Everybody must give something back
For something they get.

Dylan’s “Fourth Time Around” is interesting in that it sounds like he is explaining to his new girlfriend (“you”) how and why he broke up with his last girlfriend (“her”). The story is preposterous but pretty funny. It sounds like Dylan lived quite the life.

What Dylan tells his new girlfriend is that he went to see this hookup of his and they began arguing about nonsense. She says something to the effect of “everyone gets what is coming to them” and Dylan kind of just stands there twiddling his thumbs, which makes her more angry. He asks her if she would like a stick of gum and that really makes her mad. It seems like she is looking for a fight and he is just trying to de-escalate. So she kicks him out of the house.

Then he remembers he forgot something in her house so he has to go back and bug her again. She goes to get the shirt he forgot, and he looks around the room, sees some peculiar things but notices some nice rum. When she comes back, he asks for some and she says no. He says, “What? I can’t understand you, you should probably spit out your gum.” Well she goes nuclear until she passes out from arguing. He covers her up, and for the hell of it goes and looks through her drawers.

BUT, here is the key, then he gathered all his things and came running to the new girl who gracefully accepted him and loved him. I just have to wonder if this song is really for the new girlfriend or more a funny story for us. I am not certain all those details would be of much interest to a new girlfriend though we find the details enjoyable.

Make sure to listen to the Live version at Free Trade hall. That is the acoustic set right before he went electric. Many of his best performances come from that night.

Fourth Time Around Lyrics

When she said, “Don’t waste your words, they’re just lies”
I cried she was deaf.
And she worked on my face until breaking my eyes,
And saying “What else you got left?”

It was then that I got up to leave,
But she said, “Don’t forget
Everybody must give something back,
For something they get”.

I stood there and hummed, I tapped on her drum,
I asked her how come.
And she buttoned her boot, and straightened her suit,
And she said, “Don’t be cute”.

So I forced my hands in my pockets,
And felt with my thumbs.
And gallantly handed her my very last piece of gum.

She threw me outside, I stood in the dirt,
Where everyone walked.
And, when finding out I’d forgotten my shirt,
I went back and knocked.

I waited in the hallway, she went to get it
And I tried to make sense.
Out of that picture of you in your wheelchair,
That leaned up against…

Her Jamaican rum, and when she did come
I asked her for some.
She said, “No, dear”, I said, “Your words are not clear,
You’d better spit out your gum”.

She screamed till her face got so red,
Then she fell on the floor.
And, I covered her up and then went and looked through her drawer.

And when I was through, I filled up my shoe,
And brought it to you.
And you, you took me in, you loved me then,
You never wasted time.
And I, I never took much, I never asked for your crutch,
Now don’t ask for mine.

written by Bob Dylan