B-side "You Angel You" Format 7" 45 rpm Length 2:57 | Released March 1974 Genre Roots rock | |
Recorded November 8, 1973, The Village Recorder, West Los Angeles, California | ||
"On a Night Like This" is a song written by Bob Dylan and recorded in November 1973. It first appeared on Dylan's 14th studio album, Planet Waves, as the opening track. It was also released as the lead single from the album and reached #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 The song later appeared on several Dylan compilation albums including Biograph, in 1985, and Dylan (three-disc version), in 2007.
Contents
Lyrics and music
According to Dylan, "On a Night Like This" was not a typical song for him to write, saying that it "comes off as sort of like a drunk man who's temporarily sober.". Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin found the song a disappointing start to Planet Waves. However, he did acknowledge some positive features: that "playing swings" and that Dylan is in good voice. He also acknowledges some clever lyrics. For example, he sees in the lines:
Build a fire, throw on logs And listen to it hiss And let it burn, burn, burn, burna clever take on Jack Kerouac's use of the phrase "burn, burn, burn" in On the Road in which Dylan means the opposite of Kerouac. He also finds amusement in Dylan's reference to Fats Domino and Dylan's own "The Man in Me" in the lines:
Let the four winds blow Around this old cabin doorAuthor Oliver Trager noted the "rustic" feel resulting from the "twangy, loose musicianship" and noted that visceral effects the song produces in allowing the listener to feel the window frost and smell the burning wood described in the song. Trager particularly praises Dylan's harmonica and Garth Hudson's accordion playing. Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine rates the song's "unassuming nature" as a "virtue."
Cover versions
Los Lobos recorded a version of the song for the soundtrack of the 2003 film Masked and Anonymous. Buckwheat Zydeco covered the song on his 1987 album On a Night Like This. Jimmy Fallon also played this with Buckwheat Zydeco on the last night of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.