[1] Several authors, including Rolling Stone writer Greil Marcus, have suggested that the song is based on Fats Domino's 1940 standard "Blueberry Hill.
"[2][3] But critic Clinton Heylin has suggested that the melody may have been conceived spontaneously by Dylan or else based on a country music riff he may have heard sometime earlier.
[1][3] Oliver Trager suggests a possible religious interpretation; that the singer is a preacher asking a church congregation to forgive an unspecified betrayal, perhaps even that of Judas Iscariot.
[3] Dylan and the Band recorded multiple versions of "Nothing Was Delivered" between September and October 1967 at the "Big Pink" house they were using in West Saugerties, New York.
[3][4][6] Levon Helm, the Band drummer who temporarily left the group earlier, stated in his autobiography that he played the drums for a recording of this song.
[7] Byrds bassist Chris Hillman has stated that he personally received tapes in late 1967 or early 1968 that contained, among others, "Nothing Was Delivered" and "You Ain't Going Nowhere.
[8] Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn suggested that their producer Gary Usher may have been their source for the tapes stating that "We always had a good relationship with Dylan's publishers...we heard the songs, and we were as thrilled as you might have expected us to have been with this material.
[9] Reviewing Sweetheart of the Rodeo, New York Times critic William Kloman stated that the two songs written by Dylan were "treated with characteristic and confident tastefulness.
"[10] On the other hand, music writer Sean Egan panned the song as being "overly mordant" and stated that the only notable aspect of the recording was that its bass line presented one of the few rock sounds on the album.