- Song Title:“Father Of Night”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
Father of night, Father of day,
Father, who taketh the darkness away,
Father, who teacheth the bird to fly,
Builder of rainbows up in the sky,
Father of loneliness and pain,
Father of love and Father of rain.
Father of day, Father of night,
Father of black, Father of white,
Father, who build the mountain so high,
Who shapeth the cloud up in the sky,
Father of time, and Father of dreams,
Father, who turneth the rivers and streams.
Father of grain, Father of wheat,
Father of cold and Father of heat,
Father of air and Father of trees,
Who dwells in our hearts and our memories,
Father of minutes, Father of days,
Father of whom we most solemnly praise.
- Song Title:“The Mighty Quinn”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
Ev’rybody’s building the big ships and the boats,
Some are building monuments,
Others, jotting down notes,
Ev’rybody’s in despair,
Ev’ry girl and boy
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
Ev’rybody’s gonna jump for joy.
Come all without, come all within,
You’ll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn.
I like to do just like the rest, I like my sugar sweet,
But guarding fumes and making haste,
It ain’t my cup of meat.
Ev’rybody’s ‘neath the trees,
Feeding pigeons on a limb
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
All the pigeons gonna run to him.
Come all without, come all within,
You’ll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn.
A cat’s meow and a cow’s moo, I can recite ‘em all,
Just tell me where it hurts yuh, honey,
And I’ll tell you who to call.
Nobody can get no sleep,
There’s someone on ev’ryone’s toes
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
Ev’rybody’s gonna wanna doze.
Come all without, come all within,
You’ll not see nothing like the mighty Quinn.
- Song Title:“The Boxer”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
I am just a poor boy
Though my story’s seldom told
I have squadered my resistance
For a pocketful of mumbles
Such are promises, all lies and jest
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.
When I left my home and family
I was no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station
Running scared, laying low
Seeking out the poorer quarters
Where the ragged people go
Looking for the places only they would know.
Asking only workman’s wages
I come looking for a job
But I get no offers
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare
There were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there.
Now the years go rushing by me
they are rocking evenly
I am older than I once was,
but I’m younger than I’ll be, that’s not unusual.
No it isn’t strange.
After changes upon changes we are more, or less the same.
After changes we are more, or less the same.
Then I’m laying out my winter clothes
And wishing I was gone, going home
Where the New York City winters aren’t bleeding me
Leading me
Going home.
In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders
Of every glove that laid him down
And cut him till he cried out
In his anger and his shame
“I am leaving, I am leaving”
But the fighter still remains.
- Song Title:“Take Me As I Am”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
Why must you always try to make me over ?
Take me as I am or let me go
White lilies never grow on stalks of clover
Take me as I am or let me go.
You’re trying to reshape me in a moment
In the image of someone you used to know
I won’t be a stand-in for an old love
Take me as I am or let me go.
You’ve tried to change me ever since you’ve met me
Take me as I am or let me go.
If you cannot overlook my faults, forget me
Take me as I am or let me go.
You’re trying to reshape me in a mould love
In the image of someone you used to know
But I won’t be a stand-in for an old love
Take me as I am or let me go.
- Song Title:“Take A Message To Mary”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
These are the words of a frontier man
Who lost his love when he turned bad.
Take a message to Mary
But don’t tell here where I am
Take a message to Mary
But don’t say I’m in a jam
You can tell her that I had to see the world
Tell her that my ship set sail
You can say she’d better not wait for me
But don’t tell her I’m in jail, oh don’t tell her I’m in jail.
Take a message to Mary
But don’t tell her what I’ve done
Please, don’t mention the stage coach
And the shot from a carried gun
You better tell her that I had to change my plans
And cancel out the wedding-day
But please, don’t mention the lonely cell
Where I’m gonna pine away, until my dying-day.
Take a message to Mary
But don’t tell her all you know
My heart is aching for Mary
Lord know I miss her so
Just tell her that I went to Timbukto
Tell her I’m searching for gold
You can say she better find someone new
To cherish and to hold, oh Lord, this cell is so cold.
- Song Title:“She Belongs To Me”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
She’s got everything she needs,
She’s an artist, she don’t look back.
She’s got everything she needs,
She’s an artist, she don’t look back.
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black.
You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees.
You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees.
But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole
Down upon your knees.
She never stumbles,
She’s got no place to fall.
She never stumbles,
She’s got no place to fall.
She’s nobody’s child,
The Law can’t touch her at all.
She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks.
She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks.
She’s a hypnotist collector,
You are a walking antique.
Bow down to her on Sunday,
Salute her when her birthday comes.
Bow down to her on Sunday,
Salute her when her birthday comes.
For Halloween buy her a trumpet
And for Christmas, give her a drum.
- Song Title:“Minstrel Boy”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?
Who’s gonna let it roll?
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?
Who’s gonna let it down easy to save his soul?
Oh, Lucky’s been drivin’ a long, long time
And now he’s stuck on top of the hill.
With twelve forward gears, it’s been a long hard climb,
And with all of them ladies, though, he’s lonely still.
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?
Who’s gonna let it roll?
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?
Who’s gonna let it down easy to save his soul?
Well, he deep in number and heavy in toil,
Mighty Mockingbird, he still has such a heavy load.
Beneath his bound’ries, what more can I tell,
With all of his trav’lin’, but I’m still on that road.
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?
Who’s gonna let it roll?
Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin?
Who’s gonna let it down easy to save his soul?
- Song Title:“Living The Blues”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
Since you’ve been gone,
I’ve been walking around
With my head bowed down to my shoes.
I’ve been living the blues
Ev’ry night without you.
I don’t have to go far
To know where you are,
Strangers all give me the news.
I’ve been living the blues
Ev’ry night without you.
I think that it’s best,
I soon get some rest
And forget my pride.
But I can’t deny
This feeling that I
Carry for you deep down inside.
If you see me this way,
You’d come back and you’d stay,
Oh, how could you refuse.
I’ve been living the blues
Ev’ry night without you
- Song Title:“Little Sadie”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
Went out last night to take a little round.
I met my little Sadie and I brought her down.
I ran right home and I went to bed
With a forty-four smokeless under my head.
I began to think what a deed I’d done,
I grabbed my hat and I began to run.
I made a god run but I ran too slow;
They overtook me down in Jericho
Standing on a corner ringin’ my bell,
Up stepped the sheriff from Thomasville.
He said “Young man is you name Brown?
Remember the night you blowed Little Sadie down.”
“Oh, yes sir, my name is Lee.
I murdered little Sadie in the first degree.
First degree and second degree,
If you’ve got any papers will you serve them to me?”
Well they took me down town and they dressed me in black.
They put me on a train and they brought me back.
I had no one for to go my bail;
They crammed me back into the county jail.
The judge and the jury they took their stand.
The judge had the papers in his right hand.
Forty-one days, forty-one nights;
Forty-one years to wear the ball and the stripes
- Song Title:“Like A Rolling Stone”
- Album: <<Selfportrait>>
- Singer: Bob Dylan
- Album Time: 6.8 1970
- Company:Columbia Records
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?
People call, say, “Beware doll, you’re bound to fall”
You thought they were all kiddin’ you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin’ out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Ah, you’ve gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody’s ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you’re gonna have to get used to it
You say you never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He’s not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say, “Do you want to make a deal?”
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Ah, you never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain’t no good
You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain’t it hard when you discover that
He really wasn’t where it’s at
After he took from you everything he could steal?
How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
Ah, princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They’re all drinkin’, thinkin’ that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you’d better take your diamond ring, you’d better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can’t refuse
When you ain’t got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose
You’re invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal
How does it feel
Ah, how does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?