Dylan Song by Song: "Up to Me" Quiz

Answer: Blood on the Tracks

"Blood on the Tracks" was Dylan's 15th studio album. The outtake "Up to Me" was later released on the 1985 compilation "Biograph." Another take of "You're a Big Girl Now" was likewise included on "Biograph."

Answer: money

"Everything went from bad to worse, money never changed a thing.
Death kept following, tracking us down, at least I heard your bluebird sing."

In addition to being on "Biograph," the song "Up to Me" is also included on "The Bootleg Series Volume 14: More Blood, More Tracks," which was released in 2018.

Answer: died

Some critics and fans have thought that the songs recorded during the "Blood on the Tracks" sessions were about Bob Dylan's disintegrating marriage to Sara Lownds, who filed for divorce two years after the album was released. Bob Dylan, however, has said the songs are not confessional.

In his 2004 memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One," he insisted that the songs he recorded for "Blood on the Tracks" were inspired by Anton Chekhov's stories.

Answer: insanity

"But I was just too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity.
Someone had to reach for the risin' star, I guess it was up to me."

In "The New York Times," John Pareles writes that while making the "Blood on the Tracks" album "and tinkering with lyrics, Dylan pared away obvious references to his own career. He set aside 'Up to Me,' a song about artistic ambition versus small-mindedness" (October 30, 2018, "On 'More Blood, More Tracks,' Familiar Bob Dylan Songs Cut Closer to the Bone").

Answer: perfume

"Oh, the Union Central is pullin' out, the orchids are in bloom.
I've only got me one good shirt left, and it smells of stale perfume."

"Bootleg Volume 14" contains both take one and take two of the song "Up to Me" and also another snippet of the song from rehearsal. The outtake used on "Biograph" was recorded on September 25, 1974.

Answer: smiled

"In fourteen months I've only smiled once and I didn't do it consciously
Somebody's got to find your trail. I guess it must be up to me."

In 2016, Bob Dylan won the Noble Prize in Literature for, in the words of the committee, his creation of "new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." It was widely reported that he was the first musician to ever win the award, but the award had previously gone to a songwriter, in 1913, to the Bengali painter, poet, and musician, Rabindranath Tagore.

Answer: an iron mask

"The old Rounder in the iron mask slipped me the master key.
Someone had to unlock your heart. He said it was up to me."

"Rolling Stone" magazine ranked Bob Dylan as Number One on its list of the "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time," which it compiled in 2015. In 1999, "Time Magazine" published an article on "The Most Important People of the Century." Its list of the top 20 artists and entertainers included Bob Dylan, but not Elvis Presley.

Answer: hat

"I met somebody face to face, and I had to remove my hat.
She's everything I need and love, but I can't be swayed by that.
It frightens me, the awful truth, of how sweet life can be.
But she ain't gonna make a move, I guess it must be up to me."

In "Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan," Michael Gray writes that this line about removing his hat offers "another great example of Dylan's alertness to cliché, his ability to let us see a tired phrase anew."

Answer: The Sermon on the Mount

The next line is: "It didn't amount to anything more than what the broken glass reflects."

The Sermon on the Mount is the name given to a collection of sayings by Jesus Christ found in Matthew chapters 5-7, when Jesus was preaching to his followers on a mountain early in his ministry. It is considered to be the core of Christ's teachings.

Answer: Joey

Dupree, Crystal, and Estelle are all mentioned in the following lines of "Up to Me":

"Well, Dupree came in pimpin' tonight to the Thunderbird Cage,
Crystal wanted to talk to him, I had to look the other way."

"There's a note left in the bottle, you can give it to Estelle.
She's the one you been wond'rin' about, but there's really nothin' much to tell."

"Joey," however, is a character in a song of the same name on Bob Dylan's album "Desire." That album also features a song about the boxer Hurricane Carter.