| "Pledging My Time" | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the single released in Denmark in May 1966 | |
| Single by Bob Dylan | |
| from the album Blonde on Blonde | |
| A-side | "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" |
| Released | March 22, 1966 |
| Recorded | March 8, 1966 |
| Genre | Electric blues |
| Length |
|
| Label | Columbia |
| Songwriter(s) | Bob Dylan |
| Producer(s) | Bob Johnston |
| Audio | |
| "Pledging My Time" on YouTube | |
"Pledging My Time" is a blues song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan from his seventh studio album, Blonde on Blonde (1966). The song, written by Dylan and produced by Bob Johnston, was recorded on March 8, 1966 in Nashville, Tennessee. Dylan is featured on lead vocals, harmonica, and guitar, backed by guitarist Robbie Robertson and an ensemble of veteran Nashville session men.
As with most of the album's songs, "Pledging My Time" was conceived, composed, and recorded within the span of a few weeks. The song was first released, in shortened form, two weeks after its recording, as the B-side of the single "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35", a Top 10 hit in both the United States and Great Britain. The two songs also led off Blonde on Blonde, rock's first double album, which was officially released June 20, 1966.
Played in Chicago blues style, "Pledging My Time" depicts a young man who pledges himself to a prospective lover, hoping "[she]'ll come through, too". The song's musical and lyrical influences are thought to include Robert Johnson's "Come on in My Kitchen", "It Hurts Me Too" by Elmore James, and the Mississippi Sheiks classic "Sittin' on Top of the World".
Dylan performed "Pledging My Time" at 21 concerts from 1987 through 1999. He revived it two decades later, in 2021, for the soundtrack of his concert film Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan. The song has also been covered on tribute albums by artists such as bluesman Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, folk musician Greg Brown, and the Americana band Old Crow Medicine Show.