Bob Dylan – Boots of Spanish Leather

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Send "Boots of Spanish Leather" Ringtone to Cell

Oh, I'm sailin' away my own true love,
I'm sailin' away in the morning.
Is there something I can send you from across the sea,
From the place that I'll be landing?

No, there's nothin' you can send me, my own true love,
There's nothin' I wish to be ownin'.
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled,
From across that lonesome ocean.

Oh, but I just thought you might want something fine
Made of silver or of golden,
Either from the mountains of Madrid
Or from the coast of Barcelona.

Oh, but if I had the stars from the darkest night
And the diamonds from the deepest ocean,
I'd forsake them all for your sweet kiss,
For that's all I'm wishin' to be ownin'.

That I might be gone a long time
And it's only that I'm askin',
Is there something I can send you to remember me by,
To make your time more easy passin'.

Oh, how can, how can you ask me again,
It only brings me sorrow.
The same thing I want from you today,
I would want again tomorrow.

I got a letter on a lonesome day,
It was from her ship a-sailin',
Saying I don't know when I'll be comin' back again,
It depends on how I'm a-feelin'.

Well, if you, my love, must think that-a-way,
I'm sure your mind is roamin'.
I'm sure your heart is not with me,
But with the country to where you're goin'.

So take heed, take heed of the western wind,
Take heed of the stormy weather.
And yes, there's something you can send back to me,
Spanish boots of Spanish leather.

Send "Boots of Spanish Leather" Ringtone to Cell


Lyrics submitted by Jack, edited by Mellow_Harsher

Track duration: 04:37


Boots of Spanish Leather song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:I bet it's more about a man/woman relationship, but after listening to this song a lot after my dad died it seemed pretty appropriate. Sort of a things to remember you by kind of song, in a weird way. About the difficulty of both parties of letting go, facing reality.
    Flag AndrewJGon June 03, 2012   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:It's about the torture of being madly in love (long distance relationship or growing apart) and finally coming to grips with the fact that it's over. At the end, the man realizes that the relationship is definitely over and decides to finally give in to the woman's desire to get him a gift. He asks for Boots of Spanish Leather. Boots are made for walking. He's decided to finally walk away from this relationship but doing so is absolute torture. A means of medieval torture involved something known as the Spanish boot.
    Flag 2manymorningson April 21, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:This is one of those songs where definitions are irrelevant. The draft and war exist on the surface level. Yet it still speaks to everyones base emotions, the rest can be invented by your imagination. To me it is about giving up a woman, regretting it, and then losing said woman. In the end he just wants to get back the memories and times he lost and live in the moment he felt most like himself
    Flag townesvanpeteon January 20, 2012   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • +1
    General Comment:I think it doesn't matter if its about a boy or a girl. I think it's about trust and love. This person is trusting that his or her love will return to him with their love intact. I think the point is that if this person can't do that then they might as well send boots because the rest doesn't matter.
    Flag sadderandwiseron October 10, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Love this song. Nancy Griffith does a great cover.
    Flag SusanBassPlayeron July 27, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:I have been the girl (well, I'm a guy but you get the point) in this song in real life.

    I once left a girlfriend behind at home to travel through South America. I told her I'd be away for six months, but once I got there I realized I needed more time. So I wrote to her and told her my trip would be more like eight months.

    Her response, though she had never listened to Dylan, was pretty much exactly what Bob writes in the penultimate verse. My thoughts were not with her. I went home after eight months but things were never the same and we soon parted ways for good. Every time I hear this song now, I cry for the guilt of how I broke her heart, how lonely and abandoned she must have felt at home, how the emails and letters and gifts I sent her to "make her time more easy passin'" were really, at the end of the day, worthless.

    Flag phomeron May 14, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Spanish boots of Spanish leather meant that he wanted Spanish boots of Spanish leather. Nothing more. Bob Dylan wrote and wrote and wrote, yes he did. But have you all not watch the documentaries from the 1960s? For example a reporter asked him if a hard rain gonna fall meant acid rain, Dylan said no... it meant a hard rain is going to fall. No meaning behind the goddam words. In this song we are lucky to get inside Bods brain and know exactly how he feels, so give the fucking boots a rest. What I question is if he ever got the boots? Or if Suze didn't want to be a "string on his guitar" at all and didn't send them. But yeah point is, give Bob a break his heart was broken and all he wanted was some boots of Spanish leather.
    Flag lostaskion January 29, 2011   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • 0
    General Comment:I think this is a song pinched from a much older Irish sailing song, I am sure it has meaning to Bob, I sometimes play it over and over
    Flag pinkcaton December 05, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Why the boots?

    I believe that "give someone a boot" might mean to break the relationship. So he tells her he'd rather if she breaks it up sincerely now that it's clear that everything leads to it, that to leave him waiting and hoping.
    Flag soboton May 12, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think it is probably about the Spanish Civil War. The International Brigades that fought sometimes brought back the boots of fascist soldiers. My Grandfathers uncle who fought there brought him back this present.
    Flag ste300on April 11, 2010   Link

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