Tuesday, November 04, 2008

When the ship comes in

Oh the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze will cease to be breathin'.
Like the stillness in the wind
'Fore the hurricane begins,
The hour when the ship comes in.

Oh the seas will split
And the ship will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be shaking.
Then the tide will sound
And the wind will pound
And the morning will be breaking.

Oh the fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls they'll be smiling.
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand,
The hour that the ship comes in.

And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken.
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
And will be buried at the bottom of the ocean.

A song will lift
As the mainsail shifts
And the boat drifts on to the shoreline.
And the sun will respect
Every face on the deck,
The hour that the ship comes in.

Then the sands will roll
Out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin'.
And the ship's wise men
Will remind you once again
That the whole wide world is watchin'....

(Extract from "When the ship comes in" by Bob Dylan)

10 comments:

Bruce Anderson said...

great post......dylan's lyrics are so wonderful. Last night we listened to dylan and heard some songs I have never heard before, that's what makes him great.

Oh, on another note...can I please be moved from France Fantasies to Expat blogs....I'm official now!

We'll talk about 4am!
GO O!

Rebecca Ramsey said...

You've got me singing this morning!

Anonymous said...

Coucou Betty..je suis en train de regarder les élections..et je reste debout...J'attends jusqu'à une 1 heure du matin..Je vois que tu as mis le logo Obama..Je suis pour Obama à 100 pour cent...Alors on va attendre sagement...et je croise les doigts...à bientôt.

Papadesdeux said...

Well, today, I can say that I appreciate that song more than ever before.

Dare I say, it looks like we can almost start breathing again?

I was up at 4 am also, but I was on duty dispensing cough syrup. Tonight I don't think I'll be able to go to bed!

La Framéricaine said...

Betty!

Wonderful lyrics from Dylan. I too thought of him during this election. We mailed in our Obama/Biden ballots last Saturday and are now just waiting to hear it announced officially that Barack Obama is the first African American president of the United States of America, having run a stellar campaign with grace, dignity, and intelligence for two long years and into tonight!

Yippee!

Amanda said...

It is a new day for America.
This brings pride and hope.
It will not be an easy presidency
but Obama has my full support.
He won by a landslide. Yeah!!!!!!

Betty Carlson said...

This became my anthem for the election as soon as the last poll came out (like the stillness in the wind 'fore the hurricane begins...)

I must have listened to the song 50 times from Sunday until today...

Every line seemed to ring true, even the time references for somebody experiencing the election results during the night in a country that woke up to them....

Betty Carlson said...

This became my anthem for the election as soon as the last poll came out (like the stillness in the wind 'fore the hurricane begins...)

I must have listened to the song 50 times from Sunday until today...

Every line seemed to ring true, even the time references for somebody experiencing the election results during the night in a country that woke up to them....

P. J. Grath said...

What a surprise to find on your blog the song I always tell my husband I want sung at my funeral! It's so righteous, isn't it?

Wednesday morning at a cafe in Suttons Bay, I had the honor of choosing the song of the day and made it "The Times They Are a-Changin'"--we are happy, happy, happy!

Betty Carlson said...

P.J. -- At first I was associating "The Times..." a lot with the election, then as I explained above, when the last polls came out, I felt this strong pull to this song.

I loved the line "And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken," which reminded me of all the ridiculous attacks that were thrown at Obama and how they just did not stick as he stayed the course.