Dylan Song by Song: "Shelter from the Storm" Quiz

Answer: Time Out of Mind

"Shelter from the Storm" was recorded on September 17, 1974 at A&R Recording in New York City. The song was first released in January of 1975 on Bob Dylan's 15th studio album "Blood on the Tracks."

Live Bob Dylan performances of "Shelter from the Storm" were also included on "Hard Rain" (1976) and "Bob Dylan at Budakon" (1979). "Time Out of Mind" was Dylan's 30th studio album, released in 1997.

Answer: Winston Churchill

Dylan makes a lot of allusions to literature, religion, and politics in his songs, and it's possible Winston Churchill's famous line was rattling around in his head when he wrote "Shelter from the Storm". The Prime Minister, who had just been recently appointed, delivered a rousing speech in the House of Commons on May 13, 1940. In it, he said, "I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering."

Whether an intentional allusion or not, Bob Dylan's use of the phrase "toil and blood" immediately sets the scene as one of, as Churchill said, "struggle and suffering."

Answer: virtue

The idea of "blackness" being a virtue suggests a world of moral ambiguity, where people must sometimes do questionable things to survive. This ties into the previously mentioned "toil and blood" to paint a bleak picture of the narrator's existence before receiving "shelter from the storm."

"Rolling Stone" magazine rated "Shelter from the Storm" number 66 on its list of the "100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs."

Answer: Genesis

Here, Dylan's language is biblical, and calls to mind the primordial state of the world as described in Genesis 1:2 in the King James Version: "And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Before the woman in the song gives the narrator shelter from the storm, like the primordial earth, he lives in a world of "blackness" (or in the words of the KJV, "darkness").

He is as yet a "creature void of form," in much the same way that the world is "without form and void." But the woman who gives him shelter from the storm will have an impact on him, just as the earth was transformed when "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2).

Answer: steel-eyed

"And if I pass this way again, you can rest assured
I'll always do my best for her, on that I give my word
In a world of steel-eyed death, and men who are fighting to be warm
Come in, she said
I'll give ya shelter from the storm."

Here Dylan uses personification as a literary device, lending a human quality to death by describing it as "steel-eyed." The term "steel-eyed" means to have a hard or determined look about oneself, suggesting that death is not easily defeated or evaded, nor is it moved by human suffering.

Answer: Nothing

The woman offers shelter but otherwise does not speak:

"Not a word was spoke between us, there was little risk involved
Everything up to that point had been left unresolved
Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm
Come in, she said
I'll give ya shelter from the storm."

According to the Bob Dylan Official website, the first time Dylan played this song live was on April 18, 1976, and he has played it live over 375 times since.

Answer: A crocodile

"I was burned out from exhaustion, buried in the hail
Poisoned in the bushes an' blown out on the trail
Hunted like a crocodile, ravaged in the corn
Come in, she said
I'll give ya shelter from the storm."

"Hunted like a crocodile" is an interesting choice of simile. Crocodiles are often hunted by being snuck up upon when they are most vulnerable, such as when they are sunbathing. If the hunter makes a single mistake, the crocodile might retreat, and it's necessary to hit the brain or the spinal cord just behind the skull, neither of which are particularly large targets. All this creates a metaphor that suggests the narrator, though battered, is nevertheless hardened and difficult to defeat.

Answer: thorns

Here Dylan treats us to another biblical allusion, which turns the narrator into a sort of Christ figure. Jesus, before his crucifixion, was mocked by the Roman soldiers, who dressed him in purple and forced a crown of thorns onto his head (John 19). Like Jesus, the narrator has suffered much in this song, and like Jesus, it is a woman who comforts him. It was a woman who anointed Jesus with expensive oil in preparation for his crucifixion; women who remained with him at the foot of the cross; and a woman who was the first at his tomb.

While the narrator may be a Christ figure in one sense, the woman is Christ in another sense. Like Jesus, she offers an invitation to come to her, and like Jesus, she seems to have pre-existed the world: "If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born."

Answer: false

Rather, the two eventually grow distant from one another:
"Now there's a wall between us, somethin' there's been lost
I took too much for granted, I got my signals crossed."

Somewhere in the course of the song, the woman turns from Christ figure to something more like a Judas figure. "Rolling Stone" magazine speaks of the "twin moods" of this song. While the acoustic "Blood on the Tracks" version portrays "a relationship mysteriously gone bad, a fond remembrance of a woman who, for all her faults, provided the singer a respite," the live rock and roll version on "Hard Rain" is instead "a sneering denunciation of a hypocritical lover whose offer of a warm, safe haven is dismissed as a cynical joke."

Answer: The undertaker

"Well, the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount
But nothing really matters much, it's doom alone that counts
And the one-eyed undertaker, he blows a futile horn
Come in, she said
I'll give ya shelter from the storm."

Fans have claimed to hear this song differently when sung live. Some hear "funeral horn," others "feudal horn," and still others "flugelhorn." However, "futile horn" is the official lyric as recorded on the Official Bob Dylan website, and it makes sense in the context of "nothing really matters much."

Answer: A mourning dove

"I've heard newborn babies wailin' like a mournin' dove
And old men with broken teeth stranded without love
Do I understand your question, man, is it hopeless and forlorn
Come in, she said
I'll give ya shelter from the storm."

Dylan likely chooses this simile because of the sound mourning doves make. According to AllAboutBirds.com, the "soft, drawn-out calls" of mourning doves "sound like laments." This adds a haunting image to the song that pricks the listener's senses.

Answer: W. Somerset Maugham

"Rolling Stone" points out that Dylan was working on this song while "his marriage to Sara was disintegrating." The line "beauty walks a razor's edge" suggests, the magazine says, that when you pursue beauty, "you sometimes bleed."

This metaphor also might call to mind W. Somerset Maugham's 1944 novel "The Razor's Edge." Dylan may or may not have had this book in mind, but it explores similar themes. The novel centers around a WWI pilot who, like the narrator of this song, is traumatized by his hard experiences and sets off in search of meaning. He fails to find it in his relationship with a woman, but ultimately finds it on his own, as a common working man.

Answer: Jerry Maguire

"Say Anything" starred John Cusak, not Tom Cruise. "Risky Business" was released in 1983. A version of "Shelter from the Storm" was also recorded on the soundtrack of the romantic zombie comedy "Warm Bodies," but that was released in 2013 (not 2005) and starred Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer.

The motion picture soundtrack to "Jerry McGuire" featured a six-minute alternate version of "Shelter from the Storm." It also included music from Pete Townshend, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, and Paul McCartney.

That first session take of "Shelter from the Storm" was also included on "The Best of Bob Dylan," which was a compilation album released in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada in 1997. The entire original September 17, 1974 recording session can be heard on Bootleg Series Volume 14, "More Blood, More Tracks."

Answer: Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Prior to forming Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Manfred Mann had a hit with Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn." Several other musicians have taken a swing at "Shelter from the Storm." "Shelter from the Storm" has been covered by artists ranging from The Abrams Brothers, Trampled By Turtles, and Ed Roland and the Sweet Tea Project to Big Brass Bed, The Sachal Ensemble, and Steven Keene.

Answer: EmmyLou Harris

"The Outsider" is Rodney Crowell's 12th studio album and contains the singles "Say You Love Me" and "The Obscenity Prayer." Jazz singer Cassandra Wilson did cover "Shelter from the Storm," but not with Rodney Crowell. She recorded a version on her 2002 album "Belly of the Sun." Jazz/blues singer Nina Simone died in 2003.