Dylan Taps Bobby Burns

Asked to name the lyric that had the greatest impact on his development as an artist, Bob Dylan chose the Scottish poet Robert Burns's "red, red rose." For more, click here. Thanks, Steve Dube, for keeping us up to speed.

Song

O, my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I,
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry

Till a' the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
O I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

-- Robert Burns

Comments

[Laura Orem]

That Robert Burns was pretty cute!

[Lawrence J. Epstein]

Bobby Dylan's choice is wonderful. Of course, Dylan seems to like a whole lot about Scotland. Sometime, probably mid-2006, he and his brother, David, bought Aultmore House, a mansion in Cairngorms National Park near Nethybridge, Inverness-shire.

Dylan, after all, is the guy who wrote "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" and "Highlands" (on the "Time Out of Mind" album), and in 2004 he did get an honorary degree from St. Andrews.

Dylan also adapted a Scottish folk song for "The Times They Are A-Changin'." For those interested, it was Hamish Henderson’s "The 51st (Highland) Division’s Farewell to Sicily."