With God on Our Side

The bad things we do
Are OK, we say, because
God is on our side.

I quote John Cale:

Read and destroy everything you read in the press
Read and destroy everything you read in books
It's a waste of time
It's a waste of energy
It's a waste of paper
And it's a waste of ink
Whatever you read in the books, leave it there
The word for it is:
Sabotage!

If you don't follow that advice, you might wind up an intellectual slave to your history books. "With God on Our Side" is Bob Dylan's 1963 song about discovering that everything he learned and thought was right is wrong. It appears on the album "The Times They Are a-Changin'."

1. I was raised in the Midwest, learning to obey the law because my country has God on its side.
2. In the history books, they say the Indians died at our hands because the country was young and had God on its side.
3. Spanish-American War, Civil War: they were fighting and dying with God on their side.
4. World War I: Who knows why they fought it, but I sure was proud, as we had God on our side.
5. The Germans murdered 6 million in the concentration camps, but now we're friends because they more recently have gotten God on their side.
6. If we have to fight the Russians, we'll do it with God on our side.
7. If we have to fight a nuclear war, we'll do that with God on our side too.
8. I keep wondering if Judas Iscariot had God on his side.
9. I'm sick of this shit. If God's on our side, he will stop the next war before it happens.

Who Killed Davey Moore?

Boxer dies in ring.
The boxing business is shocked,
Says, "It's not our fault."

Here's a song that Bob Dylan wrote in 1964 about the death of boxer Davey Moore, who suffered irreversible brain damage after a fight and never recovered. It's one of Dylan's journalism songs. It wasn't released until 1991 when it appeared on the first volume of the Bootleg Series. It's done in the style of "Who Killed Cock Robin?"

Alibis for suspects in the murder of Davey Moore:
Referee: I'm obligated to give the crowd the fight that it wants.
Crowd: We didn't show up for lethal actin. We came to see a bit of sweat, which is legal.
Manager: He should have said something if he were not feeling well.
Gambler: I just bet on the fight. I didn't hit him myself.
Journalist: Boxing isn't the only dangerous sport, you know. And I can't make boxing go away so I'm going to write about it.
The other boxer: I'm paid to box. This isn't murder, it's God's will.

When the Ship Comes In

When our ship arrives,
We'll drown our enemies and
Everyone will laugh.

Note to hoteliers, maitre d's and other gatekeepers: the next time you refuse Dylan service, he'll write a song about you. This song, according to Joan Baez and others, was a reaction to a hotel refusing to offer a room to Dylan because of his unkempt appearance. He got mad and wrote this song, which has a lot more than hotel tyranny on its mind. The song appears on the 1963 album "The Times They Are a-Changin'." 

1. One day the wind will stop, just like before a hurricane. That's when the ship will come in.
2. The ship will shake the sands, sound the tide, start the wind and sail in on a new day.
3. The rocks will be proud, the seagulls will smile, and the fish will laugh as they make way for the ship. (I utterly despise this lyric. It sounds like rhyme grasping by a green songwriter, but what bothers me more is the depiction of happy, frolicking animals. I just... I don't know... I just don't like it.)
4. People will try to stop the ship with words, but it won't work.
5. The sun will respect the ship's crew.
6. The sand will roll out the gold carpet, and the ship's officers will let everyone know that the world is watching while they dock.
7. Our enemies will be shocked and amazed. They'll -- and this is another lyric that I hate -- "pinch themselves and squeal, and know that it’s for real, the hour when the ship comes in."
8. They'll raise their hands in surrender, but we'll drown them all anyway.

To Ramona

Bob lets a girl down.
He tries to make her feel good,
But it might not work.

"To Ramona" is supposed to be a song about Joan Baez, so they say. I don't know. I do know that the singer is in love with the woman in this song, that she's feeling bad about a number of things, and his words don't appear to be helping much. The song appears on the 1964 album, "Another Side of Bob Dylan."

Suggestions and encouragement:
- Stop crying.
- You won't be sad for long.
- Even the flowers in the city can't keep from drooping sometimes.
- Don't bother with the dying. There's no point. I'm having trouble expressing this.
- I still want to kiss you.
- The world you want to be part of doesn't exist. It's just a con job that makes you feel bad.
- You've been listening to idle chatter. No need for that.
- You don't have to leave here. You're your own worst enemy.
- You say that everybody's equal, but trust me, it's not true. You can be better than others, or else why are you doing what you're doing?
- Friends can be a drag on your ambition and feelings.
- I realize I can't help you though I keep trying.
- You know what? I'm sure that one day I'll be where you are and come to you for advice.

The Times They Are a-Changin'

Change is coming soon
Whether you like it or not.
Don't be left behind.

If ever there were an anthem in the Bob Dylan catalogue, this is it. “The Times They Are a-Changin’” appeared in 1964 on the album of the same name, and quickly became one of his signature songs and certainly one of his most well known, even today. A twinning of the folk music “movement” and calls for social change and justice for black people, other minorities and everyone else who’s on the wrong end of the power structure in America. More broadly, it’s about accepting change because you have no choice.

Swim:
Water’s gathering, you’re going to get wet, so start swimming or start sinking.

Write:
Pay attention and write what you see. Be careful. Events are unfolding and who don’t know who’s on the upside. It could be the traditional loser.

Vote:
Politicians, don’t ignore the battle of the people on the streets. Things are changing, and your obstructions will be your downfall.

Move:
Your world is changing, old people. If you can’t get with it, get out of it.

Switch:
Slow one now. Later fast. Present’s about to be past. Old forder fading. First now. Later last.

Spanish Harlem Incident

Bob wants gypsy girl
To tell him his fortune and
Then hook up with him.

Not Phil Spector's "Spanish Harlem," not by a long shot. This 1964 song from "Another Side of Bob Dylan" tells the story of a sexy gypsy fortune teller and the singer's designs on her. He uses sophisticated poetry to woo her with this ultimate aim: "I got you know, babe, will you surround me? So I can tell if I'm really real."

Methods of gypsy gal seduction:
- Harlem can't hold you
- You're too hot for taming. Your fiery feet burn the street.
- I have no home, so take me to yours. Let me know my fortune. Hold my hands to read them.
- Your flashing eyes and teeth have really got me. I'm nearly drowning.
- I'm riding the cliffs of your charms.

My Back Pages

It's easy to preach
When I think I know it all.
But I know nothing.

Bob Dylan spent two notable periods of his songwriting life as a preacher. The second was his three-year, three-album journey into Christianity, while the first was the period for which he is best remembered - that of a protest singer. "My Back Pages," so the interpretations go, is his renunciation of those kinds of songs. One of the difficulties for many of Dylan's original fans, as well as those who weren't even born at the time this song appeared (on "Another Side of Bob Dylan" in 1964), is accepting his music and therefore the songwriter as they see him despite much evidence that he is something else. The idea that Dylan was a folksinger or a protest singer is off base, somewhwat, and it plainly galled him that his career and identity would be defined that way. It was a career option at the time and it brought him fame, money and popular success, but like anyone who becomes known for something, we often want to transcend it, become known for how we want to be seen or how we really feel, and keep all the rewards that we've earned from that role into which we're typecast. The have/eat cake problem, in other words. Dylan's fans liked what they heard from him, and often have reacted poorly to what seem like abrupt changes, both as he grew as an artist and has he tried to shake off admirers who in many ways became demanding and irritable when he did change what he wanted to change about himself. I suppose there are plenty of postmodern theories that you can use to discuss identity versus the real person, and I know that writing about it well requires more drafts and more rewriting than the quick job that I'm giving it here.

So what has all this to do with "My Back Pages?" This slow-moving, densely worded song is a statement of intent, one that shuts down the old machine shop of protest songs and socially conscious songs and songs written for the people. It looks forward to new kinds of songs, the ones that took a more aggressive stance toward rejecting what he had become known as. Songs like "Maggie's Farm," for example. And change he did. Folksinger to rock singer to country singer to middle-of-the-road country crooner, all to pursue that art that he wanted to pursue, while losing in his rearview mirror the people whose criticism of his new music must have aggravated him... though I am sure that any criticsm of anybody's work hurts the laborer who produced it. I don't know how it couldn't.

In this song, Dylan presents a series of scenes that describe his old self. Some of them are abstract, some less so. I've read various descriptions of these words as being like those of William Blake, though with the songs of experience coming first, then the songs of innocence. The recurring line "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now" refers to the idea that shedding the old, weighty concerns of his previous songs allows for new, different and deeper songs to spring up. Or so I think, at least.

Crimson flames tied through my ears
Rollin’ high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ’neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Girls’ faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousy
To memorizing politics
Of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality,” I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now

Here's a nice live version from Columbia's 30th anniversary celebration for Dylan. He appears alongside George Harrison, Neil Young, Eric Clapton and Tom Petty. I'll never understand concert appearance that require seven guitar players as well as bass, but this sounds pretty good.

Motorpsycho Nitemare

Right-wing farmer hosts
Bob for the night. Saucy
Daughter flirts with him.

"Motorpsycho Nitemare" is Bob Dylan's extended joke on the traveling salesman/suspicious farmer/sexy daughter story, blended with a few plot elements from Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," Fidel Castro's beard, and the Communist witch hunts in America during the prior 10 years to the song's release. Dylan also drops in a Fellini/La Dolce Vita reference. The song appeared on the 1964 album "Another Side of Bob Dylan."

I pounded on a farmhouse
Lookin’ for a place to stay
I was mighty, mighty tired
I had come a long, long way
I said, “Hey, hey, in there
Is there anybody home?”
I was standin’ on the steps
Feelin’ most alone
Well, out comes a farmer
He must have thought that I was nuts
He immediately looked at me
And stuck a gun into my guts

I fell down
To my bended knees
Saying, “I dig farmers
Don’t shoot me, please!”
He cocked his rifle
And began to shout
“You’re that travelin’ salesman
That I have heard about”
I said, “No! No! No!
I’m a doctor and it’s true
I’m a clean-cut kid
And I been to college, too”

Then in comes his daughter
Whose name was Rita
She looked like she stepped out of
La Dolce Vita
I immediately tried to cool it
With her dad
And told him what a
Nice, pretty farm he had
He said, “What do doctors
Know about farms, pray tell?”
I said, “I was born
At the bottom of a wishing well”

Well, by the dirt ’neath my nails
I guess he knew I wouldn’t lie
“I guess you’re tired”
He said, kinda sly
I said, “Yes, ten thousand miles
Today I drove”
He said, “I got a bed for you
Underneath the stove
Just one condition
And you go to sleep right now
That you don’t touch my daughter
And in the morning, milk the cow”

I was sleepin’ like a rat
When I heard something jerkin’
There stood Rita
Lookin’ just like Tony Perkins
She said, “Would you like to take a shower?
I’ll show you up to the door”
I said, “Oh, no! no!
I’ve been through this before”
I knew I had to split
But I didn’t know how
When she said
“Would you like to take that shower, now?”

Well, I couldn’t leave
Unless the old man chased me out
’Cause I’d already promised
That I’d milk his cows
I had to say something
To strike him very weird
So I yelled out
“I like Fidel Castro and his beard”
Rita looked offended
But she got out of the way
As he came charging down the stairs
Sayin’, “What’s that I heard you say?”

I said, “I like Fidel Castro
I think you heard me right”
And ducked as he swung
At me with all his might
Rita mumbled something
’Bout her mother on the hill
As his fist hit the icebox
He said he’s going to kill me
If I don’t get out the door
In two seconds flat
“You unpatriotic
Rotten doctor Commie rat”

Well, he threw a Reader’s Digest
At my head and I did run
I did a somersault
As I seen him get his gun
And crashed through the window
At a hundred miles an hour
And landed fully blast
In his garden flowers
Rita said, “Come back!”
As he started to load
The sun was comin’ up
And I was runnin’ down the road

Well, I don’t figure I’ll be back
There for a spell
Even though Rita moved away
And got a job in a motel
He still waits for me
Constant, on the sly
He wants to turn me in
To the F.B.I.
Me, I romp and stomp
Thankful as I romp
Without freedom of speech
I might be in the swamp

Mama, You Been on My Mind

Is it the weather?
Or is it that I miss you?
Whatever it is...

Some haiku gain more from leaving out the central concept when it's so clear in the title that you don't even need to express it again. Such is the case of "Mama, You Been on My Mind." Bob Dylan recorded this song in 1964 for the album "Another Side of Bob Dylan," though it didn't make the final cut. Instead, it appeared on the first volume of the bootleg series in 1964. Plenty of other people covered it in the meantime, including Judy Collins, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Cash, Dion and the Belmonts, Linda Ronstadt and Rod Steward. It's generally understood that he wrote it for his ex-girlfriend Suze Rotolo.

What might it be that has you on his mind?
- Maybe the color of the sun
- Maybe the weather

Where I'm coming from:
- I don't mean trouble
- I'm not asking for you back
- I'm not saying I can't forget
- I'm not contorting myself in sadness

Conditions on you:
- None
- I don't mind where you've been
- I don't mind if you make me sad
- I don't mind not knowing where you slept last night
- Not asking you to say yes or no.

Well, maybe one condition:
- Look at yourself in the mirror tomorrow morning. I wonder if you can see yourself as clearly as I see you.

\

Joshua Gone Barbados

Joshua says he'll
Back the sugarcane strikers,
But he bails instead.

Breaking news from St. Vincent in the Caribbean: Ebenezer Joshua, head of the labor union, goes on vacation while the sugar cane workers strike. Three men die as a result. Or so says Eric von Schmidt, who wrote this song about the trade union leader and later politician, assemblyman and chief minister of this poor island nation. Supporters of Joshua say this reading is erroneous.

Dylan's performances of the song can be found on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series, which is a compilation of the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions, as well as the third volume of the super-rare 50th Anniversary Collection. That version features him performing the song with von Schmidt.

Cane standin' in the fields gettin' old and red
Lot of misery in Georgetown dreamin' layin' dead
Joshua head of the government he said strike for better pay
Cane cutters are strikin' but Joshua gone away
Joshua gone Barbados staying in a big hotel
People on St Vincent got many sad tales to tell
The sugar mill owner told the strikers I don't need you to cut my cane
Bring me another bunch of fellas your strike be all in vain
Get a bunch of tough fellas bring 'em from Zion Hill
Bring 'em in a bus to Georgetown know somebody could kill
Sunny Child the overseer I swear he's an ignorant man
Walkin' the the canefields pistol in his hand
Joshua gone Barbados just like he don't know people on the island got no place to go
Police givin' protection new fellas cuttin' the cane
Strikers can't do nothin' strike be all in vain
Sunny Child cussed the strikers wave his pistol round
They're beatin' Sunny with the cutlers beat him to the ground
There's a lot of misery in Georgetown you can hear all the women bawl
Joshua gone Barbados he don't care at all
Cane standin' in the fields gettin' old and red
Sunny Child in the hospital pistol on his bed
I wish I could go to England Trinidad or Curacao
People on the island got no place to go
Joshua gone Barbados stayin' in a big hotel
People on St Vincent got many sad tales to tell

It Ain't Me, Babe

You need someone else,
A defender, a doormat.
I am not that guy.

"It Ain't Me, Babe" is the last song on the 1964 album "Another Side of Bob Dylan." It's the story of a guy who has figured out beyond all doubt that the woman he's with should be with someone else because her list of demands is one that he can't satisfy.

What she's looking for in a man:

- Never weak
- Always strong
- Protect and defend you, even if you're wrong
- Someone to open all doors for you
- Someone who will never leave you
- Someone who'll close his eyes and his heart for you
- Someone who'll pick you up when you fall
- Someone who'll pick flowers for you all the time
- Always ready to respond to your call
- Someone who has nothing to do beyond loving you

While I love the Dylan version of the song, there's something irresistible about hearing Johnny Cash and June Carter do it with a mariachi band.

I Shall Be Free No. 10

Bob gets strange notions
To box Ali and Goldwater.
His woman is mean.

The second of two impossible-to-render Bob Dylan "comedy" songs. I'm ready to take any suggestions for improvements.

I’m just average, common too
I’m just like him, the same as you
I’m everybody’s brother and son
I ain’t different from anyone
It ain’t no use a-talking to me
It’s just the same as talking to you

I was shadow-boxing earlier in the day
I figured I was ready for Cassius Clay
I said “Fee, fie, fo, fum, Cassius Clay, here I come
26, 27, 28, 29, I’m gonna make your face look just like mine
Five, four, three, two, one, Cassius Clay you’d better run
99, 100, 101, 102, your ma won’t even recognize you
14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, gonna knock him clean right out of his spleen”

Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told
The streets in heaven are lined with gold
I ask you how things could get much worse
If the Russians happen to get up there first
Wowee! pretty scary!

Now, I’m liberal, but to a degree
I want ev’rybody to be free
But if you think that I’ll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I’m crazy!
I wouldn’t let him do it for all the farms in Cuba

Well, I set my monkey on the log
And ordered him to do the Dog
He wagged his tail and shook his head
And he went and did the Cat instead
He’s a weird monkey, very funky

I sat with my high-heeled sneakers on
Waiting to play tennis in the noonday sun
I had my white shorts rolled up past my waist
And my wig-hat was falling in my face
But they wouldn’t let me on the tennis court

I got a woman, she’s so mean
She sticks my boots in the washing machine
Sticks me with buckshot when I’m nude
Puts bubblegum in my food
She’s funny, wants my money, calls me “honey”

Now I got a friend who spends his life
Stabbing my picture with a bowie knife
Dreams of strangling me with a scarf
When my name comes up he pretends to barf
I’ve got a million friends!

Now they asked me to read a poem
At the sorority sisters’ home
I got knocked down and my head was swimmin’
I wound up with the Dean of Women
Yippee! I’m a poet, and I know it
Hope I don’t blow it

I’m gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange
So I look like a walking mountain range
And I’m gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
Out to the country club and the golf course
Carry The New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds

Now you’re probably wondering by now
Just what this song is all about
What’s probably got you baffled more
Is what this thing here is for
It’s nothing
It’s something I learned over in England

I'll Keep It With Mine

You have many fans
Eager to earn your favors.
Ignore them, choose me.

"I'll Keep It With Mine" saw its first release on a Judy Collins single in 1965. I first heard it on Nico's debut solo album in 1967. She recorded the song after her now legendary appearance on the first Velvet Underground record, and songs like this were intended to cast her as a Germanic folk chanteuse. It worked, sort of, though nobody could keep Nico on the rails, and by the time she recorded her next album, "The Marble Index," she was charting a course for waters that were too dark for most other musicians to follow. 

Dylan wrote the song in 1964 as a demo for the Witmark company. You can find that version on the ninth volume of the Bootleg Series. He also tried recording it for the 1965 album "Bringing It Back Home." That version is available on the "Biograph" box set from 1985. A version for the "Blonde on Blonde" album in 1966 appeared on volume 1 of the Bootleg series in 1991. There are other versions too, but apparently don't circulate even among obsessives. I could be wrong about this, as I have found one instrumental version from 1966, pasted below.

As for the song, which is Bob lecturing a woman on what's good for her:
- She searches for what's not lost.
- He notes people will help her and be kind, but he might be able to save her some time by being her main man.
- He might seem odd to you because he loves you for what you're not.
- Again, people MIGHT try to help you, but he's a better bet for the job.
- Separately, there's a train leaving at 10:30, but it will be back tomorrow. The conductor's sick of the reputation.

If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Gotta Stay All Night)

He gives her options:
He'll let her leave, but if not,
He gets to do her.

This is Dylan doing his version of the guy who corners the girl at a party and puts one hand up against the wall so she has to duck under his arm to leave. "If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Gotta Stay All Night)" is a 1965 song that was left off the album "HighWay 61 Revisted," but released as a single along with "To Ramona," but only in the Netherlands -- and two years later. The song eventually saw wide release in 1991 in the first edition of the Bootleg Series.

The song is essentially a sales pitch for a booty call:

1. I want to be with you IF you want to be with me.
2. You can go if you must, but if you stay, you can't leave until morning.
3. I don't know what time it is, but you keep asking me. I don't have a watch.
4. I have plenty of respect for you, of course. Don't think otherwise.
5. I would feel really bad if you stayed here against your will.
6. I wouldn't ask you for anything you haven't given me already. And anyway, I'm tired and should go to sleep soon, so if you stay but want to go before you've stayed all night, it'll be too dark for you to find the door.

There are various other versions of this song running around out there too.

I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)

Girl sleeps with guy, then
Pretends she doesn't know him.
Two can play that game.

"I Don't Believe You" comes with the subtitle "She Acts Like We Never Have Met." The song, from 1964's "Another Side of Bob Dylan," is a simple song about a night of passion spent with a woman who afterward won't acknowledge what they did. It seems that he meant little to her, or she has some reason for turning her back on him and pretending in front of other people that they don't know each other. He doesn't take this well, and decides that he can give as well as he can get.

Part 1: Saturday night
- "We kissed through the wild blazing nighttime."
- "She said she would never forget."
- "The night ran swirling and whirling."
- She was whispering
- "Her skirt it swayed."
- A guitar played.
- "Her mouth was watery and wet."

Part 2: Sunday morning
- She let go of his hand.
- He's facing the wall.
- He can't get close to her.
- It's like he isn't here.
- "She acts like we never have met."
- She's not talking.
- She's turning her back to his face.
- She seems too far out.
- Something has changed, "she ain't the same."

Epilogue:
- He's leaving
- He is considering acting like she does
- Instruction to others on how to forget people: "You just pick anyone and pretend that you never have met."

I'd Hate to Be You on That Dreadful Day

Get right with Jesus;
Judgment day is no picnic
For lifelong sinners.

I'm assuming, admittedly, that this is a song about repenting in time before the gods tell you that you waited too long. But I don't really know. Here's the breakdown of "I'd Hate to Be You on That Dreadful Day," which Dylan recorded as a demo for the Witmark publishing company in 1964.

1. St. Peter will tell you it's too late when your clock stops and you visit him.
2. Sweats and nightmares.
3. The pills you will want that day will cost too much to buy.
4. You'll walk instead of drive. Everybody will know just who you are.
5. Wine's 5 cents a quart. You only have 4. (Preview of "Subterranean Homesick Blues")
6. You should have listened when you had a chance.

Guess I'm Doing Fine

No cash, much trouble.
Without my sunny nature,
Life would suck much more.

"Guess I'm Doing Fine" appears on the Witmark Demos album, which is volume 9 in the Bootleg Series. It's from 1964, I think, and is a fair enough ballad of the archetypal annoying optimist. Predating "Moonshadow" by a few years, the song lists a host of unfair omissions and grievances, but the singer bounces back with the "yes, but at least I have X" resilience of the perpetually irritating happy-go-lucky wandering folksinger. I'm trying to imagine Burl Ives singing this while playing Big Daddy.

- No childhood, no friends. But I have my voice!
- No money, but I'm still around!
- Trouble on my mind. But other people have more trouble than I do!
- No armies. But I have one good friend!
- People have kicked me, whipped me, trampled on me and shot at me. But I'm alive!
- Rocky road. Stones cut my face. But at least I have a road!

Grumble grumble, get off my lawn.

Eternal Circle

Bob spies a woman
While on stage. She leaves before
He can hit on her.

This song, from the first album in the Bootleg Series, is a glimpse into the life of a hard-working folk singer who has needs like any man. He sings his song and notices that a woman is making eyes at him. He keeps singing his song -- a long one -- only to find that she doesn't stick around until the end. He keeps playing. Why not.

A summary:
- Slow song. Girl. Long song. (Just begun)
- Girl. Words on tongue. Eyes on fire. Long song. (More to come)
- Girl. Eyes on her outline. Hard breath. Long song. (Far more to come)
- Girl only member in audience who counts. Thoughts pound. Long song. (Gotta get it sung)
- Girl gone. Shadow missing. Guitar picking. Next long song. (Get it on)

Chimes of Freedom

The chimes of freedom

Flash for the world's losers

And make lots of noise.

"Chimes of Freedom" was a big hit in short form for the Byrds, and that's the version that most people know. Bob Dylan's recording, for 1964's "Another Side of Bob Dylan," is a denser affair, and one of the first to slide into the realm of the surreal where was to pay rent for the next two or three years. It's a haunting song, and the repetition of the slow, spare melody skirts the border between hypnotic and annoying, but the end product is undeniably a strong, intelligent work. Now, how do the chimes flash and toll? I suspect they reflect like while they're banging around.

And for whom are they flashing and clanging and banging?

1. Warriors whose strength is not to fight.

2. Refugees on unarmed road of flight.

3. Underdog soldier at night. 4. Rebel.

5. Rake.

6. Luckless.

7. Abandoned.

8. Forsaked.

9. Outcast.

10. Burnt at stake.

11. Gentle.

12. Kind.

13. Guardians.

14. Protectors of mind.

15. Unpawned, derivative painter.

16. Tongues with no place for their thoughts.

17. Deaf.

18. Blind.

19. Mute.

20. Mistreated.

21. Single mother.

22. Mistitled prostitute.

23. Misdemeanor outlaw.

24. Chased.

25. Cheated.

26. Searching.

27. Unharmful, gentle prisoners.

28. Aching with terminal wounds.

29. Countless confused.

30. Countless misused.

31. Countless accused.

32. Countless strung outs.

33. Worse.

34. Hung-up people.

Here is a version by Bob and Joan Baez at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1992.

Boots of Spanish Leather

Bob stays home alone.

Girl offers guilt gifts. She's sailed

Far from him for good.

Usually it's Dylan who's doing the wandering, the walking and the rambling. This time the girl sails away and offers him gifts, presumably from the guilt of missing him. He asks only for her to return, saying that that's worth more than "the stars from the darkest night and the diamonds from the deepest ocean." She's not feeling guilty enough to change her plans for an indefinite expatriate life, however, and once she makes this clear, our hero asks for boots of Spanish leather. These boots are, after all, made for walking.

This song was recorded for the album "The Times They Are a-Changin'," released early in 1964.