Bob Dylan reveals he wrote 'Lay Lady Lay' for Barbra Streisand

[left-of-center2012]

In long-lost interviews, Bob Dylan speaks candidly about anti-Semitic prejudice (he changed his name to Bob Dylan from Robert Allen Zimmerman) and reveals he wrote the hit song "Lay Lady Lay" for Barbra Streisand to sing. The remarks are contained in typed transcripts of 1971 conversations between Dylan and his friend Tony Glover, a blues musician who died last year. The transcripts, featuring Dylan's handwritten annotations, are going up for auction in Boston, along with other memorabilia from Glover's archives.

Glover's widow, Cynthia Nadler, put the materials up for sale, with online bidding to begin Nov. 12 and end Nov. 19, according to Bobby Livingston, the auction house's executive vice president.

Glover repeated conventional wisdom that "Lay Lady Lay" was originally written for the soundtrack to the Oscar-winning drama "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), but Dylan interrupted him to reveal the true origins of the song. "Actually, it was written for Barbra Streisand," Dylan is quoted as saying.

In context, Dylan appears to be saying that he wrote "Lay Lady Lay" as a tune for Streisand to sing — not necessarily as an homage to her. Dylan, a famously enigmatic artist who guards his privacy, did not provide any additional information about his relationship with Streisand.

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/bob-dylan-reveals-he-wrote-lay-lady-lay-barbra-streisand-n1245096

[LakeArenal]

1. Never would have guessed that.

Dylan has my favorite lyric tho.

Especially today:

I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is to see you

[Hoyt]

4. Yep, perhaps greatest dis, contempt verse in music. I've used it with a few people with attribution.

[underpants]

2. Love me some Dylan.

[Mike 03]

3. Interesting. I love learning about things like this.

I always wondered if that song was about Joan Baez.

Some of those early songs, just because I don't know all that much about Dylan's love life, the ones about women, I usually think about Joan Baez, or sometimes wonder if some of them were about Edie Sedgwick.

[Docreed2003]

8. Just like a woman and Leopardskin Pillbox Hat

Were written about or for Edie. Just in case you were wondering..😉

[Baitball Blogger]

5. Isn't one of the lyrics, "lay across my big brass bed?"

Too lazy to look that up.

[left-of-center2012]

6. The second line of the song

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed

Whatever colors you have in your mind
I show them to you and you see them shine

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
Stay with your man a while
Until the break of day
Let me see you make him smile

His clothes are dirty but his, his hands are clean
And you are the best thing that he's ever seen

Stay lady stay
Stay with your man a while

Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
Stay while the night is still ahead

I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night

Stay lady stay
Stay while the night is still ahead

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Bob Dylan
Lay Lady Lay lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

[Baitball Blogger]

7. What was all the animosity about?

Unrequited love?