Bob Dylan's 1974 track "Dirge", from the album Planet Waves, remains one of his most intense and enigmatic songs, delivered with raw, unrestrained emotion despite its ambiguous subject. Although listeners know Dylan is expressing a fierce desire to be rid of someone or something, he never revealed who or what inspired the song, and theories range from his recovery from drug use to it being a precursor to the marital themes later explored on Blood On The Tracks. The mystery surrounding its meaning is considered part of what gives the song its enduring power.

Planet Waves marked Dylan's return to the spotlight after roughly eight years away following his 1966 motorcycle accident, made in collaboration with The Band and released in January 1974 to support a major joint tour. While most of the album has a relaxed, good-humoured tone, "Dirge" stands apart, built around Dylan's piano and Robbie Robertson's acoustic guitar. Its lyrics, including lines such as "I hate myself for loving you and the weakness that it showed" and "I've paid the price of solitude, but at least I'm out of debt", chart a bitter, painful relationship, ending on a note of uncertain resolve rather than clear closure.