Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven poems of Bob Dylan

Prelude: Mr. Tambourine Man

…Though I know that evenin’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 wanderin’.

I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready…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 followin’ you.

Though you might hear laughin’, spinnin’,

swingin’ madly across the sun,

It’s not aimed at anyone, it’s just escapin’ on the run…

And if you hear vague traces of skippin’ 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

Seein’ that he’s chasing.

..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.

…I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to…

Copyright © 1964,1965 Warner Brothers, Inc.
Copyright renewed 1992, 1993 Special Rider Music International Copyright Secured.
All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Special Rider Music.

Note:
… is used where composer has omitted lyrics
[ ] is used where lyrics have been set out of sequence

Clothes Line

After a while we took in the clothes,

Nobody said very much.

Just some old wild shirts and a couple pairs of pants

Which nobody really wanted to touch.

Mama come in and picked up a book

An’ Papa asked her what it was.

Someone else asked, ‘What do you care?’

Papa said, ‘Well, just because.’

Then they started to take back their clothes,

Hang ’em on the line.

It was January the thirtieth

And everybody was feelin’ fine.

The next day everybody got up

Seein’ if the clothes were dry.

The dogs were barking, a neighbor passed,

Mama, of course, she said, ‘Hi!’

‘Have you heard the news?’ he said, with a grin,

‘The Vice-President’s gone mad!’

‘Where?’ ‘Downtown.’ ‘When?’ ‘Last night.’

‘Hmm, say, that’s too bad!’

‘Well, there’s nothin’ we can do about it,’ said the neighbor,

‘It’s just somethin’ we’re gonna have to forget.’

‘Yes, I guess so,’ said Ma,

Then she asked me if the clothes was still wet.

I reached up, touched my shirt,

And the neighbor said, ‘Are those clothes yours?’

I said, ‘Some of ‘em, not all of ‘em.’

He said, ‘Ya always help out around here with the chores?’

I said, ‘Sometime, not all the time.’

Then my neighbor, he blew his nose

Just as papa yelled outside,

‘Mama wants you t’ come back in the house and bring them clothes.’ Well, I just do what I’m told,

So, I did it, of course.

I went back in the house and Mama met me

And then I shut all the doors.

Copyright © 1969, 1975 Dwarf Music
copyright renewed 1998 Special Rider Music International Copyright Secured.
All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Special Rider Music.

Note:
… is used where composer has omitted lyrics
[ ] is used where lyrics have been set out of sequence

Blowin’ in the Wind

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man?

Yes, ’n’ how many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, ’n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly

Before they’re forever banned?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,

The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

How many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

Yes ’n’ how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, ’n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind…

How many years can a mountain exist

Before it’s washed to the sea?

[The answer is blowin’ in the wind.]

Yes, ’n’ how many years can some people exist

Before they’re allowed to be free?

[‘blowin’ in the wind.’]

Yes, ’n’ how many times can a man turn his head,

Pretending he just doesn’t see?

…blowin’…

Copyright © 1962 Warner Brothers, Inc.
Copyright renewed 1990 Special Rider Music International Copyright Secured.
All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Special Rider Music.

Note:
… is used where composer has omitted lyrics
[ ] is used where lyrics have been set out of sequence

Masters of War

Come, [come,] you masters of war

You that build all the guns

You that build the death planes

You that build the big bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

[Come, come, you masters of war]

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin’

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it’s your little toy

You put a gun in my hand

And you hide from my eyes

And you turn and run farther

When the fast bullets fly…

You fasten the triggers

For the others to fire

Then you set back and watch

When the death count gets higher

You hide in your mansion

As young people’s blood

Flows out of their bodies

And is buried in the mud

You’ve thrown the worst fear

That can ever be hurled

Fear to bring children

Into the world

For threatening my baby

Unborn and unnamed

You ain’t worth the blood

That runs in your veins…

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die

And your death will come soon

I will follow your casket

In the pale afternoon

And I’ll watch while you’re lowered

Down to your deathbed

And I’ll stand o’er your grave

’Til I’m sure that you’re dead

Note:
… is used where composer has omitted lyrics
[ ] is used where lyrics have been set out of sequence

All Along the Watchtower

‘There must be some way out of here,’ said the joker to the thief,

‘There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.

Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,

None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.’

‘No reason to get excited,’ the thief, he kindly spoke,

‘There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.

But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate,

So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.’

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view

While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too. Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,

Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

Note:
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[ ] is used where lyrics have been set out of sequence

Chimes of Freedom

Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll

We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing

As majestic bells of bolts stuck shadows in the sounds

Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight

Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight

An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night

An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

In the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched

With faces hidden while the walls were tightening

As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain

Dissolved into the bells of the lightening.

[Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind

Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind

An’ the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time

An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail

The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder

That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze

Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder

As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look

Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended

Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake

Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked

Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake

An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing…

Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute

Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute…]

Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed…

An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe

An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Note:
… is used where composer has omitted lyrics
[ ] is used where lyrics have been set out of sequence

Postlude: Forever Young

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

Note:
… is used where composer has omitted lyrics
[ ] is used where lyrics have been set out of sequence