Expecting Rain

If you read the interview I posted they ask bob about this song.. so this is confirmation it exists right? See below.


In that song CHICAGO AFTER DARK, were you thinking about the new President?

"Not really. It’s more about State Street and the wind off Lake Michigan and how sometimes we know people and we are no longer what we used to be to them. I was trying to go with some old time feeling that I had".

yess i reamber that to.. Whe whe probely hear it on a bootleg series volum in the future

didn't one of the wanker Dylan authors claim it was a joke and yet offer no evidence stating otherwise.

i'm going with it existing until someone supplies a real theory or evidence that it doesn't.

-justin

I remember you from way back, justin, and you're spot on as usual. I've heard it was an alternate title or didn't exist, but I've never heard any evidence, so I feel free to look forward to it.

Yeah, that was Heylin. No evidence offered, whatsoever.

Mike Campbell mentioned after the album came out that they recorded more songs than what was released on the album...

This topic comes around every so often, and I'll say it again: it's got to be an alternate title for I Feel A Change Comin' On.

Probably another instrumental for that bag'o'shite film with Bridget Jones in.

My guess still is:
TTL was rushed out faster than originally planned. It was planned to release the album in fall but then Bob had the idea with the Christmas album. Therefore the release date of TTL was shifted to spring. That meant that things had to be done quickly - press info, interviews, CD design etc. The lack of time resulted in some mistakes - the names of some musician are not spelled correctly in the CD booklet and an interview was done before they the album or at least the running order of the tracks had been finalized. Thus the interviewed included remarks on songs that ended up as outtakes. They just forgot to re-check the interview after the CD was finalized…

it could be. as soon as i read what dylan says its about and looking at this title i thought of "This Dream of You" Take what dylan said its about then listen word to word to that song. it will open a door or two. but i guess it could be "I feel a change." thought that songs seems too positve..which would make it mostly about the President. he could be the priest. but dylan cleared up its not him. Thought the interviewer would have no reason to think that "This Dream of You" is about the president.

To me, Dylan seems to be describing a "change" song ("how sometimes we know people and we are no longer what we used to be to them").

^^^
i suppose at the time any song mostly with dylan with a chorus line of "change" was expected to be political and refering to the president.
but yes a change would work in what dyaln said that he has changed others have changed and nothing is the same though we don't want it to be or we do want it to be that way. Someone has changed resulting in him feeling everything has changed.

I just thought "This Dream of you" could be that change aswell. where instead of I have changed the you has changed and he's left with just the idea of that person of before wishing and hoping but nothing makes sense with that dream. "shadows dance upon the wall" much like chicago would be after dark.

I don't know. maybe i'm going crazy digging and not seeing the obvious.

doesn't make sense. every other song on the album has the song's title somewhere in the lyrics. the "change" lyric is not enough for the interviewer or anyone else to conclude the song is about Obama or Chicago. if "I Feel A Change Comin' On" had been titled "Chicago After Dark" as released, we'd all be puzzling over a non-sequitur of a song title. do you really imagine thinking "he says 'change' in the song and it is called 'Chicago After Dark' and Obama is from Chicago, so that all ties together nicely." i don't think so.

-justin

I agree with this now that I think about it. But I could be wrong.

I can't fathom how "it's GOT to be"...I mean I could go with "it possibly maybe could be" but really, why on earth does it have to be?

Phantom Engineer became Takes a Lot to Laugh, Takes a Train to Cry and Visions of Johanna started out as Seems Like a Freeze Out. So anything is possible, but...

We all knew that the Red River Shore song that Jim Dickinson said was recorded at the TOOM sessions would be the traditional Girl From the Red River Shore... (especially since it included the line: "She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind...") but we were wrong. We guessed that Tell Ol' Bill from the film North Country would be the traditional song of that name, but it wasn't. And when we heard that he'd done Diamond Jim for the Masked and Anonymous soundtrack, who would have supposed that it was not the song he'd done on Good As I Been to You but an unrelated song of the same name?

Just as there is no reason to suppose that Heylin is right in thinking the song doesn't exist, it is hard to imagine that Chicago After Dark could have anything to do with I Feel A Change Comin' On.

The Heylin's works are really well searched and he has definitely a method. This is a writer who knows the subject (Bob Dylan sessions).On the other hand I dismiss his personal comments on everything. But if he thinks that Chicago After Dark doesnt't exist, I trust him.

Anything is possible, sure, but I don't see it likely that there were two Obama songs on the album (that apparently were not Obama songs). At that time, ANY track with the word "change" in the title would be considered potential commentary. That IFACCO was not mentioned at all seems significant. The natural thing would be to either incorporate both songs into a single question ("are Chicago After Dark and I Feel A Change Comin' On about President Obama?") or follow up the first question with one about IFACCO. That didn't happen so, yes, I think they've gotta be the same thing.

Radical notion: there are no songs about Barack Obama on TTL.

The only problem with that is that the interviewer also mentions IFACCO by name.

I don't think they do - maybe I've missed it, but I don't think so.
I think IFACCO would have been a better song if it had been called Chicago After Dark.

I searched the interview using CTRL+F and couldn't find "I Feel a Change Comin' On". While I was at it, I tried the other titles too. The only tracks not mentioned are Shake Shake Mama and IFACCO.





IFACCO isn't about the President. But back then, at the height of Obamamania, it would have been natural to ask.

Surely this can be confirmed by one of our UK forum users who read The Times.

According to this 'Chicago After Dark' was available to listen to on The Times website before the album was released.

http://sherrychandler.com/2009/04/15/bo ... different/

Did anyone listen to it? Was it 'I Feel A Change Comin' On'? I suspect it might have been because here in Australia IFACCO was the song that was streamed by the paper before the album was released.

hmmm there is a strong similarity to the the beginning part of the vocal melody to that of Cold Irons Bound, which explicitly mentions Chicago.

until i pulled up the lyrics, i never knew cold irons bound even mentions a 'she'

The 'she' in both seem to speak generally enough to reference the unreachable muse (in other words, not a person, but an idea, wish fulfillment). part one: i have the blues in chicago (or my blues feel like the harsh winds of chicago, whatever), part two, i think i'm starting to no longer have the blues (but the fourth part of the day is already gone).

Cold Irons Bound:
I’m beginning to hear voices and there’s no one around
Well, I’m all used up and the fields have turned brown
I went to church on Sunday and she passed by
My love for her is taking such a long time to die

I’m waist deep, waist deep in the mist
It’s almost like, almost like I don’t exist
I’m twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound

The walls of pride are high and wide
Can’t see over to the other side
It’s such a sad thing to see beauty decay
It’s sadder still to feel your heart torn away

One look at you and I’m out of control
Like the universe has swallowed me whole
I’m twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound

There’s too many people, too many to recall
I thought some of ’m were friends of mine, I was wrong about ’m all
Well, the road is rocky and the hillside’s mud
Up over my head nothing but clouds of blood

I found my world, found my world in you
But your love just hasn’t proved true
I’m twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound
Twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound

Oh, the winds in Chicago have torn me to shreds
Reality has always had too many heads
Some things last longer than you think they will
There are some kind of things you can never kill

It’s you and you only I been thinking about
But you can’t see in and it’s hard lookin’ out
I’m twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound

Well the fat’s in the fire and the water’s in the tank
The whiskey’s in the jar and the money’s in the bank
I tried to love and protect you because I cared
I’m gonna remember forever the joy that we shared

Looking at you and I’m on my bended knee
You have no idea what you do to me
I’m twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound
Twenty miles out of town in cold irons bound
--------------------------------------

Well I'm looking the world over
Looking far off into the East
And I see my baby coming
She's walking with the village priest
I feel a change coming on
And the last part of the day is already gone

We got so much in common
We strive for the same old ends
And I just can't wait
Wait for us to become friends
I feel a change coming on
And the fourth part of the day is already gone

Life is for love
And they say that love is blind
If you want to live easy
Baby pack your clothes with mine
I feel a change coming on
And the fourth part of the day is already gone

Well now what's the use in dreamin'
You got better things to do
Dreams never did work for me anyway
Even when they did come true

You are as whorish as ever
Baby you could start a fire
I must be losing my mind
You're the object of my desire
I feel a change coming on
And the fourth part of the day is already gone

I'm listening to Billy Joe Shaver
And I'm reading James Joyce
Some people they tell me
I got the blood of the land in my voice

Everybody got all the money
Everybody got all the beautiful clothes
Everybody got all the flowers
I don't have one single rose
I feel a change coming on
And the fourth part of the day is already gone


If i remember that interview correctly, he specifically sites the area by the lake and the wind as images he is conjuring in the song. well not so, perhaps. but it's interesting that he's looking far off to the east, because that's what you can do right there, where the wind tunnels move toward the buildings, when you are on the coast of lake michigan, and have quite an ability to see far off into the east. one would need to be in a tall building, on the west side of the city to look far off to the west


the music steps down and lingers in murky depths in the beginning of Cold Irons Bound, which of course is the opposite direction of the way things take off in Change coming on...

[quote:bobdylan][Bob Dylan]It’s more about State Street and the wind off Lake Michigan and how sometimes we know people and we are no longer what we used to be to them. I was trying to go with some old time feeling that I had.[/quote]

hmmm...it could even have be a real she. my history professor remarked once how strange it is that dylan tends to come here quite consistently for halloween...the last time he did the bus had gotten here from a show in michigan, the night before, by early in the AM (which means i'd guess they came up the night before) - that's when i first went up to try to get tix. more often i see the buses come by in the afternoon. the year before, he did three nights around halloween, with a show not 30 minutes away in rockford 2 days before the first chicago show. and he had a day off after the show before heading down to bloomington, only 3.5 hours away. hmm...didn't think bob liked to stay in one place for long.