3 Songs Written But Not Originally Performed by Bob Dylan

One of the best and most influential songwriters of the 20th century and beyond, the Minnesota-born Bob Dylan first changed the world with an acoustic guitar and some lyrics. Then he went electric and upended what most people thought a popular song could be. Since then, he’s gone on to influence everyone from The Beatles to your friend who sings at the local coffee shop.

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But along the way, Dylan didn’t only write songs for himself. He also helped others with his creations. Here below, we wanted to explore three such examples, a trio of tracks that Dylan penned for some of the biggest artists of his era. Indeed, these are three songs written but not originally performed by Bob Dylan.

[RELATED: Remember When Dylan Went Electric – the Newport Folk Festival 1965]

“I Don’t Want To Do It” by George Harrison from Porky’s Revenge! (1985)

This is how strange the 1980s were: Bob Dylan wrote a song for George Harrison for the soundtrack to a film called Porky’s Revenge! Somehow, the song didn’t land on the Billboard Hot 100. Lyrically, the song is about not wanting to separate from love. Life is not worth living without the affection of the other, sings Harrison over jingly acoustic guitars and popping drums. Indeed, offers the former Beatle somewhat cloyingly,

Looking back upon my youth
The time I always knew the truth
I don’t want to do it
I don’t want to say goodbye

To go back in the yard and play
If I could only have another day
I don’t want to do it
I don’t want to make you cry

“Love Is Just a Four Letter Word” by Joan Baez from Any Day Now (1968)

Written at the height of Dylan’s powers in the 1960s, this track was first recorded by his former love interest and current friend Joan Baez. While Dylan never recorded it himself, you can hear his influence surely in the lyrics and the song’s folk composition. But when performed with the fluttering voice of the flower power princess Baez, it takes on a whole new vibe. It’s almost spiritual. She sings,

Seems like only yesterday
I left my mind behind
Down in the gypsy café
With a friend of a friend of mine
Who sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she occurred

That love is just a four-letter word

“Steel Bars” by Michael Bolton from Time, Love & Tenderness (1991)

A song featuring some of the greatest lyrics and one of the greatest singers, this collaboration between Dylan and Michael Bolton results in a passionate love song about being held tight by another’s power. You can certainly hear Dylan’s influence. Not only in the way Bolton performs the words but in the words themselves. It’s a funny duo, in many ways, one side unbridled passion and the other a wizard poet, but the offering is grand. And on it, Bolton sings,

And with every step I take
Every desperate move I make
It’s clear to me
What can all my living mean
When time itself is so obscene
When time itself don’t mean a thing
I’m still loving you

Steel bars, wrapped all around me
I’ve been your prisoner since the day you found me
I’m bound forever, till the end of time
Steel bars wrapped around this heart of mine

Photo by Charlie Steiner – Highway 67/Getty Images