What's It Gonna Be When It Comes Up

Animal instinct:
If Bob were a chicken, he’d
Want to hear his sneeze.

This song from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions is a poor-quality tape recording. I have done my best to get most of the lyrics right, but many are unintelligible. In fact, there is barely anything here in this strange caricature of a lounge singer performance that I could understand, but I wrote a haiku for it anyway. It is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

No no no don't do that no more
Yes xxxxxxxx baby doll
Baby doll no more
Well xxxxxx
No corporation but my homey rags
Man she's too much
Oh there's xxxx one-room Cadillac.
Taking me in the breeze
If I was a chicken now, I'd just want to hear myself sneeze
MMM, somethin' sure looks good goin' down boys
Bb-b-b-b-bba-ba-boo
mmmmmm
So good to see you tonight doll
Mmmm, gonna tell you when it hurts, it hurts
Wait dog... before my master comes
ba-da-da-da-da-do

Under Control

She's under control.
She doesn't need her hand held
As she's hard to hold.

This song from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions is a poor-quality tape recording. I have done my best to get most of the lyrics right, but many are unintelligible. It is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

Under control
And she's graveyard fence
Just how much was that
She hopped on the table
Beneath the floor
Arrows to ashtray
She said once more
She ain't ready to go
Well she' tolld me that she's tabled me
She's already xxxxxxxxx
Too hot to hold
She's under control
She's under control
Police man
Window shade
She said, xxxxx 
she's too hot to hold
In her soul
She's a rhinestone woman
but she's xxxxxxx
Under control
Well tombstone baby
Don't mind me brother
She said one more time
Don't mind me sister
She said once again
She don't need gratitude to hold her hand
She sure don't go

2 Dollars and 99 Cents

Making some change.
Lets start with $2.99.
Your sister has it.

This song from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions is a poor-quality tape recording. I have done my best to get most of the lyrics right, but many are unintelligible. It is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

bag a xxxx
2 dollars and 99 cents
all my go down
2 dollars and 99 cents
it's a xxxxx
for xxxxxx
lord lord tomorrow people go
down one a two dollar bill
one ollar 99 cents
ten dollars was a two dollar bill
ten dollars and 99 cents
had a xxxxxxxxxxxx
devil's son
ain't got a bus we'll keep it level
do or die
why oh why
two dollars and 99 cents
well she walk
she got mister two dollars and 99c ents
oh you better go back and ask your sister
for two dollars and 99 cents
do or die

That's the Breaks

I wish you'd love me,
But I don't think that you will.
That's the breaks of life.

This song from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions is a poor-quality tape recording. I have done my best to get most of the lyrics right, but many are unintelligible. It is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

All right, let's xxxx this

On my pillow last night
I thought I saw you dreaming
Just a sudden glance of happiness gone by
Suddenly came to me you see
Just a while ago when you left me, say your heart was broken little girl
But that... that's the breaks of life 
When you're breaking me 

Well it's a time of day
You’re nice, but you're not that nice
If you'd only come and go a while with me
But when you're old and gray, sweetheart, you're my xxxxxxxxx
But that's the breaks of life, you see, that's the breaks

Well, when I saw xxxxxx xxxx
And you know it ain't xxxxxx
Honey you know it's true for a while
What I say is only to my own appetite
Well, in the morning when you xxxxxx 
Please and xxxx be mine
You hang your head by the xxxxxx
And then cry cry please be mine, cry and xxxxxxx
In my pillow
In my great .... whole delight
Please  xxxxxxx
My darling, hold me, by my xxxxxx
But that's the breaks, you see, on the other side of life

Well, when your flowers are falling my way
And your xxxxxx is all ado
When your head is lonesome that way
It's a hard way, might as well to
But when your picture's on the xxxxx
Like your xxxxxxxxxxx on your waist
Oh xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Don't you think that's a disgrace?

Now you were xxx from me at midnight, broke my heart
And it's too late to cover up all you see
But when you're see future hanging low xxxxxxx
But it's always right down in my xxxxx
But that's the breaks on the other side of life

She's on My Mind Again

It's before sunrise.
She's on his mind again.
He is packing up.

This song from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions is a poor-quality tape recording. I have done my best to get most of the lyrics right, but many -- nearly all in this one -- are unintelligible. It is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

Morning roll
Dangle me
Poted by but she don't cost me
She don't mind where she go
Anyway she want to try
Laze away too long 
Go make some but my gone
She don't mind where she go
Happen in a fall
Raining's on my open hey holler he tried too hard
On my bail
Any in the summertime
Molly knows is all my pay
No babe don't happening straight
She's on my mind my mind, she's all
Ready for the morning time
Now old wind 
She's all stays in front
No it is not morningtime
rainy time comes once a year
she's got an old medium xxxx walking down my face
anytime the summertime
rich man lost on a way she
alone she comes 
working hard
she's already some old time
Now all my troubles and peace she bought
Kitchen up Molly went down abroad
She's on my way to 
Gonna pack I'm on a rainy sea
One time easy but it's two time one
It's already 
Anybody but her knows
Well odds are we could be home by a week
To come upon a donkey
She's on my mind, you know
Avenue where everybody else goes down
Any way you want to go

Roll on Train

This train is rolling,
This train is out of control.
This train rolls all night.

This song from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions is a poor-quality tape recording. I have done my best to get most of the lyrics right, but many are unintelligible. It is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series. It doesn't sound like the Elton Anderson song of the same name, but who knows...

Roll on train
Rollin all night
Roll out your wheel
Get on board
Roll on train
Get you on the way
Get you 
It's hard to see
Roll roll
But she's on the run
Lady lady
When she's on the
When she's passing the gate
Roll on train

Pretty Mary

Don't be long, Mary.
Don't be blue either because
I'm coming to you.

This song from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions is a poor-quality tape recording. I have done my best to get most of the lyrics right, but many are unintelligible. It is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

Pretty Mary pretty Mary
With the real white and gold
Tell me pretty Mary
Whether we XXXXXX of gold

But I'm coming with midnight
And the cold winds in twilight
And the dream of the world
Of Pretty Mary

Pretty Mary, don't be lonely
Pretty Mary, don't be cruel
You're my only destination
And I'm coming to you

I'm waitin' for the devil
On my bed one 
She'll all XXXXXXXXXX
xxxxxxxxxxxx

But she knows it's xxxxxxxxxxx
Now the cold winds to the crossways
To the valleys go southwards
And I think you're good lookin', pretty Mary

I wish that my whole life
On a xxxxx so real
How she come and get me 
With the 
But I know it's all right
If I bring you home tonight
I'll at least be with pretty Mary.

You Win Again

Everytime you cheat,
I can't bring myself to go.
So you keep winning.

This cover of the Hank Williams song "You Win Again" appears on the 11th volume of the Bootleg series, which compiles the Basement Tapes recordings of Bob Dylan and the Band from 1967.

The news is out, all over town
That you've been seen, a-runnin' 'round
I know that I should leave, but then
I just can't go, you win again

This heart of mine, could never see
What everybody knew but me
Just trusting you was my great sin
What can I do, you win again

I'm sorry for your victim now
'Cause soon his head, like mine will bow
He'll give his heart, but all in vain
And someday say, you win again

You have no heart, you have no shame
You take true love, and give the blame
I guess that I, should not complain
I love you still, you win again

Young But Daily Growing

Girl marries young boy
Half her age. They have some kids.
He's dead at 18.

"Young But Daily Growing," also known as "The Trees They Do Grow High," "Daily Growing" and "Bonny Boy is Young (But Growing)", dates back at least to the 18th century, according to the ever reliable Wikipedia. The entry for this song says it was found in the Scottish manuscript collection of the 1770s of David Herd. It also formed the basis of the Robert Burns poemm, "Lady Mary Ann" from 1792. The song is about a boy who is married to a girl who is a bit older than he is. He's usually 11 or 12 or some absurdly young age to get married. It's a moving, haunting song, particularly in the sucker punch near the end:

At the age of sixteen, he was a married man
And at the age of seventeen he was a father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen the grass grew over him,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.
Growing, growing,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.


Version One
The trees they grow high,
the leaves they do grow green
Many is the time my true love I've seen
Many an hour I have watched him all alone
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Father, dear father,
you've done me great wrong
You have married me to a boy who is too young
I'm twice twelve and he is but fourteen
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Daughter, dear daughter,
I've done you no wrong
I have married you to a great lord's son
He'll be a man for you when I am dead and gone
He's young,
but he's daily growing.

Father, dear father, if you see fit
We'll send him to college for another year yet
I'll tie blue ribbons all around his head
To let the maidens know that he's married.

One day I was looking o'er my father's castle wall
I spied all the boys a-playing at the ball
My own true love was the flower of them all
He's young, but he's daily growing.

And so early in the morning
at the dawning of the day
They went out into the hayfield
to have some sport and play;
And what they did there,
she never would declare
But she never more complained of his growing.

At the age of fourteen, he was a married man
At the age of fifteen, the father of a son
At the age of sixteen, his grave it was green
Have gone, to be wasted in battle.
And death had put an end to his growing.

I'll buy my love some flannel
and I will make a shroud
With every stitch I put in it,
the tears they will pour down
With every stitch I put in it,
how the tears will flow
Cruel fate has put an end to his growing.

Version Two
The trees they grow so high and the leaves they do grow green,
And many a cold winter's night my love and I have seen.
Of a cold winter's night, my love, you and I alone have been,
Whilst my bonny boy is young, he's a-growing.
Growing, growing,
Whilst my bonny boy is young, he's a-growing.

O father, dearest father, you've done to me great wrong,
You've tied me to a boy when you know he is too young.
O daughter, dearest daughter, if you wait a little while,
A lady you shall be while he's growing.
Growing, growing,
A lady you shall be while he's growing.

I'll send your love to college all for a year or two
And then in the meantime he will do for you;
I'll buy him white ribbons, tie them round his bonny waist
To let the ladies know that he's married.
Married, married,
To let the ladies know that he's married.

I went up to the college and I looked over the wall,
Saw four and twenty gentlemen playing at bat and ball.
I called to my true love, but they would not let him come,
All because he was a young boy and growing.
Growing, growing,
All because he was a young boy and growing.

At the age of sixteen, he was a married man
And at the age of seventeen he was a father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen the grass grew over him,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.
Growing, growing,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.

And now my love is dead and in his grave doth lie,
The green grass grows o'er him so very, very high.
I'll sit and I'll mourn his fate until the day I die,
And I'll watch o'er his child while he's growing.
Growing, growing,
And I'll watch o'er his child while he's growing.

Dylan's version, recorded during the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions with the Band, is not substantially different.

Ye Fair and Tender Ladies

Bob warns the ladies
That men will love them and
Leave them afterward.

Watch out, ladies, those men can be dawgs. That is the message in this warning song - that men will love you and leave you, and that this woman in particular was the victim of a "false true-lover." You can find a version of this from the Basement Tapes sessions on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series. There's also a commercially released version performed in 1964 with Eric von Schmidt that appears on the rare third volume of the copyright extension collection, "The 50th Anniversary Collection 1964."

Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Be careful how you court young men
They're like a star on a summer's morning
They'll first appear and then they're gone
They'll tell you some loving story
They'll declare to you their love is true
Then they will go and court some other
And that's the love they have for you

Do you remember our days of courting
When your head lay upon my breast
You could make me believe with falling of your arm
That the sun rose in the west
I wish I was a little sparrow
And I had wings with which to fly
Right over to see my false true-lover
And when he's talking I'd be nigh

But I'm not a little sparrow
I have no wings with which to fly
So I sit here in grief and sorrow
To weep and pass my troubles by
If I had known before I courted
That love was such a killing thing
I'd a-locked my heart in a box of golden
And fastened it up with a silver pin

Will the Circle Be Unbroken

Family's mother dies.
They're all sad, but happy that
She's gone to heaven.

"Will the Circle Be Unbroken" is a popular folk song from the Carter Family. It appears on the 11th volume of the Bootleg Series, which is a collection of the 1967 Basement Tapes recordings with the Band.

I was standing at my window
one cold and cloudy day
and I saw the hearse come rolling
for to take my mother away.

Will the circle be unbroken,
by and by, lord, by and by
there's a better home a-waiting
in the sky lord, in the sky.

I followed close behind her,
tried to hold up and be brave.
But I could not hide my sorrow
when they lowered her in her grave.

Will the circle be unbroken,
by and by, lord, by and by
there's a better home a-waiting
in the sky lord, in the sky.

Wildwood Flower

He said he loved me,
Called me flower. He left me
To my darkest hour.

"Wildwood Flower" is an old song by the Carter Family. The flower is the singer, so recently in love with a charming swain, so cruelly abandoned. Dylan and the Band performed this song during the Basement Tapes sessions of 1967. The recording is available on the 11th volume of the Bootleg Series.

Oh, I'll twine with my mingles and waving black hair
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair
And the myrtle so bright with the emerald hue
The pale and the leader and eyes look like blue

Oh I'll dance, I will sing and my laugh shall be gay
I will charm every heart, in his crown I will sway
When I woke from my dreaming, my idols were clay
All portion of love had all flown away

Oh he taught me to love him and promised to love
And to cherish me over all others above
How my heart is now wondering no misery can tell
He's left me no warning, no words of farewell

Oh, he taught me to love him and called me his flower
That was blooming to cheer him through life's dreary hour
Oh, I long to see him and regret the dark hour
He's gone and neglected this pale wildwood flower

Wild Wolf

Wild wolf, holy books.
Pharaoh's armies made of bread.
No one cares for me.

"Wild Wolf" is an interesting, semi-intelligble song in progress that Bob Dylan and the Band recorded during the Basement Tapes sessions in 1967. I took these lyrics off a Wikia page on the Internet, but a warning: some of these lyrics aren't quite the way that I remember hearing them on the recording (which you can find on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series). This transcription says, for example, that Pharaoh and his armies were "made of a solid breath," whereas I heard "made of solid bread." Others have too. As for the haiku, it makes about as much sense as the song does.

Now the ruins are barely rolling
And the nations can't agree
On all that all the nations
But nobody feels very sorry for me
If I lost everything of all the saving grace
Yeah, but I can't help this smog
The day I feel it
She sure is standing
Now the holy book is written
Oh, what page
All are there
And as for a natural warning
But nobody done yet understand
Just like Pharaoh and his armies
They were made of a solid breath, yeah, and
That old bad wolf's gonna howl his way from morning
Holed in some big cavern
I would sit and wait, calling my children outside
But I just don't mean to hesitate
And if I was a master leader
I would attempt to laugh and rage
Yet the wild wolf he's big old bad 
And not a babe

Waltzing With Sin

Waltzing with sin is
Not the dance ticket you want.
It's not good for you.

I don't know who wrote "Waltzing With Sin." I've seen it credited to truck-driver songwriter Red Sovine as well as Mr. Hell-Raiser/Womanizer/Drinker/Born-Again Christian preacher Sonny Burns. Bob Dylan's version was recorded during the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions and is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

Someday you'll find
That the world's left you out
No true love, no nothing
Just roaming about

Parties and people
And a cold heart within
And each time you're dancing
You're waltzing with sin

You're Satan made over
In perfect disguise
Unfaithful, unworthy
And oh so unwise

I pity the heart
Of the next guy you win
Like me you'll be losing
While waltzing with sin

Tupelo

A big flood arrives.
People must flee Tupelo
Because it's submerged.

One of the stranger treats you could give yourself in life is listening to Bob Dylan drawl his nasal way through "Tupelo," the old John Lee Hooker boogie blues song about a big Mississippi River flood. He can't bring any of Hooker's easy gravitas to the song, not having witnessed the flood himself, but there's something hokey and funny about it, and I think it sounds pretty good. Dylan and the Band recorded it during the Basement Tapes sessions of 1967, and it's available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series. 

Try Me, Little Girl

Try me, little girl.
Let's have ourselves a family.
Be with me, not them.

"Try Me, Little Girl" is a suggestion to get together with the singer and raise a family. It's from volume 11 of the Bootleg Series, which compiles the complete (?) recordings of the informal 1967 Basement Tapes sessions that he did with the Band. The lyrics mostly make sense, but here and there they break down into syllabic silliness for the sake of speeding through the song.

Still in Town

He tried to leave you
By leaving town. The problem?
He never got out.

Imagine "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" where the singer never makes it out of town. That's Hank Cochran's "Still in Town," which Bob Dylan and the Band recorded together in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions.The song is about a guy who can't be with his lover anymore. I'm assuming that she left him, though I began the haiku with the words "He tried to leave you." My idea was that he should be trying to leave her memory and her constant presence which galls him by leaving town, but like some addicts, he never makes it past the outskirts of recovery.

To love you still, and have you not
Will destroy me   in time
So I'm goin' away, where nobody knows me
And get you off my mind
I've packed my things a dozen times
But unpack is all I do
Yes I'm still in town, I'm still around
And still in love with you
I made it to the edge of town,
But turned around
I made it to the bridge downtown
But my nerve let me down the first time
I try to go, but how can I leave
When all roads lead to you
(Yes) I'm still in town, still around
And still in love with you
I made it to the edge of town,
But turned around
I made it to the bridge downtown
But my nerve let me down
I try to go, but how can I leave
When all roads lead to you
(Yes) I'm still in town, still around
And still in love with you

Spanish Is the Loving Tongue

Gambler loves a girl,
Flees mexico after fight,
Leaves girl heartbroken.

This is an old cowboy song, or maybe just a western border song, based on a poem from 1907 by Charles Badger Clark. It's about a man who falls in love with a Spanish girl down in Sonora. The trouble with him is that he's not a terribly upstanding guy. He gets into a gambling fight and must flee for his liberty. She begs her not to go, but he goes anyway. He says he misses her, but in such a nonchalant "yeah I sort of think about her" way that he sounds like a cad. But I suspect that he was lying to himself. The poem and the song lyrics are below. Dylan recorded a version with a studio band in 1969 that wasn't intended to show up anywhere, but show up it did when Columbia released it and other songs of Dylan's on a 1973 album after he bolted for Asylum Records. Most people hate it, though I like it. There is an undeniably beautiful version of him performing it on solo piano. That version was released in 1971 as the flip side to the "Watching the River Flow" single.

Spanish is the loving tongue
Soft as music, light as spray
'Twas a girl I learned it from
Living down Sonora   way
I don't look much like a lover
Still I hear her loved words over
Mostly when I'm all a-lone!
Mi amor, Mi corazón
nights that I would ride           
She would listen for my spurs,              
Throw that big door open wide,              
those hours would go a-flyin!
All too soon I would hear her sighin'
In her sweet and quiet tone
"Mi amor, mi corazon."
Haven't seen, haven't seen her since that night,
I can't cross, I can't cross the line, you know.
They want me for a gambling fight
Like as not it's better so.
Still I've always  kind of missed her
Since that last sad night I kissed her
I broke her heart, left my own
"Adios, mi corazon."

Solo piano version. Ignore the bizarre video.

Song for Canada (One Single River)

Why two Canadas?
We're much better off as one.
Isn't that enough?

I'm not Canadian, but plenty of people ask me if I am. I'm a fake Canadian, I guess. That said, I find "Song for Canada (One Single River)" to be quite affecting. I'm assuming that the literal river in question is the St. Lawrence as well as the gulf that separates Quebec from the Maritime and Atlantic provinces, but in a more profound sense, it's about the gulf between Quebec and the rest of Canada. I think it is, anyway. The song, written by Ian Tyson of Ian & Sylvia along with Peter Gzowski, sounds like an appeal to Quebec to remain part of the rest of Canada at a time when the separatist movement in the French language-majority was at its height. Bob Dylan and the Canadian members of the Band recorded it during the Basement Tapes sessions of 1967.

How come we can't talk to each other any more?
Why can't you see I'm changing too?
We've got by far too long to end it feeling wrong
And I still share too much with you
Just one great river always flowing to the sea
One single river rolling in eternity
Two nations in this land that lies along its shore
But just one river rolling free.
How come you shut me out as if I wasn't there
What's this new bitterness you've found?
However wronged you were, however strong it hurt
It wasn't me who held you down.
One single river always flowing to the sea
One single river rolling in eternity
Two nations in this land that lies along its shore
But just one river rolling free.
Why can't you understand I'm glad you're standing proud
I know you made it on your own
But in this new pride you've earned, I thought you might have learned
That you don't have to stand alone
Lonely northern river always flowing to the sea
One single river rolling in eternity
Two nations in this land that lies along its shore
But just one river rolling free.

Silhouettes

Guy goes bananas.
He thinks his gal is cheating.
She probably should.

This doo-wop song appeared in 1957 as performed by The Rays. There are other notable versions, including ones from Herman's Hermits and the Four Seasons, not to mention Cliff Richard. The version by Bob Dylan and the Band was recorded during the Basement Tapes sessions a decade after the Rays single came out, and surfaced officially on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series in 2014. The song, by Bob Crewe of the Gaudio-Crewe hit factory ("The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore," for example) contains some seriously mawkish, even ridiculous lyrics. This stalker-style song is of a piece with "No Reply" by John Lennon, not to mention "Run for Your Life," and could have been the blueprint for Martin Scorsese's crazy cameo in "Taxi Driver."

Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, hut-hut
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, hut-hut
Took a walk and passed your house
Late last night
All the shades were pulled and drawn
Way down tight
From within, a dim light cast
Two silhouettes on the shade
Oh, what a lovely couple they ma-ade
Put his arms around your waist
Held you tight
Kisses I could almost taste
In the night
Wondered why I'm not the guy
Whose silhouette's on the shade
I couldn't hide the tears in my eye-eyes
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Ty-oh, oh-oh
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Ty-oh, oh-oh

Lost control and rang your bell
I was sore
Let me in or else I'll beat
Down your door
When two strangers who had been
Two silhouettes on the shade
Said to my shock
Your on the wrong blo-ock
Rushed down to your house with wings
On my feet
Loved you like I never loved
You my sweet
Vowed that you and I would be
Two silhouettes on the shade
All of our days
Two silhouettes on the sha-ade
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Ty-oh, oh-oh
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Silhouettes (silhouettes)
Ty-oh, oh-oh
Two silhouettes on the shade
Silhouettes