Posts Tagged: Lyrics

9
Dec 10

Born In Time Lyrics (Oh Mercy Outtakes)

One of my favorite Bob Dylan songs is the original recording of Born In Time, an outtake from the vaunted Oh Mercy sessions. As Wikipedia notes:

Two more outtakes, “Born In Time” and “God Knows”, were set aside and later re-written and re-recorded for Dylan’s next album, Under the Red Sky. Versions of both songs from the Oh Mercy sessions were also included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs. “The Oh Mercy outtake of ‘Born In Time’ was one of those Dylan performances that so surrendered itself to the moment that to decry the lyrical slips would be to mock sincerity itself,” wrote an enamored Heylin.

The stripped-down bootleg of Born In Time is a classic. Though the audio quality is pretty poor, the depth of emotion in Dylan’s voice soars above the scratches and hisses on the tape. The later version of the song that appeared on Under The Red Sky was a soulless iteration. It’s almost comical in comparison. Dylan tried to rectify his error by releasing an earlier recording of the song on Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol. 8. It came pretty close to capturing the passion of the original, but it’s just not the same. Because there are several versions of the song floating around, including Eric Clapton’s decent cover, it can be hard to track down a proper set of lyrics for the original recording. The words differ from the lyrics on Bob Dylan’s official website, so I thought I’d post them here for posterity.

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3
Mar 10

I’m Not There (I’m Gone) Lyrics

I’ve been listening to Dylan’s I’m Not There a lot lately. That might seem odd, considering that the track starts part way through the first verse and many of the lyrics are inaudible. The song was unfinished an never intended for release. It was recorded at the legendary Basement Tape / Big Pink sessions:

As Dylan recovered from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in July 1966, he summoned the Band and began to record both new compositions and traditional material with them. All of the sixteen Dylan compositions are thought to have been recorded in 1967 in the basement of Big Pink, a house shared by three of the members of the Band, while the eight Band songs were recorded at various times and locations between 1967 and 1975; overdubs were also added in 1975 to some of the Dylan songs

The song wasn’t formally released until it was included in the I’m Not There Motion Picture Soundtrack. Even though the cut of the song is rough, the melody is hypnotic and the listener can get the sense of what Dylan was trying to say. Despite the relative popularity of the song, it’s hard to find a decent transcription of the lyrics. I thought I’d give it a shot.

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