It really is astonishing at 23 to have that sort of virtuosity with image and metaphor alone, but to then put that in service of an emotional core that is pure wisdom, is, truly, nothing sort of otherworldly.
Incidentally, you can mock that kind of thing all you want, but the Beatles were true pioneers of the pop song. McCartney took the idea of having a song be one side of a conversation with someone about their relationship, and decided that it would be an interesting idea to have the song be telling someone else “she loves you”, rather than be about the singer’s own relationships, as their previous singles had been. Everything up to that point had been centred around the first person addressing the second — “Love ME Do”, “PS I Love You”, “Please Please ME”, “Ask ME Why”, “From ME to You”, “Thank You Girl”. This would be about addressing the second person about a third.
"For No One" is a good example of this, too. We are so used to the I or he/she/they in music. The song is either confessional or a story being told from an omniscient point of view. It is rare that the second person is used because it is literally putting the listener into the shoes of the singer/narrator. “YOUR day breaks, YOUR mind aches,” and in the chorus’ most striking line, “And in her eyes YOU see nothing.”
That this quickly became common practice in the 60s is due, imo, in no small part to The Beatles' superb storytelling capacity.
Anyway, back to Dylan. My own particular favourite is so poignant now that I'm a middle-aged man. "Bob Dylan's Dream" so perfectly encapsulates that you don't know what you've got till it's gone (thanks, Joni). He's fucking 22 when he writes this:
While riding on a train goin’ west
I fell asleep for to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had
With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon
Where we together weathered many a storm
Laughin’ and singin’ till the early hours of the morn
By the old wooden stove where our hats was hung
Our words were told, our songs were sung
Where we longed for nothin’ and were quite satisfied
Talkin’ and a-jokin’ about the world outside
With haunted hearts through the heat and cold
We never thought we could ever get old
We thought we could sit forever in fun
But our chances really was a million to one
As easy it was to tell black from white
It was all that easy to tell wrong from right
And our choices were few and the thought never hit
That the one road we traveled would ever shatter and split
How many a year has passed and gone
And many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a friend
And each one I’ve never seen again
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
That we could sit simply in that room again
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat
I’d give it all gladly if our lives could be like that
Or come tae think about it yi probably do.
