Sugar Baby (Bob Dylan song)

"Sugar Baby" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 2001 as the 12th and final track on his "Love and Theft" album.[1] It is a slow-tempo ballad in which the song's narrator describes a life of epic heartbreak and regret.

"Sugar Baby"
Song by Bob Dylan
from the album Love and Theft
ReleasedSeptember 11, 2001
RecordedMay 2001
GenreFolk rock
Length6:40
LabelColumbia
Songwriter(s)Bob Dylan
Producer(s)Jack Frost
Love and Theft track listing
12 tracks
  1. "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum"
  2. "Mississippi"
  3. "Summer Days"
  4. "Bye and Bye"
  5. "Lonesome Day Blues"
  6. "Floater (Too Much to Ask)"
  7. "High Water (For Charley Patton)"
  8. "Moonlight"
  9. "Honest With Me"
  10. "Po' Boy"
  11. "Cry a While"
  12. "Sugar Baby"

Critical reception

In the "Temperance" chapter of his book Dylan's Visions of Sin, literary scholar Christopher Ricks has a lengthy analysis of the song in which he emphasizes how the unusual pauses in Dylan's phrasing create meaning as much as the words do (e.g., "'have / broken many a heart' is itself a broken effect; 'a way of / tearing the world apart' does find itself torn apart in the utterance; and 'just as / sure as we're living' cannot but sound less sure than it claims").[2]

Cultural references

The song shares its title with a Dock Boggs song, a recording Dylan is said to have treasured as a young folksinger in New York City.[3]

Part of the chord progression and the lines, "Look up, look up, seek your maker, 'fore Gabriel blows his horn" are taken from the song "Lonesome Road", co-written and performed by Gene Austin, and later covered by Frank Sinatra in a swing arrangement.[4]

In I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' unconventional biographical film about Dylan: As Heath Ledger's character, Robbie Clark, looks up to see three angels in the sky, Christian Bale's character, Jack Rollins, can be heard saying in voice-over, 'Sure as we're living, sure as we're born, look up, look up, Gabriel blows his horn'".[5]

Live performances

Between 2001 and 2012 Dylan played the song 130 times on the Never Ending Tour.[6]

Other versions

The song was covered by the English singer Barb Jungr on her 2002 album Every Grain of Sand: Barb Jungr Sings Bob Dylan.

References
  1. "Love and Theft". Rolling Stone. September 4, 2001.
  2. Ricks, Christopher (2004). Dylan's visions of sin (1st American ed.). New York: Ecco. ISBN 0-06-059923-5. OCLC 54611300.
  3. Marcus, Greil (September 2, 2001). "MUSIC; Sometimes He Talks Crazy, Crazy Like a Song (Published 2001)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 14, 2020.
  4. A Swingin' Affair! - Frank Sinatra | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic, retrieved December 14, 2020
  5. "I'm Not There (2007)", IMDb, retrieved December 13, 2020
  6. "Bob Dylan Tour Statistics | setlist.fm". www.setlist.fm. Retrieved December 24, 2020.


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