And what did you hear, my brown-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warning
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazing
I heard ten-thousand whispering and nobody listening
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-going to fall
Patrick F. Clarkin, Ph.D. 
Wow, she codified Dylan’s whine for all time, and now it seems not a fault but a new, higher emotion I didn’t recognize!
These are my sortsa songs these days, I have “Epitaph,” King Crimson, on the brain, a week or two now. Terrific stuff, P. Thanks.
Right. I like her version better than Dylan’s. Full disclosure: this is an edited version. In the original, Patti Smith stumbled over the lyrics. She seemed flustered and apologized to the audience, adding that she was nervous (it was a Nobel ceremony, after all). The audience applauded as a sign of encouragement and sympathy, and it was actually a heartfelt moment. But I just wanted people to focus on her performance because it was so great. So I chose this version.
that sort of fumble makes everything better for me, more human. I could never memorize those sorts of lyrics, where the connecting thread is something I don’t see, like Talking Heads, or Tom Waits doing his beatnik ramblings, I never have a chance. And honestly, why should you, that’s an feat of OCD memory, frankly, not the bit I’m here for. Any tech at all could fix that, only the real human has these analogue problems. But nice work! Same deal, maybe, edit those lyrics, who could know? Important to try to include them all, I suppose, but order and errors, I am the last one to mind.
my train of thought has taken this away from me a little, this is high art from the old world to me, it’s all “look how bad you all are and oh boy, are you gonna get it,” right? I mean, no wonder it resonates. I still love it, but I no longer approve or identify with that part of me, I am trying to make the move away from punitive morality.
Not easy, when you hear that list of crimes, of course.
There is that irony in Dylan, it’s possible to hear a self critique in it, too, of course, probably Bob pointed me to where I am now.
Thanks for the brain food.