Happy 75th Birthday Bob Dylan!
In before “Dylan Can’t Sing,”
I always laugh when thinking of Bob Dylan and the left. Yes, on most issues he is probably to the left. However, the great torch bearer for all the old 60’s hippies has been his own man. There’s a clip from the 90’s when he’s being interviewed before an awards ceremony and a reporter asked him about gun control and he said he believed everyone should be packing or something like that. Carlos Santana is next to him and you can see he’s extremely uncomfortable. That’s not the pat answer Bob!!
Infidels was a good album, but it would've been a great one had it included two songs from those same sessions in '83 -- "Foot of Pride" and "Blind Willie McTell," two of Bob's all-timers, imo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COsO-lPbKjg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC2roZjsv44
Both were eventually released in '91 on the Bootleg Series, Vols 1 - 3.
Happy 75th, Zimmy!
Neighborhood Bully was always one of my favorites. Years later I learned that it was about Israel.
“My Back Pages” one of my top 3 Dylan songs. The other two are “Like a Rolling Stone” and “To Make You Feel My Love”.
Bob Dylan - My Back Pages (From the 30th Anniversary Concert) with McQuinn, Clapton, Harrison and others. THE best version ever!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGEIMCWob3U
To Make You Feel My Love - Trisha Yearwood {HD}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idyK3Ws3zBU&list=FLLR0KZJRLxO4vVbc4-lAyjw&index=3
Another pro-Israel song from 1984: Neighborhood Bully
http://bobdylan.com/songs/neighborhood-bully/
Well, the neighborhood bully, hes just one man
His enemies say hes on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
Hes the neighborhood bully
The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
Hes criticized and condemned for being alive
Hes not supposed to fight back, hes supposed to have thick skin
Hes supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
Hes the neighborhood bully
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
Hes wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
Hes always on trial for just being born
Hes the neighborhood bully
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
Hes the neighborhood bully
Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That hell live by the rules that the world makes for him
Cause theres a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
Hes the neighborhood bully
He got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he dont get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he wont be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
Hes the neighborhood bully
Well, hes surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldnt hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
Hes the neighborhood bully
Every empire thats enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
Hes made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no ones command
Hes the neighborhood bully
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
Hes the neighborhood bully
Whats anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
Hes the neighborhood bully
What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully