Fourth Time Around

This documents what could be a quarrel between two lovers, or a prostitute and her client: "When she said/'Don't waste your words, they're just lies'/I cried she was deaf." The woman eventually kicks the man out of her house: "She threw me outside/I stood in the dirt where ev'ryone walked." He then comes back to pick up his shirt, and in her rage, the woman chokes on her gum, leaving the guy to snoop around: "She screamed till her face got so red/Then she fell on the floor/And I covered her up and then/Thought I'd go look through her drawer."

Many believe this song was written in response to "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" by The Beatles, since it is similar, both melodically and lyrically. John Lennon was unsure whether the song was a homage or a warning. This is because the song concludes with an ambiguous final verse, where Dylan goes from the pronoun "she," to instead address someone directly with the pronoun "you." This final verse contains the line "I never asked for your crutch/Now don't ask for mine." John was concerned that Bob thought he was using Dylan's music as a crutch for his own song writing. Others argue this line is actually about the folk singer, Joan Baez, who had been close to Dylan in his early days and helped him to garner initial success. Now, however, it was Baez who tended to rely on Dylan's success.

A live version of this song featured in the 2001 movie, Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise.