Love Minus Zero / No Limit - Take 1 Remake, Complete

Dylanologists generally consider this song to be for Sara Lownds, the woman Dylan married the year the song was recorded and released. Many of his songs have been to or about her, including "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" and "Sara." Dylan wrote the song at the Chelsea Hotel while living there in Room 221. Lownds also lived in the hotel.

Sara Lownds studied Eastern philosophies, suggesting the connection to her in the line "My love she speaks like silence, without ideals of violence." In Taoism and Buddhism, silence and a still mind are the highest goods, and violence is rarely if ever acceptable. The song also describes her as "like ice" and "like fire," meaning two opposite forces at once (Yin and Yang), another concept popular in Eastern philosophy (and one visually represented by the Tai Chi symbol).

The song was initially titled "Dime Store," which is a reference to the song's second line, "In the dime stores and bus stations."