“Boots of Spanish Leather” is a Bob Dylan ballad, recorded in 1963 and released in 1964 on the album The Times They Are a-Changin’. Dylan built its melody from the English folk singer Martin Carthy’s arrangement of “Scarborough Fair,” which he had picked up on a trip to England — the same tune he used for “Girl from the North Country.”
The song is a dialogue between two lovers parted by an ocean. She offers to send him a gift from her travels; he answers, again and again, that he wants nothing but her safe return. Only when it becomes clear she is not coming back does he finally name a gift — Spanish boots of Spanish leather — a small, bitter token of acceptance. The writing is widely linked to Dylan’s own long-distance parting from Suze Rotolo.
Its traditional ballad bones make “Boots of Spanish Leather” sit easily in bluegrass. The Seldom Scene, long drawn to songs from outside the genre, recorded it on their 2000 album Scene It All.
