If Bob Dylan’s ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue‘ had been transfigured into a rock song, then today’s featured Baby Blue is perhaps what it would have sounded like. Just listen to how Pete Ham sings the line ‘The special love I have for you‘ – that melody seems straight out of Dylan’s song, even when he sings ‘My baby blue‘. Bob Dylan referred to transfiguration in his recollection of his infamous 1966 Motorcycle crash in this Rolling Stone article:
Edited 20/7/2025: Dylan’s song was in fact turned into a rock song in an early previously unreleased version by the Byrds from their Turn, Turn, Turn album
Yeah, absolutely. I’m not like you, am I? I’m not like him, either. I’m not like too many others. I’m only like another person who’s been transfigured. How many people like that or like me do you know?
Baby Blue is another Badfinger song presented at Max’s PowerPop site which I knew I had to add to the collection. The previous entry was Lay Me Down. Max wrote the following about Baby Blue:
My love for this song is so over the top. Baby Blue, to these ears, is the perfect power pop song. It has the right combination of the hard British crunch and pop with an irresistible guitar riff. Lets talk about that guitar riff. I know there are other good rock riffs but the perfection in this one is sensational. He plays a variant of it through the song always changing plus a walk down or two. Nothing is purely defined and that is just pure brilliance. The solo is simple but fits perfectly. No nuance in this song is wasted…it was in there for the good of the song…not meant to be flashy.
It’s a hook here, a hook there, and a hook everywhere…and…I’ve been hooked since I first heard it. Everything blends. Even the ending is perfect
Guess I got what I deserved
Kept you waitin’ there too long, my love
All that time, without a word
Didn’t know you’d think that I’d forget
Or I’d regret
The special love I have for you
My baby blue
[Verse 2]
All the days became so long
Did you really think I’d do you wrong?
Dixie, when I let you go
Thought you’d realise that I would know
I would show
The special love I have for you
My baby blue
[Bridge]
What can I do? What can I say?
Except I want you by my side
How can I show you? Show me a way
Don’t you know the times I’ve tried?
References:
1. Baby Blue (Badfinger song) – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Love this song 🎵
I think I recalled in the Lay Me Down song how similar his voice sounds to Paul McCartney. Great song.
His does sound like Paul’s!