Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan)- top 5

[BeauJangles]

Here's another one that I absolutely love. The lyrics in the chorus, "Oh, Mama, could this really be the end? To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again." Classic Bob! There are quite a number of his tunes relative to the southlands of our great country and here we have the epitome of this expression. Country was clearly in the heart of much of Dylan's music. 

 

1. Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again

   Bob Dylan

   Oh, the ragman draws circles
   Up and down the block
   I'd ask him what the matter was
   But I know that he don't talk
   And the ladies treat me kindly
   And they furnish me with tape
   But deep inside my heart
   I know I can't escape
   Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile with the
   Memphis blues again

   Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
   With his pointed shoes and his bells
   Speaking to some French girl
   Who says she knows me well
   And I would send a message
   To find out if she's talked
   But the post office has been stolen
   And the mailbox is locked
   Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile
   With the Memphis blues again

   Mona tried to tell me
   To stay away from the train line
   She said that all the railroad men
   Just drink up your blood like wine
   An' I said, "Oh, I didn't know that
   But then again, there's only one I've met
   An' he just smoked my eyelids
   An' punched my cigarette"
   Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile
   With the Memphis blues again

   Grandpa died last week
   And now he's buried in the rocks
   But everybody still talks about how
   Badly they were shocked
   But me, I expected it to happen
   I knew he'd lost control
   When I speed built a fire on Main Street
   And shot it full of holes
   Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile
   With the Memphis blues again

   Now the senator came down here
   Showing ev'ryone his gun
   Handing out free tickets
   To the wedding of his son
   An' me, I nearly got busted
   An' wouldn't it be my luck
   To get caught without a ticket
   And be discovered beneath a truck
   Oh, Mama, is this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile
   With the Memphis blues again

   Now the tea preacher looked so baffled
   When I asked him why he dressed
   With twenty pounds of headlines
   Stapled to his chest
   But he cursed me when I proved it to him
   Then I whispered and said, "Not even you can hide
   You see, you're just like me
   I hope you're satisfied"
   Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile
   With the Memphis blues again

   Now the rainman gave me two cures
   Then he said, "Jump right in"
   The one was Texas medicine
   The other was just railroad gin
   An' like a fool I mixed them
   An' it strangled up my mind
   An' now people just get uglier
   An' I have no sense of time
   Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile
   With the Memphis blues again

   And when Ruthie says come see her
   In her honky-tonk lagoon
   Where I can watch her waltz for free
   'neath her Panamanian moon
   An' I say, "Aw come on now
   You know you knew about my debutante"
   An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
   But I know what you want"
   Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile
   With the Memphis blues again

   Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
   Where the neon madmen climb
   They all fall there so perfectly
   It all seems so well timed
   An' here I sit so patiently
   Waiting to find out what price
   You have to pay to get out of
   Going through all these things twice
   Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
   To be stuck inside of Mobile
   With the Memphis blues again

   

Edited September 8, 2020 by BeauJangles

[BeauJangles]

 

1. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

   Bob Dylan

   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 fergit
   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
   Do what they do just 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

   

    Bob Dylan ~ 1965

[BeauJangles]

Peter, Paul, & Mary covered this one by Bob Dylan so well and was undoubtedly expressed optimally by them moreover than any other folk group or musician. Don't Think Twice It's Alright, from The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan LP, this tune was dedicated to his former girlfriend, Suze Rotolo. Here is a commentary in background for this heartfelt song. Maybe I have too many favorite Bob Dylan tunes in my mind! 

P.S. I can't recall now if this was posted previously or not. If so, it's worth a repeat in my opinion. 

This song was written by Bob Dylan after his girlfriend Suze Rotolo moved to Italy to study at the university leaving him in New York. Only he made it look in a song as if it was he who left her. By the way, Rotolo is pictured walking with Dylan on the cover of this album.

Bob Dylan said about this track, "A lot of people make it sort of a love song - slow and easygoing. But it isn't a love song. It's a statement that maybe you can say something to make yourself feel better. It's as if you were talking to yourself."

This song was released as a single by "Wonder Who?" in 1965. The joke is that The Four Seasons, being at the peak of their popularity with "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You", decided to record a song to see if they could make a hit without a big name on it. They could: the single climbed to number 12 in the USA.

The "When your rooster crows at the break of dawn" line was explained by Suze Rotolo in her memoir: she and Bob Dylan used to live near a poultry supplier in Greenwich Village and heard roosters in the morning when they stayed up all night sometimes.

1. AZLyrics
2. B
3. Bob Dylan Lyrics

 

"Don't Think Twice It's All Right"
 

Well, it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If'n you don't know by now
And it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It'll never do somehow

When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window, and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm a-traveling on
But don't think twice, it's all right

And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe
The light I never knowed
And it ain't no use in turning on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road

But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
But we never did too much talking anyway
But don't think twice, it's all right

So it ain't no use in calling out my name, gal
Like you never done before
And it ain't no use in calling out my name, gal
I can't hear you any more

I'm a-thinking and a-wonderin' walking down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I am told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don't think twice, it's all right

So long honey, baby
Where I'm bound, I can't tell
Goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say fare thee well

I ain't a-saying you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right

  Dylan Compilation LP

[SisterWells]

29 minutes ago, BeauJangles said:

This song was written by Bob Dylan after his girlfriend Suze Rotolo moved to Italy to study at the university leaving him in New York. Only he made it look in a song as if it was he who left her. By the way, Rotolo is pictured walking with Dylan on the cover of this album.

 

Gosh, the commentary really changes the meaning. So sad looking at it from this new angle.

[BeauJangles]

36 minutes ago, SisterWells said:

Gosh, the commentary really changes the meaning. So sad looking at it from this new angle.

Yes. It does shed a new light on the song with a completely different perspective I also had not considered. 

[Henry_iain]

All of these are amazing. I must admit, I had a completely different understanding of that song.

[BeauJangles]

10 hours ago, Henry_iain said:

All of these are amazing. I must admit, I had a completely different understanding of that song.

Thanks! I'm pulling out some of the most outstanding and deeply contemplative lyrics ever composed during the height of Dylan's career. Some of these came due to my recent viewing of a series of "rockumentaries" shown over last weekend's broadcast on the Turner Classics Movie Channel (TCM). Two of them were of Bob Dylan. One I had not seen previously. They aired tremendous performances and great rare film footage.

[BeauJangles]

Watching the River Flow, is a rare and difficult to find track that I've only heard on the radio airwaves a couple of times. Why that is really mystifies me. There's everything here in what should have been surefire hit, but never quite made it for an unknown reason. Perhaps mainstream had taken as an audience preference. Anyway, I like this cut a lot. The final stanza has a line that speaks volumes to me, "People disagreeing everywhere you look - makes you want to stop and read a book ... Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street that was really shook." What a dynamic statement. 

 

1. Watching the River Flow

   Bob Dylan

   What's the matter with me
   I don't have much to say
   Daylight sneakin' through the window
   And I'm still in this all-night cafe
   Walkin' to and fro beneath the moon
   Out to where the trucks are rollin' slow
   To sit down on this bank of sand
   And watch the river flow

   Wish I was back in the city
   Instead of this old bank of sand
   With the sun beating down over the chimney tops
   And the one I love so close at hand
   If I had wings and I could fly
   I know where I would go
   But right now I'll just sit here so contentedly
   And watch the river flow

   People disagreeing on all just about everything, yeah
   Makes you stop and all wonder why
   Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
   Who just couldn't help but cry
   Oh, this ol' river keeps on rollin', though
   No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow
   And as long as it does I'll just sit here
   And watch the river flow

   People disagreeing everywhere you look
   Makes you want to stop and read a book
   Why only yesterday I saw somebody on the street
   That was really shook
   But this ol' river keeps on rollin', though
   No matter what gets in the way and which way the wind does blow
   And as long as it does I'll just sit here
   And watch the river flow

   Watch the river flow
   Watchin' the river flow
   Watchin' the river flow
   But I'll sit down on this bank of sand
   And watch the river flow

   

      Watching the River Flow

[BeauJangles]

I'd like to share something co-written by George Harrison and Bob Dylan that opens track one on the first side of the three LP set George brilliantly put together. Truly a masterpiece. Harrison and Dylan began a long term and endearing friendship way back when The Beatles first met in New York, NY. The year, 1964. This song composed by the two was a smooth and lovely ballad they both performed and Bob sang background vocals on the chorus. I'd Have You Anytime, is yet another beautiful melody arranged as only they could compose. It's one of the finest on George's, All Things Must Pass project and also of my favorites. There is much of the similar lush guitar work here along the lines of Harrison's award winning song, Something - from the Abbey Road album. 

 

1. I’d Have You Anytime

   George Harrison/Bob Dylan 

   Let me in here, I know I've been here
   Let me into your heart
   Let me know you, let me show you
   Let me roll it to you

   All I have is yours
   All you see is mine
   And I'm glad to hold you in my arms
   I'd have you anytime

   Let me say it, let me play it
   Let me lay it on you
   Let me know you, let me show you
   Let me grow upon you

   All I have is yours
   All you see is mine
   And I'm glad to hold you in my arms
   I'd have you anytime

   Let me in here, I know I've been here
   Let me into your heart

   

   Bob Dylan & George Harrison 1968

[BeauJangles]

During my Freshman year in highschool, we had a building by the center courtyard where many students would gather and hangout on the concrete benches, listening to the stereophonic PA system inside. A few of our upperclassmen did DJ volunteer work in similarity to a radio broadcast.

I hung out with the Sophomore kids as they had befriended me.

We'd sit close to the sound system to catch the tunes that were being piped out of the system. The ones that manned the stereo were stone cold Dylan fans. Many of the tunes they selected were from Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. One LP. Here's one I remember well from our lunch break, Positively 4th Street. 

P.S. I have this album and personally recommend it. At the time of its first few years of issues, a full sized wall poster was also included. It's now rare and hard to find, but the album is still widely available on CD. 

 

1. Positively 4th Street

   Bob Dylan

   You've got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend
   When I was down you just stood there grinnin'
   You've got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend
   You just want to be on the side that's winnin'

   You say I let you down, ya know its not like that
   If you're so hurt, why then don't you show it?
   You say you've lost your faith, but that's not where its at
   You have no faith to lose, and ya know it

   I know the reason, that you talked behind my back
   I used to be among the crowd you're in with
   Do you take me for such a fool, to think I'd make contact
   With the one who tries to hide what he don't know to begin with?

   You see me on the street, you always act surprised
   You say "how are you?", "good luck", but ya don't mean it
   When you know as well as me, you'd rather see me paralyzed
   Why don't you just come out once and scream it

   No, I do not feel that good when I see the heartbreaks you embrace
   If I was a master thief perhaps I'd rob them
   And tho I know you're dissatisfied with your position and your place
   Don't you understand, it's not my problem?

   I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
   And just for that one moment I could be you
   Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
   You'd know what a drag it is to see you

   

     Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits