“Rainy Day Woman #12 & #35” by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan opened Blonde on Blonde, his seventh album, with "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" in 1966, and it's the sound of a Nashville session turned into a rowdy street parade. He cut it in a single take at Columbia's studio there with a crew of session players, Bob Johnston producing, and a raucous brass band honking and clattering along as if the circus had just rolled into town. Columbia trimmed it down for a single that March, and it climbed to number two in America and seven in Britain.

What it means has been argued over ever since. The title is a riddle, and the chorus handed the worriers all the ammunition they needed to brand it a drug song. Critics warmed to its playful streak all the same, and Dylan has kept it among the songs he plays live most often, reshaping the arrangement as he goes.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.