Lay Lady Lay

Album

Nashville Skyline

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Country rock

Composer(s)

Bob Dylan

Entered Chart

Jul 12, 1969

Peak Date

Sep 6, 1969

Released

July 1969

Recorded

February 14, 1969 Studio Columbia Studio A (Nashville, Tennessee)

Catalog #

Columbia 4-44926

B-Side

Peggy Day

In the summer of 1968, the producers of the movie Midnight Cowboy reached out to Dylan to see if he had a song they could use for the film's soundtrack. Dylan had been playing around with "Lay Lady Lay," a gentle love song, and thought it would make a good submission, but he didn't get it done on time. Producer John Schlesinger settled on Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'" before he got to hear Dylan's song. Clinton Heylin observes in Revolution In The Air that the song doesn't make sense for the movie, and it's possible Dylan didn't read the script as he developed the song. Midnight Cowboy, released in 1969, is not a romantic or sentimental film. Starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, the gritty story is about two street hustlers who live in a condemned building and spend their days looking for ways to survive. Character Joe Buck (played by Voight) becomes a gigolo to make his money, and there is a subsequent scene with him in bed with a New York socialite, but it's hardly the kind of romantic situation "Lay Lady Lay" is suited for. The song ended up on Dylan's 1969 album Nashville Skyline. The Everly Brothers recorded "Lay Lady Lay" in 1984 on their album EB 84. Dylan offered them the song back in the late '60s, probably not too long after playing it for Schlesinger and Midnight Cowboy. Out of this meeting came a longtime myth that the Everly Brothers rejected the song because they thought Dylan sang "lay lady lay, lay across my big breasts, babe," thinking it was a lesbian love song. Don Everly cleared that story up in 1994 when he said that the lesbian breast angle wasn't true. The Everly Brothers just didn't realize Dylan was offering them the song. It was an informal meeting, and they were starstruck. They had no idea Dylan was demoing the song for their use. This was one of many Dylan songs covered by The Byrds, who also recorded "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Just Like A Woman," and "The Times They Are A-Changin'." There are two versions of the song on their 2002 Dylan cover compilation, The Byrds Play Dylan. They Byrds version bubbled under at #132 US in 1969; other charting renditions of the song in America were by Ferrante & Teicher (#99, 1970) and the Isley Brothers (#71, 1972). Some radio stations refused to play this song simply because of the use of the word "lay" in the title, assuming it referred to sex (i.e. "get laid"). Despite the accusation of being "sexually titled," Dylan denied any sexual terminology. Cassandra Wilson covered this for her album Glamoured. In 2001, shortly after the release of his Love and Theft album, Bob Dylan himself went on record as saying "I love everything she does," and said she was the only good thing on the radio (which, he mentioned, "makes hideous sounds"). >> Report an ad Dylan's vocals were slightly sped up, producing a higher vocal. Grammatically, the correct title for this song would be "Lie Lady Lie," but that wouldn't sing very well. English teachers will tell you that Dylan's title is a command to place the lady on the bed, but Dylan isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his strict adherence to the rules of grammar. Neither is Eric Clapton, who did something similar with "Lay Down Sally." In 2020, transcripts emerged from a 1971 interview in which Dylan said he'd written the song for Barbra Streisand to perform. Understandably, much was made of this discovery, but it should be looked at in the broader context of Dylan's character. He frequently forgot songs he'd written, sometimes not even recognizing them when others would perform them (Joan Baez has attested to this). In interviews, his answers were sometimes deliberately intended to mess with people's heads, but even when his intentions were honest he often stated inaccuracies about his own life. Richie Havens covered this on his 1987 album Sings Beatles and Dylan; Cher sang it as "Lay Baby Lay" on her 1969 album, 3614 Jackson Highway. The B-side for the "Lay Lady Lay" single was "Peggy Day," the fifth track on Nashville Skyline.

Lay, lady, lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Lay, lady, lay
Lay across my big brass bed

Whatever colors you have in your mind
I show them to you and you'll see them shine

Lay, lady, lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay
Stay with your man a while
Until the break of day
Let me see you make him smile

His clothes are dirty but his, his hands are clean
And you're the best thing that he's ever seen

Stay, lady, stay
Stay with your man a while

Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you

Lay, lady, lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay
Stay while the night is still ahead

I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night

Stay, lady, stay
Stay while the night is still ahead