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Bob Dylan’s Best Songs: I’ll Keep It With Mine

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You will search, babe
At any cost
But how long, babe
Can you search for what’s not lost?
Everybody will help you
Some people are very kind
But if I can save you any time
Come on, give it to me
I’ll keep it with mine

“I’ll Keep It with Mine,”·a heartbreakingly lovely solo performance on piano and harmonica, did turn up on Biograph, after sitting in the vault for twenty years. How can Dylan record something so beautiful and then let it remain unreleased? This is a question that gets asked again and again, which is why so many people collect Dylan tapes or buy boodlegs (illegal, unauthorized) Dylan albums.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973)

And what an exquisite song it is. Author Paul Cable once described “I’ll Keep It with Mine” as “possibly the best thing he had written up to that point . . . [while] the lyrics form the least patronizing way I have yet heard of saying, ‘I’m older than you—therefore I know better.’” In just three verses, bound to a three-line refrain, Dylan manages to encapsulate so much of what he had been hoping to say in the trio of songs to Suze. In her case, though, he hadn’t got beyond his tangled feelings long enough to whisper words like, “If I can save you any time / Come on, give it to me / I’ll keep it with mine.”
-Clinton Heylin (Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan, 1957-1973)

TOC

  1. Facts
  2. Lyrics
  3. Live/other versions

@#65 on my list of Bob Dylan’s top 200 songs.

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Facts

Wikipedia:

“I’ll Keep It with Mine” is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1964, first officially released by folk singer Judy Collins as a single in 1965. Dylan attempted to record the song for his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde.

Known studio recordings:

Dylan recorded a vocal-and-piano demo of the song for publishing company M. Witmark & Sons in June 1964, which was released by Columbia in 2010 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964.

Unidentified Recording Studio
New York City, New York
Mid to late June 1964

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & piano)

Released on : THE WITMARK DEMOS: 1962-1964. THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 9, 18 October 2010 and WARNER BROS. 7 ARTS MUSIC INC. DEMO LP, probably 1967.

Spotify:




In mid-January 1965, during sessions for the Bringing It All Back Home album, Dylan again recorded the song solo, on piano. This version, with the working title “Bank Account Blues”, was released in 1985 on the Biograph retrospective. 

Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York
13 January 1965

The 1st Bringing It All Back Home recording session, produced by Tom Wilson.

Released on BIOGRAPH, 28 October 1985 and SIDE TRACKS, DISC ONE, as part of the CD box THE COMPLETE ALBUM COLLECTION, VOL. ONE, 5 November 2013.

Spotify:

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Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York
27 January 1966

The 5th Blonde On Blonde session, produced by Bob Johnston.

Released on THE BOOTLEG SERIES (RARE & UNRELEASED) 1961-1991, Volume 2, 26 March 1991.


Spotify:

Vimeo:




Columbia Music Row Studios
Nashville, Tennessee
15 February 1966

The 7th Blonde On Blonde session, produced by Bob Johnston.

Released on CD 13 of BOB DYLAN – THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 12 BOB DYLAN 1965-1966 THE CUTTING EDGE – COLLECTOR’s EDITION, 6 November 2015.

He tried it 11 times, only 2 complete takes.

Here is one of them:

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Lyrics

You will search, babe
At any cost
But how long, babe
Can you search for what’s not lost?
Everybody will help you
Some people are very kind
But if I can save you any time
Come on, give it to me
I’ll keep it with mine

I can’t help it
If you might think I’m odd
If I say I’m not loving you for what you are
But for what you’re not
Everybody will help you
Discover what you set out to find
But if I can save you any time
Come on, give it to me
I’ll keep it with mine

The train leaves
At half past ten
But it’ll be back tomorrow
Same time again
The conductor he’s weary
He’s still stuck on the line
But if I can save you any time
Come on, give it to me
I’ll keep it with mine

 

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“Live” version

Royal Albert Hall
London England
10 May 1965

Backstage before concert

Official release:

  • Dont Look Back – 65 Tour Exclusive Edition, DVD 2: Bob Dylan 65 Revisited, Sony BMG Musical Entertainment, released 7 May 2007

Mono film recording.

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Nico versions:

Marianne Faithful version:

Check out:

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Sources

Alldylan / Borntolisten @ Facebook

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-Egil

2 thoughts on “Bob Dylan’s Best Songs: I’ll Keep It With Mine”

  2. Thank you again, Egil, and let us all pray. Nothing but Mavis can save us & that poor little Nobel Prize Winner’s soul!

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