Dylan's "I Threw It All Away"

Did you ever throw it all away? I didn't, but I came damn close once. I started it in motion, but came to my senses and started holding on tight with my fingertips. I remember sitting with my musician buddy Bill out on the front porch of my place in Denver, a really long time ago now, though it doesn't seem that way, and I said, "Bill, I'm scared that I've lost her." And Bill said, "Don't worry, I don't think you have." Now, Bill was a crazy optimist, always predicting the best even when it wasn't warranted, but this time he was right. Thank you, man.

The thing about Dylan as a songwriter is that he writes every kind of song; more so, perhaps, than any other songwriter out there. His range is incredible, from straight twelve-bar blues to surreal epics like "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Desolation Road" to existential anthems like "Like A Rolling Stone" to jump-cutting cinematic sagas like "Tangled Up in Blue" to plainspoken country songs like "If Not For You" and this one, an extraordinarily condensed and to the point song about lost love, or rather, squandered love. The rhymes and phrases here are intentionally simplistic, since there's no sugarcoating the situation. I mean, who, when hurting, doesn't get monosyllabic? I like the second verse best, which goes:

Once I had mountains in the palm of my hand
And rivers that ran through every day
I must have been mad
I never knew what I had
Until I threw it all away

I have chosen a version here by the late Austin performer Jimmy LaFave, known for his devotion to Dylan covers. At first, his vocals struck me as over the top, but once I acclimated, the raw emotion started to feel exactly right. In fact, this is the version I turn to first now. Just one more thing: The "threw it all away" song genre is a venerable one, to be sure; no end to the variations that can be done on it. One of my very favorites is the Byrds' version of "You Don't Miss Your Water" from the alt-country Rosetta Stone, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Check it out.