100 Songs

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100 Songs Page 3

by Bob Dylan


  Sayin’, “What’s that I heard you say?”

  I said, “I like Fidel Castro

  I think you heard me right”

  And ducked as he swung

  At me with all his might

  Rita mumbled something

  ’Bout her mother on the hill

  As his fist hit the icebox

  He said he’s going to kill me

  If I don’t get out the door

  In two seconds flat

  “You unpatriotic

  Rotten doctor Commie rat”

  Well, he threw a Reader’s Digest

  At my head and I did run

  I did a somersault

  As I seen him get his gun

  And crashed through the window

  At a hundred miles an hour

  And landed fully blast

  In his garden flowers

  Rita said, “Come back!”

  As he started to load

  The sun was comin’ up

  And I was runnin’ down the road

  Well, I don’t figure I’ll be back

  There for a spell

  Even though Rita moved away

  And got a job in a motel

  He still waits for me

  Constant, on the sly

  He wants to turn me in

  To the F.B.I.

  Me, I romp and stomp

  Thankful as I romp

  Without freedom of speech

  I might be in the swamp

  MY BACK PAGES

  Crimson flames tied through my ears

  Rollin’ high and mighty traps

  Pounced with fire on flaming roads

  Using ideas as my maps

  “We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I

  Proud ’neath heated brow

  Ah, but I was so much older then

  I’m younger than that now

  Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth

  “Rip down all hate,” I screamed

  Lies that life is black and white

  Spoke from my skull. I dreamed

  Romantic facts of musketeers

  Foundationed deep, somehow

  Ah, but I was so much older then

  I’m younger than that now

  Girls’ faces formed the forward path

  From phony jealousy

  To memorizing politics

  Of ancient history

  Flung down by corpse evangelists

  Unthought of, though, somehow

  Ah, but I was so much older then

  I’m younger than that now

  A self-ordained professor’s tongue

  Too serious to fool

  Spouted out that liberty

  Is just equality in school

  “Equality,” I spoke the word

  As if a wedding vow

  Ah, but I was so much older then

  I’m younger than that now

  In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand

  At the mongrel dogs who teach

  Fearing not that I’d become my enemy

  In the instant that I preach

  My pathway led by confusion boats

  Mutiny from stern to bow

  Ah, but I was so much older then

  I’m younger than that now

  Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats

  Too noble to neglect

  Deceived me into thinking

  I had something to protect

  Good and bad, I define these terms

  Quite clear, no doubt, somehow

  Ah, but I was so much older then

  I’m younger than that now

  IT AIN’T ME, BABE

  Go ’way from my window

  Leave at your own chosen speed

  I’m not the one you want, babe

  I’m not the one you need

  You say you’re lookin’ for someone

  Never weak but always strong

  To protect you an’ defend you

  Whether you are right or wrong

  Someone to open each and every door

  But it ain’t me, babe

  No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe

  It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe

  Go lightly from the ledge, babe

  Go lightly on the ground

  I’m not the one you want, babe

  I will only let you down

  You say you’re lookin’ for someone

  Who will promise never to part

  Someone to close his eyes for you

  Someone to close his heart

  Someone who will die for you an’ more

  But it ain’t me, babe

  No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe

  It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe

  Go melt back into the night, babe

  Everything inside is made of stone

  There’s nothing in here moving

  An’ anyway I’m not alone

  You say you’re looking for someone

  Who’ll pick you up each time you fall

  To gather flowers constantly

  An’ to come each time you call

  A lover for your life an’ nothing more

  But it ain’t me, babe

  No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe

  It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe

  SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES

  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 tiptoes

  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 weatherman

  To know which way the wind blows

  Get sick, get well

  Hang around a 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

  LOVE MINUS ZERO/NO LIMIT

  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 matchsticks

  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

  MR. TAMBOURINE MAN

  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 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 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 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 but for the sky there are no fences facin’

  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

  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 disappearin’ 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

  BOB DYLAN’S 115TH DREAM

  I was riding on the Mayflower

  When I thought I spied some land

  I yelled for Captain Arab

  I have yuh understand

  Who came running to the deck

  Said, “Boys, forget the whale

  Look on over yonder

  Cut the engines

  Change the sail

  Haul on the bowline”

  We sang that melody

  Like all tough sailors do

  When they are far away at sea

  “I think I’ll call it America”

  I said as we hit land

  I took a deep breath

  I fell down, I could not stand

  Captain Arab he started

  Writing up some deeds

  He said, “Let’s set up a fort

  And start buying the place with beads”

  Just then this cop comes down the street

  Crazy as a loon

  He throw us all in jail

  For carryin’ harpoons

  Ah me I busted out

  Don’t even ask me how

  I went to get some help

  I walked by a Guernsey cow

  Who directed me down

  To the Bowery slums

  Where people carried signs around

  Saying, “Ban the bums”

  I jumped right into line

  Sayin’, “I hope that I’m not late”

  When I realized I hadn’t eaten

  For five days straight

  I went into a restaurant

  Lookin’ for the cook

  I told them I was the editor

  Of a famous etiquette book

  The waitress he was handsome

  He wore a powder blue cape

  I ordered some suzette, I said

  “Could you please make that crepe”

  Just then the whole kitchen exploded

  From boilin’ fat

  Food was flying everywhere

  And I left without my hat

  Now, I didn’t mean to be nosy

  But I went into a bank

  To get some bail for Arab

  And all the boys back in the tank

  They asked me for some collateral

  And I pulled down my pants

  They threw me in the alley

  When up comes this girl from France

  Who invited me to her house

  I went, but she had a friend

  Who knocked me out

  And robbed my boots

  And I was on the street again

  Well, I rapped upon a house

  With the U.S. flag upon display

  I said, “Could you help me out

  I got some friends down the way”

  The man says, “Get out of here

  I’ll tear you limb from limb”

  I said, “You know they refused Jesus, too”

  He said, “You’re not Him

  Get out of here before I break your bones

  I ain’t your pop”

  I decided to have him arrested

  And I went looking for a cop

  I ran right outside

  And I hopped inside a cab

  I went out the other door

  This Englishman said, “Fab”

  As he saw me leap a hot dog stand

  And a chariot that stood

  Parked across from a building

  Advertising bro
therhood

  I ran right through the front door

  Like a hobo sailor does

  But it was just a funeral parlor

  And the man asked me who I was

  I repeated that my friends

  Were all in jail, with a sigh

  He gave me his card

  He said, “Call me if they die”

  I shook his hand and said goodbye

  Ran out to the street

  When a bowling ball came down the road

  And knocked me off my feet

  A pay phone was ringing

  It just about blew my mind

  When I picked it up and said hello

  This foot came through the line

  Well, by this time I was fed up

  At tryin’ to make a stab

  At bringin’ back any help

  For my friends and Captain Arab

  I decided to flip a coin

  Like either heads or tails

  Would let me know if I should go

  Back to ship or back to jail

  So I hocked my sailor suit

  And I got a coin to flip

  It came up tails

  It rhymed with sails

  So I made it back to the ship

  Well, I got back and took

  The parkin’ ticket off the mast

  I was ripping it to shreds

  When this coastguard boat went past

  They asked me my name

  And I said, “Captain Kidd”

  They believed me but

  They wanted to know

  What exactly that I did

  I said for the Pope of Eruke

  I was employed

  They let me go right away

  They were very paranoid

  Well, the last I heard of Arab

  He was stuck on a whale

  That was married to the deputy

  Sheriff of the jail

  But the funniest thing was

  When I was leavin’ the bay

  I saw three ships a-sailin’

  They were all heading my way

  I asked the captain what his name was

  And how come he didn’t drive a truck

  He said his name was Columbus

  I just said, “Good luck”

  GATES OF EDEN

  Of war and peace the truth just twists

  Its curfew gull just 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

 

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