Meaning of 'It's All over Now, Baby Blue'

by Bob Dylan

Interpretation

"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" by Bob Dylan is a song that deals with change, farewell, and new beginnings. The song lyrics are metaphorical and open to different interpretations, but some themes are clearly recognizable.

The first verse begins with the instruction that the song's recipient must go and only take what they consider lasting. Throughout the verse, it is suggested that the recipient's previous world is about to burn, symbolized by the orphan boy with his gun and the fire in the sun ("Yonder stands your orphan with his gun / Crying like a fire in the sun").

The second and third verses continue the theme of farewell and change. It is implied that everything the recipient has known and had is disappearing or changing. This is depicted through the metaphors of the empty-handed painter from the streets drawing crazy patterns on the sheets and the carpet moving beneath the recipient ("The empty-handed painter from your streets / Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets" and "The carpet too is moving under you").

The fourth verse then speaks of a fresh start. The recipient is urged to leave the past behind and begin anew. The vagabond who's rapping at their door symbolizes this new chance and the unknown that lies ahead ("The vagabond who's rapping at your door / Is standing in the clothes that you once wore").

Overall, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is a song about bidding farewell to the past and bravely embarking on an uncertain future. However, the exact meaning of the song is, like many of Dylan's lyrics, deliberately ambiguous and open to individual interpretations.