Of all things ...
Bob Dylan recorded 'She's Your Lover Now' on 21st January 1966. There were 16 takes and he was not satisfied. It was not released until the first Bootleg Series CD in 1991.
That was the 15th take, which is the most renowned, albeit he did not reach the end of the song on that take. He did get to the end on the 16th (substantially musically different) take, and that take emerged in the 2010s, on a later Bootleg.
'She's Your Lover Now' is sometimes my favourite Bob Dylan song.
It is the work of someone at the peak of their evil powers.
But he didn't finish it, and he didn't release it. Did he not rate it?
I think he did rate it. He knew it was a great song. It was one of the first songs he attempted to record for Blonde on Blonde and he gave a whole day to it.
The most famous recording, Take 15, ends with the song breaking down midway through the last of four mammoth verses and a slightly irritated "What?" from Bob.
It turned out that, although they had backed him to famous effect on tour, although they would make the Basement Tapes together, record and tour together again, at that point in early '66, he was dissatisfied with the Hawks/Band in the recording studio (he told as much to his friend Robert Shelton a few weeks later). This aborted attempt to record 'She's Your Lover Now' probably brought an end to Blonde on Blonde being recorded in New York with those musicians. He moved on to Nashville, taking Robbie Robertson but not the rest of the Band, and that is where most of Blonde on Blonde was recorded.
So 'She's Your Lover Now' was a pretty significant failure.
And yet ... the most glorious failure.
The premise of the song - it's a three-hander. The singer, his former partner and her current partner. I've always assumed the former partner is Joan Baez, maybe I read that somewhere, but who knows.
It's a mean song. Maybe his meanest. And that's saying something for Dylan.
I have also heard it said that he left this song behind because he moved on to One of Us Most Know (Sooner of Later), which is similar structurally. Sooner or Later is also a great song, though I prefer this one. Sooner of Later is significantly kinder and more conciliatory. Maybe that's why he went with it.
She's Your Lover Now certainly has the more memorable lines. I won't list them all, but "And you, you just sit around and ask for ashtrays, can't you reach?" (one of the "asides" where he turns with an "And you" to the unfortunate new boyfriend) never fails to amuse.
And, in my opinion, some of Dylan's greatest singing. The reality is that through 65 and 66, Dylan was taking more and more drugs, getting less and less sleep, living closer and closer to the edge. July 29th 1966 was the famous motorcycle accident. It is widely thought the lifestyle break it necessitated was a lifesaver.
That lifestyle is reflected in his singing. 64 and 65 Dylan has a big, strong voice. '66 Dylan is that thin, stoned whine. Truthfully, his voice is more and shot through the course of '66. But 'She's Your Lover Now', from January, still has the power in the lungs of something like Positively Fourth Street or Like a Rolling Stone.
The vocal performance he gives her really does make it even more perplexing that he just discarded the song. It is one of his most passionate, furious performances, In the last verse, just second before the recording stumbles to a finish sings "It's just like a dead man's - last - pistol shot - babyyyyyy" and it's one of the greatest, most intense bits of singing he ever did.
Anyway, there it is - in my opinion, one of the all-time great Dylan lost tracks. I doubt it'll be in Chalamet film ...
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