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Length
3:36
As with "All I Really Want To Do," the opening track of Another Side of Bob Dylan, this second track on the album is widely assumed to be about Dylan's breakup with Suze Rotolo (with Rotolo herself being among those assuming).
The lyrics are pretty straightforward throughout the song, detailing Dylan's state as he wanders around feeling beaten up from losing his woman. The final verse, though, which also happens to be the one that gives the song its title, is sort of surreal.
“Black crows in the meadow
Across a broad highway
Black crows in the meadow
Across a broad highway
Though it's funny, honey
I just don't feel much like a
Scarecrow today”
The lyrics make sense in a sort of instinctual way, but they break down if you think very much about them. They don't really seem to make sense. The vaguely surreal, paradoxical nature of the words is not insignificant, as Another Side as a whole is considered a turning point in Dylan's songwriting, when he started incorporating visionary, mystical elements similar to the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud (who he began talking about frequently around this point in his career).
"Black Crow Blues" is significant because it's the first song Dylan ever recorded with him playing piano. There is no guitar in it, only piano, harmonica, and his vocals.
Dylan has never performed this song live.
The song was recorded June 9 and 10, 1964, in Columbia Recording Studios' Studio A.
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