Sugar Baby

"Sugar Baby" is a song written and performed by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in 2001 as the 12th and final track on his album Love and Theft. Like most of Dylan's 21st century output, he produced the song himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost. Composition and recording In their book Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon describe the song's lyrics as: "A narrator talks with mixed feelings about a woman who haunts him". They note that, musically, the song has an arrangement with "fewer instruments" than the other songs on Love and Theft and an "ethereal atmosphere" that is reminiscent of the work of producer Daniel Lanois. Part of the chord progression and the lines, "Look up, look up, seek your maker, 'fore Gabriel blows his horn" are taken from the song "The Lonesome Road", co-written and performed by Gene Austin, and later covered by Frank Sinatra in a swing arrangement. The song's opening line, "I've got my back to the sun 'cause the light is too intense" was originally written for, but ultimately discarded from, Dylan's 1997 song "Can't Wait". An early take of "Can't Wait" from the Time Out of Mind sessions featuring that lyric was released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989–2006 in 2008. The song is performed in the key of C major.