Bob Dylan ♫ Let Me Die In My Footsteps

History, Context & Spectrum

Let Me Die In My Footsteps is a unique, deep, and collectible song by Bob Dylan. It was written in February 1962 and was replaced by the masterpiece A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, which is (for me) the greatest song ever written. Although it is a great song, I believe the spectrum of it is what pierced me.

It was recorded at Columbia studios later that year in April 1962 during the first Freewheelin’ session.

In 1962, Dylan told Nat Hentoff how he came to write this song:

I was going through some town and they were making this bomb shelter right outside of town, one of these sorts of Coliseum-type things, and there were construction workers and everything. I was there for about an hour, just looking at them build, and I just wrote the song in my head back then, but I carried it with me for two years until I finally wrote it down. As I watched them building, it struck me sort of funny that they would concentrate so much on digging a hole underground when there were so many other things they should do in life. If nothing else, they could look at the sky, and walk around and live a little bit, instead of doing this immoral thing.

“Broadside Ballads commentary included the thought that Dylan shines a light into the murky darkness of our age and shows us in one bright instant what it might have taken a less impatient philosopher a lifetime to discover: namely that instead of learning to live, we are learning to die. What he says was never more evident than in the recent crisis over Cuba, when millions of Americans sought desperately to think of some dignified way to meet death in an obscene atomic holocaust.”

There’s some strange reality piercing me in this song: to overcome fear, to die before you go underground, just like in a nuclear war which is basically what Dylan fights against in this song.

I was recently involved in a serious motorcycle accident, leaving with a broken femur and so on. Quickly had inserted an intramedullary femur nail and I’m in recovery. I have always dreamed of having a motorcycle. Ever since I remember, I have dreamed about it. To ride endless adventures in my lifetime, to experience the sun up in the sky staggering the sweat under the coat. To feel the noise, the wind. To feel the fear but don’t get scared and fight to find the adrenaline rush swerving through curves. As simple as that, freedom in two wheels. Freedom on the road, freedom in life.

So I kept asking my mother and being a bum about it. Every single day I’d ask her to buy me a motorcycle whenever I’d be legally able to drive one. Funny how she always kept her position. She never wanted to so she never did, and I couldn’t be more thankful. She taught me how hard work could pay off. So I worked, just like she told me. I worked hard, I really did. And I took my driver’s license and bought one. The classic 500cc Honda. An astonishing model from 2017.

I remember sitting on the bike and wondering how good it would be to ride it, and to which places it would take me. The next thing I know I’m paying for it, whilst the Saturday sun shone the joy of having a brand new helmet, new gloves, and a new bike. That motorcycle, filled with brand new colors. Red, white and blue. Fresh new rider. Fresh new anxiety. People used to ask me why the motorcycle. When I sat down, I knew the answer. For the next months, I would be sharpening my answer to the question.

And so it began. I rode that damn machine like crazy. I have always been very emotional and it has reflected through the days of the years in a life. Often, I was an aggressive idiot on the road, but also a passively regulated rider whenever I wanted to feel free. No exception.

André and I used to ride Portugal roads every weekend. Every weekend a new destination. Every weekend a new sight. Every weekend a new journey. I have traveled many roads, and I’m thankful to André for being such a great friend with whom I have shared them. We used to talk about accidents and no shit he poked me for how important it was to use the gear. I wasn’t that responsible all the time. If a jacket looks cooler - or warm - then I’d take it, not really caring about my precious life. I’ve had my lows and always kept on laughing about it. To seize, that’s the most important thing. And even around friends, I’d make fun of how one day I’d hit the wall and that was what it had to be. Shit happens. Life happens. There’s no control in it. So I asked them why not seize it? “There’s an intrinsic fear of dying or having abnormal pain, obviously. It exists in every action and reaction in life, don’t fuck with me! The world keeps on fucking turning.” I’d say.

On the 12th of January 2021, around six in the afternoon, I left the office and rode home. Suddenly there’s a car on my left and the next thing I remember is my seeing my bike from afar and I’m laying on the ground with my full body numb and then a bunch of people around me asking if I knew who I was and how it happened, the lady who hit me madly crying as she thought I was dead and all I wanted was to sleep and get out of there as soon as possible. I couldn’t feel a damn thing. I couldn’t express myself about it. I had been hit and I was all tied up on the ground not really knowing what was happening. So I decided not to panic. Legs were numb and I could see that my left femur was fully broken. It was visible that half of the bone was pointing up and the other was pointing down. So I grab my phone and call my father. I grab the lady’s hands and tell her that shit happens and that life happens and that everything will be alright soon. She goes like “I thought I had killed you, I’m so sorry” and she couldn’t stop being sorry about me. What a kind person.

“Just be sorry about yourself”, I thought. And then I go “You are the one who’ll have to face the fact you almost killed someone. I mean what the fuck Miss?”. After a while, the ambulance came and someone had to grab my leg with an arm on one side and then another arm on the other, and all that seemed pretty much a storm to me. That night was awful. I couldn’t sleep at all, my leg was hurting and I couldn’t piss. Morphine side effects I guess. I told everyone I didn’t feel a damn thing.

Fast forward to the morning and there’s a late big ass nail inside my femur. Fast even forward and I am walking again, my cat is dying, my mother is sick, my bike is now gone and torn to pieces and I still can’t sleep properly. But I have a good life. I have a heart, a long aching one, you see. But most importantly, the world keeps on fucking turning. And I’ll keep on learning to live, ‘stead of learnin’ to die.

Complete Lyrics

I will not go down under the ground
“Cause somebody tells me that death’s comin’ ‘round
An’ I will not carry myself down to die
When I go to my grave my head will be high,
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.

There’s been rumors of war and wars that have been
The meaning of the life has been lost in the wind
And some people thinkin’ that the end is close by
“Stead of learnin’ to live they are learning to die.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.

I don’t know if I’m smart but I think I can see
When someone is pullin’ the wool over me
And if this war comes and death’s all around
Let me die on this land ‘fore I die underground.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.

There’s always been people that have to cause fear
They’ve been talking of the war now for many long years
I have read all their statements and I’ve not said a word
But now Lawd God, let my poor voice be heard.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.

If I had rubies and riches and crowns
I’d buy the whole world and change things around
I’d throw all the guns and the tanks in the sea
For they are mistakes of a past history.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.

Let me drink from the waters where the mountain streams flood
Let me smell of wildflowers flow free through my blood
Let me sleep in your meadows with the green grassy leaves
Let me walk down the highway with my brother in peace.
Let me die in my footsteps
Before I go down under the ground.

Go out in your country where the land meets the sun
See the craters and the canyons where the waterfalls run
Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho
Let every state in this union seep in your souls.
And you’ll die in your footsteps
Before you go down under the ground.