Bill Janovitz of AllMusic describes the music as beautiful, with folk guitar chord changes and a somber melody, while the chorus, with its line "and it's all over now, Baby Blue" has a heartbreaking quality to it.[5] Like other Dylan songs of the period, such as "Chimes of Freedom" and "Mr. Tambourine Man", the lyrics of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" bear the strong influence of Symbolist poets such as Arthur Rimbaud.[5] Lines such as "take what you have gathered from coincidence" reflect the I Ching philosophy that coincidence represents more than mere chance.[1][6] The song was described by Q magazine as, "The most toxic of strummed kiss-offs, with not a snowball's chance in hell of reconciliation." Dylan, later describing the song, said that "I had carried that song around in my head for a long time and I remember that when I was writing it, I'd remembered a Gene Vincent song. It had always been one of my favorites, Baby Blue... 'When first I met my baby/she said how do you do/she looked into my eyes and said/my name is Baby Blue.' It was one of the songs I used to sing back in high school. Of course, I was singing about a different Baby Blue."[7]
The Belfast band Them (featuring Van Morrison) recorded a cover of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" that was first released on their album, Them Again, in January 1966 in the UK and April 1966 in the U.S.[17][18][19] The song was subsequently issued as a single (b/w "I'm Gonna Dress in Black") in the Netherlands during October 1966 but failed to reach the Dutch Singles Chart.[20] It was later re-released in Germany in December 1973 with "Bad or Good" on the B-side, following its appearance in the 1972 German television movie, Die Rocker (aka Rocker).[21][22] The single became a hit in Germany, first entering the charts in February 1974 and peaking at number 13, during a chart stay of 14 weeks.[23]
Producer Tommy Scott was conscious of the importance of Dylan's music on the current pop scene and was eager for Morrison to cover "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" during the 1965 sessions for Them's second LP.[25][26] After a failed, preliminary attempt to record the track with session pianist Phil Coulter at Regent Sound studios in London, Scott reconsidered his approach to the song.[26] Scott recalled in interview that "The number wasn't going down, Van wasn't sure. Then the guys said he didn't fancy it and thought it was cheap because I'd tried to go after the "Here Comes the Night" tempo."[26] The band returned to the song during a later session at Decca's recording studios.[26] Scott decided to rearrange the song's musical backing, incorporating a distinctive recurring blues riff and piano work from Them's keyboard player, Peter Bardens, resulting in a finished recording that the band were satisfied with.[26] The song featured one of Morrison's most expressive vocals and included subtle changes to Dylan's lyrics; instead of singing "Forget the dead you've left" Morrison alters the line to "Forget the debts you've left".[24][26]
Them's interpretation of the song, with Morrison as vocalist, became influential during the years 1966 and 1967, with several garage rock bands, including The Chocolate Watchband and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, recording versions of the song that were indebted to Them's cover version.[32] Beck used a sample of Them's 1966 recording of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" as the basis for his single "Jack-Ass", which appeared on his 1996 album, Odelay (see 1996 in music).[5] Insane Clown Posse later sampled Beck's song as the basis for "Another Love Song", which appeared on their 1999 album, The Amazing Jeckel Brothers.[33] Hole's cover of the song also uses Them's recording as a blueprint.[5] Them's original 1966 version of the song has appeared in movies, such as the 1996 film Basquiat, the 1972 German film Rocker by Klaus Lemke and the 2000 film Girl, Interrupted.[22][34][35][36]
In 1993, Van Morrison included Them's cover of the song on his compilation album The Best of Van Morrison Volume Two.[37] In addition to recording "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" with Them, Morrison has covered the song frequently in concert throughout his solo career, beginning in 1974, but has never released a studio or live recording of it as a solo artist.[38] In 1984, Morrison made a guest appearance at one of Bob Dylan's concerts in London and the two musicians performed a duet of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".[39] Morrison and Dylan also sang a duet of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" at the final concert of Dylan's 1984 tour on July 8, 1984, at Slane Castle, Ireland.[40]
The Byrds had previously attempted to record the song on two separate occasions, some four years earlier, during studio sessions for their second album, Turn! Turn! Turn![45] At that time, the Byrds planned to release "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" as a follow-up to their previous hit Bob Dylan covers, "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "All I Really Want to Do".[46] The band's first attempt at recording the song was on June 28, 1965: resulting in an irreverent, garage rock style take on the song.[42][45] This version was deemed unsatisfactory and remained unreleased for 22 years, until its inclusion on the Never Before album in 1987.[47] The June 28, 1965, recording can also be heard on the 1996 expanded reissue of Turn! Turn! Turn!, as well as on The Byrds and There Is a Season box sets.[45][48][49]
Many other artists have covered the song. Joan Baez, who has sometimes been speculated to be the subject of the song, covered it on her 1965 album Farewell, Angelina.[53] It is one of four Dylan covers on that album, the others being the title track, "Mama, You Been on My Mind" (recorded as "Daddy, You Been on My Mind"), and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall".[53] Baez sings "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" in a falsetto voice, but retains the power of Dylan's version.[53] Baez has continued to perform the song at live concerts well into the modern era.[54]
George Harrison, who performed with Dylan in the Traveling Wilburys and also co-wrote the song "I'd Have You Anytime" with Dylan in November 1968,[2] did not cover the song, but did reference the title in his 1987 single, "When We Was Fab". One of the lyrics in the song reads "But it's all over now, baby blue", which is a nod from Harrison to his friend Dylan.[55]
In 1971, Marianne Faithfull recorded a version of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", which was first released on the 1985 archival album, Rich Kid Blues. Her version of the song, which a review on the AllMusic website says "aches with sadness,"[56] was played over the closing credits of the 7th episode of the American period drama television series The Serpent Queen. In 2018, Faithfull recorded the song again for her album Negative Capability.
In 1977 Graham Bonnet recorded a cover version of the song, which entered the Australian Top 100 chart [58] in August and peaked at Number 3 in November of 1977. It spent 6 months in the chart and nearly 2 months in the Top 10.
It was a very emotional process for us. Knowing that we would never get to play these songs live made it even more difficult. There was also an overwhelming sense of finality knowing that this was the last time that we would be in the same studio together working on a Cranberries album.
There doesn't seem to be much in the way of unreleased material for this,Dylan's first "electric" album, but what we have here is pretty fantastic.There are two versions of If You Gotta Go, Go Now, a song he had been performing acoustically for the previous year. Thissong is a natural for the electric format and it's a shame it isn't betterknown. The version released on The Bootleg Seriesis a lot looser than the single version (never released in the US) but justas much fun. The alternate versions of some of the more famous songs onthis album are a real treat: It's All Over Now Baby Blue, much better than the official version; She Belongs To Me and Love Minus Zero, both looser and lacking drums, are in many ways better than the albumversions. I'll Keep It With Mine is the same version that appears on Biograph. Farewell Angelina took the world by surprise when it was released on The Bootleg Series, and really should have appeared on the album. Bending Down On My Stomick Lookin' West is probably only slightly better known under the title You Don't Have To Do That. This song showed up on a compilation tape recently and can be found onthe Spank bootleg 7 Years of Bad Luck. It's only a fragment.
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December 2005
Holiday behavior irritable, then unacceptable. Went to visit female parent and common-law stepdad, but left iPod charger at home, two states away. Sullen, morose. My rural family doesn't have a mailbox or a telephone, "much less" the internet. Woody Allen's Sleeper came across the homestead's anachronistic satellite dish: all of the futuristic-for-1973 designs resemble the iPod aesthetic-- white and silver with rounded edges. A Staples employee asked me to stop plugging my iPod into their display computers, but I'd gotten enough of a charge to play one mp3 on the ride home. Shuffle chose Bryan Ferry's cover of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". Mom and I sang it together, triumphantly, as if it weren't about denying failure. Mom prefers the wombiness of commercial radio to purchasing or downloading music, so once a song fades from rotation currency, it "disappears" for her. She said that she was happy to remember that tune, and to hear it again. I was happy because it was playing on my beloved iPod, to which I'd transferred too much need. So: the "intention" or "meaning" of that heartbreaking song had no traction with us, because we were enjoying it on an artifactual level. When the iPod battery stopped, minutes later, I stared at the blank screen and unresponsive controls, left with Dylan's penultimate line: "You just kind of wasted my precious time."
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