“The Man in Me” by Bob Dylan

"The Man in Me" is the tenth song on New Morning, Bob Dylan's 1970 album, and few Dylan records sound this openly happy. He wrote it alone and plays the piano himself, with Bob Johnston producing, and it opens on a wordless sing-along before the band starts dancing around him, gospel-tinged backing voices pushing him higher.

It's a love song about finally letting someone past the guard, into the part of yourself you keep hidden from everybody else, and the ragged joy is the whole point. Rolling Stone later placed it 84th among Dylan's 100 greatest songs and singled out that euphoric lift, and Ian Devaney of Nation of Language called it his favorite Dylan song in a 2021 piece for Stereogum.

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