Bye and Bye
"Bye and Bye" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 2001 as the fourth track on his album Love and Theft. As with most of Dylan's 21st-century output, he produced the song himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost.
Composition and recording
Musically, "Bye and Bye" is what Oliver Trager calls an "easygoing, lilting ballad...something one would expect from Leon Redbone or, from an earlier era, Bing Crosby. Some Dylanologists have traced the musical source for 'Bye and Bye' to 'Having Myself a Time,' a song popularized by Billie Holiday and written by Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger".Lyrically, however, "Bye and Bye" appears to have darker concerns. According to Trager again: " slowly gives way to the sentiments of a scary stalker. As Richard Harrington wrote in his September 16, 2001, The Washington Post review of Love and Theft:
Critical reception
In their book Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon discuss the song in relation to jazz and see it as prefiguring Dylan's mid-2010s exploration of the Great American Songbook: "After the rockabilly style of the previous track, Dylan revisits the jazz repertoire with 'Bye and Bye', which would have easily found its place on the track listing for Shadows in the Night, released in 2015. With the voice of a crooner, swing guitars, rhythm with brushes, walking bass, and organ, Dylan and his musicians create a superb piece. The songwriter has always admired Frank Sinatra, and he proves it here".Cultural references
The line "I'm gonna baptize you in fire so you can sin no more" is a paraphrase from the Gospel of Matthew, verse 3:11.The line "I'm not even acquainted with my own desires" is a paraphrase from one of Rosalind's lines in Act 1, Scene III of William Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Historian Richard F. Thomas sees the line "I'll establish my rule through civil war" as a reference to the Roman civil wars that brought about the transition from republic to empire. References to Ancient Rome would become increasingly prevalent on Dylan's subsequent albums of original material.