A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

[me b zola]

....

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, 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,
And 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, it 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,
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

....

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

[villager]

1. Yup. I posted these exact same lyrics here myself one night, a couple months

...back.

Perhaps Dylan's most haunting song?

[MnFats]

2. and do you recall how the lyrics were used in the late /60s?

a very special use...

[me b zola]

4. I was listening to him last night as I was reading DU

Song after song brought me to the edge of tears.

Of the Dylan songs that I am familar with, I would agree that this is the most haunting. Didn't Dylan come out with it just before JFK's assassination?

[ellisonz]

3. My favorite lyrics:

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',