"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" - Bob Dylan

Trying to choose a favorite Bob Dylan song is not only impossible it's immoral.  It's like asking someone to choose their favorite child.  I don't love all his songs equally, but I do love them all in different ways.  "Don't Think Twice It's All Right" is one of those rare songs that stops me in my tracks.  When I hear the cadence of the fingerpicking I get lost in the melody.

I"m not sure I ever knew what love was until I listened to Bob Dylan. If anyone has been able to accurately describe love it would be Dylan. The picture of love that he paints in my head can all be summed up in one image, the cover of his second album, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan". It's a photo of Dylan and his girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo.

Dylan described this song in his liner notes as "It isn't a love song. It's a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better... as if you were talking to yourself."  He wrote this song after finding out that his lover, Rotolo,  was staying in Italy indefinitely. Howard Sounes, a Dylan Biographer, commented: "The greatness of the song was in the cleverness of the language. The phrase "don't think twice, it's all right" could be snarled, sung with resignation, or delivered with an ambigous mixture of bitterness and regret. Seldom has the contradictory emotions of a thwarted lover been so well express, and the song transcended the autobiographical orgins of Dylan's pain."

G-Rated Porn

Some people have mantra's, a few words or a prayer they use to meditate. "Don't Think Twice, It's' All Right" has become my mantra.  To me the meaning is simple -don't over-think things too much.  Trust yourself and trust your gut and everything will be alright.  There have been men that I've loved but never a man whose words meant so much to me.  I''ve tattooed my "mantra" on my rib cage - close to my heart.  It will serve as a reminder when I need it most that as long as I stay true to myself I can never go wrong.

It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don’t matter, anyhow
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don’t know by now

When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road

Still I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right

It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you anymore

I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

I’m walkin’ down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
But goodbye’s too good a word, gal
So I’ll just say fare thee well

I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right