[3][2] The song opens with anachronistic language and Christian symbolism:[2] "'Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and bloodWhen blackness was a virtue, the road was full of mudI came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form'Come in,' she said, 'I'll give you shelter from the storm'"Dylan scholar Tony Attwood calls the song a "complexly woven tale" that is "told around three chords".
Attwood describes the story told in the song's lyrics thusly: "He finds her when he is nothing and has nothing or both, she welcomes him in, and he wanders off and loses her, much to his eternal regret".
They also note that the "excellent bass player Tony Brown", the only other musician on the track, "offers subtle and melodic playing" to accompany Dylan.
He compares Dylan's vision of love to Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies for being "one in which pain and beauty, romance and faith are inextricable, almost indistinguishable, from one another".
[8] The first take of the song, from the same recording session that produced the album track, was released on the soundtrack to the 1996 motion picture Jerry Maguire.
[11] Dylan's live performance debut of the song during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour was described by Trager as having a "blustery, metallic edge complete with screeching electric guitar crescendos".
[12] Trager criticized the "emotionless lead vocal and sax solo" from the 1978 tour,[2] while Paul Williams felt that the saxophone and backing vocalists failed to match the intensity of Dylan's singing.