Dylan Song by Song: "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" Quiz

Answer: 5th

Columbia Records released Dylan's fifth studio album, "Bringing it All Back Home," on March 22, 1965. Recorded in New York City and produced by Tom Wilson, the album contains 11 tracks.

Answer: Gamblers

"The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense," Dylan sings. "Take what you have gathered from coincidence."

At the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, Dylan was booed for going electric. He and the band walked off the stage, but Dylan was persuaded to reappear with his acoustic guitar. "The audience assumed that they had disciplined their idol into submission," Michael Gray writes in "Song and Dance Man III." But Dylan then began singing "the aptly titled 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.'"

Answer: empty-handed

This song was included in several compilation albums, including the second volume of "Greatest Hits" released in 1971, the 2000 "Essential Bob Dylan," and the 2007 compilation titled, simply, "Dylan."

Answer: AABBCC (it's written in couplets)

The song is written in couplets and rhymes AABBCC in each of the four stanzas. For example, the first stanza rhymes last with fast, then gun with sun, then through with blue. The line "And it's all over now, Baby Blue" serves as a refrain at the end of each stanza.

Answer: William E. Lee

The only instrumentation on the song is the bass guitar played by William E. Lee and the harmonica and acoustic guitar played by Bob Dylan himself. On the original recording, the song runs for four minutes and twelve seconds.

Answer: Joyce Carol Oates

The story is based loosely on Charles Schmid, the serial killer known as "The Pied Piper of Tuscon." Joyce Carol Oates talked to "The Wall Street Journal" about her inspiration for the story, saying that the album "Bringing it All Back Home" was "riveting" and the song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" was "especially moving and relevant."

Answer: Them

Them covered the song on their second album, "Them Again," which was released in 1966. They also released it as a single in the Netherlands, with "I'm Gonna Dress in Black" and "Bad or Good" on the B-side. Van Morrison said that when he first heard Bob Dylan's music in a record shop, "I just thought it was just incredible that this guy's not singing about 'moon in June' and he's getting away with it."

Answer: the sky / the carpet

In the second stanza, Dylan sings, "The sky, too, is folding under you." In the third, he writes, "The lover who just walked out your door / Has taken all his blankets from the floor. / The carpet, too, is moving under you."

In the 1967 Documentary "Don't Look Back," the audience can see Bob Dylan playing "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" in Scottish folksinger Donovan's hotel room.

Answer: 13th Floor Elevators

"Easter Everywhere" was released in 1967 and is often considered to be the first album of its genre (psychedelic rock). The band transformed the sound of Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" with a drag/slip shuffle rhythm. The song has been covered by numerous other musicians including Joni Mitchell, The Animals, Joan Baez, The Chocolate Watchband, Bad Religion, Hole, Judy Collins, and, of course, the Byrds.

Answer: Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.

Jesus tells a potential disciple, who wants to turn back to tend to his father, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury the dead" (Matthew 8:22). Jesus tells his disciples to leave everything behind to follow him. Similarly, the singer in this song tells Baby Blue, "Leave your stepping stones behind now, something calls for you. / Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you."