Harmonic analysis

This chapter started out as a reflection upon Dylan’s concept of time on Time out of Mind, triggered, among other things, by some early reviewer who reported his surprise to find that ‘Standing in the Doorway’ lasted as long as it does. The text grew from there, however, and in its final state it is a broader study of Dylan’s experiments with time and the blues.

Whereas a considerable number of Dylan songs use only a limited number of chords, often the classic three-chord blues pattern, often just one sustained chord throughout a whole song (e.g. Political World), some songs stand out as far more advanced, harmonically speaking. I would like to discuss Dear Landlord from this perspective.

This chapter is probably my first attempt at using the language of functional harmony to interpret the harmonic content of a Dylan song. It may not be my best attempt, and it is probably too much of a torso to merit inclusion, were it not for its status as the first.

In any ‘Dylan’s strangest song’ contest, In the Garden will always be a strong contender. Here, I try to explain why. The ambiguity of an aug-chord is the answer.