Released: November 7, 1985
Songwriter: Bob Dylan
Producer: Bob Dylan Robert Blackwell Chuck Plotkin
[Verse 1]
She was the rose of Sharon from paradise lost
From the city of seven hills near the place of the cross
I was playing a show in Miami in the theater of divine comedy
Told about Jesus, told about the rain
She told me about the jungle where her brothers were slain
By a man who had been dying and disappeared so mysteriously
[Verse 2]
Was she a child or an angel? Did we go too far
Were we sniper bait? Did we follow a star?
To a hole in the wall wall to where the long arm of the law can not reach?
Could I been used and played as a pawn?
It certainly was possible as the gay night wore on
Where men bathed in perfume and practiced the hopes of free speech
[Verse 3]
And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico
Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire
And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free
Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire
[Verse 4]
She looked into my soul through the clothes that I wore
She said, “We got a mutual friend over by the door
And you know he’s got our best interest in mind”
He was well connected but her heart was a snare
And she had left him to die in there
There were payments due and he was a little behind
[Verse 5]
The cry of the peacock, flies buzz my head
Ceiling fan broken, there’s a heat in my bed
Street band playing “Nearer My God to Thee”
We met at the steeple where the mission bells ring
She said, “I know what you’re thinking, but there ain’t a thing
You can do about it, so let us just agree to agree”
[Verse 6]
And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico
Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire
And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free
Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire
[Verse 7]
Atlantic City by the cold grey sea
I hear a voice crying, “Daddy,” I always think it’s for me
But it’s only the silence in the buttermilk hills that call
Every new messenger brings evil report
’Bout armies on the march and time that is short
And famines and earthquakes and hatred written upon walls
[Verse 8]
Would I have married her? I don’t know, I suppose
She had bells in her braids and they hung to her toes
But I kept hearing my name and had to be moving on
I saw screws break loose, saw the devil pound tin
I saw a house in the country being torn from within
I heard my ancestors calling from the land far beyond
[Verse 9]
And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico
Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire
And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free
Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire
She was the rose of Sharon from paradise lost
From the city of seven hills near the place of the cross
I was playing a show in Miami in the theater of divine comedy
Told about Jesus, told about the rain
She told me about the jungle where her brothers were slain
By a man who had been dying and disappeared so mysteriously
[Verse 2]
Was she a child or an angel? Did we go too far
Were we sniper bait? Did we follow a star?
To a hole in the wall wall to where the long arm of the law can not reach?
Could I been used and played as a pawn?
It certainly was possible as the gay night wore on
Where men bathed in perfume and practiced the hopes of free speech
[Verse 3]
And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico
Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire
And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free
Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire
[Verse 4]
She looked into my soul through the clothes that I wore
She said, “We got a mutual friend over by the door
And you know he’s got our best interest in mind”
He was well connected but her heart was a snare
And she had left him to die in there
There were payments due and he was a little behind
[Verse 5]
The cry of the peacock, flies buzz my head
Ceiling fan broken, there’s a heat in my bed
Street band playing “Nearer My God to Thee”
We met at the steeple where the mission bells ring
She said, “I know what you’re thinking, but there ain’t a thing
You can do about it, so let us just agree to agree”
[Verse 6]
And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico
Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire
And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free
Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire
[Verse 7]
Atlantic City by the cold grey sea
I hear a voice crying, “Daddy,” I always think it’s for me
But it’s only the silence in the buttermilk hills that call
Every new messenger brings evil report
’Bout armies on the march and time that is short
And famines and earthquakes and hatred written upon walls
[Verse 8]
Would I have married her? I don’t know, I suppose
She had bells in her braids and they hung to her toes
But I kept hearing my name and had to be moving on
I saw screws break loose, saw the devil pound tin
I saw a house in the country being torn from within
I heard my ancestors calling from the land far beyond
[Verse 9]
And them Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico
Fanning the flames in the furnace of desire
And them distant ships of liberty on them iron waves so bold and free
Bringing everything that’s near to me nearer to the fire
Biograph
- Forever Young (Demo)
- Romance in Durango
- Million Dollar Bash
- You Angel You
- On a Night Like This
- Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
- I Shall Be Released
- Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
- Time Passes Slowly
- If Not for You
- Lay Lady Lay
- Positively 4th Street
- Isis
- Solid Rock
- I Wanna Be Your Lover
- Baby, I’m in the Mood for You
- Up to Me
- Caribbean Wind
- Jet Pilot
- Mixed-Up Confusion
- Percy’s Song
- I’ll Keep It with Mine
- The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar
- Heart of Mine
- Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
- Lay Down Your Weary Tune
- Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)
- Tangled Up in Blue
- Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
- Visions of Johanna
- All Along the Watchtower
- You’re a Big Girl Now
- Blowin’ in the Wind
- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
- Mr. Tambourine Man
- Masters of War
- The Times They Are A-Changin’
- Tombstone Blues
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Gotta Serve Somebody
- I Believe in You
- Abandoned Love
- I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight
- Dear Landlord
- It Ain’t Me Babe
- To Ramona
- The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
- Every Grain of Sand
- Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)
- Just Like a Woman
- I Want You
- I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
- Subterranean Homesick Blues
- Biograph (1985)
- Murder Most Foul
- Blowin’ in the Wind
- The Times They Are A-Changin’
- All Along the Watchtower
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Make You Feel My Love
- Hurricane
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
- Mr. Tambourine Man
- A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
- Subterranean Homesick Blues
- Desolation Row
- Tangled Up in Blue
- Masters of War
- Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
- It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
- Girl from the North Country
- Tempest
- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
- Ballad of a Thin Man
- Visions of Johanna
- I Contain Multitudes
- To Fall in Love with You
- Shelter from the Storm