Just like the last song I posted on Dylan – Long and Wasted Years, today’s featured track Love Minus Zero/No Limit has no musical chorus or bridge. Dylan recites 8 four-line verses about what the singer thinks is his perfect woman and how she brings a needed zen-like calm to his chaotic world. Effectively this is a poem in the form of a song, and one of Dylan’s best of the period, and that’s saying a lot considering the quantity of outstanding music he was unveiling to the world. Love Minus Zero/No Limit is read “Love Minus Zero over No Limit, so it’s intended to be read as a fraction.
[Verse 1]
My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful
Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire
[Verse 2]
People carry roses
And make promises by the hours
My love she laughs like the flowers
Valentines can’t buy her
[Verse 3]
In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall
[Verse 4]
Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all
A lot of the following information is from various parts of the Wikipedia reference below which intrigued me:
Love Minus Zero/No Limit is a song on his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home, released in 1965. The song uses surreal imagery, which some authors and critics have suggested recalls Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and the biblical Book of Daniel. Critics have also remarked that the style of the lyrics is reminiscent of William Blake’s poem “The Sick Rose“. The initial title of the song was “Dime Store“, in a reference to an included lyric; it was also briefly referred to as “(Tune Z) Dimestore” on the recording sheet.
Clinton Heylin suggested that the lyrics reflect the Zen-like detachment of the singer’s lover through a series of opposites, for example, that she “speaks like silence” and is both “like ice” and “like fire“. Another famous line from the song that captures this dichotomy is, “She knows there’s no success like failure, and that failure’s no success at all.” In a 2005 reader’s poll for Mojo magazine, “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” was listed as the #20 all-time greatest Bob Dylan song, and a similar poll of artists ranked the song #32.
References:
1. Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Bob Dylan
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
This was my favorite song by Bob for the longest all because of the line “She knows there’s no success like failure and that failure’s no success at all”
Brilliant
Yeh this was one of the first that captivated me as well. Brilliant line indeed. All the verses are fantastic. He was 24 when he did this yeh? It makes the mind boggle.
It does…he sounds so old in voice and writing.
That’s a good way of putting it. I can see why all the press, fans and other artists were so hung up on him. Apart from Cohen I haven’t heard his equal and even then Bob created excellent music where as Leonard was arguably more of a straight-up poet who happened to want a song sound to accentuate its meaning. But both are the greatest lyricists I have come across. Bob is unequivocally the greatest singer songwriter I have had the good fortune to follow.
Yes Bob is the complete package. His music peers…from heavy metal to country all talk about him…he covers it all.
I remember in the 80’s he was kind of mocked and disparaged. There were parodies of him on Australian TV where they made fun of his perceived drug habits and Rainy-Day Woman. My friends used to chastise me about that…. That he was just a druggie etc and don’t mention his voice! My family couldn’t get past that way back when although with the Travelling Wilburies Volume 1, their admiration rose significantly. Since time has passed, it seems you can’t nearly hear a negative word said about him now… .only praise. I suppose the Oscar and Nobel had something to do with that. It’s funny how things level out, and people can separate the wheat from the chaff. Although he’s arguably both of those things. Haha
As David Bowie said: “a voice like sand and glue” (“Song for Bob Dylan”). Awesome to go back on these old songs and listen. Music really holds so much history and every year we add to how the sounds can change and what we can pull from.
I can’t believe I have never heard this song before. What a coincidence! I was watching a Bowie documentary this morning. I’m still learning to appreciate his music. Bowie is one of the few music artists who I love hearing interpret his own music and artistry. He was a very eloquent man.
That makes sense. I do feel like some music takes longer to appreciate. Yes, Bowie was a philosopher. A Buddhist-like figure of music, in a way. There’s so much music out there. It’s insane if you think of how many songs are produced each year.
‘A Buddhist-like figure of music’. Great description. Yes, it’s cumbersome trying to keep abreast of all the wonderful music out there.