Fixin’ to Die

The words

A man who senses death is close worries less about himself than about the children he will leave behind.

The singer feels death coming and cannot stop thinking about it, though what troubles him most is leaving his children alone. The verses return to that one fear with little relief, the beat driving on as if there were no time to waste. Dylan attacks it with a rasping, exaggerated growl and hard-strummed guitar, one of the most intense performances on a record full of songs about mortality.

Words by Bukka White