One Too Many Mornings

Couple has a fight.
Man thinks about leaving town.
He's torn. What to do?

This is a walking-and-leaving-someone song from the 1963 album "The Times They Are a-Changin'." Many of Bob Dylan's narrators in his early years can't help but wander, particularly when the emotional demands of their ladies run hot and the arguments begin. The singers regret leaving, but they have no choice because they're outlaws and hobos at heart. And because they're not so different from Goethe's young Werther, they feel really bad about the choices they've made, usually once it's too late to reverse them or take them back.

Such is the case here:

- It's getting dark
- Dogs are barking
- His mind is occupied with trouble
- He's behind where he should be
- He takes a look at the place he shares with his lover
- He takes a look at the road outside
- He chooses the road
- They had a fight. They both made some good points that are irreconcilable
- That's that!

Dylan's studio version:

1966 live version:

Dylan fooling around with Johnny Cash (the song appears one minute into this clip):

One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)

There are eight million
Girls in the Naked City.
This was one of them.

This is another one of Bob Dylan's breakup songs, this one from the dyspeptic but majestic 1966 album "Blonde on Blonde." I could have given you a summary or interpretation of the lyrics, but why bother with that when Jules Dassin already did it when he created "Naked City"?

Anyway, here are the lyrics. You'll see from them why the haiku makes sense:

I didn’t mean to treat you so bad
You shouldn’t take it so personal
I didn’t mean to make you so sad
You just happened to be there, that’s all
When I saw you say “goodbye” to your friend and smile
I thought that it was well understood
That you’d be comin’ back in a little while
I didn’t know that you were sayin’ “goodbye” for good

But, sooner or later, one of us must know
You just did what you’re supposed to do
Sooner or later, one of us must know
That I really did try to get close to you

I couldn’t see what you could show me
Your scarf had kept your mouth well hid
I couldn’t see how you could know me
But you said you knew me and I believed you did
When you whispered in my ear
And asked me if I was leavin’ with you or her
I didn’t realize just what I did hear
I didn’t realize how young you were

But, sooner or later, one of us must know
You just did what you’re supposed to do
Sooner or later, one of us must know
That I really did try to get close to you

I couldn’t see when it started snowin’
Your voice was all that I heard
I couldn’t see where we were goin’
But you said you knew an’ I took your word
And then you told me later, as I apologized
That you were just kiddin’ me, you weren’t really from the farm
An’ I told you, as you clawed out my eyes
That I never really meant to do you any harm

But, sooner or later, one of us must know
You just did what you’re supposed to do
Sooner or later, one of us must know
That I really did try to get close to you

One More Weekend

Leave the kids at home
And come out for the weekend.
We're gonna have fun.

You've heard of date night. This is date weekend, courtesy of Bob Dylan. "One More Weekend" is one of the domestic bliss songs on the 1970 album "New Morning," a rollicking rock n' roll ode to taking the wife out for a few days and leaving the kids home. I don't know why they have to be "slippin' and slidin' like a weasel on the run," but if muskrat love is a thing, then I suppose other mustelid impersonators can do what they like.

Plan:
- They'll have some fun for one more weekend
- They'll hang out on the deck of his boat
- They'll take a trip on the ocean, just as she suspected
- They'll hang out all night long followed by the next day too
- They'll have a blast
- They'll go someplace they haven't been before
- They'll leave the kids home
- They'll come and go like rabbits (hint hint)

As far as he is concerned, she's like a needle in the haystack, but he's going to find her. Not only that, she's the "sweetest gona mama that this boy's ever gonna get."

One More Night

Man left his girlfriend.
That was a big, bad mistake.
Now he's all alone.

This is a splendid song from the 1969 country music album "Nashville Skyline." Here's a closer look:

1. It's one more night --> Stars are out, but this guy is lonely. The moon's shining on everything but him.

2. He had a pal but he lost her because he couldn't be what she wanted him to be. He's looking up at the sky and it's dark because no light will shine on him.

3. He thought she would be true to him, but he was wrong. Women in love are like that, especially if she's in love with someone else.

4. He's still waiting for the light as the wind blows above the trees. He misses her, and didn't mean to see her go, but she is gone, therefore no light shines on him.

5. Etc.

I've always seen this song as describing his breakup with her because she demanded a different kind of guy, and now he regrets it. It's quite possible that she left him too, but I went with the first option for the haiku.

One More Cup of Coffee

Man leaves woman.
She's mysterious and wild.
She gives him coffee.

The full story on "One More Cup of Coffee" from the 1976 album "Desire" is more fleshed out than the haiku. She's a wild gypsy of a woman, uneducated yet beautiful, desirable, mysterious, unknowable and wild. And however much our singer wants her, he can't have her, so he's leaving. She seems to be ready to give him one thing, at least, and that's coffee. Or maybe he's made it himself. I don't know, but I've decided that the lyric is ambigious enough to suit the haiku.

Her:
Sweet breath
Eyes like jewels in the sky
Straight back
Smooth hair
No affection, gratitude or love
Loyalty to the stars, not to him
Dad's an outlaw and a wanderer
He knows how to throw knives and plans to teach her the same
He's a xenophobe
He's weak, presumably old, and hungry
Sister, mother and she can see the future
She has no education, can't read or write
No books
She knows how to have a good time
She has a voice like a meadowlark
Her heart is like the ocean ("mysterious and dark")

One Man's Loss

Dating and trading
Are similar. If you're long,
Someone else is short.

I used the best-guess lyrics as written by Eyolf Ostrem on his dylanchords.info website for this song. It's another half-finished item from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions with the Band. It sounds like it nearly could have been something. You can hear it on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series. As for the haiku, I think that the connection between love, loss and capitalist trading structures is more than clear.

[First verse inaudible]

[Let's take a cherry], I can't make it no more
Can't stop, she's breaking all time on the floor
Better come down easy or don't come down at all
You don't try and to please me, somebody's gonna fall
One man's loss always is another man's gain
Yes, one man's joy always is another man's pain
Eight o'clock in the morning, [better] step aside (I think he said three o'clock)
[let me be to your] warning, you better go by
Three times a loser, number 45
better not lose her, best stayed alive
One man's loss always is another man's gain
Yes, one man's joy always is another man's pain
Wish I'd have found me [...] at the wall
One look at the watch, you better [lord at all]
You can't stop it or wait it [...] at night
Too hard to keep you waiting, calls me aside
One man's loss always is another man's gain
Yes, one man's joy always is another man's pain

One for My Baby (One for the Road)

Time for one more drink.
One for me and one for her.
She's gone? I'll drink both.

One for My Baby (One for the Road) is a Harold Arlen/Johnny mercer song written for the musical movie "The Sky's the Limit," and is best known as a Frank Sinatra song. Bob Dylan's song by the same name appears to be a completely different song, using only the title. In Dylan's version, recorded with the Band in 1967 in upstate New York, you get a sense that the song wasn't finished yet, especially with the nonsense lyrics, but it seems like it was on its way to being more fully realized than plenty of the other material that they recorded. The song is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

One for the road
One for my baby
and one for the road
            
I cry alone at night
Please tell me it's only snight
And she's calling me back at night
And she's already home
         
One for my baby
One for the road
One for my baby
and one for the road
            
I cry alone at night
There is no friend in sight
I love getting back at night
But I wish I don't
            
One for my baby
One for the road
One for my baby
and one for the road
            
This bottle is dried up too
And I'll be all cried up soon
I can't see no God on the moon
It's a long way to go
            
One for my baby
One for the road
One for my baby
and one for the road
            
I cry alone at night
He's not alone at night
I'll be there my whole night
But I wish it was whole

On a Rainy Afternoon

It sounds like she's gone,
Leaving Bob hanging around
On a rainy day.

"On a Rainy Afternoon" seems to be the source of some confusion. There is a song by that name that Dylan performs with Robbie Robertson in a hotel room sometime in 1966. This is not, however, the song that appears as "On a Rainy Afternoon" during the Basement Tapes sessions. That song, which I'm including here, is another one of those poorly recorded tracks where it's hard to understand most of the words. But you get the gist.

On a Night Like This

It's snowing outside.
This is the kind of night made
For loving and bliss.

"On a Night Like This" is the opener on the 1974 album "Planet Waves," which Bob Dylan recorded with the Band. It's a woodsy, wintery, swinging love song capturing the jubilation of being with your sweetheart in an old cabin on a snowy night. Some people say it's weak, but I love it.

Breakdown:
1. Glad you're here, holding me tightly. We're going to heat up some coffee and talk and reminisce.
2. Don't go away, run your fingers on my spine.
3. Why sleep? It's cold and there's lots of snow, so let's throw another log on the fire.
4. Stay close to me and keep me company. Then there's this weird line: "There is plenty of room for all so please don't elbow me." I thought he was singing "So please don't ever leave," but I wouldn't put it past him to use the former line. That said, I don't think they were expecting an orgy.
5. "If I'm not too far off, I think we did this once before." To me, that sounds like a sly reference to performing music with the Band again, which they hadn't done, other than in concerts, for the past few years. Meanwhile, there's more frost on the window every time the sweethearts kiss.

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Bethlehem is nice,
Especially at Christmas,
Its big holiday.

This Christmas Carol, written by Phillips Brooks in 1868, appears on Bob Dylan's 2009 album, "Christmas in the Heart." It could fit in with any of Dylan's Christian music, at least so I think.

1. O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie.
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.

2. For Christ is born of Mary,
And, gathered all above
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wond'ring love.
O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to men on earth.

3. How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is giv'n!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heav'n.
No ear may hear his coming;
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.

Oh, Sister

You are my sister,
And Dad will be angry if
You don't sleep with me.

It's not a song about incest. It refers to his SPIRITUAL sister and that the father in question is GOD. But why should that stop me from having fun with the haiku?

This song, which appeared on the 1976 album "Desire," makes putting out a religious duty rather than George Michael's more straightforward, "I Want Your Sex." Michael says it's natural; Dylan says it's scriptural. And if anything, he seems rather insistent, kind of like a religious Elvis Presley saying, "It's now or never, My love won't wait."

Oh, sister, when I come to lie in your arms
You should not treat me like a stranger
Our Father would not like the way that you act
And you must realize the danger

(Translation:
Why do you not want to have sex with me? God would be unhappy. That's dangerous. Have sex with me.)

Oh, sister, am I not a brother to you
And one deserving of affection?
And is our purpose not the same on this earth
To love and follow His direction?

(Translation:
I deserve to have sex with you. We were put on this earth to have sex. It's what God wants. Have sex with me.)

We grew up together
From the cradle to the grave
We died and were reborn
And then mysteriously saved

(Translation:
We had sex in a previous life. I can't explain it, but I think we should have sex in this life too.)

Oh, sister, when I come to knock on your door
Don’t turn away, you’ll create sorrow
Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore
You may not see me tomorrow

(Translation:
We should have sex. If you don't, you'll make me sad. You'll make God sad. I can tolerate this for only so long. Otherwise, I might find someone else to have sex with.)

Odds and Ends

Baby I don't love you.
You don't love me. You just pour
Some juice on my head.

"Odds and Ends" is the first song on the 1975 album "The Basement Tapes," a sort of greatest hits collection of overdubbed songs from the 1967 Basement Tapes sessions by Bob Dylan and the Band. They were never meant to be released, but Robbie Robertson of the Band pulled some of the better, or at least more complete ones together, overdubbed them with other instruments, added some later songs by the Band, and released this double LP, in part to meet demand from fans who wanted to know what these bootlegs were of more than a hundred songs floating around from Dylan's time in Woodstock while he recovered from his motorcycle accident. Like many of the songs, it sounds like nonsense, but contains horse-sense homilies straight from the woods and fields and the Farmer's Almanac. I included the 1975 cut as well as the two takes from volume 11 of the Bootleg Series, which contains the complete and original (not overdubbed) songs from the 1967 sessions. I suspect that the 1975 version is the same as the #2 take below, and is an identical mix, but I don't know as I'm not an audiophile.

I plan it all and I take my place (It's "I stand in awe and I shake my face" on the album)
You break your promise all over the place
You promised to love me, but what do I see
Just you comin’ and spillin’ juice over me
Odds and ends, odds and ends
Lost time is not found again

Now, you take your file and you bend my head
I never can remember anything that you said
You promised to love me, but what do I know
You’re always spillin’ juice on me like you got someplace to go
Odds and ends, odds and ends
Lost time is not found again

Now, I’ve had enough, my box is clean
You know what I’m sayin’ and you know what I mean
From now on you’d best get on someone else
While you’re doin’ it, keep that juice to yourself
Odds and ends, odds and ends
Lost time is not found again

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Come to Bethlehem.
You'll never believe what's there.
Or maybe you will.

Another track from the 2009 album "Christmas in the Heart." "O Come, All Ye Faithful," otherwise known as "Adeste Fideles" is the only time I can think of when Bob Dylan has sung in Latin. (He sang a verse of "Return to Me" in Italian, and you can hear it on the "Sopranos" soundtrack album called "Peppers and Eggs." He's also done Spanish on "Romance in Durango" and "Spanish Is the Loving Tongue.)

This song is ascribed to John Francis Wade, who lived in the 18th century, though others have been associated with it.

Adeste fideles læti triumphantes,
Venite, venite in Bethlehem.
Natum videte
Regem angelorum:
Venite adoremus (3×)
Dominum.

Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine
Gestant puellæ viscera
Deum verum, genitum non factum.
Venite adoremus (3×)
Dominum.

Cantet nunc io, chorus angelorum;
Cantet nunc aula cælestium,
Gloria, gloria in excelsis Deo,
Venite adoremus (3×)
Dominum.

Ergo qui natus die hodierna.
Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Patris æterni Verbum caro factum.
Venite adoremus (3×)
Dominum.

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him
Born the King of Angels:
O come, let us adore Him, (3×)
Christ the Lord.

God of God, light of light,
Lo, he abhors not the Virgin's womb;
Very God, begotten, not created:
O come, let us adore Him, (3×)
Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of Heaven above!
Glory to God, glory in the highest:
O come, let us adore Him, (3×)
Christ the Lord.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to thee be glory given!
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!
O come, let us adore Him, (3×)
Christ the Lord.

Other verses in various versions:

En grege relicto, humiles ad cunas,
Vocati pastores adproperant:
Et nos ovanti gradu festinemus,
Venite adoremus (3×)
Dominum.

Stella duce, Magi Christum adorantes,
Aurum, tus et myrrham dant munera.
Iesu infanti corda præbeamus
Venite adoremus (3×)
Dominum.

Æterni parentis splendorem æternum
Velatum sub carne videbimus
Deum infantem pannis involutum
Venite adoremus (3×)
Dominum.

Pro nobis egenum et fœno cubantem,
Piis foveamus amplexibus.
Sic nos amantem quis non redamaret?
Venite adoremus (3×)
Dominum.

Obviously 5 Believers

Please don't let me down.
I'm sad despite my jugglers
And five believers.

This is a rock and roll blues song off the 1966 album "Blonde on Blonde." There are a few throwaway lines, but the general takeaway is one line he sings twice:

"Yes, I could make it without you
If I just did not feel so all alone"

Here's the breakdown of the rest of the song:

1. Early in the morning, he's calling you to come home. He could make it without you, but it would make him lonely.
2. He won't let you down if you don't let him down. He WOULD let you down if you did let him down, but all the same, it would be better if you didn't.
3. His black dog is barking in the hard. He could translate the dog's remarks, but it's too much effort.
4. Your mother is crying while working. He could translate your mother's remarks, but he doesn't speak in her mother tongue.
5. Fifteen jugglers and five believers are dressed like men. Your mother appears concerned about them, but she shouldn't be because they are his friends.

The title seems like one of those artistic attempts to cast an oblique view on the song by referring to something that's only glancingly significant to it, sort of like authors who write books about things like the Russian Revolution or war or a love affair, and give them titles like, "The Proper Way to Clean Taffetta" or "I Am Curious (Yellow)." It also fits with Dylan's repeated attempts to use adverbs in his song titles from this time: "Positively 4th Street," "Absolutely Sweet Marie," "Queen Jane Approximately," "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," and so on.

No Time to Think

You go through troubles,
All meaning is doubled, and
Thinking is rubbled.

"No Time to Think" could have been subtitled "Dylan: in the Bunker." This 1978 song from the album "Street-Legal" spreads its 18 verses over more than eight minutes. Each describes his travails in the midst of danger, fear, paranoia, alcohol, depression and anger, while a few contain strings of words with similar endings and rhymes. Ultimately, it's a pity party, brimming with self indulgence, suspicion of others and shaded portraits of self martyrdom. I confess that I tune out the words when I listen to this song because they're so damned dreary. I don't know what the "concept noun" rhymes are doing here other than to overstuff this already stuffed narrative. Here they are, along with the other parts of this airplane engine of a song, which I have taken apart piece by piece and presented here (though I left out any summary of each verse because they don't reflect much unless they're put together. I also left out some remark about the "Federal City" which pops up in the song, never to return).

Strings of unrelated nouns:
Loneliness/tenderness
High society/notoriety
Memory/ecstasy/tyranny/hypocrisy
China doll/alcohol
Duality/morality
Paradise/sacrifice
Mortality/reality
Equality/liberty/humility/simplicity
Mercury/gravity/nobility/humility (he must have run out of ities)
Socialism/hypnotism/patriotism/materialism
Loyalty/unity/epitome/rigidity

Words in the song that rhyme with "think," as in "No time to think":
Sink
Link
Wink
Ink
Drink
Brink
Clink
Pink
Blink

Characters in the song:
You
Child
Wife
Empress
Judges
Country priestess
China doll
Destiny
Tyrant
Lion
Lamb
Traitor
Magician
Madmen
Warlords of sorrow
Queens of tomorrow
Her
Lovers
Fools
Babylon girl with rose in hair
Camille 
Death 

Things you are:
Soldier of mercy

Things you do or are done to you:
Face life while in death
Fight for the throne
Travel alone
You're unknown as you sink
You're cold and you curse
Been blown and shown pity for pieces of change (Judas)
Attracted by empress
Distracted by oppression
Feel violent and strange
Betrayed by a kiss (Jesus)
Haunted by judge
Wanted by country priestess
See decoys
Feel depressed
Betrayed by your conscience
Waylaid by tyrant
Can't find salvation
Have no expectations
Murder your vanity
Bury your sanity
Resist something for pleasure
Lovers obey you
You aren't swayed by lovers
Lovers aren't sure you exist
Released upon seeing starlight in the east
Harmed by bullets
Disarmed by death
Deceived by no one
Stripped of virtue
Crawl in the dirt
Give
Not receive
Don't choose, lose, say goodbye, prepare for the victim, suffer, blink, think

Tarot card references:
"Mercury rules you"
Empress
Death

Nothing Was Delivered

Either deliver
Or refund everyone's cash,
And stop telling lies.

First, the lyrics. Then, my thoughts:

Nothing was delivered
And I tell this truth to you
Not out of spite or anger
But simply because it’s true
Now, I hope you won’t object to this
Giving back all of what you owe
The fewer words you have to waste on this
The sooner you can go

Nothing is better, nothing is best
Take heed of this and get plenty of rest

Nothing was delivered
But I can’t say I sympathize
With what your fate is going to be
Yes, for telling all those lies
Now you must provide some answers
For what you sell has not been received
And the sooner you come up with them
The sooner you can leave

Nothing is better, nothing is best
Take heed of this and get plenty rest

(Now you know)
Nothing was delivered
And it’s up to you to say
Just what you had in mind
When you made ev’rybody pay
No, nothing was delivered
Yes, ’n’ someone must explain
That as long as it takes to do this
Then that’s how long that you’ll remain

Nothing is better, nothing is best
Take heed of this and get plenty rest

I've read several discussions and essays about the story hidden in the song. Many people seem to think that it's a warning to a drug dealer to deliver the drugs for which the buyers paid. I think that when you get a bunch of people who are into country rock/hippy rock, they will interpret song lyrics according to their preoccupations, one of which is the drug deal. But the enduring quality of songs from the Basement Tapes is their woodsy, homespun, old-time homily nature. These songs, however nonsensical some of the lyrics be, are about proverbs, old saws, maxims, fireside truths and practical Farmer's Almanac advice, all touched with the shadow and weight of dead ancestors and vanished generations. Narrowing a song with such general admonishments as this to a frustrated attempt to buy pot does injustice to the song. What they ARE singing about? I think there's a basic morality tale here that says that you must right the scales to balance what you give with what you take, whether that's an item, a piece of advice, a lesson or anything. A good deed unreciprocated by a good deed of its own is an offense to universal equilibrium. But like many of the songs that Dylan and the Band recorded in 1967, I don't know for sure, though you can see that I stayed away from drug reference in the haiku while emphasizing the idea of payment for services, whether quotidian or profound.

The song, meanwhile, appears on the 1975 album "The Basement Tapes," and more than one version of it appears on the complete Basement Tapes recordings on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

Not Dark Yet

Bob is getting old
And the world has gotten worse.
And it’s not done yet.

Bob Dylan: the crown prince of resignation. Theme song: "Not Dark Yet." This melancholy look-back-on-life-at-dusk song defines Dylan's later-stage motive: summing up the highs and lows of life and their inextricable union. It's from the 1997 album "Time Out of Mind" which established this outlook that Dylan has brought to most of his music over what is now nearly two decades. 

Summary:

1. Sunset. Too hot to sleep. Soul turned to steel, but still plenty of scars.
2. No more sense of humanity. Pain accompanies every beautiful thing. She wrote him a letter, and she was nice about it while being honest.
3. Bob's been to London and Paris, the river and the sea. He's been on the bottom in a world where everyone lies. He's not looking for anything from anyone. "Sometimes my burden seems more than I can bear. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there."
4. You think he's moving, but he's standing still. He's numb, and "I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from. Don’t even hear a murmur of a prayer. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there."

The music soars under the able hand of producer Daniel Lanois, and despite its mere four verses, it's epic stuff. It's just not what you want on during your period periods of bitterness, regret and your seventh wine spritzer.

Northern Claim

Only clouds and rain
Are all that I find in this
Dreary northern claim.

A poor recording of a fragment of a song, "Northern Claim" has the intriguing makings of a real song, but it never got past this rough recording made with the Band in the Basement Tapes rehearsal sessions of 1967. I can't find lyrics anywhere, so I did my best to transcribe them. I don't know what a northern claim is, and I don't really have enough material here for a haiku, but I gave it a shot. I wonder if it's a homestead claim, such as the pioneers received as they moved west in the 19th century, but I really don't know. This song is available on volume 11 of the Bootleg Series.

xxxx Well I took
First 
On a xxxx charge
Ballin' to darling
And southern barge
Well it's hard to make my getaway 
With pouring rain
Left myself inside the northern claim
Northern claim
Such sound of rain
Northern claim
Now all my life dependents on a man of my dependence on a northern claim
Well I was found myself an ocean
With a $10 fly
And the tombstone ladies looking passed on by
Well it's a bodies' a coming
And my jap mobile
And I spend xxxxxx
I rob, murder or steal
And it was northern claim
Beg xxxxx sound of rain
Northern claim
Suicidal rain
Well it don't matter what you,
Don't matter, xxxxxxx
Southern claim

North Country Blues

Miners get priced out.
Mine shuts down, cripples the town,
Men drink, the kids leave.

Here's a depressing song about the collapse of a mining town in northern Minnesota. It's from the 1963 album "The Times They Are a-Changin'," and it might be inspired in part by Bob Dylan's home town of Hibbing Minnesota -- though I can't be sure. 

1. Red iron pits go empty, old men sit around with no work, broken windows are replaced by cardboard, town is empty.
2. Woman with grown children recounts her childhood: her mother died, so her brother raised her.
3. Years go by. People mine iron. Woman's brother dies in the mines, just like their father did.
4. She passes the winter, drops out of school and marries a miner.
5. Food and plenty for three years. One baby each year. Mining company cuts shifts in half, then closes the mine shaft and lays off more people, then shuts down the whole operation.
6. Why did they shut the mine? Wall Street investors considered the costs too high, and the company chose to get its iron from cheaper mine labor in South America.
7. People turn to alcohol and loafing in the misery.
8. Her husband disappears, leaving her alone with the kids.
9. Winter is coming, stores are shutting, the children are getting ready to leave town.

At least you have your health!

No More Auction Block

No more auctioning,
No more whips or slavery.
We've had too many.

This is a spiritual sung by slaves in the 19th century who escaped to Canada and won their freedom. Bob Dylan's version, which was released on the Bootleg Series's first volume, was recorded in concert in 1962. The words are clear enough. The tune is more or less the same as what Dylan used for "Blowin' in the Wind."

No more auction block for me
No more, no more
No more auction block for me
Many thousands gone

No more driver's lash for me
No more, no more
No more driver's lash for me
Many thousands gone

No more whip lash for me
No more, no more
No more pint of salt for me
Many thousands gone

No more auction block for me
No more, no more
No more auction block for me
Many thousands gone