Dylan has told several somewhat contradictory stories about the origins of "Señor". When introducing the song in live performance in 1978, he told the story of how "he was on a train going from
Mexico to
San Diego and how a strange old man got on the train, and Dylan felt the urge to talk to him. Apparently, the story told in the concerts started off fairly simply and gradually expanded adding the notion that when Dylan finally did want to talk to the man, he had gone".
Rolling Stone quoted Dylan as describing the man on the train as "150 years old… Both his eyes were burning, and there was smoke coming out of his nostrils". Another time, Dylan introduced the song by saying it had been inspired by actor
Harry Dean Stanton with whom he had starred in
Sam Peckinpah's 1973 film
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Finally, in an interview accompanying the
Biograph booklet, Dylan said it was "about the aftermath of when two people who were leaning on each other because neither one of them had the guts to stand up alone, all of a sudden they break apart". He added, "I think I felt that way when I wrote it". In their book
Bob Dylan All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track, authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon compare it to Dylan's earlier south-of-the-border adventure songs "
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" from 1965 and "
Romance in Durango" from 1976. They interpret the song as being narrated by a man who "hopes to find the woman who has left him" while he "questions the one who appears as his guide (or is it his conscience?). Which road to follow? Where is his loved one hiding? This long journey, full of terrifying scenes, ends with a final struggle between good and evil (like the
New Testament's Battle of
Armageddon)". They also note that "the atmosphere of the song is Spanish or Mexican, without lapsing into caricature". == Critical reception ==