"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" by Bob Dylan. Calm throughout, barely shifting. balanced composition. Mood: contemplative, melancholy, reflective. Visual style: 1967 vintage painting aesthetic, warm aged tones. Painterly, grainy film texture, muted palette with strategic accent colors. The composition should read left-to-right like a timeline — calm on one side, intensifying toward the other. Strictly no faces, no text, no logos, no literal objects, no band imagery. Pure color-field abstraction with emotional weight. 16:9 editorial format."
Deep calm, gentler than 99% of our 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for sleep.
82
BPM
I Pity the Poor Immigrant by Bob Dylan is 82 BPM — Andante (walking pace).
Half-time 41 BPM · Double-time 164 BPM · released 1967
Fan image for "I Pity the Poor Immigrant"
An abstract illustration of what this song feels like. Each image is built from a prompt — the text description fed to the image generator. Listeners submit their own prompts, upvote the ones that fit best, and the top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. After 100 image votes, we make a new picture.
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Song DNA
Notes: Gentle acoustic folk with calm, regretful delivery and minimal instrumentation creates a serene, introspective atmosphere without harsh elements. Subtle harmonica adds warmth without overwhelming the soft texture.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: anxiety relief deep listening relaxation
A contemplative folk ballad from Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding album, featuring sparse acoustic guitar, harmonica, and Dylan's tender, piteous vocals reflecting on the struggles of an immigrant through biblical allusions and subtle sarcasm.
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Moods: contemplative, melancholy, reflective
Traditions: country rock, folk
At a glance
"I Pity the Poor Immigrant" by Bob Dylan
82 BPM, dynamic range 3/10, smooth texture, soft vocals. Sits in the middle band — neither built for stillness nor pitched at workout intensity. Whether it works for a given moment depends more on mood and lyrical content than on the acoustic profile. The full sensory breakdown follows.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 3/10 places this song in the "steady volume" band. Loudness stays within a narrow window from start to finish — you won't be ambushed by a louder section if you set the volume at the opening.
Sudden changes: none. Transitions are musically signaled — nothing will surprise you if you're only half-listening.
Texture: smooth.
Predictability is high — the song telegraphs what it will do next. A sensory-sensitive listener can usually guess where it's going without close attention.
Vocal style: soft vocals.
Where this sits in Bob Dylan's catalog
We have 95 songs from Bob Dylan in the library. Of those, 29 are rated Safe, 60 Moderate, and 6 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 3/10 sits below the artist average of 5.4, making it the #91 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from John Wesley Harding
We have 5 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans safe in sensory profile.
- All Along the Watchtower — moderate DR 7
- John Wesley Harding — safe DR 3
- I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine — safe DR 4
- The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest — safe DR 3
1967 context
Released in 1967. We have 289 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.2/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 1960s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Guides that may help
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive li…
How fast is "I Pity the Poor Immigrant"?
82 BPM — Slow (downtempo / ballad)
For running
Too slow for most running; good for warm-up walks or cool-down.
For workouts
Warm-up, cool-down, yoga, stretching.
For daily life
Morning coffee, deep work, commute wind-down.
Browse more songs at 82 BPM.
When "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
✓
Focus / studying
Yes — low-variance volume, no surprises, steady tempo. The ideal study-music profile.
✗
Running / workout
No — 82 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
~
Sleep / winding down
Maybe — calm overall, but tempo is a bit high for deep sleep. Better for winding down than falling asleep.
✓
Driving / road trip
Yes — predictable enough for safe driving attention, interesting enough to stay engaged.
✓
Cooking / dinner background
Yes — sits in the background without demanding attention.
✓
Emotional release / catharsis
Yes — this is a song for actively feeling what you came to feel, not for background.
Related reading
Editorial guides that cover this song's use cases, moods, or artist.
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm
Jazz for Anxiety Relief: Which Subgenres Help and Which Overwhelm — A guide for sensory-sensitive listeners on musiciwant.com
The counterintuitive reason some heavy metal is safer than a Taylor Swift album
Not all loud music is unsafe. Not all quiet music is safe. How doom metal, drone, and sludge rock score better for sensory sensitivity than …
Nick Cave's albums ranked by emotional darkness — which one is your nervous system ready for?
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds made some of the most devastating music in rock history. But not all darkness is the same. This guide ranks his …
Why this rating
We rate this song Safe because its dynamic range stays within our low-variance band, there are no unsignaled changes, and the texture and vocal style are both in the low-fatigue range. Our methodology uses an AND rule for Safe — a song has to clear every dimension to earn the rating.
This song in the Music Studio
12/100 intensity
See how “I Pity the Poor Immigrant” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
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Spotify and YouTube links go direct to the track when we have the ID; otherwise they search for it. Embed this sensory profile on your site →
Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-13. Reviewed by the Music I Want editorial team against the documented methodology.
Think this rating is wrong? Contact the editor — every message is read and ratings get revised.
By the numbers: how this song compares
Computed from this song’s place among the 19,209 songs we’ve measured.
Where it sits in 19,000 songs
This sits near the calm end of everything we've measured — gentler than 99% of the 19,209 songs in the library. Its intensity reading of 12/100 comes from a dynamic range of 3/10, smooth texture, no sudden shifts, and soft vocals. Relatively few songs occupy this exact corner of the spectrum.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is an unusually steady, even volume: more extreme on that axis than 100% of everything we've measured. At the far opposite end of the library sit the songs built on full chaos — sudden changes, huge quiet-to-loud swings, and relentless energy — the kind of track this one is the counterpoint to.
Feels almost identical to
Blowin' in the Wind — Bob Dylan · 99%On the Level — Leonard Cohen · 99%In My Secret Life — Leonard Cohen · 99%Future Proof — Massive Attack · 99%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
What it’s good for
Sleep10/10
Focus9/10
Workout0/10
Dinner6/10
Party / hype0/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
1967 in context
The 289 songs we’ve measured from 1967 average a dynamic range of 6.2/10. At 3/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Nothing New — Taylor Swift featuring Phoebe BridgersIn My Secret Life — Leonard CohenRainbow Connection — Sesame Street
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity12
Dynamics22
Tempo23
Surprise0
Density0
Predictability0
Vocal force25
Trigger load0
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "I Pity the Poor Immigrant"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" by Bob Dylan?
"I Pity the Poor Immigrant" by Bob Dylan has a tempo of 82 BPM (Andante (walking pace)). At half-time that is 41 BPM, and at double-time 164 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" by Bob Dylan?
"I Pity the Poor Immigrant" by Bob Dylan rates as Low-Intensity. Dynamic range 3/10, no sudden changes, smooth texture. Our Low-Intensity rating means no single dimension triggers the higher-intensity thresholds.
How loud is "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" — what is its dynamic range?
"I Pity the Poor Immigrant" has a dynamic range of 3/10. This places it in the steady-volume band — loudness stays within a narrow window start to finish.
Does "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" have sudden or surprising changes?
No. "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" has no sudden unsignaled changes. Every transition is musically telegraphed.
What is "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" best for?
In our library "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" is recommended for: anxiety relief, deep listening, relaxation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" released?
"I Pity the Poor Immigrant" is from 1967, on the album "John Wesley Harding". It appears in our 1960s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "I Pity the Poor Immigrant"?
We tag "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" as contemplative, melancholy, reflective. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "I Pity the Poor Immigrant"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" good for running?
Not really — at 82 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" good for studying?
Yes — low dynamic range (3/10) and no sudden changes means the song stays in the background without pulling focus.
Can I use "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" for sleep?
Yes — it clears every sleep-music criterion: low intensity, minimal dynamic range, no surprises. Use as a wind-down or sleep-playlist anchor.
Should I listen to "I Pity the Poor Immigrant"?
If you want gentle, low-arousal music, "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" is a solid pick — Low-Intensity across every sensory dimension.
Songs with the same DNA
smooth texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.