At the blessed age of 60, Bob Dylan released Moonlight – a tender and tranquil song on his 31st studio album record – Love and Theft. This song is often overlooked on the record in lieu of other showier songs like the country rock classic Mississippi and the ‘bursting at the seams’ rockabilly tune Summer Days. But the restrained and romantic Moonlight deserves its own pedestal on his 2001 album. The Hawaiian-like hula instrumentals in Moonlight evoke a balmy twilight scene like something from an old Elvis Presley film and then you have Dylan’s voice – intimate, warm, and unusually tender. He doesn’t sing so much as croon, channelling the romantic aura of a bygone era. A prelude perhaps to his Frank Sinatra tribute record – Shadows in the Night in 2015. He’s playing the role in Moonlight of the wistful romantic, the graceful seducer- albeit with his own weathered drawl and lyrical greatness.
But Moonlight is far more than a pastiche or homage. It stands as its own majestic beast, radiant in its quiet beauty. The lyrics are nothing short of luminous. Dylan paints nature not with grand brushstrokes but with soft touches of moonlight and mist. “The seasons, they are turnin’ and my sad heart is yearnin’ / To hear again the songbird’s sweet melodious tone.” The song doesn’t describe love in clichés – it lets it unfold in rivers, stars, and garden paths. It’s Dylan as a twilight poet, to observe, to notice, and to offer something quietly eternal.
The following was extracted from the Wikipedia reference below:
Like most of Dylan’s 21st century output, he produced the song himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost.
The song’s refrain, “Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?” was likely inspired by the Carter Family’s 1928 recording of Joseph Augustine Wade’s song “Meet Me By the Moonlight“, although the rest of the lyrics and the melody are Dylan’s own. According to Dylan scholar Tony Attwood, the song sees Dylan “playing with chords that he rarely if ever used before – chords of the type we might well find in the American popular songs of the 1920s and 1930s“
Engineer/mixer Chris Shaw recalled that the song was recorded entirely live in the studio: “It’s really gorgeous, and I think the take that’s on the record is the second take, the whole thing is completely live, vocals and all, not a single overdub, no editing, it all just flowed together at once, and it was a really beautiful moment“.
In a 2015 USA Today article that ranked “all of Bob Dylan’s songs”, “Moonlight” placed 28th (out of 359). It was the second highest rated song from Love and Theft on the list (behind only Mississippi, which placed first)…Between 2001 and 2008 Dylan played the song 101 times on the Never Ending Tour. A live version performed in Chicago on March 7, 2004 was made available to stream on Dylan’s official website in March 2004. The live debut occurred at Key Arena in Seattle, Washington on October 6, 2001 and the last performance (to date) took place at Brady Theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma on August 27, 2008.
[Verse 1]
The seasons they are turnin’
And my sad heart is yearnin’
To hear again the songbird’s sweet melodious tone
Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?
[Verse 2]
The dusky light, the day is losing
Orchids, poppies, black-eyed Susan
The earth and sky that melts with flesh and bone
Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?
[Verse 3]
The air is thick and heavy
All along the levy
Where the geese into the countryside have flown
Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?
[Bridge]
Well, I’m preaching peace and harmony
The blessings of tranquility
Yet I know when the time is right to strike
I’ll take you ‘cross the river dear
You’ve no need to linger here
I know the kinds of things you like
[Verse 4]
The clouds are turning crimson
The leaves fall from the limbs and
The branches cast their shadows over stone
Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?
[Verse 5]
The boulevards of cypress trees
The masquerade of birds and bees
The petals, pink and white, the wind has blown
Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?
[Bridge]
The trailing moss and mystic glow
The purple blossoms soft as snow
My tears keep flowing to the sea
Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief
It takes a thief to catch a thief
For whom does the bell toll for, love?
It tolls for you and me
[Verse 6]
My pulse is running through my palm
The sharp hills are rising from
Yellow fields with twisted oaks that groan
Won’t you meet me out in the moonlight alone?
References:
1. Moonlight (Bob Dylan 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 
I’ve never heard this song. I like it. The lyrics are great, and I think it’s really pretty.
Dylan forever the wellspring of music. Like this one below scantily known, but unforgettable:
Wow. This is lovely. Thank you!
I’m elated you liked it.
‘To Fall in Love with You’ – It’s my daughters favourite song by Dylan. I had it on repeat going out this morning and found my eyes welling up with tears. I could happily have it on repeat and never grow tired of it.
I can see why. I even looked up the lyrics. Awesome!
Wow. It’s so gorgeous. I just love how Dylan envelopes the song so completely despite it being a throw away concert take.
I believe I didn’t hear “Moonlight” before and like it. In fact, unlike predecessor “Time Out of Mind,” I don’t think I had heard any music from “Love and Theft.” I’m currently listening to “Honest With Me.” That’s a great song as well!
In September, I’m supposed to see Bob Dylan as part of the Outlaw Tour, together with Willie Nelson and Sheryl Crow. Here’s a little fun fact: When Dylan released “Love and Theft”, he was only three years younger than Sheryl Crow is today. On May 24, Dylan is turning 84, while Willie Nelson Nelson just turned 92. I find all of this pretty remarkable.
I couldn’t recommend more highly those other songs from the record I mentioned in this article.
I was just looking up Dylan’s age in writing this article. That concert must be sought after indeed. I hope you get to see it.
Thanks, Matt, I hope so. I got a ticket. 🙂
Giddyup! I’m envious lol
Lovely song off a classic album. One of my favourites from Bob.
It’s a really edgy album with some stand-out word play and tunes. He was on a streak with ‘Time Out Of Mind’, then this and the Oscar win. Thanks for commenting.
Yes, I bought Love and Theft on cassette from a service station while on the road in 2001 and played it on repeat for many many days. Didn’t take long to grow to love the hell out of it and remains one of my favourite Bob albums ever. Still have that cassette somewhere.
Cool story about L&T. You certainly hold the album in such high regard being one of your favourites.
That’s what I would usually do when a Dylan album came out, I would wear it out to death. Typically there would always be 4 or more songs which would blow me away and I’d keep playing thereafter.
I rate this highly in his “modern” catalogue.
Yeh, it’s a goodie!
Oh, while I’m thinking about it, I hope you don’t mind me sending you a video below I recent fell across.
Give it some time. I think it’s well worth it. Have a great weekend!
“Love & Theft” is one of my favorite Dylan albums ~ which says a lot, since there’s so many of them. It’s one I found at the library & was able to copy onto my computer & then burn onto another CD ~ I miss those days.
I don’t think I ever utilised the library for that purpose, but I don’t blame ya. Shh. It was definitely a latter career highlight this record.
I was getting records (33&1/3 LPs) out from the library back in the 70s, when I was a teenager; in the 80s, when I had my own stereo system, I made tapes of the albums I liked. I’ve always tried to save the things I liked. Some people call that theft but I’m not so sure about that. The things at the library are paid for with taxpayer money, so it all belongs to all of us ~ we all paid for it. But whatever.
You go way back with this stuff. I hadn’t had such an elaborate system as you did; instead taping sometimes direct from the TV of music like that which appeared on the Wonder Years. In fact that’s how I got rolling onto Dylan’s music by mistakenly assuming Donovan’s ‘Catch the Wind’ was a Dylan song. And then only to find myself procuring ‘Before the Flood’ by Dylan and the Band where ‘Blowing in the Wind’ appeared; thinking it was the same song – ‘Catch the Wind’.
We sang “Blowing in the Wind” in elementary school chorus. LOL
The Catholic Church here absconded with ‘Blowing in the Wind’ for their services as well as Simon and Garfunkle’s ‘Sounds of Silence’. And I’m not kidding.