Just Like a Woman

"Nobody feels any pain, Tonight as I stand inside the rain..." Loneliness or depression can be so consumptive (i.e., being inside the rain and incapable of objectivity on one's feelings vs. being outside the rain only looking at the it from the outside, objectively) that a person is numb to any other kind of emotional pain.

It is possible for a hyper-sensitive observer like Dylan (obviously, his music supports hypersensitivity to just about everything) to be pulled into the "rain" at his own needy time by the person(s) who(m) is in the rain constantly as a state of being and a fact of his/her life.

"With her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls": Depressed or disassociative people often walk around in a "fog." In the '60s, amphetamines were prescribed for depression (hence, the term "uppers") and weight loss. Today, they are still prescribed for types of depression and ADHD (inability to focus or concentrate--a mental fog). Women often buy clothes or jewelry (pearls) to make themselves feel better when depressed.

"It was raining from the first...": The first time he met Baby it began raining. A sun-shower is refreshing. A day or two of rain is cleansing. Days, weeks, months, and years of rain ranges from dreary and gloomy to despair and hopelessness. Her depression, negativity, and tendency toward self-destruction may have begun raining on him "at the first." Or, he was attracted to her by his own brief time of sadness, loneliness, or depression. With mental illness likes attracts likes, misery loves company, "I can relate" becomes consuming empathy, those who need love are attracted to others who need love (generally, not those who have love to give), people are attracted to what they know. (Hence, daughters of beaten women are often attracted to someone who thinks and acts like the man who beat their mothers). These two could probably empathize with one another and wanted the same things. He was "dying of thirst" for love, empathy, or what have you, and it appeared that she had whatever it was he needed at the time. "So, [he] came in here" where "here" is "inside the rain"(her "rain").

"... hungry (desperate enough for love. empathy, etc.) to be in "[her] world" which he is eventually embarassed by or ashamed of. All of us have those retrospective moments that embarrass or horrify us when we say in disbelief, "I can't believe I was there, I did that, I was doing that, I was with him/her, I thought I was in love with him/her, etc."

Expanding on the depression/loneliness theory, the rest is somewhat self-explanatory. " Depression is a "long-time curse." Her pain and "rain" is more than he can handle for an extended period of time like a commitment or marriage. He realizes that his "rain" is getting worse, or at least, not getting better by staying in her "rain" which will not help either of them. His "rain" is changing or passing, while hers is unchanging and constant; therefore, "[he] just can't fit." That is, he just can't stay in the relationship. If he lets himself "fit," he sees that he will go with her in her slow, downward spiral to eventual self-destruction while loving her and trying to help her. Recognizing where it's going shakes him out of his doldrums, and he realizes that his "rain" is only temporary. His sense of self-preservation and survival surfaces and "[he] believe(s) it's time to quit" the relationship; get out of the funnel.

"Takes just like a woman" may reference a woman's emotional need to be loved. Women take a man's love, his heart, his kindness, his desire to help if he really loves her, and vice versa.