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.

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Stay right where you are.
Your bride's coming. Genghis Khan
Has other problems.

I don't know how to describe this song, which Dylan and the Band recorded during the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions. Here are the lyrics, which are a masterpiece of sweet and weird at the same time. The lyrics will have to do.

Clouds so swift
Rain won’t lift
Gate won’t close
Railings froze
Get your mind off wintertime
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

I don’t care
How many letters they sent
Morning came and morning went
Pick up your money
And pack up your tent
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

Buy me a flute
And a gun that shoots
Tailgates and substitutes
Strap yourself
To the tree with roots
You ain’t goin’ nowhere
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

Genghis Khan
He could not keep
All his kings
Supplied with sleep
We’ll climb that hill no matter how steep
When we get up to it
Whoo-ee! Ride me high
Tomorrow’s the day
My bride’s gonna come
Oh, oh, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair!

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

Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread

Catch the bus with Bob.
Pack the bread and the meat and
Go fishing for trout.

You can't ignore a song with a name like "Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread." What Bob Dylan was thinking about when he and the Band came up with this in 1967 is anybody's guess, but many of the Basement Tapes songs are like that. Apparently a bottle of bread is a thing, by the way. This is also a thoroughly charming song. It was one of the ones selected for release on the double-album "The Basement Tapes" in 1975, and also appears on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

Story:
Comic book and I get on a bus. The chauffer stays home with a nose full of pus. YEA! Heavy and a bottle of bread!
This is a brown one-track town. Let's pack up the meet, sweet. We're off to Wichita to catch a trout.
See that drummer behind the bottle? Pull him out. Gonna shake my pipe, then slap the drummer with a smelly pie. Then let's go to California.

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

The Wicked Messenger

Man learns a lesson:
They *do* shoot the messenger.
He gets a new job.

"Wicked Messenger," from the 1967 album "John Wesley Harding," is one of the greatest songs that Bob Dylan produced, all the more so for being so short and direct. The trouble I had with it was that I had no idea what it was about. Not anymore. I've read some interpretations, and the one I like best is that the messenger is Bob, who discovers through his abrasiveness that there is more to delivering messages than making them harsh, blunt and mean, and in fact, these bitter truths are a way of concealing the message by making people close their ears instead of opening them.

Words that opened up my heart:

There was a wicked messenger
 -- Bob Dylan, protest singer, scourge of the bourgeoisie and the squares and &c. Via Proverbs 13:17: "A wicked messenger falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health."

From Eli he did come
 -- High Priest of Shiloh. Sent a message to Hannah that she would get pregnant by her husband, despite previous infertility and subsequent mocking by her husband's other wife. Trains Samuel on how to be a religious judge. His own sons are wicked: they take prime cuts of meat from sacrifices and fuck the women who serve at the sanctuary. God tells Samuel to tell Eli that his sons will die on the same day. Samuel tries to hold back specifics of the bad news, but Eli insists on getting the whole story.

With a mind that multiplied the smallest matter
 -- "Positively 4th Street," anyone?

When questioned who had sent for him
He answered with his thumb
For his tongue it could not speak, but only flatter
 -- His very body disobeys him because it disavows his bitter truths.

He stayed behind the assembly hall
It was there he made his bed
 -- Stage performer

Oftentimes he could be seen returning
Until one day he just appeared
With a note in his hand which read
“The soles of my feet, I swear they’re burning”
 -- From the Book of Malachi: And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts. Either the messenger or someone else is getting that old-time feeling of exalted ecstasy. 
 -- And, especially given the next verse of the Dylan song, consider this line from the Book of Habbakuk, in which God get pissed off, having a proper "don't make me come down there" moment:
    God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.

Oh, the leaves began to fallin’
And the seas began to part
And the people that confronted him were many
And he was told but these few words
Which opened up his heart
“If ye cannot bring good news, then don’t bring any”
 -- Enlightenment is hard. Or to quote Carl Jung: "There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

By the way, the song rocks, especially the bass.

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.

Too Much of Nothing

Too much of nothing
Makes a man make bad choices
Like lying and such.

If you dig around the Internet enough, you’ll see that this is one of several Bob Dylan songs that some people say is rooted in “King Lear” by William Shakespeare, with its fear of the void, the resentment a parent feels at resentful children and its futile railing against nothingness. I suppose that this is possible. I see more of the kind of backwoods moralizing of the Farmer’s Almanac again, which is a theme common to many of the Basement Tapes recordings from 1967. The reference to T.S. Eliot and his wives,

Say hello to Valerie
Say hello to Vivian
Send them all my salary
On the waters of oblivion
 I don’t understand at all. Writer Tony Atwood suggests that the song is about Eliot and his wives, using nods to “The Wasteland” to buttress his contention that Dylan was expressing the idea of madness in this song, particularly about Eliot’s wife Vivienne, whom Eliot had committed and never visited again, instead marrying Valerie, who was 38 years younger than he. 

The effects of too much nothing:
A man can feel ill at ease.
One man’s temper rises. Another’s freezes.
No one has control. (Don’t mock souls on confession day)
Too much nothing makes people boastful, even to the point of abusing the king.
But they don’t know a thing.
This all has been written in the book, but “when there’s too much of nothing, nobody should look.”
Turns men to liars. Some sleep on nails, others eat fire.

Makes a fella mean.