If there's anything as fun as listening to Bob Dylan sing this song, it's hearing Johnny Cash holler it out.
"In 1992 Bob said regarding it: ‘Every grain of sand was an excellent song. A very painless song to write. It took like twelve seconds or that’s how it felt.’ To me, it sounds like the song was inspired. The song has deep and reflective lyrics about man and his life and relationship with the Divine. It also has a beautiful melody that works well with or without the harmonica, though I prefer it with the harmonica". - Andrew Kenny
"Long-Distance Operator" Long-distance operator Place this call, it's not for fun Long-distance operator Please, place this call, you know it's not for fun I gotta give a message to my baby You know, she's not just anyone. There are thousands in the phone booth Thousands at the gate There are thousands in the phone booth Thousands at the gate Ev'rybody wants to make a long-distance call But you know they're just gonna have to wait. If a call comes from Louisiana Please, let it rise If a call comes from Louisiana Please, let it rise This phone booth's on fire It's getting hot inside. Ev'rybody wants to be my friend But nobody wants to get higher Ev'rybody wants to be my friend But nobody wants to get higher Long-distance operator I believe I'm stranglin' on this telephone wire.
Fortunate Son by CCR was another good one but I was always for the troops and like you against the war.
He is one of the greatest song writers along with Rogers and Hammerstein ,imf course there were 2 of them.
"It is one of the great questions of our time. How many roads must a man walk down? Before you can call him a man, that is. Bob Dylan posed it in his 1962 song ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, and left us to ponder its very unanswerability." "Some have tried to answer it, however. Douglas Adams, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has Frankie the mouse suggest that that the mystifying answer to the question of life, the universe and everything – forty-two – could more reassuringly be the answer to Dylan’s question. “Sounds very significant without actually tying you down to meaning anything at all.” Forty-two roads; a challenge, but achievable." (READ MORE) Illustration to ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, via Halcyon Gallery
"You know, I like to do just like the rest You know, I like my sugar sweet But jumping queues and making haste You know, it ain’t my cup of meat Everybody’s out there" Bob Dylan, Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn),London 11/23/03 LYRICS
Dylan's lyrics meshed easily with my own brand of existential angst when I was 15 or 16. When your mother sends back all your invitations And your father to your sister, he explains That you're tired of yourself and all of your creations Won't you come see me Queen Jane Won't you come see me Queen Jane
[ This must have been mentioned already, but I can't find it. ] Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1973) Written by Bob Dylan for the soundtrack of the movie Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid "Described by Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin as 'an exercise in splendid simplicity', the song features two short verses, the lyrics of which comment directly on the scene in the film for which it was written: the death of a frontier lawman who refers to his wife as Mama." Mama, take this badge off of me I can't use it anymore It's getting dark, too dark to see I feel I'm knockin' on Heaven's door Mama, put my guns in the ground I can't shoot them anymore That long black cloud is coming down I feel I'm knockin' on Heaven's door The scene with Katy Jurado and Slim Pickens is so sad to watch, but I keep watching it. [ Reminds me of the joke that starts out..."Doc, it hurts when I do this" ] (better viewed on YouTube) Full song, both verses Original Version . . .