Released: December 21, 2017

Songwriter: Bob Dylan

[Verse 1]
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled down the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

[Chorus]
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

[Verse 2]
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

[Chorus]
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

[Verse 3]
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of thunder that roared out a warning
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazing

[Chorus]
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

[Verse 4]
And what will you do, my blue-eyed son?
And what will you do, my darling young one?
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where hunger is ugly, where the souls are forgotten
Where black is the colour and none is the number
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinking
But I’ll know my song well before I start singing

[Chorus]
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Laura Marling

Hailing from Berkshire, England, Laura Marling (born 1 February 1990) is one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of her generation. An accomplished live performer since the age of 16 (who was once made to leave her own gig because she was too young to be allowed in the venue, and instead played on the street), Marling has released seven full length albums as of 2020, going from strength to strength each time. Before establishing herself as a successful independent artist, she played in Noah and the Whale and dated frontman Charlie Fink (breaking up shortly after the release of their first album in 2008) as well as Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons until they broke up in 2010.

Marling released her first album, Alas, I Cannot Swim, in 2008—three days after her eighteenth birthday. It was nominated for the Mercury Prize, and its highlights include “Ghosts” (her most played song on Spotify with 36 million plays as of early 2018) and the titular “Alas I Cannot Swim”, which features as a hidden track right at the album’s end.

Just seven years later, having recently turned 25, she released Short Movie—her 5th full album. Notwithstanding her prolific output, each album has a distinct feel; but, while her lyrics, delivery, and music style have undergone several modulations (most starkly, she went electric for Short Movie), she has nevertheless been constant in the depth of her poetry and the compelling power of her voice. In addition to her studio albums, there are countless live recordings to be discovered online. So many of these are not just of exceptional quality, but they give us distinct, highly variable versions of the same song. Her headlining set at the BBC 6Music Festival, hosted in 2016 by the city of Bristol, is just one example of