Amazing Dylan lyrics on Israel

1983 | dylan

[dennisw]

The Neighborhood Bully
by Bob Dylan - 1983

[agrace]

This certainly deserves a bump.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

This is going to lose a lot of his Hollywood friends for him.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

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

[KC_Conspirator]

Bump

[kjam22]

I bet he doesn't disavow it. He's never been to concerned about what people thought about him.... or his music.

[RobRoy]

BOOKMARK BUMP

[FreeTally]

I think 1983 may have been during Dylans "Christian conversion" period.

Also, I don't think he has really ever been in with the "Hollywood" crowd. He has always been somewhat reclusive. And, he is Jewish.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Isn't Dylan like a born-again Christian or something? Maybe he isn't (technically), but I seem to recall that he went through some kind of "religious" period not too long ago.

[nd76]

Bob Dylan is Jewish (his given name was something like Robert Zimmerman). And, apparently, he is not a self-hating Jew. That may help to explain this interesting piece of music.

[kjam22]

Yep. The song came out on "Infidels". Same album that has Jokerman.

A person not familiar with it can go to cdnow, or cdconnection and probably hear 30 seconds of it. It's a rocker.

[dennisw]

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.

[kjam22]

He did write several faith based albums. Like gospel with a Dylan edge.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Excellent, thanks! The beginning can be heard on Real Audio or Windows media player here:

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/ bully.html

[DoughtyOne]

Tanks Dennis. It's kind of a tough read, but the sentiment is in there, and it's dead on.

[kjam22]

Nice link. Dylan is my alltime favorite artist. :)

[Beau Schott]

Arabic Mein Kampf sells in PA areas, London

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/03/19/LatestNews/LatestNews.45493.html 

Arabic-language copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf are on sale at newsstands on London's Edgware Road, which has a large Arab population, and has become a bestseller in Palestinian Authority-controlled territory, the British Daily Telegraph reported. 

Bavaria's state government claims the copyright to the book, and has tried to stop its publication.  The Arab edition, published by a Lebanon-based company, has a picture of Hitler and a swastika on the cover. Translator Luis al-Haj writes in his foreword that "National Socialism did not die with the death of its herald, rather, its seeds multiply under each star."

[LarryLied]

Dylan is a child of Emma Goldman and Abraham Maslow, the godparents of the 60s radicals. Maybe he's changed but few of them ever did.

[proust]

Bob Dylan Bump!

It amazes me how the song is almost 20 years old and the lyrics still apply to today. He caught some flack when he came out with the song, not a popular sentiment at the time, but he has only disowned one song in his career. ("Ballad in plain D") Bully is a great song no matter what religion the songwriter is.

Proust