Bob Dylan

[Teacher Matt]

"Lily, Rosemary, and The Jack of Hearts"

[BigDad]

Awesome tunes - and some great reminders of them too. I love tons of Bob's work (and of GD's way of interpreting it), but my fav Dylan has always been the sentiment behind...

Everything Is Broken

broken lines, broken stings, broken threads, broken springs

broken idols, broken heads, people sleeping in broken beds

ain't no use jivin', ain't no use jokin', everything is broken

broken bottles, broken plates. broken switches, broken gates

broken dishes, broken parts, streets are filled with broken hearts

broken words, are never meant to be spoken, every thing is broken

seems like every time you stop and turn around

someone else has just hit the ground

broken cutters, broken saws, broken buckles, broken laws

broken bodies, broken bones, broken voices on broken phones

take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin', everything is broken

every time you leave and go off some place

things fall to pieces in my face

broken hands on broken plows, borken treaties, broken vows

broken pipes, broken tools, people bending broken rules

hound dog howlin', bullfrog croakin', everything is broken!

[kdubfan]

I forgot about that song. Thanks for posting it!

[Fritz]

Visions Of Johanna

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?

We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it

And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it

Lights flicker from the opposite loft

In this room the heat pipes just cough

The country music station plays soft

But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off

Just Louise and her lover so entwined

And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain

And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train

We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight

Ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane

Louise, she's all right, she's just near

She's delicate and seems like the mirror

But she just makes it all too concise and too clear

That Johanna's not here

The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face

Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously

He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously

And when bringing her name up

He speaks of a farewell kiss to me

He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all

Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall

How can I explain?

Oh, it's so hard to get on

And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial

Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while

But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues

You can tell by the way she smiles

See the primitive wallflower freeze

When the jelly-faced women all sneeze

Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze

I can't find my knees"

Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule

But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel

The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him

Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"

But like Louise always says

"Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"

As she, herself, prepares for him

And Madonna, she still has not showed

We see this empty cage now corrode

Where her cape of the stage once had flowed

The fiddler, he now steps to the road

He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed

On the back of the fish truck that loads

While my conscience explodes

The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain

And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain

Makes me cry every time i see it...........even in the darkest last days, good 'ol papa bear could pull something like this out that just made it seem even if for a fleeting moment, that all was just exactly perfect......the worlds a better place from moments like this.

[chuckvegas]

Very very nice Visions at Belly Up last night...

[kdubfan]

Moonshiner

I've been a moonshiner,

For seventeen long years,

I've spent all my money,

On whiskey and beer,

I go to some hollow,

And sit at my still

And if whiskey dont kill me,

Then I dont know what will,

I go to some bar room,

And drink with my friends,

Where the women cant follow,

And see what I spend,

God bless them pretty women,

I wish they was mine,

Their breath is as sweet as,

The dew on the vine,

Let me eat when I am hungry,

Let me drink when I am dry,

A dollar when I am hard up,

Religion when I die,

The whole world's a bottle,

And life's but a dram,

When the bottle gets empty,

It sure aint worth a damn.

[kdubfan]

Ballad of a Thin Man

You walk into the room

With your pencil in your hand

You see somebody naked

And you say, "Who is that man?"

You try so hard

But you don't understand

Just what you'll say

When you get home

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones

You raise up your head

And you ask, "Is this where it is?"

And somebody points to you and says

"It's his"

And you say, "What's mine?"

And somebody else says, "Where what is?"

And you say, "Oh my God

Am I here all alone?"

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones

You hand in your ticket

And you go watch the geek

Who immediately walks up to you

When he hears you speak

And says, "How does it feel

To be such a freak?"

And you say, "Impossible"

As he hands you a bone

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones

You have many contacts

Among the lumberjacks

To get you facts

When somebody attacks your imagination

But nobody has any respect

Anyway they already expect you

To just give a check

To tax-deductible charity organizations

You've been with the professors

And they've all liked your looks

With great lawyers you have

Discussed lepers and crooks

You've been through all of

F. Scott Fitzgerald's books

You're very well read

It's well known

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones

Well, the sword swallower, he comes up to you

And then he kneels

He crosses himself

And then he clicks his high heels

And without further notice

He asks you how it feels

And he says, "Here is your throat back

Thanks for the loan"

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones

Now you see this one-eyed midget

Shouting the word "NOW"

And you say, "For what reason?"

And he says, "How?"

And you say, "What does this mean?"

And he screams back, "You're a cow

Give me some milk

Or else go home"

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones

Well, you walk into the room

Like a camel and then you frown

You put your eyes in your pocket

And your nose to the ground

There ought to be a law

Against you comin' around

You should be made

To wear earphones

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones

[uncle john]

The following is an all time Dylan classic. It is, perhaps, one of the best "break up tunes" of all time. This song and the whole "Blood on the Tracks" album helped me get over a 5 year relationship that ended in a tumultuous break up.

Thanks Bob!

Gotta keep this topic going!

Idiot Wind

Someone

[Dstone5553]

This song and the whole "Blood on the Tracks" album helped me get over a 5 year relationship that ended in a tumultuous break up.

Picking a favorite Dylan album is a monumentally difficult task for any reasonably minded person.

But if I was forced to do it at gun point, this is the one.

[FunkyBass13]

Picking a favorite Dylan album is a monumentally difficult task for any reasonably minded person.

But if I was forced to do it at gun point, this is the one.

Totally agree on the monumentally difficult task. However, every time I think about picking against Blonde on Blonde, I kick myself. So I'd have to go with that one.

[Fritz]

Hurricane (Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy)

Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night

Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall

She sees the bartender in a pool of blood

Cries out,

[Dstone5553]

Totally agree on the monumentally difficult task. However, every time I think about picking against Blonde on Blonde, I kick myself. So I'd have to go with that one.

I don't even consider Blond on Blond and HWY 61 as candidates. Those two are something else entirely...like from God or something.

I'm not crazy for Bob's harmonica, which makes liking his early acoustic live stuff difficult.

I like Dylan and electric guitars.

Which I know puts me in a camp that others don't understand.

They undersand the camp---just not me.

[uncle john]

The simplistic beauty of this one leaves me with a shiver whenever I hear it. Any guy who has had a relationship end, but still had feelings for his love can make a connection with this one. The third verse is a complete masterpiece for me anyway - The way he's able to detail such an indescribable curiosity to find out how his former love is doing. He wants to know if her hair is still long and touches her breast because that is one his favorite things about her physical beauty. Just amazing power of words by Bob.

If you like this tune, listen to the version done by Bob on the MSG 30th anniversary Dylan tribute album. The version is ridiculously good. Just Bob on a 12 string with harmonica, no one backing him. Goes to show that even in his later years he still had it.

"Girl Of The North Country"

If you're traveling in the north country fair

Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline

Remember me to one who lives there

She once was the true love of mine.

If you go when the snowflakes storm

When the rivers freeze and summer ends

Please see if she's a coat so warm

To keep her from the howlin' winds.

Please see if her hair hangs long

If it rolls and flows all down her breast

Please see from me if her hair hangs long

That's the way I remember her best.

I'm a-wonderin' if she remember me at all

Many times I've often prayed

In the darkness of my night

In the brightness of my day.

So if you're travelin' in the north country fair

Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline

Remember me to one who lives there

She once was a true love of mine.

[sonomajon]

The following is an all time Dylan classic. It is, perhaps, one of the best "break up tunes" of all time. This song and the whole "Blood on the Tracks" album helped me get over a 5 year relationship that ended in a tumultuous break up.

Thanks Bob!

Gotta keep this topic going!

Idiot Wind

Someone

[kdubfan]

This song always makes me think about my mom. Happy Mothers Day Mom, I love you

If not for you, babe, I couldn't find the door

Couldn't even see the floor

I'd be sad and blue if not for you.

If not for you, baby, I'd lay awake all night

Wait for the morning light

To shine in through

But it will not be new if not for you.

If not for you, my sky would fall, rain would gather too

Without your love I'd be nowhere at all

I'd be lost if not for you

And you know it's true.

If not for you, my sky would fall, rain would gather too

Without your love I'd be nowhere at all

Oh what would I do if not for you ?

If not for you, winter would have no spring

I couldn't hear the robins sing

I just wouldn't have a clue

Anyway it wouldn't ring true if not for you

If not for you, if not for you.

[kdubfan]

Dignity

Fat man lookin' in a blade of steel

Thin man lookin' at his last meal

Hollow man lookin' in a cottonfield

For dignity

Wise man lookin' in a blade of grass

Young man lookin' in the shadows that pass

Poor man lookin' through painted glass

For dignity

Somebody got murdered on New Year's Eve

Somebody said dignity was the first to leave

I went into the city, went into the town

Went into the land of the midnight sun

Searchin' high, searchin' low

Searchin' everywhere I know

Askin' the cops wherever I go

Have you seen dignity?

Blind man breakin' out of a trance

Puts both his hands in the pockets of chance

Hopin' to find one circumstance

Of dignity

I went to the wedding of Mary-lou

She said she don't want nobody see me talkin' to you?

Said she could get killed if she told me what she knew

About dignity

I went down where the vultures feed

I would've got deeper, but there wasn't any need

Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men

Wasn't any difference to me

Chilly wind sharp as a razor blade

House on fire, debts unpaid

Gonna stand at the window, gonna ask the maid

Have you seen dignity?

Drinkin' man listens to the voice he hears

In a crowded room full of covered up mirrors

Lookin' into the lost forgotten years

For dignity

Met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues

Said he'd give me information if his name wasn't used

He wanted money up front, said he was abused

By dignity

Footprints runnin' cross the sliver sand

Steps goin' down into tattoo land

I met the sons of darkness and the sons of light

In the bordertowns of despair

Got no place to fade, got no coat

I'm on the rollin' river in a jerkin' boat

Tryin' to read a note somebody wrote

About dignity

Sick man lookin' for the doctor's cure

Lookin' at his hands for the lines that were

And into every masterpiece of literature

for dignity

Englishman stranded in the blackheart wind

Combin' his hair back, his future looks thin

Bites the bullet and he looks within

For dignity

Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed

Dignity never been photographed

I went into the red, went into the black

Into the valley of dry bone dreams

So many roads, so much at stake

So many dead ends, I'm at the edge of the lake

Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take

To find dignity

[Fritz]

Positively 4th Street

You got a lotta nerve

To say you are my friend

When I was down

You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve

To say you got a helping hand to lend

You just want to be on

The side that

[Fritz]

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?

I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains

I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests

I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'

I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'

I saw a white ladder all covered with water

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?

And what did you hear, my darling young one?

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'

Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'

Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'

Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'

Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter

Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?

I met a young child beside a dead pony

I met a white man who walked a black dog

I met a young woman whose body was burning

I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow

I met one man who was wounded in love

I met another man who was wounded with hatred

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?

I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'

I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest

Where the people are many and their hands are all empty

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters

Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison

Where the executioner's face is always well hidden

Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten

Where black is the color, where none is the number

And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it

And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it

Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'

But I'll know my song well before I start singin'

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Really been enjoying Weir singing this tune over the past few years...

[560sdl]

Visions Of Johanna

Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're tryin' to be so quiet?

We sit here stranded, though we're all doin' our best to deny it

And Louise holds a handful of rain, temptin' you to defy it

Lights flicker from the opposite loft

In this room the heat pipes just cough

The country music station plays soft

But there's nothing, really nothing to turn off

Just Louise and her lover so entwined

And these visions of Johanna that conquer my mind

In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain

And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train

We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight

Ask himself if it's him or them that's really insane

Louise, she's all right, she's just near

She's delicate and seems like the mirror

But she just makes it all too concise and too clear

That Johanna's not here

The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face

Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

Now, little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously

He brags of his misery, he likes to live dangerously

And when bringing her name up

He speaks of a farewell kiss to me

He's sure got a lotta gall to be so useless and all

Muttering small talk at the wall while I'm in the hall

How can I explain?

Oh, it's so hard to get on

And these visions of Johanna, they kept me up past the dawn

Inside the museums, Infinity goes up on trial

Voices echo this is what salvation must be like after a while

But Mona Lisa musta had the highway blues

You can tell by the way she smiles

See the primitive wallflower freeze

When the jelly-faced women all sneeze

Hear the one with the mustache say, "Jeeze

I can't find my knees"

Oh, jewels and binoculars hang from the head of the mule

But these visions of Johanna, they make it all seem so cruel

The peddler now speaks to the countess who's pretending to care for him

Sayin', "Name me someone that's not a parasite and I'll go out and say a prayer for him"

But like Louise always says

"Ya can't look at much, can ya man?"

As she, herself, prepares for him

And Madonna, she still has not showed

We see this empty cage now corrode

Where her cape of the stage once had flowed

The fiddler, he now steps to the road

He writes ev'rything's been returned which was owed

On the back of the fish truck that loads

While my conscience explodes

The harmonicas play the skeleton keys and the rain

And these visions of Johanna are now all that remain

Makes me cry every time i see it...........even in the darkest last days, good 'ol papa bear could pull something like this out that just made it seem even if for a fleeting moment, that all was just exactly perfect......the worlds a better place from moments like this.

Recently obsessed with this song - Particularly the DSO version from 5-19-07 in Baltimore. A great version of this song.

[Teacher Matt]

"Lily, Rosemary, and the FREAKIN JACK OF HEARTS !!!!!" ....

[chuckvegas]

"Lily, Rosemary, and the FREAKIN JACK OF HEARTS !!!!!" ....

Well, put 'er up here, Matt!

[Fritz]

For Matt

Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts

The festival was over, the boys were all plannin

[kdubfan]

I thought it was high time we get this going.

I was diggin on this today and it made me think about Jerry.

There's a long-distance train rolling through the rain, tears on the letter I write.

There's a woman I long to touch and I'm missing her so much, but she's drifting like a satellite.

There's a neon light ablaze in a green smoky haze, and laughter down on

Elizabeth Street

And a lonesome bell tone in that valley of stone where she bathed in a stream of pure heat.

Her father would emphasize you got to be more than street-wise but he practiced what he preached from the heart.

A full-blooded Cherokee, he predicted to me the time and the place that we'd part.

There's a babe in the arms of a woman in a rage

And a longtime golden-haired stripper onstage

As she winds back the clock and she turns back the page

Of a book that nobody can write.

Oh, where are you tonight?

The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure, to live it you have to explode.

In that last hour of need, we entirely agreed, sacrifice was the code of the road.

I left town at dawn, with Marcel and St. John, strong men belittled by doubt.

I couldn't tell her what my private thoughts were but she had some way of finding them out.

He took dead-center aim but he missed just the same, she was waiting,

putting flowers on the shelf.

She could feel my despair as I climbed up her hair and discovered her invisible self.

There's a lion in the room, there's a demon escaped,

There's a million dreams gone, there's a landscape being raped,

As her beauty fades and I watch her undrape,

But I won't, but then maybe again, I might.

Oh, if I could just find you tonight.

I fought with my twin, that enemy within, 'til both of us fell by the way.

Horseplay and disease is killing me by degrees while the law looks the other way.

Your partners in crime hit me up for nickels and dimes, the man you were lovin' could never get clean.

It felt outa place, my foot in his face, but he should have stayed where his money was green.

I bit into the root of forbidden fruit with the juice running down my leg.

Then I dealt with your boss, who'd never known about loss, who always was

too proud to beg.

There's a white diamond gloom on the dark side of this room and a pathway that leads up to the stars.

If you don't believe there's a price for this sweet paradise, just remind me to show you the scars.

There's a new day at dawn and I've finally arrived.

If I'm there in the morning, baby, you'll know I've survived.

I can't believe it, I can't believe I'm alive,

But without you it doesn't seem right.

Oh, where are you tonight?

[kdubfan]

This is yet another amazing body of work from the master.

I was in another lifetime one of toil and blood

When blackness was a virtue and the road was full of mud

I came in from the wilderness a creature void of form

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

And if I pass this way again you can rest assured

I'll always do my best for her on that I give my word

In a world of steel-eyed death and men who are fighting to be warm

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Not a word was spoke between us there was little risk involved

Everything up to that point had been left unresolved

Try imagining a place where it's always safe and warm

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

I was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail

Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail

Hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Suddenly I turned around and she was standing there

With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair

She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Now there's a wall between us something there's been lost

I took too much for granted got my signals crossed

Just to think that it all began on a long-forgotten morn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Well the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount

But nothing really matters much it's doom alone that counts

And the one-eyed undertaker he blows a flugelhorn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

I've heard newborn babies wailing like a mourning dove

And old men with broken teeth stranded without love

Do I understand your question man is it hopeless and forlorn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

In a little hilltop village they gambled for my clothes

I bargained for salvation and they gave me a lethal dose

I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm".

Well I'm living in a foreign country but I'm bound to cross the line

Beauty walks a razor's edge someday I'll make it mine

If I could only turn back the clock to when God and her were born

"Come in" she said

"I'll give you shelter from the storm"

[chuckvegas]

And the only sound that's left

After the ambulances go

Is Cinderella sweeping up

On Desolation Row