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To Make You Feel My Love

To Make You Feel My Love , Bob Dylan

Jul-14, 2018. 503.

While working on a new recording of Papa’s favorite “He is Like a Tree” song with Malaysian singer Yo Zi NGoo this morning, I stumbled upon Yo Zi’s cover of the song “To Make You Feel My Love.” I knew by heart that I’ve heard and really loved this song many years ago. So I googled and alas found it — a Bob Dylan song from the late 90’s. I remembered it being released by Billy Joel..  Wow! How can a Bob Dylan song be sung so un-Dylan-ly? Listen to Yo Zi’s cover below.

BOB DYLAN WROTE
When the rain is blowing in your face
    And the whole world is on your case
    I could offer a warm embrace
   To make you feel my love
When evening shadows and the stars appear
   And there is no one there to dry your tears
   I could hold you for a million years
   To make you feel my love
I know you haven’t made your mind up yet
   But I would never do you wrong
I’ve known it from the moment that we met
   No doubt in my mind where you belong
I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue
   I’d go crawling down the avenue
   And oh, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
To make you feel my love
The storms are raging on the rolling sea
   And on the highway of regret
   The winds of change are blowing wild and free
   You ain’t seen nothing like me yet
I could make you happy, make your dreams come true
   Nothing that I wouldn’t do
   Go to the ends of the earth for you
   To make you feel my love
 
POEMS TO LYRICS AND MUSIC, from the BIBLE?
The first time I heard this was from Billy Joel and I thought then that it was just ‘one of those’ love songs. Yet twenty years later today. I see and feel things differently, I think more about my family – my boys. It now sounded more like there was this message connecting a father to a son.
 
I really loved how Bob Dylan rhymes his poems. Many of my older poems were inspirations from Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel.  As I googled, I tend to be bias and agree with comments that the song was in many points references from the Bible.
 
Excerpt from a comment from genuis.com:

You can also interpret the song as an account of the agony Jesus endured to give humanity another chance. Dylan converted to Christianity in 1978, and since then, he’s used quite a bit of biblical imagery in his songs. “Go to the ends of the earth”, for example, appears often in the Bible. The apostles are sent out to the ends of the earth in Matthew 28:19 to make disciples of all nations, and Jesus says he will gather his followers from the ends of the earth in Mark 13:27.

Finally, there are some really strong biblical references in phrases like “I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue / I’d go crawling down the avenue / Oh there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do / to make you feel my love”. This is just what Jesus did as he carried his cross through the streets of Jerusalem to his execution on Mount Calvary. When there is no one there to dry your tears, “he will wipe away every tear from your eyes” (Revelation 21:4). He will take you in his arms and offer you the warm embrace of a million years.

another comment from songmeanings:

Elrose:
… but the meaning to this song (to me) isn’t as obvious as loving some chick. This is a song about the love Jesus has for us. Think about it: “I know you haven’t made your mind up yet; but I would never do you wrong…” can be a reference to what it felt like for Bob when he was found by Jesus in the late 80s. Listen to this song again from this angle and see what kind of meaning it takes on to you, it’s an incredible song. Yes, it can be about him loving some chick, but it’s much more than that.

To Make You Feel My Love
 
“TO MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE” VERSIONS FROM GREAT ARTISTS
I didn’t realize that the song has been covered by so many great artists. Starting with Billy Joel (for those of you born in 60s or 70s), and for those born in the 1990s-2000, you knew this tune from of course from Adele.  
 
Maybe you knew, or perhaps you do not… Ed Sheeran also covered the song so amazingly, and my old favorite Neil Diamond (who recently 2018 retired due to Parkinson’s), Timothy Schmit of the Eagles also did, and google gave us a lot more, Kris Allen (American Idol winner who beat Adam Lambert), and the first American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson,she did one of the best, if not the best version of the Dylan song.
 
So, here you go from the writer himself, Bob Dylan.

And the first time it was released —  by Billy Joel in 1997 or 98.

And one of the best version from Kelly Clarkson.

Of course, no one beats the record number of views, more than 150M views of Adele’s version.

Who do you think did the best cover of the song “To Make You Feel My Love?”