It’s a long way down and I don’t want to be forced
Into a life of continual crime
I can see for myself that the sun is sinking
O’er the banks of the deep blue sea
Tell me, am I wrong in thinking
That you have forgotten me
Now they worry and they hurry and they fuss and they fret
They waste your nights and days
Them, I will forget
You, I’ll remember always
It’s a cold black night and it’s midsummer’s eve
And the stars are spinning around
I still find it so hard to believe
That someone would kick me when I’m down
Meet me at the bottom, don’t lag behind
Bring me my boots and shoes
You can hang back or fight your best on the front line
Sing a little bit of these workingman’s blues
I’ll be back home in a month or two
When the frost is on the vine
I’ll punch my spear right straight through
Half-ways down your spine
I’ll lift up my arms to the starry skies
And pray the fugitive’s prayer
I’m guessing tomorrow the sun will rise
I hope the final judgment’s fair
The battle is over up in the hills
And the mist is closing in
Look at me, with all of my spoils
What did I ever win?
Gotta brand new suit and a brand new wife
I can live on rice and beans
Some people never worked a day in their life
They don’t know what work even means
Meet me at the bottom, don’t lag behind
Bring me my boots and shoes
You can hang back or fight your best on the front line
Sing a little bit of these workingman’s blues
AIN’T TALKIN’
As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden
The wounded flowers were dangling from the vines
I was passing by yon cool and crystal fountain
Someone hit me from behind
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Through this weary world of woe
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
No one on earth would ever know
They say prayer has the power to help
So pray for me mother
In the human heart an evil spirit can dwell
I’m trying to love my neighbor and do good unto others
But oh, mother, things ain’t going well
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
I’ll burn that bridge before you can cross
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
They’ll be no mercy for you once you’ve lost
Now I’m all worn down by weepin’
My eyes are filled with tears, my lips are dry
If I catch my opponents ever sleepin’
I’ll just slaughter them where they lie
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Through a world mysterious and vague
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Walking through the cities of the plague
The whole world is filled with speculation
The whole wide world which people say is round
They will tear your mind away from contemplation
They will jump on your misfortune when you’re down
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Eatin’ hog-eyed grease in hog-eyed town
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Someday you’ll be glad to have me around
They will crush you with wealth and power
Every waking moment you could crack
I’ll make the most of one last extra hour
I’ll avenge my father’s death then I’ll step back
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Hand me down my walkin’ cane
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Got to get you out of my miserable brain
It’s bright in the heavens and the wheels are flying
Fame and honor never seem to fade
The fire’s gone out but the light is never dying
Who says I can’t get heavenly aid?
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Carrying a dead man’s shield
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Walkin’ with a toothache in my heel
The suffering is unending
I’m not playing, I’m not pretending
I’m not nursing any superfluous fears
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Walkin’ ever since the other night
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
Walkin’ ’til I’m clean out of sight
As I walked out in the mystic garden
On a hot summer day, hot summer lawn
Excuse me, ma’am, I beg your pardon
There’s no one here, the gardener is gone
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Up the road around the bend
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
In the last outback, at the world’s end
BEYOND HERE LIES NOTHIN’
(with Robert Hunter)
I love you pretty baby
You’re the only love I’ve ever known
Just as long as you stay with me
The whole world is my throne
Beyond here lies nothin’
Nothin’ we can call our own
I’m movin’ after midnight
Down boulevards of broken cars
Don’t know what I’d do without it
Without this love that we call ours
Beyond here lies nothin’
Nothin’ but the moon and stars
Down every street there’s a window
And every window made of glass
We’ll keep on lovin’ pretty baby
For as long as love will last
Beyond here lies nothin’
But the mountains of the past
My ship is in the harbor
And the sails are spread
Listen to me pretty baby
Lay your hand upon my head
Beyond here lies nothin’
Nothin’ done and nothin’ said
THIS DREAM OF YOU
How long can I stay in this nowhere café
’Fore night turns into day
I wonder why I’m so frightened of dawn
All I have and all I know
Is this dream of you
Which keeps me living on
There’s a moment when all old things
Become new again
But that moment might have been here and gone
All I have and all I know
Is this dream of you
Which keeps me living on
I look away, but I keep seeing it
I don’t want to believe, but I keep believing it
Shadows dance upon the wall
Shadows that seem to know it all
Am I too blind to see?
Is my heart playing tricks on me?
Too late to stop now even though all my friends are gone
All I have and all I know
Is this dream of you
Which keeps me living on
Everything I touch seems to disappear
Everywhere I turn you are always here
I’ll run this race until my earthly death
I’ll defend this place with my dying breath
From a cheerless room in a curtained gloom
I saw a star from heaven fall
I turned and looked again but it was gone
All I have and all I know
Is this dream of you
Which keeps me living on
LONG AND WASTED YEARS
It’s been such a lon
g, long time
Since we loved each other and our hearts were true
One time, for one brief day
I was the man for you
Last night I heard you talking in your sleep
Saying things you shouldn’t say
Oh, baby
You just might have to go to jail some day
Is there a place we can go?
Is there anybody we can see?
Maybe what’s right for you
Isn’t really right for me
I ain’t seen my family in twenty years
They may be dead by now
I lost track of them after they lost their land
Shake it up baby, twist and shout
You tell me what it’s all about
What you doing out in the sun anyway?
Don’t you know the sun can burn your brains right out?
My enemy slammed into the earth
I don’t know what he was worth
But he lost it all, everything and more
What a blithering fool he took me for
I wear dark glasses to cover my eyes
There’re secrets in them I can’t disguise
Come back, baby
If I hurt your feelings, I apologize
Two trains running side by side
Forty miles wide down the Eastern line
You don’t have to go, I just came to you
Because you’re a friend of mine
I think when my back was turned
The whole world behind me burned
Maybe today, if not today, maybe tomorrow
Maybe there’ll be a limit on all my sorrow
We cried on a cold and frosty morn’
We cried because our souls were torn
So much for tears
So much for those long and wasted years
PAY IN BLOOD
Well I’m grinding my life away, steady and sure
Nothing more wretched than what I must endure
I’m drenched in the light that shines from the sun
I could stone you to death for the wrongs that you done
Sooner or later you’ll make a mistake
I’ll put you in a chain that you never can break
Legs and arms and body and bone
I pay in blood, but not my own
Night after night, day after day
They strip your useless hopes away
The more I take, the more I give
The more I die, the more I live
I got something in my pocket make your eyeballs swim
I got dogs that could tear you limb to limb
I’m circling around in the southern zone
I pay in blood, but not my own
Another politician pumping out his piss
Another ragged beggar blowin’ ya a kiss
Life is short and it don’t last long
They’ll hang you in the morning and sing ya a song
Someone must have slipped a drug in your wine
You gulped it down and you lost your mind
My head so hard, it must be made of stone
I pay in blood, but not my own
How I made it back home nobody knows
Or how I survived so many blows
I been through hell, what good did it do?
My conscience is clear, what about you?
I’ll give you justice, I’ll fatten your purse
Show me your moral virtues first
Hear me holler, hear me moan
I pay in blood but not my own
You bit your lover in the bed
Come here I’ll break your lousy head
Our nation must be saved and freed
You been accused of murder, how do you plead?
This is how I spend my days
I came to bury not to praise
I’ll drink my fill and sleep alone
I pay in blood, but not my own
SCARLET TOWN
In Scarlet Town where I was born
There’s ivy leaf and silver thorn
The streets have names you can’t pronounce
Gold is down to a quarter of an ounce
The music starts and the people sway
Everybody says, are you going my way?
Uncle Tom still working for Uncle Bill
Scarlet Town is under the hill
Scarlet Town in the month of May
Sweet William on his deathbed lay
Mistress Mary by the side of the bed
Kissing his face, heaping prayers on his head
So brave, so true, so gentle is he
I’ll weep for him as he’d weep for me
Little Boy Blue come blow your horn
In Scarlet Town where I was born
Scarlet Town in the hot noon hours
There’s palm leaf shadows and scattered flowers
Beggars crouching at the gate
Help comes but it comes too late
On marble slabs and in fields of stone
You make your humble wishes known
I touched the garment but the hem was torn
In Scarlet Town where I was born
In Scarlet Town the end is near
The seven wonders of the world are here
The evil and the good living side by side
All human forms seem glorified
Put your heart on a platter and see who’ll bite
See who’ll hold you and kiss you good night
There’s walnut groves and maple wood
In Scarlet Town crying won’t do you no good
In Scarlet Town you fight your father’s foes
Up on the hill a chilly wind blows
You fight ’em on high and you fight ’em down in
You fight ’em with whisky, morphine and gin
You got legs that can drive men mad
A lot of things we didn’t do that I wish we had
In Scarlet Town the sky is clear
You’ll wish to God that you stayed right here
Set ’em up Joe, play Walking The Floor
Play it for my flat chested junkie whore
I’m staying up late and I’m making amends
While the smile of heaven descends
If love is a sin then beauty is a crime
All things are beautiful in their time
The black and the white, the yellow and the brown
It’s all right there for ya in Scarlet Town
EARLY ROMAN KINGS
All the early Roman Kings in their sharkskin suits
Bowties and buttons, high top boots
Driving the spikes in, blazing the rails
Nailed in their coffins in top hats and tails
Fly away little bird, fly away, flap your wings
Fly by night like the early Roman Kings
All the early Roman Kings in the early, early morn’
Coming down the mountain, distributing the corn
Speeding through the forest, racing down the track
You try to get away, they drag you back
Tomorrow is Friday, we’ll see what it brings
Everybody’s talking ’bout the early Roman Kings
They’re peddlers and they’re meddlers, they buy and they sell
They destroyed your city, they’ll destroy you as well
They’re lecherous and treacherous, hell bent for leather
Each of them bigger than all men put together
Sluggers and muggers wearing fancy gold rings
All the women going crazy for the early Roman Kings
I’ll dress up your wounds with a blood clotted rag
I ain’t afraid to make love to a bitch or a hag
If you see me coming and you’re standing there
Wave your handkerchief in the air
I ain’t dead yet, my bell still rings
I keep my fingers crossed like the early Roman Kings
I’ll
strip you of life, strip you of breath
Ship you down to the house of death
One day you will ask for me
There’ll be no one else that you’ll want to see
Bring down my fiddle, tune up my strings
Gonna break it wide open like the early Roman Kings
I was up on black mountain the day Detroit fell
They killed them all off and they sent them to hell
Ding Dong Daddy, you’re coming up short
Gonna put you on trial in a Sicilian court
I’ve had my fun, I’ve had my flings
Gonna shake ’em all down like the early Roman Kings
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BOB DYLAN has released thirty-eight studio albums, which collectively have sold over 120 million copies around the world. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature and has been awarded the French Legion of Honor, a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. His memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, spent a year on the New York Times bestseller list.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Bob-Dylan
We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster ebook.
* * *
Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.
INDEX OF PUBLISHERS AND COPYRIGHT DATES
AIN’T TALKIN’ Copyright © 2006 by Special Rider Music
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER Copyright © 1968 by Dwarf Music; renewed 1996 by Dwarf Music
BALLAD OF A THIN MAN Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music
BALLAD OF HOLLIS BROWN Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music
BEYOND HERE LIES NOTHIN’ (with Robert Hunter) Copyright © 2009 by Special Rider Music and Ice Nine Publishing
BILLY Copyright © 1972 by Ram’s Horn Music; renewed 2000 by Ram’s Horn Music
BLIND WILLIE McTELL Copyright © 1983 by Special Rider Music
BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND Copyright © 1962 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1990 by Special Rider Music
BOB DYLAN’S 115th DREAM Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music