Words of encouragement from Bob Dylan

[JohnnyCougar]

MASTERS OF WAR

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

[milkyway]

1. It's still the greatest protest song ever written.

[cavanaghjam]

9. Universal Soldier

by Buffy St. Marie holds its own. In fact there are tons, now that I think about it. "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "Eve of Destruction", "Big Muddy" etc. Even "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" was a fierce anti war song before it got twisted round.

[garybeck]

16. agreed.

watch eddie vedder do it at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary concert. chilling.

[Eric J in MN]

2. We're supposed to feel encouraged by those lyrics? NT

NT

[JohnnyCougar]

4. Well, I guess it is encouraging to me to know that another generation

has gone through this too. I wan't alive during Vietnam, but both my parents were protestors then. My parents seem to have gotten complacent this time around though.

I hope the baby boomer generation comes through this time. They have a lot of economic power. If they can just remember the past...

[indigobusiness]

3. That puts it in a perspective this country won't face, but needs to.

If I could afford to, I'd take out a full page NYT ad with just those lyrics.

[JohnnyCougar]

5. Here's another good one.

I wish you people could hear my guitar!

WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE

Oh my name it is nothin'
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I's taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.

Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I's made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don't count the dead
When God's on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I've learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It's them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we're forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God's on your side.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feelin'
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God's on our side
He'll stop the next war.

[warbly]

6. irrelevant, but... my favorite dylan stanza

Someone's got in it for me
They're planting stories in the press

Whoever it is I wish they's cut it out quick
But when they will, I can only guess

They say I shot
a man named Gray
and took his wife
to Italy.

She inhereted
a million bucks
and when she died
it went to me

I can't help it
if I'm lucky....

Idiot Wind-Blood on the Tracks:)

[yellowdoggess]

7. Dylan's interview on 60 Minutes

Ed Bradley interviewed him and he was...strange but true to form. I think he has really struggled to have any sort of privacy over the past 40 years. I did get to see him and Willie Nelson live this summer. Thank God Dylan still plays concerts. A living icon and genius writer.

Wish I knew how to post a link to the interview...

[bluedonkey]

14. Bob Dylan

has a bad heart,he almost died a few years ago.That might explain his being out of sorts during the interview,but then,he never liked interviews that much.
Saw him a few years ago and couldn't believe all the lyrics I still remembered.He's still my fav.

[newyawker99]

18. Hi yellowdoggess!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[dweller]

8. here's another, since we are quoting lyrics. . .

Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams,
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
Cross the valleys and streams,
For they're deep and they're wide
And the world's on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride.

Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow,
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know.
Oh it's rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cow.

Ring them bells Sweet Martha,
For the poor man's son,
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one.
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep.

Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf,
Ring them bells for all of us who are left,
Ring them bells for the chosen few
Who will judge the many when the game is through.
Ring them bells, for the time that flies,
For the child that cries
When innocence dies.

Ring them bells St. Catherine
From the top of the room,
Ring them from the fortress
For the lilies that bloom.
Oh the lines are long
And the fighting is strong
And they're breaking down the distance
Between right and wrong.

http://bobdylan.com/songs/ring.html


Ring them bells for all of us who are Left,
Oh Mercy.
dp

[understandinglife]

10. From a different "Dylan" but perhaps what our franchise...

...of democracy will have to face, if we do not turn back the brutal, calculated attempt to kill it after 2 centuries and a bit more, of the legacy of all those who did not go 'gentle in that good night' as they gave all and more to preserve it....

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-- Dylan Thomas

Rage, oh America, rage against the dying of the light...oh America, rage and defeat the temptation to go gentle into that good night of totalitarian, theocratic, imperialistic dark, dark, deadly night.

We must prevail.

[warbly]

11. Rage, rage against the lying of the right

:)

[understandinglife]

13. Yes, indeed; and I'm not joking....

....the last time I recited that poem was standing at my father's grave.

Peace.

[JohnnyCougar]

15. AMEN!

[marylanddem]

12. So focused

Masters of war is such a focused angry amazing song. In the last few months I've heard it sung by a few different people & it is SO great. Bob Dylan - no one comes close.

[DianeD]

17. 60's

Hi. I’m 54 years old. Female. 3 children in their twenties. Husband died 8 years ago. I’ve always related more to music than to politics, but I feel that the purpose of music is to express how people really think and feel. “Folk Music” – an archaic concept, I guess. Music helped changed the world in the 60’s.

“Sounds of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel seems appropriate to this day and age and the stealing of the election. I have this weird feeling that the 60’s passion is becoming something that is reduced to something being read about in history books, and that is a mind blower to me. I hope the young people can and will grab onto the spirit of the 60’s. I guess I took it for granted that what was achieved would stay, but it’s a fight every day, I guess.

The Sound Of Silence

Hello darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again.
Because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while I was sleeping
and the vision that was planted in my brain still remains within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone, narrow streets of cobblestone
‘neath the halo of a street lamp, I turned my collar to the cold and damp
when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
that split the night and touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening.
People writing songs that voices never shared, no one dared disturb the sound of silence.

"Fools," said I, "you do not know, silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you, take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell and echoed in the wells of silence.

And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made
and the sign flashed out its warning in the words that it was forming.
And the sign said "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
and tenement halls and whispered in the sound of silence"

[momzno1]

19. one of my favorites is the Kinks

Some Mother's son is on the "Arthur" album and the music is so great, but the lyrics make me cry every time I hear them. Even reading them now I am all choked up. I have 2 sons. One is almost 18 and the other is 15 1/2..... That says it all. I cry for all mother's sons and daughter to die in such a pointless exercise of Macho bullshit.

Kinks - Some Mother's Son Lyrics
Some mother's son lies in a field
Someone has killed some mother's son today
Head blown up by some soldier's gun
While all the mothers stand and wait
Some mother's son ain't coming home today
Some mothers son ain't got no grave

Two soldiers fighting in a trench
One soldier glances up to see the sun
And dreams of games he played when he was young
And then his friend calls out his name
It stops his dream and as he turns his head
A second later he is dead

Some mother's son lies in a field
Back home they put his picture in a frame
But all dead soldiers look the same
While all the parents stand and wait
To meet their children coming home from school
Some mother's son is lying dead

Somewhere someone is crying
Someone is trying to be so brave
But still the world keeps turning
Though all the children have gone away

Some mother's son lies in a field
But in his mother's eyes he looks the same
As on the day he went away

They put his picture on the wall
They put flowers in the picture frame
Some mothers memory remains

[thanatonautos]

20. Thanks for posting this one.

I'm about ten years younger than you.

I love this song. I can hear the music perfectly,
whenever I read the lyrics.

It's a song whose speaker is an alienated young
intellectual male. The time is 1964-1965, he's
woken up to the horror that's developing in Vietnam,
he's wandering the streets of Boston and reflecting
on the utter indifference of the vast majority of
USAians to what's happening. It's not an antiwar
song, per se. But that is the subtext.

It's perfect for our time. While many have said of
this song that it's `sophomoric,' it's one of my
favourites from the period.

Sure, the sadness is possibly overstated, because
the authors are young and vital. But, looking beyond their
fashionable depression, they've put their fingers
on something real about American society: we actually
do bow to neon gods. They've noticed that words can
have only a very limited effect on reality. Nevertheless,
I think their words mattered. They helped to create a
collective mood, which persisted for a very long
time.

That's why I could still grow to love the song, even
though I wasn't their age until the late seventies.

[Farmgirl]

21. Awile back, I listened to this old Tracy Chapman song...

it seemed so appropo to the times -- I guess any times, sadly enough:

Why? by Tracy Chapman (1988)

Why do the babies starve
When there's enough food to feed the world
Why when there're so many of us
Are there people still alone

Why are the missiles called peace keepers
When they're aimed to kill
Why is a woman still not safe
When she's in her home

Love is hate
War is peace
No is yes
And we're all free

But somebody's gonna have to answer
The time is coming soon
Admidst all these questions and contradictions
There're some who seek the truth

But somebody's gonna have to answer
The time is coming soon
When the blind remove their blinders
And the speechless speak the truth

---------------

And of course there's also this one:

Talkin' Bout a Revolution

Don't you know
They're talkin' bout a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
Don't you know
They're talkin' about a revolution
It sounds like a whisper
While they're standing in the welfare lines
Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation
Wasting time in the unemployment lines
Sitting around waiting for a promotion

Poor people gonna rise up
And get their share
Poor people gonna rise up
And take what's theirs

Don't you know
You better run, run, run...
Oh I said you better
Run, run, run...

Finally the tables are starting to turn
Talkin' bout a revolution

[Vinnie From Indy]

22. More Dylan Genius

I am disgusted to read of the way Veterans returning from Iraq are being treated. Draft Young Republicans!

John Brown

John Brown went off to war to fight on a foreign shore.
His mama sure was proud of him!
He stood straight and tall in his uniform and all.
His mama's face broke out all in a grin.

"Oh son, you look so fine, I'm glad you're a son of mine,
You make me proud to know you hold a gun.
Do what the captain says, lots of medals you will get,
And we'll put them on the wall when you come home."

As that old train pulled out, John's ma began to shout,
Tellin' ev'ryone in the neighborhood:
"That's my son that's about to go, he's a soldier now, you know."
She made well sure her neighbors understood.

She got a letter once in a while and her face broke into a smile
As she showed them to the people from next door.
And she bragged about her son with his uniform and gun,
And these things you called a good old-fashioned war.

Oh! Good old-fashioned war!

Then the letters ceased to come, for a long time they did not come.
They ceased to come for about ten months or more.
Then a letter finally came saying, "Go down and meet the train.
Your son's a-coming home from the war."

She smiled and went right down, she looked everywhere around
But she could not see her soldier son in sight.
But as all the people passed, she saw her son at last,
When she did she could hardly believe her eyes.

Oh his face was all shot up and his hand was all blown off
And he wore a metal brace around his waist.
He whispered kind of slow, in a voice she did not know,
While she couldn't even recognize his face!

Oh! Lord! Not even recognize his face.

"Oh tell me, my darling son, pray tell me what they done.
How is it you come to be this way?"
He tried his best to talk but his mouth could hardly move
And the mother had to turn her face away.

"Don't you remember, Ma, when I went off to war
You thought it was the best thing I could do?
I was on the battleground, you were home . . . acting proud.
You wasn't there standing in my shoes."

"Oh, and I thought when I was there, God, what am I doing here?
I'm a-tryin' to kill somebody or die tryin'.
But the thing that scared me most was when my enemy came close
And I saw that his face looked just like mine."

Oh! Lord! Just like mine!

"And I couldn't help but think, through the thunder rolling and stink,
That I was just a puppet in a play.
And through the roar and smoke, this string is finally broke,
And a cannon ball blew my eyes away."

As he turned away to walk, his Ma was still in shock
At seein' the metal brace that helped him stand.
But as he turned to go, he called his mother close
And he dropped his medals down into her hand.



Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

[Slit Skirt]

23. thanks Johnny Cougar

I love that song, those lyrics and that man
saw him twice....once in the 70's and just recently....

we really could use a voice like his right now

[myschkin]

24. Who

informs Dylan? So he can sing again...

http://www.1-2-free-forums.com/mf/index.php?mforum=mtf

(Media Action Forum)