Expecting Rain

I can't say I agree with the analysis. I've always thought it to be about a reporter or the press in general.

well said.

My favorite version is by far from --- 1966.

You have many contacts among the lumberjacks
To get you facts when someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect
Anyway they already expect you
To just give a check
To tax-deductible charity organizations

I can only describe that verse as acid spitting, especially on "respect."

Yes!!! He's absolutely going out of his head in that one. I love it. It's real manic. Yes... it enhances the power of the song even more.


it's a very, very powerful song... it just throws you against the wall.

The famous '66/Judas-show version is mesmerizing.
There's something fatalistic about it, whatever or however he & the band are conjuring up that thundering sound.
When I hear that version, it's a very "in the moment" performance that brings everything else - past and future - to a screeching halt. It's a song that takes the audience right up to the precipice of a cliff and dares them somehow, to either look over the edge or to jump; most people of course recoil.

Absolutely! But where is the rest of the song? There are at least two distinct camera angles, so complete footage must exist somewhere. Can anyone confirm that this concert was filmed in its entirety, and that maybe Scorsese was allowed to review and use video that has not been made available to the public?

Whoever makes these track talks should do one too many mornings, Ive been obsessing over the different versions lately.

Here's the link... already been done. Look forward to hearing what you have to say...

Ballad of A thin Man... the earliest performances do little for me but as the years have gone by, Bob's done played this pretty well. Before the Flood is pretty good but I wouldn't take it over the performance on Honky Tonk Blues.

Roving Gambler mentioned the weird introduction to the song in 1978. For me, that introduction was the greatest eye-opener to Dylan's poetic technique.

"A geek is a man who bites off the head of a live chicken". Simple as that. And weird as that.

The song is not about journalists, fans, people out of touch with modern times, or about how strange life can be some times, or anything like that. It's simply a description of how it is (or: was) to go to the carnivals and experience lots of strange things there: geeks, sword swallowers, midgets, etc.

From THERE it can be taken to mean any of the things above. But that's the mastery that Dylan is capable of: not to conceal a message about something quite specific in vague and weirdly poetic language, but to describe an every-day situation, plainly and matter-of-factly, in a way which makes it applicable to a much broader situation.

Great song.

have at it...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=56397&hilit=one+too+many+mornings+track+talk


Everyone who has ever been on stage for a time can relate to Ballad of a Thin Man.

Couple of intros to ballad of a Thin Man from a couple of shows from the 1986 tour with Petty...

Anybody out there that's misunderstood in any kind of way? Hmm, you’re a lucky bunch of people. Me, I'm misunderstood all the time. Just about everything I do is misunderstood. It gets hard you know. Sometimes even your best friends don't understand. Has that ever happened to anybody out there? Hmm, maybe once in a while, right? Well, let me tell you it's OK to be misunderstood. All anybody can do is kill you, right? All you can do is die, ain't that right? That's not such a bad thing. There's a lot of things worse than death. Is that right or not? Hmm, I don't know, maybe it's not. I guess if nobody agrees with me, maybe it's not right. I'd hate to fall out of agreement with anybody. I guess this world is run on people who are always in agreement with everybody, ain't that right? People just do what they wanna do anyway. Anyway, this is a song about somebody who's (sort of) misunderstood some of the time. For all those people out there I wanna sing this song.

Feb 15...
People keep asking me questions...They’re always asking me questions that you can’t or anybody else can’t answer, you know. So, you know like “what's your political life like? Or your religious life?” Personal questions like ..., you know even about your love life. So anyway, I don't answer any of them questions. People are asking me about my songs <inaudible> You know, because there comes a time when people have to be put in their place, ain't that right? It even happens to me once in a while. And I'm glad when, when someone puts me in my place. Cause sometimes, that needs to be done. Anyway this here is a song about somebody else that I figured I just had to put in his place. I’m not sure if he’s still there. I don't even know if he got there.

When I was in grad school doing the whole MFA business, I was performing one night. One of my professors came to the show with the copy of the text (Winter's Tale), sat in the front row, pencil in hand, frantically writing, and he never looked up once out of that damn script to watch--connect to--be present with what was happening on stage. I wanted to take that pencil, shove it up his ass, play him this song, and wake him up to the real people baring their souls for the top of his freakin' head.

He seems to have lifted it from Ray Charles' I Believe to my Soul. I think it may have a couple too many verses. Of the many fine live performances the one that always strikes me is Before the Flood where he shouts "oh my God am I here all alone?" To my ears, even the 1978 band couldn't harm this one!

Paris 1966 has a scorcher of a Thin Man, with some adlibbing in the choruses

"You really begin to wonder what's happening and why it don't include you, don't you Mr. Jones"

which show from the 66 tour has the long drawn out "ssshhhhhhhhh" ?

Newcastle I believe

Thanks! I'll listen to that. That "shh" gives me chills.

Wait I may be wrong. Are you talking about the dialogue at the beginning where Bob shushes the audience? Because that's Newcastle but if you're referring to actual lyrics being drawn out shhhhh then I'm mistaken

Okay, this Track Talk popped up again and I still can't believe that we are 50 years removed from that performance, 10 years from NDH, and that it was 5 years ago that I made this post.

Where is this footage?!!!

What are you looking for, the complete video of that song?

Yes I am talking about when he shushes the audience

BATM- the one song I hope to hear live more than any other song, it's proven to be both timeless lyrically and musically arranged, including live performances.

Yes

best live version Toronto 10 jan 74 stunning vocal

To my knowledge that clip is the extent of the recorded video; there isn't a longer one

However, there is a complete video of Thin Man from Belfast, 2 weeks before the Edinburgh one in NDH. Gets the job done but I do prefer the Edinburgh performance. Can be found in gibson's wonderful fan edit of the '66 tour (Thin Man starts around 16:00): https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu ... IOGdmYimIk

The performances from this tour are very, very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCbVTzK ... e=youtu.be

Its taken about 50 years but the song gets better and better and is coming into its own.

what do folks think of the version on the recently released 1981 concert on the deluxe 'trouble no more' box set?

I really love it, tho i wish it was somewhat longer.. love the way it starts without the whole band and how they slam into it after a verse/chorus... the whole thing is really expressive and animated...