Freewheelin’ addendum - “Let Me Die in My Footsteps”

 I just discovered this song, written in March 1962 (preceding the writing of Blowin’ in the Wind by a month). It was intended for the Freewheelin’ album, but pulled at the last minute, allegedly due to fears from Columbia that it was too political. It was replaced by Hard Rain.  It was finally released years later as part of the Bootleg series. I think it’s an amazing song.

In 1963, Dylan gave this account of how he came to write "Let Me Die in My Footsteps" to critic Nat Hentoff, who wrote the liner notes for The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan:

I was going through some town and they were making this bomb shelter right outside of town, one of these sort of Coliseum-type things and there were construction workers and everything. I was there for about an hour, just looking at them build, and I just wrote the song in my head back then, but I carried it with me for two years until I finally wrote it down. As I watched them building, it struck me sort of funny that they would concentrate so much on digging a hole underground when there were so many other things they should do in life. If nothing else, they could look at the sky, and walk around and live a little bit, instead of doing this immoral thing.

 Let me drink from the waters where the mountain streams flood

 Let the smell of wildflowers flow free through my blood

Let me sleep in your meadows with the green grassy leaves
Let me walk down the highway with my brother in peace
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground

A very few copies of the album were actually released with this song on it, along with three others that were replaced. If you happen to own this album, it’s worth about $35,000.



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