Bob Dylan Songs - Lay Lady Lay Lyrics

Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay

Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Nashville Skyline
Released: 1969

Lay Lady Lay Lyrics

Lay Lady Lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed

Whatever colors you have in your mind
I show them to you and you see them shine

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
Stay with your man a while
Until the break of day
Let me see you make him smile

His clothes are dirty but his, his hands are clean
And you are the best thing that he's ever seen

Stay lady stay
Stay with your man a while

Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
Stay while the night is still ahead

I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night

Stay lady stay
Stay while the night is still ahead

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Lay Lady Lay Song Chart

Dylan wrote this for the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy. Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'," which was released the year before, was chosen for the theme song instead.

Harry Nilsson wrote "I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City" for the same movie. The director had asked for a song that sounded like Nilsson's previous recorded cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking." The director finally decided to use the older "Everybody's Talking," and was proven right when the song won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male. (thanks, Leo - Hilversum, Netherlands)

This was one of many Dylan songs covered by The Byrds, who also recorded "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Just Like A Woman," and "The Times They Are A-Changin'." There are two versions of the song on their 2002 Dylan cover compilation, The Byrds Play Dylan.

They Byrds version bubbled under at #132 US in 1969; other charting renditions of the song in America were by Ferrante & Teicher (#99, 1970) and the Isley Brothers (#71, 1972).

Many radio stations refused to play this simply because of the use of the word "lay" in the title, assuming it referred to sex (i.e. "get laid"). Despite the accusation of being "Sexually Titled," Dylan denied any sexual terminology.

Cassandra Wilson covered this for her album Glamoured. In 2001, shortly after the release of his Love and Theft album, Bob Dylan himself went on record as saying "I love everything she does," and said she was the only good thing on the radio (which, he mentioned, "makes hideous sounds"). (thanks, Brett - Edmonton, Canada, for above 2)

Dylan's vocals were slightly sped up, producing a higher vocal.

Grammatically, the correct title for this song would be "Lie Lady Lie," but that wouldn't sing very well. English teachers will tell you that Dylan's title is a command to place the lady on the bed, but Dylan isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his strict adherence to the rules of grammar. Neither is Eric Clapton, who did something similar with "Lay Down Sally."