Who wrote to make you feel my love lyrics

Songfacts®:

• Though the tune is generally considered a rather straightforward love song, some have observed that Dylan may have written it from the perspective of Jesus Christ, trying to get to all the sinners so they feel his redemptive love.

• Texas-born musician August "Augie" Meyers, who is best known as keyboard-player with the Sir Douglas Quintet and the Texas Tornados, played organ on this track. He recalled the recording of this song to Mojo Magazine July 2010: "Bob's a fantastic piano player, when he wants to play. On 'Make You Feel My Love' he asked, 'if you and Doug (Sahm, co-founding member of the Sir Douglas Quintet) were in the studio, how would you do it?' And I said, 'Well we wouldn't have two drummers, four guitar players, and stuff.' I said, 'Did you write this on piano or guitar?' And he said, 'I wrote it on the piano.' I told him, 'Play piano.' and I said, 'I'll play organ, let's just have one bass, one drum and one guitar.' so that's the way we did it."

• This song has been recorded by a number of other artists. They include Billy Joel for his Greatest Hits Volume III collection and Garth Brooks for the Hope Floats soundtrack both under the title "To Make You Feel My Love." Also Adele covered the track on her 2008 debut album, 19.

• As of 2019, at least 459 bands had remade this song. The sheer number of covers prompted Rolling Stone to suggest that the song may one day qualify as a true American standard.

Dylan has an uncanny ability to write poetry that supports multiple interpretations. When you listen to a Dylan song, it’s clear that what you get from it depends on what you bring into it.

During a 2004 CBS 60 Minutes interview, Ed Bradley asked him how he felt about some of his older songs when he performs them today. Dylan replied: “They [the songs] change their meanings over periods of time. They change their meanings for different situations that a person is in and they hold up because there are so many levels in them”.

So, is this just an ordinary love song, or are there layers to it? I think it’s the later; that’s the way this fellow writes. If you’re in the beginning of a love affair, it may be that what you hear is a beautiful love song. There are other levels though, including catharsis and spiritual healing.

1986 Dylan married Carolyn Dennis, but she filed for divorce in 1990. Many say the divorce triggered a depression in Dylan that you can hear it in his 1997 album, Time Out of Mind. If you were in a serious depression, what you’d likely hear in this song is a heart-wrenching litany of the pains he’s enduring because of the divorce and the loss of her love.

You can also interpret the song as an account of the agony Jesus endured to give humanity another chance. Dylan converted to Christianity in 1978, and since then, he’s used quite a bit of biblical imagery in his songs. “Go to the ends of the earth”, for example, appears often in the Bible. The apostles are sent out to the ends of the earth in Matthew 28:19 to make disciples of all nations, and Jesus says he will gather his followers from the ends of the earth in Mark 13:27.

Finally, there are some really strong biblical references in phrases like “I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue / I’d go crawling down the avenue / Oh there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do / to make you feel my love”. This is just what Jesus did as he carried his cross through the streets of Jerusalem to his execution on Mount Calvary. When there is no one there to dry your tears, “he will wipe away every tear from your eyes” (Revelation 21:4). He will take you in his arms and offer you the warm embrace of a million years.

So, it really is true: When you listen to Dylan, you get out of it what you bring into it.

On Aug. 1, 1998, Garth Brooks reached No. 1 on the country charts with "To Make You Feel My Love." His cover of the Bob Dylan-written song was at the top 24 years ago today.

"To Make You Feel My Love" originally appeared on Dylan's 1997 album Time Out of Mind under the name "Make You Feel My Love," and was also covered by Billy Joel that same year. Brooks' version maintains the sparse feel of the original, with piano and organ adding lovely shading to rich acoustic guitar.

This extra instrumentation enhances the romantic feel of the lyrics, which are from the perspective of someone promising love and solace: "I could hold you for a million years / To make you feel my love / I know you haven't made your mind up yet / But I would never do you wrong."

Brooks' "To Make You Feel My Love" is the first song on the Hope Floats soundtrack. In a nice coincidence, his now-wife, Trisha Yearwood, also covered the song for the movie — and her version is the last song on the soundtrack. "To Make You Feel My Love" also appears on The Limited Series version of Brooks' 1995 album Fresh Horses.

"To Make You Feel My Love" only spent one week atop the country charts, but it received two Grammy Awards nominations, one for Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, the latter of which goes to the song's writer(s). It lost to Vince Gill's "If You Ever Have Forever in Mind" in the former category, and Dylan lost to Robert John "Mutt" Lange and Shania Twain for "You're Still The One" in the latter.

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