Bob Dylan: Unreleased Gem – Let’s Keep It Between Us (only studio version & 5 live versions)





Let’s keep it between us
These people meddlin’ in our affairs, they’re not our friends
Let’s keep it between us
Before doors close and our togetherness comes to an end
They’ll turn you against me and me against you
’Til we don’t know who to trust
Oh, darlin’, can we keep it between us?

This great song was only tried once in the studio – Santa Monica, October 1980. It was played at every show (19 times) during the “1980 A Musical Retrospective Tour”, debuted on November 9, 1980 & last performance was on December 4, 1980.

Rundown Studios
Santa Monica, California
October 1980

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • Fred Tackett (guitar)
  • Willie Smith (keyboards)
  • Tim Drummond (bass)
  • Jim Keltner (drums)

Live versions

Fox Warfield Theatre
San Francisco, California
17 November 1980




Tucson Community Center Arena
Tucson, Arizona
24 November 1980

The Armory
Salem, Oregon
2 December 1980

Paramount Theater
Portland, Oregon
3 December 1980

Paramount Theater
Portland, Oregon
4 December 1980

Thank you. That was Clydie King. This is a new song I been trying to fix, finish up. It’s called Honey Baby Let’s Just Keep It Between Us. We can work it out everything just fine if we can just manage to keep it between us. I think this is the song that we played last night they they …, the critics, newspaper journalists said was Maggie’s Farm. But I mean to tell you it’s not Maggie’s Farm, it’s called Let’s Keep It Between Us. Yeah, I was walking by Roxy’s Heart Memorial Diner. You know where that is? And somebody was telling me about that.

Lyrics

Let’s keep it between us
These people meddlin’ in our affairs, they’re not our friends
Let’s keep it between us
Before doors close and our togetherness comes to an end
They’ll turn you against me and me against you
’Til we don’t know who to trust
Oh, darlin’, can we keep it between us?

Let’s keep it between us
We’ve been through too much tough times that they never shared
They’ve had nothing to say to us before
Now all of a sudden it’s as if they’ve always cared
All we need is honesty
A little humility and trust
Oh, darlin’, can we keep it between us?

I know we’re not perfect
Then again, neither are they
They act like we got to live for them
As if there just ain’t no other way
And it’s makin’ me kind of tired

Can we just lay back for a moment
Before we wake up and find ourselves in a daze that’s got us out of our minds?
There must be something we’re overlooking here
We better drop down now and get back behind the lines
There’s some things not fit for human ears
Some things don’t need to be discussed
Oh, darlin’, can we keep it between us?

They’ll tell you one thing and me another
’Til we don’t know who to trust
Oh, darlin’, can we keep it between us?

Let’s keep it between us
Before it all snaps and goes too far
If we can’t deal with this by ourselves
Tell me we ain’t worse off than they think we are
Backseat drivers don’t know the feel of the wheel
But they sure know how to make a fuss
Oh, darlin’, can we keep it between us?

Can we keep it between us?

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