the Bringing It All Back Home sessions is known to exist where Dylan is supported only by Langhorne's guitar, with no bass, drums or third guitar.
Meaning
The title of the song is ironic. Although entitled "She Belongs to Me", the singer clearly belongs to the woman described in the song, and that woman belongs to no one, as alluded to in this line:- She's nobody's child, the law can't touch her at all.
The lyrics describe how the woman cuts her man down to size but leaves him proud to serve her, as he "bow[s] down to her on Sunday" and "salute[s] her when her birthday comes." Other lines celebrate the woman's assertiveness and moral conviction as the singer's tone alternates between devotion and contempt. Some of the lyrics appear to reference Dylan's former lover, folk singer
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, particularly the line about the woman wearing an "Egyptian ring", since Dylan had given Baez such a ring. Other lines that may refer to Baez are a line describing her as "an artist" and a reference to being a "walking antique", which may be a reference to Baez' desire to keep Dylan writing protest songs.
John Cale
John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
of the Velvet Underground has stated that he believes the song to be about Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
, with whom Dylan spent some time around the time of the song's composition.
An alternate interpretation of the song is that it is a paean to Dylan's muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
, depicting it as unapproachable but domineering.
Musical style
Any bitterness in the lyrics is offset by the gentleness of Dylan's singing and the delicacy of the accompaniment. The song is in a symmetrical 12-bar bluesBlues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
form. Music critic Robert Shelton has described the song as having a melody that is gentle, with relaxed phrasing and a swaying, waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
-like rhythm, although it does not use a the 3/4 time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
of a waltz but rather a 4/4 time signature.
Other releases
Although the song was first released on Bringing It All Back HomeBringing It All Back Home
Bringing It All Back Home is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's fifth studio album, released in March 1965 by Columbia Records. The album is divided into an electric and an acoustic side. On side one of the original LP, Dylan is backed by an electric rock and roll band - a move that further alienated...
in 1965, it has been subsequently released on several Dylan compilation and live albums since, including Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. II , also known as More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits, was the second compilation album released by Bob Dylan. With Dylan not expected to release any new material for an extended period of time, CBS Records president Clive Davis proposed issuing a double LP compilation of...
in 1971. A live performance from Dylan's 1969 Isle of Wight Festival
Isle of Wight Festival 1969
The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival was held on August 30–31, 1969, at Wootton, and attracted an audience of approximately 150,000 to see the acts of Bob Dylan, The Who and Free. It was the second of three music festivals held on the Isle of Wight between 1968 and 1970...
performance was released on Self Portrait
Self Portrait (Bob Dylan album)
Self Portrait is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's tenth studio album, released by Columbia Records in June 1970.Self Portrait was Dylan's second double album, and features mostly cover versions of well-known pop and folk songs. Also included are a handful of instrumentals and original compositions...
in 1970. It was the opening song of the famous May 17, 1966 concert in Manchester's Free Trade Hall, England (popularly but mistakenly known as the "Royal Albert Hall" concert) that has been released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert in 1998. It was also included in Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's film No Direction Home
No Direction Home
No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th century American popular music and culture. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it concentrates on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his...
and released on its soundtrack album, The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack
The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack
The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack is the third most recent installment in the Bob Dylan "Bootleg Series" of rare and/or officially unissued recordings....
in 2006.
Cover versions
The song has been covered by many other artists, including Barry McGuireBarry McGuire
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...
, The Grateful Dead, The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Flying Burrito Brothers was an early country rock band, best known for its influential debut album,The Gilded Palace of Sin . Although the group is most often mentioned in connection with country rock legends Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman, the group underwent many personnel changes.-Original...
, Tom Tom Club
Tom Tom Club
Tom Tom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband-and-wife team Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, both also known for being bandmembers of Talking Heads.-Biography:...
, Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
, Harry Connick, Jr.
Harry Connick, Jr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with...
, The Nice
The Nice
The Nice were an English progressive rock band from the 1960s, known for their blend of rock, jazz and classical music. Their debut album, The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack was released in 1967 to immediate acclaim. It is often considered the first progressive rock album...
, Richard Shindell
Richard Shindell
Richard Shindell is an American folk songwriter. Shindell grew up in Port Washington, New York. He currently lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his wife, a university professor, and their children....
, Billy Preston
Billy Preston
William Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from...
, Buddy Greene
Buddy Greene
Buddy Greene is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player. Most of his recordings consist of gospel music, with a distinctly Southern flavor. Much of his music is influenced by country music and bluegrass music. Greene grew up in Macon, Georgia...
, Ariel Gardner, Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...
, Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom
Buffalo Tom is an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band Buffalo Springfield and the first name of the drummer.-Career:Dinosaur Jr...
, Ane Brun
Ane Brun
Ane Brun is a songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. Since 2003 she has recorded eight albums, four of which are studio albums, a live DVD and a collection of duets...
and The Rose Garden
The Rose Garden (band)
The Rose Garden was an American folk rock musical group from Los Angeles, California which was active in 1967 and 1968.The members were Diana DeRose on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, John Noreen on 12-string guitar and backup vocal, James Groshong on lead vocal and guitar, William Fleming on bass...
. It has also been translated into a French version by Francis Cabrel
Francis Cabrel
Francis Cabrel is a well-known French singer-songwriter and guitarist. Inspired heavily by Bob Dylan, he has released a number of albums falling mostly within the realm of folk, with occasional forays into blues or country. Several of his songs, such as "L'encre de tes yeux" and "Petite Marie"...
, titled "Elle m'appartient (C'est une artiste)". Ricky Nelson's country version was a Top 40 hit.
Critical reception
In a 2005 reader's poll reported in MojoMojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, She Belongs to Me was listed as the #98 all time Bob Dylan song, and a similar poll of artists ranked the song #53. In 2002, Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
listed it as the #14 all time Bob Dylan song. The aggregation of critics' lists at acclaimedmusic.net did not place this song in its list of the top 3000 songs of all time, but rated it as one of the 1965
1965 in music
-Events:*January 4 – Fender Musical Instruments Corporation is sold to CBS for $13 million.*January 12 – Hullabaloo premieres on NBC. The first show included performances by The New Christy Minstrels, comedian Woody Allen, actress Joey Heatherton and a segment from London in which Brian Epstein...
songs "bubbling under" the top 3000.