The songs on Desire are known for their narrative depth, often focusing on real-life figures and personal reckonings.
Featuring a soaring vocal duet with Emmylou Harris, this track exudes an eerie, desert-dwelling mysticism.
A major departure from his usual songwriting process, Dylan partnered with theater director and songwriter Jacques Levy to create the narrative-driven songs that anchor the album.
"Desire" arrived at a pivotal moment, just one year after the intimate heartbreak of Blood on the Tracks and half a year after The Basement Tapes . While its predecessor was an unapologetically personal affair, "Desire" is a sprawling, messy, and deliberate work born from a collective spirit of a traveling band. In fact, the album is considered the studio realization of the —the gypsy-like concert tour that veered through small auditoriums in 1975 before the album was even released.
Discovered by Dylan on a New York street corner, her searing, gypsy-style violin became the emotional backbone of the entire record.