Bob Dylan: Lay, Lady, Lay Meaning

Song Released: 1969

Get "Lay, Lady, Lay" on MP3:

Get MP3 from Amazon
Get MP3 from iTunes

Lay, Lady, Lay Lyrics

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Whatever colors you have in your mind
Ill show them to you and you'll see them shine

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed
Stay, lady, stay, stay...

1. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 14th 2022 report

   Absolutely this song is about his pet chicken, Lady, who refused to lay any eggs unless flattered, cajoled, and pampered. Thus Dylan's line, "you can have your cake and eat it, too". The man will ply her with the most delicate pastries and bonbons to get her to lay just one egg. It's a point of pride with him. Though why on earth he wants her to lay and egg on his bed is beyond me.
2. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jan 5th 2022 report

   
   I took the lyrics as- a young naive country bumpkin encountering a prostitute or very sexually knowledgable woman.
3. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 23rd 2020 report

   The summer of Love was 1967 not 1969, as a previous commenter said.
   Also go read Rolling Stone which has an article of a long lost interview: you won’t believe what Dylan himself said about this song! Out now Oct 2020.
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 13th 2020 report

   To me, It sounds like Bob had a party at his house. He definitely smoked too much weed.There was a hot chick there and he was trying to set her up with one of his friends. He wasn't the cleanest guy, but his hands were clean. He told the guy to use the bedroom with the big brass bed in it. Turns out Bob was the one that ended up humping her.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 1st 2020 report

   Well, it’s about a man falling in love with a woman. She is married. He loves her....lay across my big brass bed....letting her know to stay with him.....he’s the one standing in front of her who loves her. So she is to make up her mind....where she wants to be. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
   
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jan 20th 2020 report

   It's about a lovely goddess who was lost and went to heaven's problem was she was alone and so he wanted her to come back and bring the chaotic beauty of that place with her, she and heaven are one and the same. The bed is brass so he can transfer her spark(colors, fire) to the ground here on earth in hopes of returning some, or all, of what was lost. With having her cake and eating too she could see what heaven looks like from his eyes and desire and know then what she did not before, alone and perfect in a perfect heaven.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 16th 2019 report

   Tonight, I checked and listened to the lyrics of this song.
   
   This song is easy to interpret. This era, every individual has their choice of who they want to be with. The society today is competitive and people want to be successful in life. I don't blame this generation, because life is difficult. It is understandable that they want to be with someone who is employed, has their own car, who has their own place, and who is financially stable. Like the lyrics of this song.
   
   But many are still struggling in life. We have to respect other people and we have to respect their choices and decisions in life. Not a respectful song.
   
   That is all I can say.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 16th 2019 report

   Tonight, I checked and listened to the lyrics of this song.
   
   I think this is a lady who is already married and having an affair with another man.
   
   This song is not a love song. It's a song about a man who is having a clandestine affair with a married woman. This song promotes how to become unfaithful to your spouse or partner. This is not good.
   
   That is all I can say.
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 15th 2019 report

   C’mon folks 1969 the Summer Of Love. No longer was it taboo to have someone stay the night or longer ( shacking up ). Love was open and free. Let’s see where this thing goes mentality. Young people were no longer bound by their parents Puritan rules. This song was just one of many counter culture anthems.
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 31st 2018 report

    I heard tell it was about couple who had an on again/ off again thing they where apart for 12 long years and finally got back together for good maybe the Neil Diamond version when He covered the song in any case it is a beautiful Haunting tune.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 15th 2016 report

    Heard the song was about a beloved og named lady
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Apr 18th 2016 report

    For me it's about the singer, a guy called Bob Dylan, using fairly poetic language to ask some lady who's just popped round, to lay across his bed which just happens to be relatively big and also made for the most part of brass.
    
    He also apparently thinks her head is filled with m&m's and he's going to prove it to her, too, perhaps with a small but powerful torch he keeps for just such occasions and which he intends to use to bring light to the proceedings!
    
    Beyond this, Bob seems to hope she'll stay for more than just 'a bit' and even, hopefully, to amuse him until he has to get up (apparently, pretty early), maybe because he's unhappy about how dirty he's let his one shirt get, lately, and so intends to finally wash it. His hands, he points out in his defence, bear no such grime.
    
    He also thinks she's 'the best thing that he's ever seen' (quite possibly because of the m&m's in the ear trick!).
    
    He also questions why she would wait any longer 'for the world to begin' and even entices her with the promise of a actually being able to eat the slice of cake he'd kindly brought to her bedside table (more m&m's on it?).
    
    Further, he questions why she should wait any longer for the 'one she loves' (himself or m&m's cake?.. unclear) although Bob himself is apparently hovering bedside hoping for a positive outcome.
    
    To boot, he's also fairly insistent that the laying (across) should start NOW, early on in the night, or evening time if you like, whilst he percieves that the rest of the night is still to come (or 'is still ahead', indeed.) Seeing her in the morning would also actually be quite welcome, especially after a night of possibly reaching out, maybe to check she's still there! (a bit of insecurity there?)
    
    Well, its a thought! No disrespect meant, all just for laughs, and anyway it's actually my favourite Dylan song. I also think its pretty self explanatory as is most of his work. He doesn't hide much, really, story-teller and preacher that he is. Legend. I'm also just learning this on the ukulele. Hope I do it at least a modicum of justice!
13. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Apr 14th 2016 report

    While in college, I met someone who aspired to become a singer. He knew people that knew Bob Dylan. According to him the song is about a dog named Lady. Don't know if Dylan had a dog.
14. har0462

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Aug 28th 2009 report

    I read that, indeed the director of Midnight Cowboy wanted use the song, but Dylan exercised his mechanical right to the song and refused permision.
15. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 5th 2009 report

    Dylan wrote this song for the movie, Midnight Cowboy. He was not able to finish the song in time so it was not used.So it's about prostitution. But the pet chicken theory was a good one hahaha.

Latest Articles

• 
  Song Analysis Corner: Snoopy vs. the Red Baron | The Royal Guardsmen
• 
  Eurovision Contest Winners part 1
• 
  KISS SUXX!
• 
  You Haven’t Met Your Last Reefer Man
• 
  Ruth Underwood and the “Zappa sound”
• 
  Catchy Commercial Earworms | vol 2