Early to Mid-Career Dylan
MR. TAMBOURINE MAN
Bringing It All Back Home, 1964, 1965 Warner Bros. Inc
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
I know that evening's empire has returned into sand,
vanished from my hand,
left me blindly here to stand
but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet,
and the ancient empty street's
too dead for dreaming.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
in the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship.
My senses have been stripped.
My hands can't feel to grip.
My toes too numb to step,
wait only for my boot heels to be wandering.
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
into my own parade.
Cast your dancing spell my way.
I promise to go under it.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you.
Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging, madly across the sun,
it's not aimed at anyone,
it's just escaping on the run,
and but for the sky there are no fences facing.
And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme
to your tambourine in time,
it's just a ragged clown behind.
I wouldn't pay it any mind.
It's just a shadow you're seeing that he's chasing.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Then take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind,
down the foggy ruins of time,
far past the frozen leaves,
the haunted, frightened trees,
out to the windy beach,
far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
silhouetted by the sea,
circled by the circus sands,
with all memory and fate
driven deep beneath the waves,
let me forget about today until tomorrow.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES
Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 Warner Bros. Inc
Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine.
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government.
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off,
Says he's got a bad cough,
Wants to get it paid off.
Look out kid,
It's somethin' you did.
God knows when
But you're doin' it again.
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend.
The man in the coon-skin cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten.
Maggie comes fleet foot,
Face full of black soot,
Talkin' that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway,
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the D. A.
Look out kid,
Don't matter what you did.
Walk on your tip toes.
Don't try "No Doz."
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose.
Keep a clean nose.
Watch the plain clothes.
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows.
Get sick, get well.
Hang around an ink well.
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell.
Try hard, get barred,
Get back, write braille.
Get jailed, jump bail.
Join the army, if you fail
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit,
But users, cheaters,
Six-time losers
Hang around the theaters.
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool.
Don't follow leaders.
Watch the parkin' meters.
Ah get born, keep warm.
Short pants, romance, learn to dance.
Get dressed, get blessed.
Try to be a success.
Please her, please him, buy gifts.
Don't steal, don't lift.
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift.
Look out kid,
They keep it all hid.
Better jump down a manhole,
Light yourself a candle.
Don't wear sandals.
Try to avoid the scandals.
Don't wanna be a bum.
You better chew gum.
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles.
GATES OF EDEN
Bringing It All Back Home,1965 Warner Bros. Inc
Of war and peace the truth just twists,
Its curfew gull it glides.
Upon four-legged forest clouds
The cowboy angel rides
With his candle lit into the sun,
Though its glow is waxed in black,
All except when 'neath the trees of Eden.
The lamppost stands with folded arms,
Its iron claws attached
To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail
Though it shadows metal badge.
All and all can only fall
With a crashing but meaningless blow.
No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden
The savage soldier sticks his head in sand
And then complains
Unto the shoeless hunter who's gone deaf
But still remains.
Upon the beach where hound dogs bay
At ships with tattooed sails
Heading for the Gates of Eden.
With a time-rusted compass blade
Aladdin and his lamp
Sits with Utopian hermit monks
Side-saddle on the Golden Calf.
And on their promises of paradise
You will not hear a laugh,
All except inside the Gates of Eden
Relationships of ownership
They whisper in the wings
To those condemned to act accordingly
And wait for succeeding kings.
And I try to harmonize with songs
The lonesome sparrow sings.
There are no kings inside the Gates of Eden
The motorcycle black madonna,
Two-wheeled gypsy queen,
And her silver-studded phantom
Cause the gray flannel dwarf to scream
As he weeps to wicked birds of prey
Who pick up on his bread crumb sins.
And there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden
The kingdoms of Experience
In the precious wind they rot,
While paupers change possessions
Each one wishing for what the other has got.
And the princess and the prince
Discuss what's real and what is not.
It doesn't matter inside the Gates of Eden.
The foreign sun, it squints upon
A bed that is never mine
As friends and other strangers
From their fates try to resign
Leaving men wholly, totally free
To do anything they wish to do but die.
And there are no trials inside the Gates of Eden
At dawn my lover comes to me
And tells me of her dreams
With no attempts to shovel the glimpse
Into the ditch of what each one means.
At times I think there are no words
But these to tell what's true.
And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden
IT'S ALRIGHT, MA
(I'm Only Bleeding)
Bringing It All Back Home,1965 Warner Bros. Inc
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.
Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.
So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.
As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.
While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.
Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.
You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.
A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.
Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.
For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.
While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.
While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.
But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.
Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.
While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.
My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?
And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.
IT'S ALL OVER NOW, BABY BLUE
Words and Music by Bob Dylan
1965 Warner Bros. Inc
Renewed 1993 Special Rider Music
You must leave now, take what you need, you think will last.
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast.
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun,
Crying like a fire in the sun.
Look out the saints are comin' through
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.
The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense.
Take what you have gathered from coincidence.
The empty-handed painter from your streets
Is drawing crazy patterns on your sheets.
This sky, too, is folding under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.
All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home.
All your reindeer armies, are all going home.
The lover who just walked out your door
Has taken all his blankets from the floor.
The carpet, too, is moving under you
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.
Leave your stepping stones behind, something calls for you.
Forget the dead you've left, they will not follow you.
The vagabond who's rapping at your door
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore.
Strike another match, go start anew
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.
LOVE MINUS ZERO/NO LIMIT
(Words and Music by Bob Dylan)
Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 Warner Bros. Inc
Renewed 1993 Special Rider Music
My love she speaks like silence,
Without ideals or violence,
She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can't buy her.
In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.
The cloak and dagger dangles,
Madams light the candles.
In ceremonies of the horsemen,
Even the pawn must hold a grudge.
Statues made of match sticks,
Crumble into one another,
My love winks, she does not bother,
She knows too much to argue or to judge.
The bridge at midnight trembles,
The country doctor rambles,
Bankers' nieces seek perfection,
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.
The wind howls like a hammer,
The night blows cold and rainy,
My love she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing.