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Bob Dylan Songs

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Allen Wynne has posted a really great Bob Dylan song in a thread called
A Taste of My Life.

I thought it would be a good idea to start a Bob Dylan thread since he's one of the top poets of our day.

Here is the first one. I'll also post Allen Wynne's later on today.

Ain’t No Man Righteous, No Not One
Written by: Bob Dylan

When a man he serves the Lord, it makes his life worthwhile
It don’t matter ’bout his position, it don’t matter ’bout his lifestyle
Talk about perfection, I ain’t never seen none
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one

Sometimes the devil likes to drive you from the neighborhood
He’ll even work his ways through those whose intentions are good
Some like to worship on the moon, others are worshipping the sun
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one

Look around, ya see so many social hypocrites
Like to make rules for others while they do just the opposite

You can’t get to glory by the raising and the lowering of no flag
Put your goodness next to God’s and it comes out like a filthy rag
In a city of darkness there’s no need of the sun
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one

Done so many evil things in the name of love, it’s a crying shame
I never did see no fire that could put out a flame

Pull your hat down, baby, pull the wool down over your eyes
Keep a-talking, baby, ’til you run right out of alibis
Someday you’ll account for all the deeds that you done
Well, there ain’t no man righteous, no not one

God got the power, man has got his vanity
Man gotta choose before God can set him free
Don’t you know there’s nothing new that’s under the sun?
Well, there ain’t no man righteous, no not one

When I’m gone don’t wonder where I be
Just say that I trusted in God and that Christ was in me
Say He defeated the devil, He was God’s chosen Son
And that there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Copyright Copyright © 1981 Special Rider Music
 
Here is Allen Wynne's post...

A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall
Bob Dylan

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son
And where have you been, my darling young one
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son
And what did you see, my darling young one
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warnin'
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
Oh, what did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded with hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
And the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
Songwriters: Bob Dylan
 
I thought it would be a good idea to start a Bob Dylan thread since he's one of the top poets of our day.

Wondering,

Dylan wrote some interesting lyrics and is an interesting character with an interesting
voice --- his voice has a "nasal quality" to it that is not unpleasant to the ear and his
music is certainly unique. Add all that to the "Dylan mystique" and you have a true
world-class musician known worldwide.

Wondering, I was wondering if you believe Bob Dylan is a born again Christian?

Years ago they ... said I was a prophet. I used to say, "No I'm not a prophet"
they say "Yes you are, you're a prophet." I said, "No it's not me." They used to
say "You sure are a prophet." They used to convince me I was a prophet.
Now I come out and say Jesus Christ is the answer. They say, "Bob Dylan's
no prophet." They just can't handle it [187]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan#Christian_period . . . . . .


Yet by 1984 . . .

By 1984, Dylan was distancing himself from the "born again" label. He told Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone magazine: "I've never said I'm born again. That's just a media term.

I don't think I've been an agnostic. I've always thought there's a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there's a world to come." In response to Loder's asking whether he belonged to any church or synagogue, Dylan laughingly replied, "Not really. Uh, the Church of the Poison Mind."[426] In 1997, he told David Gates of Newsweek:

Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else.

Songs like "Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain" or "I Saw the Light"—that's my religion. I don't adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I've learned more from the songs than I've learned from any of this kind of entity.

The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.[427]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan#Religious_beliefs

I hope and pray Dylan is a born again Christian and I'm sure you do too.

Do you have any thoughts about what I bolded red in that last quote block up there.?
 
"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-cracked 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, thought, 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 existence 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.
 
"All Along The Watchtower"

"There must be some kind of 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 will level on the line
Nobody 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's getting late."

All along the watchtower
Princes kept the view
While all the women came and went
Barefoot servants too
Outside in the cold distance
A wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching
And the wind began to howl, hey.
 
Wondering,

Dylan wrote some interesting lyrics and is an interesting character with an interesting
voice --- his voice has a "nasal quality" to it that is not unpleasant to the ear and his
music is certainly unique. Add all that to the "Dylan mystique" and you have a true
world-class musician known worldwide.

Wondering, I was wondering if you believe Bob Dylan is a born again Christian?


Yet by 1984 . . .

I hope and pray Dylan is a born again Christian and I'm sure you do too.

Do you have any thoughts about what I bolded red in that last quote block up there.?
Hi Jag,
Who can know for sure what a man's heart holds?
I remember when everyone was talking about Dylan being a born again believer.
He's a great poet and I feel like poets don't like to be boxed in. IOW, what would it mean to him to be a born again believer anyway?

Maybe he has his own way of understanding his relationship with our Lord.
With people like him, it's difficult to tell if their faith is long-lasting or if they're just going through a "phase".

I believe, due to the song you mentioned -- I Saw the Light -- that he did have some kind of life converting experience with God. He mentions Jesus.

Yes. I'd like to think that, no matter how he doesn't want to be labeled, I'd hope that he does know God. Most sensitive people do, in one way or another. OR they are die-hard atheists. So being that he mentions God, I'd put him in the first category.
That's an opinion. Only he and God know for sure.

Here's I Saw The Light. Kind of how we all felt when we got to know God.

I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin
I wouldn't let my dear savior in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the lord, I saw the light

I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the lord, I saw the light

Just like a blind man, I wandered alone
Worries and fears I claimed for my own
Then like the blind man that God gave back his sight
Praise the lord, I saw the light

I was a fool to wander and stray
For straight is the gate and narrow the way
Now I have traded the wrong for the right
Praise the lord, I saw the light

Songwriters
FRANCIS ROSSI/BOB YOUNG /


 
Hi Jag,
Who can know for sure what a man's heart holds?

Hi Wondering,
That's so true, only God can know the true thoughts and intents of the human heart.

I remember when everyone was talking about Dylan being a born again believer.

Me too. We used to sit around in what passed for "Starbucks" back then, sipping on caffeine
and chatting about this and that, and "Bob Dylan being born again" was one of the subjects.

He's a great poet and I feel like poets don't like to be boxed in.
He has written some interesting/fascinating lines, that's for sure.

IOW, what would it mean to him to be a born again believer anyway?
Probably not much. Its a theological term and it takes a little study and some interest to
find out what the Lord meant when he said a man had to be born again. By the way, I
recently discovered [at Bible Gateway] that a large number of orthodox translations
render John 3:3 as "you must be born from above" instead of "you must be born again.

" Its not an important matter to me, but I did find it interesting to discover "you must be
born from above" as one highly reputable translation. I note that my edition of the NIV
puts "born from above" as the alternative translation for John 3:3 and 3:7

With people like him, it's difficult to tell if their faith is long-lasting or if they're just going through a "phase".

That's so true.

I believe, due to the song you mentioned -- I Saw the Light -- that he did have some kind of life converting experience with God.

I hope he did. The Lord is compassionate and full of Grace and Mercy.

Here's I Saw The Light.

A beautiful and comforting song.

Thanks for your reply and for your thoughts.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the lyrics @JAG !

Here they are for anyone interested:

"I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine"

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive as you or me
Tearing through these quarters
In the utmost misery
With a blanket underneath his arm
And a coat of solid gold
Searching for the very souls
Whom already have been sold.

"Arise, arise", he cried so loud
With a voice without restraint
"Come out ye gifted kings and queens
And hear my sad complaint
No martyr is among ye now
Whom you can call your own
So go on your way accordingly
But know you're not alone".

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive with fiery breath
And I dreamed I was amongst the ones
That put him out to death
Oh, I awoke in anger
So alone and terrified
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried.
 
JAG ..

BTW,
Yes, I knew about the different translation for John 3:3
My NASB, which I trust very much, has Born Again.
The Young's Literal Translation has "Born From Above".
This would be literal, from the Greek.

Both mean the same thing...
Born from Above: Born of God's spirit.
Born Again: Born from flesh AND the spirit of God.
 
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