This 1976 song by Bob Dylan is his most personal yet – Grunge

Bob Dylan often distanced himself from his lyrics, both in his private life and in interviews. In fact, he makes that point in most of the records that have been preserved. But on rare occasions, especially on personal songs like the 1976 song “Sarah,” which he wrote for his wife, he opened up. Dylan’s songwriting process is like a divine bolt of lightning, imposing turns of abstract and ambiguous phrases, avoiding at all costs to explain meaning, and capturing magic on the page. This style took him further, especially in the 1960s, when he became the headliner of a new zeitgeist in folk and rock and roll.

His career took a bit of a slump in the early ’70s, but came back full force in ’75 and ’76, featuring the albums “Blood on the Tracks” and “Desire” and the classic Rolling Thunder Revue tour. The songs on both of these albums are dramatized stories or epic poems, imbued with real emotion, but telling the story of a narrator who is not actually Dylan himself.

However, the last song on Desire, the album that included the hit song “Hurricane,” was “Sara,” and unlike most of the other songs Dylan recorded, it was an overt song about his wife and married life, although his complicated love life was a theme often observable in his music. It was a frank and personal plea, with a dramatic story behind it, culminating in a surprise performance for the wife herself in the studio, amidst awe-struck onlookers.

“Sara” immediately reveals itself to be a sombre, even melancholy ballad, with lyrical imagery and detail that perfectly matches its sound. The song begins, “I lay in the dunes and looked at the sky/When kids were babies and played on the beach,” and the winding strings, wailing harmonica riff, and sentimental, expressive vocals place the listener in the place of Dylan in front of the waves, reflecting on his life and family. This line and other scattered lyrics are rare musical references to Dylan’s children, but the theme of fatherhood is consistently present in his music (going back to the early ’60s with “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”).

Although Dylan’s lyrics are often vague and mystical, “Sarah” feels almost autobiographical in its detailed depiction of his very real relationships and rarely discussed private life. Notably, the song was written during a difficult period in their marriage, so Dylan took it all in here, without the usual curveballs he liked to throw at listeners.

Reminiscing on specific instances of his relationship and its intersection with his career, Dylan slightly peels back his usual mask of artistry – “Staying for days at the Chelsea Hotel/Writing ‘The Lady with Sad Eyes’ for you” – and makes a frank, yearning plea. “Sarah, Sarah/What made you change your mind?…Sarah, oh, Sarah/Don’t ever leave me, never leave me.” You can hear the emotion in Dylan’s voice on each line. He sings as if completely enveloped in memory.

These lyrics are even more shocking and hurtful considering the context in which Dylan first released the song. Their relationship was still on the rocks when he invited her to the studio where he was recording “Desire” in 1975, but with some strange motivations typical of Dylan, he played her “Sarah” straight. And somehow it worked, his wife was touched, and their relationship was briefly repaired before the couple finally divorced in 1977. Still, the take on “Sarah” he sang to her at his most vulnerable in the studio ended up making the album, cementing this pleading love song as the most personal Bob Dylan had ever recorded.