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Bob Dylan - Visions Of Johanna

Bob Dylan - Visions Of Johanna Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Blonde On Blonde
Released: 1966

Visions Of Johanna Lyrics

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 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?
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, "Jeez, 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

Writer/s: DYLAN BOB, BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Visions Of Johanna

Dylan (from Rolling Stone magazine): "It's easier to be disconnected than connected. I've got a huge hallelujah for all the people who're connected, that's great, but I can't do that."

Al Kooper, who was a prolific session musician, played the Hammond B3 organ. Kooper went on to become a successful producer and worked on some of Lynyrd Skynyrd's most famous tracks.

Dylan wrote this song while he was dating folk singer Joan Baez, but was falling in love with his first wife Sara.

In her 1975 song "Winds of the Old Days," Joan Baez seems to be making the case that she is Johanna. Sample lyrics: "A decade flew past her and there on the page, she read that the prince had returned to the stage," "Most of the sour grapes are gone from the bough, ghosts of Johanna will visit you there."

In their June 1997 issue, Mojo magazine named this one of their 100 Greatest Psychedelic Classics. Jon Savage wrote of the song: "As early as 1963's 'Lay Down Your Weary Tune,' Dylan was exploring the egoless surrender to the universe that would characterise the first, benign phase of psychedelia. From 1965 on, his gnomic, gnostic utterances laid down the parameters for what would follow, as The Beatles, The Byrds and The Rolling Stones fell under his spell. Dylan issued disclaimers - "I never have and never will write a drug song... It's just vulgar," he exclaimed on the last night of his 1966 world tour - but this 'Visions Of Johanna,' taken from the night before, has the infinitesimal focus of acid-time compression."

Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street

Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Greatest Hits
Released: 1965

Positively 4th Street Lyrics

You've got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
When I was down you just stood there grinnin'
You've got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
You just want to be on the side that's winnin'

You say I let you down, ya know its not like that
If you're so hurt, why then don't you show it?
You say you've lost your faith, but that's not where its at
You have no faith to lose, and ya know it

I know the reason, that you talked behind my back
I used to be among the crowd you're in with
Do you take me for such a fool, to think I'd make contact
With the one who tries to hide what he don't know to begin with?

You see me on the street, you always act surprised
You say "how are you?", "good luck", but ya don't mean it
When you know as well as me, you'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once and scream it

No, I do not feel that good when I see the heartbreaks you embrace
If I was a master thief perhaps I'd rob them
And tho I know you're dissatisfied with your position and your place
Don't you understand, its not my problem?

I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You'd know what a drag it is to see you

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Positively 4th Street

According to Rolling Stone magazine, this song is about all the naysayers and plastic people Dylan encountered during his time in Greenwich Village (when he lived on West 4th street) and his stint on fraternity row at the University of Minnesota (located on 4th Street in Minneapolis). The song deals with the jealousy he encountered from people in the artistic community who resented his success.

Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Released: 1963

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Lyrics

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son
And 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
It's A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son
And 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
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 that 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
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what 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

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

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

This is a 7-minute anti nuclear war anthem. It was one of three social protest songs Dylan recorded on the album; the others are "Blowin' In The Wind" and "Masters of War." Dylan said that the rain was not literal fallout rain, but "some sort of end that's just gotta happen."

This was based on an old folk ballad variously titled "Lord Randall" or "Lord Ronald," in which a mother repeatedly questions her son (beginning with "Where have you been?"), leading him to reveal he has been poisoned. The song ends when he falls dead to the ground.

Ten years after Dylan recorded his version, Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry recorded a dark, claustrophobic cover as first ever solo single. In the UK it climbed to #10 in the charts.

In the liner notes to The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Dylan said: "Hard Rain is a desperate kind of song. Every line in it, is actually the start of a whole song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn't have enough time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one."

Bob Dylan once introduced this song by saying hard rain meant something big was about to happen.

According to journalist Bob Spitz, Dylan wrote this song on the typewriter of Hugh Romney, better known as Wavy Gravy.

Bob Dylan - Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

Bob Dylan - Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Blonde On Blonde
Released: 1966

Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands Lyrics

With your mercury mouth in the missionary times,
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,
And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes,
Oh, do they think could bury you?
With your pockets well protected at last,
And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass,
And your flesh like silk, and your face like glass,
Who could they get to carry you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I put them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace,
And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace,
And your basement clothes and your hollow face,
Who among them can think he could outguess you?
With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims,
And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns,
Who among them would try to impress you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I put them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

The kings of Tyrus with their convict list
Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss,
And you wouldn't know it would happen like this,
But who among them really wants just to kiss you?
With your childhood flames on your midnight rug,
And your Spanish manners and your mother's drugs,
And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs,
Who among them do you think could resist you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

Oh, the farmers and the businessmen, they all did decide
To show you the dead angels that they used to hide.
But why did they pick you to sympathize with their side?
Oh, how could they ever mistake you?
They wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm,
But with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm,
And with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms,
How could they ever, ever persuade you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row,
And your magazine-husband who one day just had to go,
And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show,
Who among them do you think would employ you?
Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold,
And your saintlike face and your ghostlike soul,
Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
Should I leave them by your gate,
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

This song is about Sara Lownds, who was Dylan's wife at the time. The title of the song was created from her name: SAd eyed lAdy of the LOWlaNDS.

On the song "Sara" from the album Desire, Dylan sings: "Staying up for nights in the Chelsea Hotel writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you." In his book Revolution in the Air: The Songs of Bob Dylan 1957-1973, Clinton Heylin writes that most of the song was written in an 8-hour stretch in a Nashville studio while the musicians waited for Dylan to finish it. Said Dylan: "It started out as just a little thing, but I got carried away somewhere along the line."

This took up the whole fourth side of the album, but it didn't need to as it is just under 11-minutes long. But if Blonde On Blonde had not been a double album, some other album would hold the title of first double album ever released. (thanks, Ed - Perth, Australia, for above 2)

When Dylan finally called the band members he hired in to record this song, it was 4 a.m. Typical of Dylan, he didn't tell them much about the song - he just had them play. They were surprised when the song kept going for 11 minutes, and more surprised when Dylan was happy with the first take.

The video to the right is from "The Denver Tapes," recorded March 1966. In this recording, Dylan calls this "The best song I ever wrote." (Thanks, Edna - Madrid, Spain)

Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues

Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Bringing It All Back Home
Released: 1965

Subterranean Homesick Blues Lyrics

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doing it again
You better duck down the alleyway
Lookin' for a new friend
The man in the coonskin cap,in the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills but you only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin' that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D.A. look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don't try "No Doz"
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

Get sick, get well
Hang around a ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write braille
Get jailed, jump bail
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't want to be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Subterranean Homesick Blues

This song skips from one cultural reference to the next. It touches on social discontent ("Twenty years of schoolin'/And they put you on the day shift"), drug busts ("The phone's tapped anyway/Maggie says that many say/They must bust in early May/Orders from the D.A."), violent policing witnessed at civil rights protests ("Better stay away from those/That carry around a fire hose") and the fight against authority ("Don't follow leaders/Watch the parkin' meters").

The lyrics resemble a stream of consciousness, a writing technique championed by beat poets such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, both of whom were a major influence on Dylan. Musically, Dylan told the LA Times the song was inspired by Chuck Berry: "It's from Chuck Berry, a bit of 'Too Much Monkey Business' and some of the scat songs of the forties."

John Lennon was apparently so captivated by this song, he worried he would never be able to write anything that could compete with it.

Musicians continue to allude to this song today. Jet named their 2003 breakthrough album Get Born after the song's lyric "Ah get born, keep warm." Radiohead alluded to the track on the album, OK Computer, which features a song titled "Subterranean Homesick Blues." The Gaslight Anthem's song, "Angry Johnny and the Radio" includes the lines "I'm still here singin' thinking about the government" and "Are you hidin' in a basement mixin' up the medicine?" both of which are referring to the opening lyrics to "Subterranean Homesick Blues": "Johnny's in the basement mixing up the medicine/I'm on the pavement thinkin' about the Government." Artists to have covered this song, meanwhile, include Red Hot Chili Peppers, Harry Nilsson and Glenn Campbell.

The American radical (some would say terrorist) group, the Weathermen, got their name from the lyric, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows" (the lyric was also the title of their manifesto). The group, also known as the Weather Underground, had a left-wing agenda, opposing the Vietnam War and other American military actions with militant actions of their own.

This was Dylan's first ever Top 40 hit, peaking at #39 on the US chart.

The promotional clip for this song is arguably one of the most famous music videos of all time. Shot in 1965 as part of the documentary Don't Look Back (chronicling his tour of England), it features Dylan standing in an alley behind the Savoy Hotel in London. He is holding cue cards, which he flips through as the song progresses. On the cards are select phrases from the song's lyrics, often with purposeful misspellings. These cue cards were written by Dylan along with the folk singer Donovan, the musician Bob Neuwirthand, and the beat poet Allen Ginsberg (these latter two can be seen in the actual video, standing just behind Dylan).

This video has been spoofed countless times - notable parodies include Weird Al Yankovic's video for the song "BOB," INXS' "Mediate," and Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade's "Buzzards of Green Hill."

Bringing It All Back Home is Bob Dylan's fifth album. The record is divided into an electric and an acoustic side. This introduction of electronic instruments lead to Dylan becoming increasingly alienated from the folk community. Furthermore, the album saw Dylan withdraw from protest songs to instead write on more abstract, personal issues.

The Beastie Boys borrowed the lyrics "20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift" for their 2011 track "Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win."

Bob Dylan - Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Bob Dylan - Knockin' On Heaven's Door Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid Soundtrack
Released: 1973

Knockin' On Heaven's Door Lyrics

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore
It's gettin' dark, too dark to see
I feel like I'm Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Knockin' On Heaven's Door

This song is written from the perspective of a dying sheriff: "Mama, take this badge off of me/I can't use it anymore/It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see/I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door." Dylan wrote it for the 1973 western film, Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid. It plays while Sheriff Colin Baker is dying from his gunshot wounds. Dylan cameos in the movie as the character, Alias.

Guns N' Roses covered this on their 1991 album, Use Your Illusion II. They played it in 1992 at a tribute concert for Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, who had died of AIDS. 72,000 people attended the concert, which was held in London's Wembley Stadium. In case you're wondering, towards the end of the end of this version, the man on the telephone says, "You just better start sniffin your own rank subjugation Jack, 'cause it's just you and your tattered libido, the bank and the mortician, forever man and it wouldn't be luck if you could get out of life alive."

In 1996, Bob Dylan allowed Scottish musician, Ted Christopher, to record a new verse for "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," which Christopher had written in memory of the schoolchildren and teacher killed in the Dunblane massacre. This is one of the rare times Dylan has officially permitted someone to add to or change the lyrics to one of his songs. Christopher's version reached #1 in the UK.

Warren Zevon recorded this for his 2003 album The Wind. Zevon was dying of lung cancer when he recorded the track, and died shortly after the album was released.

This song has been covered in reggae style by multiple artists including G.T. Moore & The Reggae Guitars, Arthur Louis and Eric Clapton.

Other artists to have covered this song include Avril Lavigne, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Cold Chisel, Neil Young and Aretha Franklin.

The title of the song was used as the original title for the Cowboy Bebop movie. Cowboy Bebop is a popular Japanese Anime that made a big hit in America when the dubbed version (done in the late '90s) was broadcast on Cartoon Network in 2001. Bebop was known for taking influences from pop culture (example: The title of episode 6 is "Sympathy for the Devil," obviously a take off of the Rolling Stones Song). When a full length Bebop movie was made in Japan, it was titled Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door. When it was dubbed and brought to theaters in America for a short time, they changed it to Cowboy Bebop: The Movie so Dylan wouldn't take any legal action against them. (thanks, Nick - Erwin, NC)

In October 2007, 1,730 guitarists in Shillong, India strummed this song for 5 minutes to set a world record for the largest ever guitar ensemble.

This song is musically similar to Neil Young's "Helpless," which was recorded in 1969 and features on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album, DéjÁ  Vu.

Bob Dylan - Rainy Day Women #12 And #35

Bob Dylan - Rainy Day Women #12 And #35 Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Blonde On Blonde
Released: 1966

Rainy Day Women #12 And #35 Lyrics

Rainy Day Women #12 And #35

With the line, "Everybody Must Get Stoned," this song is often associated with smoking marijuana, although Dylan insists it isn't, stating, "I have never and never will write a 'drug song.'" It is more likely about trials of relationships with women, and Dylan has hinted that it could have a Biblical meaning. Answering a question about people interpreting this song to be about getting high, Dylan told Rolling Stone in 2012: "These are people that aren't familiar with the Book of Acts."

The Book of Acts is from the Gospel of Luke, and contains an account of a stoning: "Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God... And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul."

In this story, Stephen received his sentence after giving a speech to authorities who were going to kill him no matter what he said. This relates to how Dylan felt about his critics, who were going to figuratively "stone" him no matter what he did. (More on the meaning of "stoned" in popular songs .)

The "official" explanation of how this song got its name: A woman and her daughter came into the recording studio out of the rain. Dylan guessed their ages correctly as 12 and 35.

A less official explanation: The song is about two women who came into the studio on a rainy day. Dylan apparently read an article about punishment for women in Islamic states - hence "Everybody must get stoned" because relationships are a trial and error thing. (thanks, Dave - Ballarat, Australia)

If you multiply 12 by 35, you get 420, a number commonly associated with smoking marijuana. 420 came about because five high school students in California could only smoke at 4:20 in the afternoon. This time was after school and before their parents came home, so it was a good time for them to get high. (thanks, Dave - Boise, ID)

This was one of the few songs Dylan released that was a traditional hit record, reaching the Top 10 in both the US and UK, and spending a week at #2 in America behind "Monday Monday" by The Mamas & The Papas. Perhaps relishing the opportunity to turn a song that repeats "everybody must get stoned" into a radio hit, Dylan cut the song down to 2:26 for the single release. On the Blonde On Blonde album, where it is the first track, the song runs 4:33. The single cuts out two verses and some instrumental passages.

Many radio stations received a publication called the Gavin Report that discussed new songs, and this one was described as a "drug song." Many stations refused to play it, but Dylan was so influential at the time that the song had no trouble getting plenty of airplay.

You can hear Dylan burst out laughing in this song. According to Down the Highway: the Life of Bob Dylan by Howard Sounes, the musicians were having a lot of fun in the studio, passing around joints and swapping instruments as they kept the mood light and jovial.

This song was covered by The Black Crowes for the 1995 album Hempilation, a collection of songs about marijuana. (thanks, Tim - Columbus, OH)

Guitarist and bassist Charlie McCoy played the trumpet on this. He recalled to Uncut magazine March 2014: "(Producer, Bob) Johnston said,'Tonight he wants to do a song with a Salvation Army sound – we need a trumpet and trombone.' I said, 'Does the trumpet need to be good?' He's said, 'no!' I kept track: It took 40 hours to cut Blonde on Blonde."

Bob Dylan - Shelter From the Storm

Bob Dylan - Shelter From the Storm Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Blood on the Tracks
Released: 1975

Shelter From the Storm Lyrics

'Twas 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 an' 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 standin' 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, somethin' 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 futile horn
"Come in," she said
"I'll give you shelter from the storm"

I've heard newborn babies wailin' like a mournin' 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 an' 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 livin' 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"

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Shelter From the Storm

This song expresses the sadness of not knowing what you have until it's gone: "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.'" It's likely that Dylan wrote this about his soon to be ex-wife, Sara Dylan. (thanks, adam - evanston, IL)

Dylan wrote this with only three chords and a simple melody. It started out as a song called "Up To Me," which Roger McGuinn recorded in 1976.

Dylan got the title from a line in Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop The Rain?": "I went down Virginia, seekin' shelter from the storm..." (thanks, Greg - Calgary, United States)

This appears on the Jerry McGuire Soundtrack.

Dylan wrote the material for Blood on the Tracks while he was dealing with his impending divorce from Sara Dylan.

Bob Dylan - Desolation Row

Bob Dylan - Desolation Row Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Highway 61 Revisited
Released: 1965

Desolation Row Lyrics

They're selling postcards of the hanging, they're painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner, they've got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants
And the riot squad they're restless, they need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight, from Desolation Row

Cinderella, she seems so easy, "It takes one to know one," she smiles
And puts her hands in her back pockets Bette Davis style
And in comes Romeo, he's moaning. "You Belong to Me I Believe"
And someone says, "You're in the wrong place, my friend, you'd better leave"
And the only sound that's left after the ambulances go
Is Cinderella sweeping up on Desolation Row

Now the moon is almost hidden, the stars are beginning to hide
The fortune telling lady has even taken all her things inside
All except for Cain and Abel and the hunchback of Notre Dame

Everybody is making love or else expecting rain
And the Good Samaritan, he's dressing, he's getting ready for the show
He's going to the carnival tonight on Desolation Row

Ophelia, she's 'neath the window for her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday she already is an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic she wears an iron vest
Her profession's her religion, her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon Noah's great rainbow
She spends her time peeking into Desolation Row

Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood with his memories in a trunk
Passed this way an hour ago with his friend, a jealous monk
Now he looked so immaculately frightful as he bummed a cigarette
And he when off sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet
You would not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago
For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row

Dr. Filth, he keeps his world inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients, they're trying to blow it up
Now his nurse, some local loser, she's in charge of the cyanide hole
And she also keeps the cards that read, "Have Mercy on His Soul"
They all play on the penny whistles, you can hear them blow
If you lean your head out far enough from Desolation Row

Across the street they've nailed the curtains, they're getting ready for the feast
The Phantom of the Opera in a perfect image of a priest
They are spoon feeding Casanova to get him to feel more assured
Then they'll kill him with self-confidence after poisoning him with words
And the Phantom's shouting to skinny girls, "Get outta here if you don't know"
Casanova is just being punished for going to Desolation Row"

At midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew
Come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do
Then they bring them to the factory where the heart-attack machine
Is strapped across their shoulders and then the kerosene
Is brought down from the castles by insurance men who go
Check to see that nobody is escaping to Desolation Row

Praise be to Nero's Neptune, the Titanic sails at dawn
Everybody's shouting, "Which side are you on?!"
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers
Between the windows of the sea where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much about Desolation Row

Yes, I received your letter yesterday, about the time the doorknob broke
When you asked me how I was doing, was that some kind of joke
All these people that you mention, yes, I know them, they're quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces and give them all another name
Right now, I can't read too good, don't send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them from Desolation Row

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Desolation Row

The opening lines of this song ("They're selling postcards of the hanging, they're painting the passports brown...") refer to three men who were in town with the circus and were accused of raping a girl in Duluth, Minnesota. On June 15, 1920, a mob broke them out of jail and lynched them. Postcards with pictures of the hanging were sold as souvenirs. Dylan's father, Abraham Zimmerman, was 8 years old and living in Duluth at the time of the hangings.

This is the last track on the album. It is eleven minutes long, and was Dylan's longest song up to that point. Dylan rarely plays it at concerts, but when he does, it can stretch out to 45 minutes. (thanks Abram - Los Angeles, California)

When trying to interpret this song, keep in mind that Dylan was experimenting with LSD around the time he recorded it.

This was never released as a single, probably due to its length, but the Highway 61 Revisited album went to #3 US and #4 UK.

Dylan performed this for the first time at the Forest Hills Music Festival in Queens, New York on August 28, 1965, after he electrified the Newport Folk Festival. It was part of the acoustic set Dylan played before bringing on his electric band.

Live versions are included on Dylan's MTV Unplugged, and Live 1966.

This was covered by My Chemical Romance for the end credits of the 2009 superhero movie Watchmen.

This was the first Bob Dylan recording that bassist and guitarist Charlie McCoy played on. He would go on to contribute to every Dylan album from 1965 to 1970. His initial contribution, however, was the result of an apparent accident.

When McCoy was in New York for a visit, his friend, producer Bob Johnston, arranged for him to go and see a Broadway show. Johnston suggested that he drop by the nearby Columbia Studios to pick up the tickets. "He introduced me to Dylan," recalled McCoy to Uncut magazine March 2014, "and he said to me, 'I'm getting ready to record a song, why don't you pick up the other guitar and play?' We had time for one take, one playback and then for another session. And that was 'Desolation Row'."

Bob Dylan - Dark Eyes

Bob Dylan - Dark Eyes Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Empire Burlesque
Released: 1985

Dark Eyes Lyrics

Oh, the gentlemen are talking and the midnight moon is on the riverside
They're drinking up and walking and it is time for me to slide
I live in another world where life and death are memorized
Where the earth is strung with lover's pearls and all I see are Dark Eyes.

A cock is crowing far away and another soldier's deep in prayer
Some mother's child has gone astray, she can't find him anywhere
But I hear another rum beating for the dead that rise
Whom nature's beast fear as they come and all I see are dark eyes.

They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes
They tell me revenge is sweet, I'm sure it is
But I feel nothing for their game, where beauty goes unrecognized
All I feel is heat and flame, and all I see are dark eyes.

Oh, the French girl, she's in paradise and a drunken man is at the wheel
Hunger pays a heavy prize to the falling god of speed and steel
Oh, time is short and the days are sweet and passion rules the arrow that flies
A million faces at my feet but all I see are dark eyes.

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Dark Eyes

Dylan laid this down this tune on March 3, 1985 as the final track for his Empire Burlesque album. Recorded live-to-tape with no video editing, overdubbing, or embellishment, the song features just Dylan on guitar and harmonica.

The disturbing, forlorn tune was written by Dylan virtually on demand when producer Arthur Baker suggested something simpler for the album's closing track. Baker recalled to Uncut magazine: "I mentioned this idea about doing an acoustic song to him, and then the very next day, he came in with this 'Dark Eyes.' I really thought it was a song he'd had. Because he had so many songs, he'd bring cassettes out, and he had just tons of songs. I never thought for a second that he'd just written this."

Bob Dylan - Political World

Bob Dylan - Political World Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Oh Mercy
Released: 1989

Political World Lyrics

We live in a Political World
Love don't have any place
We're living in times
Where men commit crimes
And crime don't have any face

We live in a political world
Icicles hanging own
Wedding bells ring
And angels sing
And clouds cover up the ground

We live in a political world
Wisdom is thrown in jail
It rots in a cell
Is misguided as hell
Leaving no one to pick up the trail

We live in a political world
Where mercy walks the plank
Life is in mirrors
Death disappears
Up the steps to the nearest bank

We live in a political world
Courage is a thing of the past
Houses are haunted
Children unwanted
The next day could be your last

We live in a political world
The one we can see and feel
But there's no one to check
It's all a stacked deck
We all know for sure that it's real

We live in a political world
In the cities of lonesome fear
Little by little
You turn in the middle
But you're never sure why you're here

We live in a political world
Under the microscope
You can travel anywhere
And hang yourself there
You always got more than enough rope

We live in a political world
Turning and trashing about
As soon as you're awake
You're trained to take
What looks like the easy way out

We live in a political world
Where peace is not welcome at all
It's turned away from the door
To wonder some more
Or put up against the wall

We live in a political world
Everything is hers and his
Climb into the frame
And shout God's name
But you're never sure what it is

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Political World

Bob Dylan was struggling to come up with the right arrangement for this tirade against the modern world when producer Daniel Lanois came up with a setting that he thought could make the song work. Guitarist Brian Stolz recalled to Uncut magazine: "Dan had an idea for a little groove, kind of a funkier groove. I remember we ran through it a few times before Bob got there. Bob came walking in the room when we were playing. He said, ''What's that?' Dan said, 'It's a little something we're working up for 'Political World.' And Bob said, 'Political World'? It doesn't go like that! It goes like this.'"

"He picked up a guitar and started playing it and we all jumped in – and my memory is that's the track you hear on the record," Stolz added. "If you listen to 'Political World' you can hear how Willie (Green, drums) doesn't even come in with the beat because he was jumping in after Bob."

The song featured on the soundtrack of the 2006 Robin Williams movie, Man of the Year.

Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Released: 1963

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right Lyrics

Well it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
Ifin' you don't know by now
An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It'll never do some how
When your rooster crows at the break a dawn
Look out your window and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm trav'lin' on
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

And it ain't no use in a-turnin' on your light, babe
The light I never knowed
An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road
But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin' anyway
But don't think twice, it's all right

No it ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal
Like you never done before
And it ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal
I can't hear ya any more
I'm a-thinkin' and a-wond'rin' wallkin' way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I am told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don't think twice, it's all right

So long honey babe
Where I'm bound, I can't tell
Goodbye is too good a word, babe
So I just say fare thee well
I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right Song Chart

Dylan said of this track: "A lot of people make it sort of a love song - slow and easygoing. But it isn't a love song. It's a statement that maybe you can say something to make yourself feel better. It's as if you were talking to yourself." (thanks, Will - Annapolis, MD)

Dylan wrote this after his girlfriend Suze Rotolo went off to Italy to study at the University of Perugia and left him in New York. Dylan re-imagined their separation here as him leaving her. Rotolo can be seen walking with Dylan on the cover of the The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album. An artist and civil rights activist, Rotolo died on February 24, 2011 at age 67.

Peter, Paul and Mary recorded this in 1963 shortly after Dylan.

In 1965, The Four Seasons released this as a single at a time when lead singer Frankie Valli had a major solo hit ("Can't Take My Eyes Off of You") and the group was at its peak of popularity (about the time that "Let's Hang On" hit the Top 10). This was released as a joke and to see if the group could have a hit without the Four Seasons name on it, so they released this under the name "Wonder Who." Despite an unknown band name, it was still a hit, going to #12 in the US. Two "Wonder Who" singles were released by Philips Records (1966's "On the Good Ship Lollipop"/"You're Nobody 'Till Somebody Loves You" and 1967's "Lonesome Road"), but this was the Wonder Who's only chart record. After it was released, Vee Jay Records repackaged two previously released Four Seasons songs, "My Sugar" and "Peanuts," and released them as a Wonder Who? single, which sank without a trace. The picture sleeve of "Don't Think Twice" had a connect-the-dots pattern hinting at "We are your favorites." The sleeve for "On the Good Ship Lollipop" had jumbled cut-up Four Seasons pictures. Popular lore has Frankie Valli's lead vocal giving the joke away, but it wasn't the case - it was the backing vocals.

Regarding the lyrics, "When your rooster crows at the break of dawn, look out your window, and I'll be gone," Rotolo explained in her memoir that they used to live near a poultry supplier in their Greenwich Village apartment. They would sometimes stay up all night and hear the roosters crowing at the break of dawn.

Kesha performed a version for the 2011 charity album, Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International. She said of the emotional recording session: "I was weeping, you can hear it. We just used that recording. We didn't record it into a professional microphone, nothing. I tried to sing it a few times but that magic was really in this first, genuine, distraught, emotional take that you guys are going to hear on the record."

This was covered by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard on their 2015 Django & Jimmie album. Haggard told Uncut: "We wanted to do a Dylan song and that was something we both knew."

Bob Dylan - Isis

Bob Dylan - Isis Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Desire
Released: 1976

Isis Lyrics

I married Isis on the fifth day of may
But I do not hold on to her very long
So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away
For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong

I came to a high place of darkness and light
The dividing line ran through the center of town
I hitched up my pony to a post on the right
Went in to a laundry to wash my clothes down

A man in the corner approached me for a match
I knew right away he was not ordinary
He said, are you lookin' for somethin' easy to catch?
I said, I got no money he said, that ain't necessary

We set out that night for the cold in the north
I gave him my blanket, he gave me his word
I said, where are we goin' he said we'd be back by the fourth
I said, "that's the best news that I've ever heard

I was thinkin' about turquoise, I was thinkin' about gold
I was thinkin' about diamonds and the world's biggest necklace
As we rode through the canyons, through the devilish cold
I was thinkin' about Isis, how she thought I was so reckless

How she told me that one day we would meet up again,
And things would be different the next time we wed,
If I only could hang on and just be her friend
I still can't remember all the best things she said

We came to the pyramids all embedded in ice
He said, "there's a body I'm tryin' to find
If I carry it out it'll bring a good price
'Cause then that I knew what he had on his mind

The wind it was howlin' and the snow was outrageous
We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn
When he died I was hopin' that it wasn't contagious
But I made up my mind that I had to go on

I picked up his body and I dragged him inside,
Threw him down in the hole and I put back the cover
I said a quick prayer and I felt satisfied
Then I went back to find Isis just to tell her I love her

She was there in the meadow where the creek used to rise
Blinded by sleep and in need of a bed,
I came in from the east with the sun in my eyes
I cursed her one time then I rode on ahead

She said, where ya been, I said,no place special
She said, you look different I said, well, yes
She said, you been gone I said, that's only natural
She said, you gonna stay I said, if you want you me, yeah

Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the fifth day of may in the drizzlin' rain

Writer/s: DYLAN BOB, BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Isis Song Chart

This song is about a man who has recently split from his wife, Isis. He leaves town atop a pony headed "for the wild unknown country." Along his way, he meets with a shady character and the both of them begin a search for treasure. During the journey, the man keeps thinking back to his ex-wife:

As we rode through the canyons, through the devilish cold
I was thinking about Isis, how she thought I was so reckless

The shady character dies midway into the voyage, leaving the man to continue the treasure hunt alone:

When he died I was hoping that it wasn't contagious
But I made up my mind that I had to go on

Upon reaching the tomb where the supposed treasure lies, the man is shocked to find an empty casket:

There were no jewels no nothing, I felt I'd been had

Frustrated, he drags his dead companion into the casket, before deciding to ride back home to Isis, "just to tell her I love her."

After questioning his recent whereabouts, Isis accepts her ex-husband back. The song then concludes with the man pondering Isis and her magnetic influence:

Isis oh Isis you're a mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane

This was written while Dylan was separating from his then-wife, Sara, therefore many fans believe this song alludes to the couple's turbulent relationship. This argument is supported by the fact it features on the album, Desire, which closes with the poignant "Sara," during which Dylan openly sings about his "radiant jewel, mystical wife." This biographical approach to writing was a rare feat for Dylan, who usually preferred to write under personas (as in "Isis").

A live version of "Isis" features on the compilation album, Biograph. Dylan introduces it as "a song about marriage."

The female character in this song is named after Isis, the goddess in ancient Egyptian mythology who is idolized as the ideal wife and protective mother.

"Isis" was one of seven songs on Desire co-written between Dylan and songwriter/theater director, Jacques Levy.

In their early years, The White Stripes frequently covered this song.

The song's co-writer Jacques Levy was asked by the Dylan fanzine Isis about this song title and its significance in Egyptian mythology. Levy replied that it was an attempt at an old Western ballad like the kind The Band used to pen: "Well, this is a similar kind of thing," he said, "and just as The Band wrote 'pulled into Nazareth,' you know, well, 'Isis' has as much to do with Egypt as Fanny has to do with Nazareth."

Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay

Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Nashville Skyline
Released: 1969

Lay Lady Lay Lyrics

Lay Lady Lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed

Whatever colors you have in your mind
I show them to you and you see them shine

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
Stay with your man a while
Until the break of day
Let me see you make him smile

His clothes are dirty but his, his hands are clean
And you are the best thing that he's ever seen

Stay lady stay
Stay with your man a while

Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you

Lay lady lay
Lay across my big brass bed
Stay lady stay
Stay while the night is still ahead

I long to see you in the morning light
I long to reach for you in the night

Stay lady stay
Stay while the night is still ahead

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Lay Lady Lay Song Chart

Dylan wrote this for the 1969 movie Midnight Cowboy. Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talkin'," which was released the year before, was chosen for the theme song instead.

Harry Nilsson wrote "I Guess the Lord Must Be In New York City" for the same movie. The director had asked for a song that sounded like Nilsson's previous recorded cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking." The director finally decided to use the older "Everybody's Talking," and was proven right when the song won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male. (thanks, Leo - Hilversum, Netherlands)

This was one of many Dylan songs covered by The Byrds, who also recorded "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Just Like A Woman," and "The Times They Are A-Changin'." There are two versions of the song on their 2002 Dylan cover compilation, The Byrds Play Dylan.

They Byrds version bubbled under at #132 US in 1969; other charting renditions of the song in America were by Ferrante & Teicher (#99, 1970) and the Isley Brothers (#71, 1972).

Many radio stations refused to play this simply because of the use of the word "lay" in the title, assuming it referred to sex (i.e. "get laid"). Despite the accusation of being "Sexually Titled," Dylan denied any sexual terminology.

Cassandra Wilson covered this for her album Glamoured. In 2001, shortly after the release of his Love and Theft album, Bob Dylan himself went on record as saying "I love everything she does," and said she was the only good thing on the radio (which, he mentioned, "makes hideous sounds"). (thanks, Brett - Edmonton, Canada, for above 2)

Dylan's vocals were slightly sped up, producing a higher vocal.

Grammatically, the correct title for this song would be "Lie Lady Lie," but that wouldn't sing very well. English teachers will tell you that Dylan's title is a command to place the lady on the bed, but Dylan isn't in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his strict adherence to the rules of grammar. Neither is Eric Clapton, who did something similar with "Lay Down Sally."

Bob Dylan - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues

Bob Dylan - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Highway 61 Revisited
Released: 1965

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Lyrics

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez when it's Easter time, too
And your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there and they really make a mess outta you

Now, if you see Saint Annie, please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move, my fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength to get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor, won't even say what it is I've got

Sweet Melinda, the peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English and she invites you up into her room
And you're so kind and careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice and leaves you howling at the moon

Up on Housing Project Hill, it's either fortune or fame
You must pick one or the other, though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you're lookin' to get silly, you better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you, and man, they expect the same

Now, all the authorities, they just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms into leaving his post
And picking up Angel, who just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first but left looking just like a ghost

I started out on burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff
I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Song Chart

The song contains multiple literary references. Here are a few:

Rue Morgue Avenue hearkens to Edgar Allen Poe.

Tom Thumb was a character from English folklore who would, in 1621, star in the first fairy tale ever published in English.

Housing Project Hill comes from the Jack Kerouac novel Desolation Angels. Dylan would later say that he came to find the lifestyle espoused in Kerouac's books to be pointless, but his first impression was very different. "I read On the Road in maybe 1959," Dylan has stated. "It changed my life like it changed everyone else's."

Bob Dylan - The Man In Me

Bob Dylan - The Man In Me Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: New Morning
Released: 1970

The Man In Me Lyrics

The Man In Me will do nearly any task
And as for compensation, there's little he would ask
Take a woman like you
To get through to the man in me

Storm clouds are raging all around my door
I think to myself I might not take it any more
Take a woman like your kind
To find the man in me

But, oh, what a wonderful feeling
Just to know that you are near
Sets my a heart a-reeling
From my toes up to my ears

The man in me will hide sometimes to keep from bein' seen
But that's just because he doesn't want to turn into some machine
Took a woman like you
To get through to the man in me

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Man In Me Song Chart

Dylan recorded this in New York City with a talented group of studio musicians including Al Kooper and Charlie Daniels. Ron Cornelius, who played guitar on these sessions, told us that Dylan would play down the song, but as soon as they started recording he would play it in a completely different tempo, which threw off the musicians but forced them to play to their strengths. These sessions lasted about 3 weeks, with the best songs going on this album and many of the others ending up on his 1973 self-titled album Dylan.

This played a major role in the Coen Brothers' 1998 movie The Big Lebowski. The song has since been performed live by the film's main star, Jeff Bridges.

Artists to have covered this song include The Clash, Joe Cocker and Matumbi.

Bob Dylan - Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues

Bob Dylan - Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Bootleg Series
Released: 1991

Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues Lyrics

Well, I was feelin' sad and feelin' blue
I didn't know what in the world I was gonna do
Them Communists they was comin' around
They was in the air
They was on the ground
They wouldn't gimme no peace

So I run down most hurriedly
And joined up with the John Birch Society
I got me a secret membership card
And started off a-walkin' down the road
Yee-hoo, I'm a real John Bircher now
Look out you Commies

Now we all agree with Hitlers' views
Although he killed six million Jews
It don't matter too much that he was a Fascist
At least you can't say he was a Communist
That's to say like if you got a cold you take a shot of malaria

Well, I was lookin' everywhere for them gol-darned Reds
I got up in the mornin' 'n' looked under my bed
Looked in the sink, behind the door
Looked in the glove compartment of my car
Couldn't find 'em

I was lookin' high an' low for them Reds everywhere
I was lookin' in the sink an' underneath the chair
I looked way up my chimney hole
I even looked deep inside my toilet bowl
They got away

Well, I was sittin' home alone an' started to sweat
Figured they was in my T.V. set
Peeked behind the picture frame
Got a shock from my feet, hittin' right up in the brain
Them Reds caused it
I know they did, them hard-core ones

Well, I quit my job so I could work alone
Then I changed my name to Sherlock Holmes
Followed some clues from my detective bag
And discovered they was red stripes on the American flag
That ol' Betty Ross

Well, I investigated all the books in the library
Ninety percent of 'em gotta be burned away
I investigated all the people that I knowed
Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go
The other two percent are fellow Birchers, just like me

Now Eisenhower, he's a Russian spy
Lincoln, Jefferson and that Roosevelt guy
To my knowledge there's just one man
That's really a true American, George Lincoln Rockwell
I know for a fact he hates Commies 'cause he picketed the movie Exodus

Well, I fin'ly started thinkin' straight
When I run outta things to investigate
Couldn't imagine doin' anything else
So now I'm sittin' home investigatin' myself
Hope I don't find out anything, hm, great God

Writer/s: BOB DYLAN
Publisher: BOB DYLAN MUSIC CO
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues Song Chart

Dylan wrote this about the John Birch Society, an ultraconservative political organization formed in 1958 to fight Communist threats in the US. This is a parody of the organization, which Dylan thought was a threat to free speech because they accused anyone they didn't like of being a communist.

In the '50s and '60s, many famous musicians, including Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Doors and The Rolling Stones, appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Dylan never did, and this is the song that kept him off. On May 12, 1963, he was scheduled to appear on the show, but refused to go on when they would not let him perform this.

Advance copies of the album Freewheelin' Bob Dylan included this song, but it was removed prior to the official release. It did not officially appear on an album until Bootleg Series in 1991. (thanks, Brad Wind - Miami, FL)