[1][2] Dylan originally recorded it for his album The Times They Are a-Changin', but his version of the song was not officially released until 1985 on the Biograph box set.

[3] In the album liner notes, Dylan claims that in the song he was trying to capture the feeling of a Scottish ballad he had just heard on a 78 rpm record.

[1] Los Angeles folk rock group the Byrds recorded "Lay Down Your Weary Tune" for their 1965 album Turn!

[8] Like Williams, author Seth Rogovoy similarly interpreted it as a song devoted to Dylan's musical muse, like the later "Mr. Tambourine Man".

[4] Upon hearing the Byrds' version, Dylan told the band's frontman Roger McGuinn "Up until I heard this I thought you were just another imitator ... but this has got real feeling to it.

"[17] Dickson's dissatisfaction with the group's interpretation of the song was echoed by the Byrds' producer Terry Melcher, who noted during an interview that "the production was lousy" and that the recording was "sloppy from start to finish.

[15] Jeff Tamarkin writes in his biography of Jefferson Airplane that their first manager, Matthew Katz, wooed them by bragging that he had access to an unreleased Dylan song called "Lay Down Your Weary Tune".

[18] A concert performance of the song by the Airplane from January 15 or 16, 1966, at the Kitsalano (Kits) Theater, in Vancouver, Canada, remains unreleased.

Other artists who subsequently covered the song include McGuinness Flint, Ashley Hutchings, Fairport Convention, Tim O'Brien and the 13th Floor Elevators and Mary Black.