“Abandoned Love” (1975) – Bob Dylan * Written by Bob Dylan * LP: Biograph (1985) * Produced by Don De Vito * Label: Columbia
An abandoned relationship song, sprightly and bittersweet, with a melody more memorable than anything else recorded for Dylan’s Desire album (all of which featured, as does this one, violin work by Scarlet Rivera). It eventually appeared on the 1985 Biograph box set, but why didn’t it make the Desire tracklist? The notes say Dylan dropped it to make way for “Joey,” his controversial and un-sprightly twelve-verse corrido about the mobster Joey Gallo, which makes sense because many other things were dropped for Gallo during his violent life.
I once sat on an airplane seat next to a former employee at CBS, who recounted to me how Bob Dylan would call every day to check up on album sales. Just another aspect to the mystery of how odd it was for him to discard memorable songs like this one.