This 1974 Bob Dylan Lyric Borrowed From a Home Run Call

When Bob Dylan reunited with The Band for the 1974 album Planet Waves, many folks thought the musicians might naturally return to the homey vibes of The Basement Tapes era. And many of the songs on the record satisfied those expectations.

But there were also a couple of songs on the record that foreshadowed the tumultuous material that Dylan would soon trot out on his Blood On The Tracks album. The haunting ballad “Going, Going, Gone” certainly anticipates the breakup album to come.

“Gone” for Good

It’s a pretty good bet that Bob Dylan is a baseball fan. He once devoted an episode of his beloved Theme Time Radio Hour to the subject. And he also recorded (but didn’t originally release) the song “Catfish”, a tribute to pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter, during the sessions for the 1976 album Desire.

As such, Dylan was probably plenty aware of the home run call from legendary baseball broadcaster Mel Allen. Allen turned “Going, Going, Gone” into his trademark of sorts. Dylan turned the phrase on its ear when he wrote this song.

When Dylan came back together with The Band, first for album sessions and then for a massive co-headlining tour, it indicated his willingness to get back to the faster professional pace that he once maintained in the mid-60s. He had largely backed away from that in the late 60s and early 70s as he focused on his family.

The change in priorities might have had something to do with problems in Dylan’s marriage to his wife Sara. Those problems would be poured over on his next album, Blood On The Tracks, in 1975. “Going, Going, Gone” seems to give a preview of those issues.

Exploring the Lyrics of “Going, Going, Gone”

“Going, Going, Gone” features some exquisite instrumental work from The Band, including Robbie Robertson’s pained guitar licks playing off the resigned organ chords of Garth Hudson. But it’s Dylan who’s in the spotlight here, and it’s a cold light at that, shining down on his bereft observations.

The narrator has come to a point of no return, realizing that he can’t recapture the happiness he once knew. “It’s the top of the end,” Dylan sings, perhaps once again playing off a baseball term (top of the inning). “And I don’t really care,” he admits. “What happens next.” This guy’s got nothing, which means, as a wise man once said, he’s got nothing to lose.

In the middle eight, the narrator recounts some advice his grandfather gave him, and it’s the first time we get a hint of what’s causing his malaise. “Don’t you and your one true love ever part” is the last piece of this knowledge. The way Dylan’s voice twists when he sings it, we can tell that the script hasn’t played out that way for this guy.

The final verse takes the narrator to a harrowing place. “I been living on the edge,” he explains. “Now, I’ve just got to go/Before I get to the ledge.” Unwilling to go that far, he decides to remove himself from the equation: “So I’m going/I’m just going/I’m gone.”

“Going, Going, Gone” isn’t a song that gets mentioned a ton when talking about Dylan classics. It would be much better-known if it had indeed appeared on Blood On The Tracks, the album with which it shares a captivatingly lonely vibe.

(Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns)

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