Expecting Rain

I've been listening to this song a lot lately as it really rings true today, perhaps a ton more than it did in the 1980's, but I could be wrong about that.

Are there any good interpretations from the Never Ending Tour?

I'm currently listening to the version from the Grateful Dead rehearsals, which is decent, but not very solid...I want to say I enjoy the tempo change.

I'd also like to see Bob bring this back soon.

I think you can find a version on 1992's San Jose Revisited.
But the killer track there is the most beautiful version ever of Most of the Time

I have heard that one. For some reason he seems too drunk or half drunk for the rest of the 1992 performances of this song.

Well, then he WAS drunk. Lots of things going on at the time.
Italy 1992 was awful, even worse than 1991.

what do you mean? ronald reagan, old dutch himself, co-wrote the lyrics

I didn't find those 1991 shows nearly as bad as what I hear in 1992, but it was spotty. Golden Vanity from Hawaii is great and he was good at Bobfest.

I guess there were some relapses in the spring of 1992, but by summer he seemed to clean up a bit.

The worst show I ever attended was in July 1992, when he was not even able to remember the lyrics to All Along the Watchtower. Then, some of my most favorite shows are from Fall 1992. These are absolute gems.

this one would work with the current set up and sound...

The lyrics are really different in the 1986 tour, I don't even know what he's singing except for the chorus, and 1992 seems to mesh the two together.

Perhaps, he felt he alienated too many countries in the song, which would prevent him from singing it in certain places. It's a very American song.

which america?

"We Can't Make it Here"

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna set there till they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open but man it's slow
The tip jar's light and the register's low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

High school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career, forget about school
Can she live on faith? live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it's way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore

Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the damned little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food
Will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is
That's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper
Read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind
If you're listening at all
Get out of that limo
Look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone
Tell us all why

In Dayton, Ohio
Or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Yea

James McMurtry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbWRfBZY ... ata_player

totally argee the summer 92 show were rough the fall shows sublime. the last show of the tour 11-15-92 was amazing i was there.

I like the album version (not NET) and Dallas 1986-06-22 (I was there) ... (not NET)....
so ..... NO to your question.

I never really liked the song, wouldn't arue (much) with the sentiment but the leaden arrangement on "Infidels" left much to be desired. This song should have been replaced by any number of the outakes - just think - he missed off "Blind Willie McTell" and "Foot of Pride" and put this on! Doh!!

And if he had put Blind Willie McTell or Foot of Pride on the album someone would be questioning Bob's decision to leave a masterpiece like Union Sundown off the album. Unfortunately with Bob, he has so many wonderful songs, every decision is going to be questioned. Sometimes, life is like that.

But I do believe the relevance of the song demand its resurrection for the 2012 NET. With Romney running for President of the United States and his record for sending American jobs to third world countries for cheaper labor, he could dedicate it to him.

I think everyone can agree, the addition of Union Sundown to this year's tour with Bob taking the guitar solos would be a piece of indescribable awe and beauty.

As it turned out, this probably again worked in his favor. It certainly helped strengthen the Bootleg Series stuff.

the lyric's hilarious, way better than Foot of Pride and it smacks everybody right in the face in the best Dylanesque manner. You can't be on his side because he won't allow it. Then it goes completely screwball "growing food on the moon" which is priceless stuff. And the song fit its era perfectly: the late 70's and early 80's is when the USA dug its own grave by kissing off the good wages. What's happened since is nothing but a credit party, absolute BS regardless who's president. At this point you're looking forward to something like 1920's Spain, just astounding inequality. There will be the oligarchs and their little Richard Florida contingent minding the wires and keeping "clean nose" (don't worry about the slob mob) and a whole mass of slobs cleaning toilets and watching "pick a) b) or c)" on TV with much lousier advertising.

The "dinosaur" line is really fine and has proven as prophetic as anything Dylan composed ever.

The whole thing (destruction of unions) began with Kennedy as the "Cold War" was well under way but when Reagan hit office he poured gas on the fire... and those jobs ain't comin' back. They're gone for good. Greed got the best of us and we continue to choose immediate rewards over future success... even if it means we'll be a part of that suffering in ten years. Shortsighted, we are.

Perhaps, but it severly weakend "Infidels". With BWMc and Foot of Pride it would have been a far better and more cohesive album.

I am of the opinion Bob should have released all of them along with other outtakes as a double album. We suffered for that decision but he certainly had the material to do it.

It's all one gigantic album now though isn't it? One of my current playlists is everything that Dylan ever officially recorded.

Sorry - couldn't describe it as "gigantic" - "Neighbourhood Bully" is a bit dodgy and a terrible lumpen arrangement, "Union Sundown" is poor, "Man of Peace" was better when played live, again a poor arrangement. "License to Kill" was average at best. Some great stuff on it but could have been so much better. Similarly, the preceeding album "Shot of Love" could have been great with some swapping around and cutting.

Those four words "What might have been" apply here.

Context is all with Infidels. "patriotism is the last refuge..." followed the Zionist fervour of the ironically titled Neighbourhood Bully , followed by the quasi feminist (wrong-headed IMO) Licence To Kill ... the songs tell stories from multiple perspective and there's almost an internal commentary going on.

All of that is even more true of the stuff he was playing 20 years before... the advantage here is that with the 20 years experience he was closer to getting it "right" the first time.

One thing is indisputable... the world is a better place because of these songs.