I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You

"I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and released as the fourth track on his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways. The song is performed in 6/8 time and has a lilting melody (based on Offenbach's Barcarolle from Tales of Hoffman),[1] causing some critics to compare it to a "lullaby".[2]

"I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album 'Rough and Rowdy Ways'
ReleasedJune 19, 2020
RecordedJanuary-February, 2020
StudioSound City Studios
GenreFolk
Length6:32
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Bob Dylan
Producer(s)None listed

It is the only song on the album to feature a guitar solo and one of only two songs (the other being "Key West (Philosopher Pirate)") to feature backing vocals.

Critical reception

Amanda Petrusich, reviewing Rough and Rowdy Ways in the New Yorker, has cited the song as her favorite on the album. She characterizes it as a "gentle ballad about deliberately resigning oneself to love and its demands" and notes that, while it's "not the album's richest or most complicated song", its "evocation of a certain kind of golden-hour melancholy" makes it eminently re-listenable.[3]

Drew Warrick, writing about the track in The Michigan Daily, claims that Dylan "hasn't sounded this sharp in decades", calling his vocal "a cavernous croon that soars with genuine affection" and noting that Dylan's "Sinatra phase", in which he spent years singing traditional pop standards live and in the studio, had "paid off".[4]

While critics have been nearly unanimous in claiming "devotion" to be the song's subject, there have been varying interpretations as to who or what the song's object is (only referred to as "you" by the first-person narrator). Many see "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You" as a romantic love ballad addressed to a specific individual: Augustus Welby calls it "as true a love song as you're ever likely to find",[5] and several other critics have similarly seen it as a classic love song in the vein of Dylan's oft-covered "Make You Feel My Love" from 1997.[6][7][8] But Chris Willman, writing in Variety, raises the possibility that the song could be seen as a "love letter" to Dylan's own fans, citing the lines "I'm giving myself to you, I am, from Salt Lake City to Birmingham / From East L.A. to San Antone, I don't think I could bear to spend my life alone"[9] as possibly being addressed to "anyone who attended the Never Ending Tour".[10] Still other critics see the song as having a spiritual aspect: Glide's Paul Haney, for instance, interprets lines about "the gospel of love" and hoping the "gods go easy with me" as an indication that the song could be about Dylan dedicating himself to a higher power.[11]

Cultural references

The line "If I had the wings of a snow-white dove" is likely a reference to the nearly identical opening line of Ferlin Husky's country/gospel song "Wings of a Dove",[12] famously sung on camera by Robert Duvall in his Academy Award-winning performance in the 1983 film Tender Mercies.[13]

Cover versions

Australian singer-songwriter Emma Swift covered the song during a concert in Nashville, Tennessee that was live-streamed on YouTube in 2020.[14]

References
  1. "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You. And Offenbach and Johnny Cash. | Untold DylanUntold Dylan". Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  2. Jenkins, Craig (June 29, 2020). "Bob Dylan Is Still the Voice of a Generation". Vulture. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  3. Petrusich, Amanda. "Bob Dylan's "Rough and Rowdy Ways" Hits Hard". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  4. Writer, Drew Warrick Daily Arts. "Bob Dylan in 2020: Love and violence in the end times". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  5. Welby, Augustus (September 27, 2020). "The Best Lyrics on Bob Dylan's Rough and Rowdy Ways". Tone Deaf.
  6. "On Bob Dylan's 'Rough and Rowdy Ways' Everything Old Is New Again, Again". PopMatters. June 25, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  7. Lockett, Mac (July 1, 2020). "Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways — Sungenre Review". Sungenre. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  8. Carty, Pat. "Album Review: Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways". Hotpress. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  9. "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You | The Official Bob Dylan Site". www.bobdylan.com. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  10. Willman, Chris (June 17, 2020). "Bob Dylan's 'Rough and Rowdy Ways': Album Review". Variety. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  11. "Bob Dylan Contradicts Himself". glidemagazine.com. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  12. Ferlin Husky – Wings Of A Dove, retrieved December 29, 2020
  13. "On the Wings of a Dove - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  14. "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You by Emma Swift Song Statistics | setlist.fm". www.setlist.fm. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
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