Amazing Dylan lyrics on Israel

1983 | dylan

[dennisw]

 

 

Amazing Dylan lyrics on Israel. Must read the entire lyrics.
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The Neighborhood Bully
by Bob Dylan - 1983

Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's 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.
He's the neighborhood bully.

 Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
 He's the neighborhood bully.

He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.

Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,
In bed with nobody, under no one's command.
 He's 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.
He's the neighborhood bully.

What's 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.
He's 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.

[PhilDragoo]

When Dylan was in Kindergarten, his family moved to his mother's hometown of Hibbing, a mining town about 75 miles north of Duluth in the Mesabi iron ore range. After living briefly with relatives, they settled into a home on the corner of Seventh Avenue and 25th Street, where Dylan spent the remainder of his youth and high school years.

[LarryLied]

Small world isn't it? Finnish socialists held summer festivals in Hibbing in the early part of the 20th century.

[2sheep]

Thanks for interesting link above.  Here's a snip of it.

 Bob Dylan's lyrics and biblical allusion -- excerpt:

Dylan was born and raised in a Jewish family. He became a born-again Christian in 1979, "studying the Bible at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship school in California" (Biography 4). It is said that in 1983 he "joined an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect, Lubavitcher Hasidim," but I think it more likely that he studied with a Rabbi from the sect than that he actually joined it (Biography 4). There has been some debate as to whether or not Dylan is still a Christian. I think James W. Earl says it well in his article, "Beyond Desire: The Conversion of Bob Dylan":

"Those who follow Dylan primarily through rumor or the press often ask if he hasn’t gone back to being a Jew, but the question is wrong. After the first flush of his rebirth he rediscovered and reabsorbed his Jewishness in new and personal ways."  (53-54)

So the question was wrong.  Who should convert?  Jews or Christians?  Who is most in error?  Likely the Christians.  God, faithful to His promises, turns from the apostate Christians and restores Israel.  See 72 and on another thread, 30 and Thinkin' Gal's post 39.

Jer 16:19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

[LarryLied]

I didn't realize it was written in 1983. I bet he disavows it if it suddenly becomes popular.

Bob Dylan wrote another song in 1983: "Julius and Ethel":

Now that they are gone, you know, the truth it can be told;
They were sacrificial lambs in the market place sold --
Julius and Ethel, Julius and Ethel.

Now that they are gone, you know, the truth it can come out;
They were never proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt --
Julius and Ethel, Julius and Ethel...(snip)

Eisenhower was president, Senator Joe was king;
Long as you didn't say nothing you could say anything --
Julius and Ethel, Julius and Ethel.

Now some they blamed the system, some they blamed the man;
Now that it is over, no one knows how it began --
Julius and Ethel, Julius and Ethel.

Every kingdom got to fall, even the Third Reich;
Man can do what he pleases but not for as long as he like --
Julius and Ethel, Julius and Ethel.

Well, they say they gave the secrets of the atom bomb away;
Like no one else could think of it, it wouldn't be here today --
Julius and Ethel, Julius and Ethel.

Now that the Venona transcripts are declassified and the KGB archives have been made public we know the Rosenbergs were even more guilty than thought (Julius gave the Soviets a working model of a proximity fuse which killed American troops huddled in their foxholes in Korea), I wonder if Bob Dylan has recanted what he wrote?

Nah... lefties never apologizes for the damage they do. Forget the politics, forget the damage, he wrote such nice songs. Even better than Puff Daddy's.

[pariah]

My favorite is "The Ballad of Hattie Carroll," a heartbreaking song about the murder of a black hotel maid.

Funny, that lyric has been running through my head lately, though it's been over 30 years since I must have last heard it.

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll - by Bob Dylan
William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll,
With a cane that he twirled 'round his diamond ring finger....

In the courtoom of justice, the judge pounded his gavel,
to show that all's honest and that the courts are on the level,
and handed out sternly for penalty and repentance,
William Zanzinger with a six month sentence.

And you who philosophize disgrace,
and criticize all fear.
Bury the rag deep in your face,
Now's the time for your tears.

Dylan - the master of sarcasm! This is truly heart-wrenching, as you said. It's in the same vein as The Ballad of Hollis Brown. Supposedly, it is based on a true story. But then, so is Ballad of the Hurricane, about the 'unjust' sentence for Rubin Carter, ex-prizefighter, yet everything reliable I have heard says he was guilty. But true or not, you would have to be made of stone to listen to these songs and not be moved.

[pariah]

Well, he did allow himself to get badgered into writing "Hurricane"

Interesting. What's the skinny on this?

[Prodigal Daughter]

I have 3 small gardenia bushes that I planted on the back wall of the house. The smallest one is only a foot high, the largest one about 3 feet tall. One day I was watering the yard and snapped off the smallest one from stretching the garden hose against it, breaking it where it met the ground. I almost threw it away because it was hanging on by just a thin thread of wood and already suffering from a month with high heat and hardly any rain. I decided I'd prop it up with some rocks and see if it would stay in place. It started blooming almost immediately and is still growing strong. The other two don't have any flowers yet and they lost some of their leaves.

[dennisw]

 

Now that the Venona transcripts are declassified and the KGB archives have been made public we know the Rosenbergs were even more guilty than thought (Julius gave the Soviets a working model of a proximity fuse which killed American troops huddled in their foxholes in Korea), I wonder if Bob Dylan has recanted what he wrote?

He certainly won't be "recanting" it for the Israel hating/Jew obsessed likes of you. Quick Lar!!! For $5,000, what Dylan album is this tune on?

[L.N. Smithee]

I heard this on AOR radio when it first came out, and immediately recognized the bully as a metaphor for Israel. When I saw the thread title, I thought, "Did he record a follow-up to 'Neighborhood Bully?'

Just think...Dylan recorded that almost two decades ago and it rings just as true today. What a shame.

[lavaroise]

The neighborhood "bully" is proving there is no protected jurisdiction.

[lavaroise]

Nah... lefties never apologizes for the damage they do. Forget the politics, forget the damage, he wrote such nice songs. Even better than Puff Daddy's.

Like you allow others to coax yourself to appologize for your glaring error as a life. Yours is in fact typical hypocritical leftists socialist rant.

[Cachelot]

I wonder if Bob Dylan has recanted what he wrote?

Who knows? If everyone is to recant every idiocy they spout, you'll have to recant the rest of your life, Mr. Lied.

For that matter, were I your mother, I'd recant your birth.

[Cachelot]

Good point Larry. Dylan's politics are execrable.

Hey pinhead, I don't think we need an Englishman lecturing on execrable politics.

Are you active in English politics? Are you trying to get your ridiculous and evil gun-ban removed, for example? Probably not.

Btw, do you even know anything about Dylan's current politics, if any?

Oh, and your literary taste s*ck. Everyone knows that The Night Land can't hold a candle to The House on the Borderland :)).

[Cachelot]

As for Dylan, he's been a goddam lefty all his life

I don't think you can really classify him as a lefty - at any point in his life. I'm looking at a thirty year timespan, and I'd be hard pressed to find a political direction at all. He has said things that would be taken to heart by the left and by the right. They mostly have in common that he was right.

In fact, he has always seemed to make a point of NOT being political.

Politics is an instrument of the Devil, politics is what kills, politics is corrupt. (Dylan 1985, From "No Direction Home" by Robert Shelton)

Make something religious and people don't have to deal with it, they can say it's irrelevant. (Biograph, booklet, 1985)

[Cachelot]

THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND is to THE NIGHT LAND much as STAR MAKER is to LAST AND FIRST MEN.

Hehehehe. If he hadn't botched it with the language :)).

[MomwithHope]

About 5 years ago, maybe more, Dylan did a private concert for Pope John Paul II, who liked his music. The Pope said his "Blowin in the Wind" song reminded him of the Holy Spirit.