I'm finding it hard to have the right head space to post anything worthwhile, but I'd like to share this song with you.
It's a long song, and it's stuck in my head. It's one of life's mysteries how a song can help you through rough times, especially when the lyrics are as abstract as this. But that's what this song does for me, and I replayed this five or six times the other night, and it brought me through a temporary crisis. Whatever it takes, right?
This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I find this to be both brilliant and comedic.
I was reading some comments about this song, and one commenter said "Bob Dylan wrote a song about ME"! That's kind of how I feel, and I'm not sure why. It's hypnotic, and conjures up all of our lives in a abstract way...I think the lyrics are pure genius.
Sorry to get so deep on a Sunday...
Edit to add: I'm a big fan of diners, and I know the waitresses at the diners i go to. I usually try to have ridiculous banter with them, so the amusing "waitress" section of these lyrics makes me laugh.
Audio is below the lyrics.
Highlands - Bob Dylan
Well my heart's in the highlands, gentle and fair
Honeysuckle blooming in the wildwood air
Bluebelles blazing where the Aberdeen waters flow
Well my heart's in the highlands
I'm gonna go there when I feel good enough to go
Windows were shakin' all night in my dreams
Everything was exactly the way that it seems
Woke up this morning and I looked at the same old page
Same old rat race
Life in the same old cage
I don't want nothing from anyone, ain't that much to take
Wouldn't know the difference between a real blonde and a fake
Feel like a prisoner in a world of mystery
I wish someone would come
And push back the clock for me
Well, my heart's in the highlands wherever I roam
That's where I'll be when I get called home
The wind, it whispers to the buckeye trees in rhyme
Well my heart's in the highland
I can only get there one step at a time
I'm listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound
Someone's always yelling, "Turn it down!"
Feel like I'm drifting
Drifting from scene the scene
I'm wondering what in the devil could it all possibly mean?
Insanity is smashing up against my soul
You can say I was on anything but a roll
If I had a conscience, well I just might blow my top
What would I do with it anyway?
Maybe take it to the pawn shop
My heart's in the highlands at the break of dawn
By the beautiful lake of the Black Swan
Big white clouds, like chariots that swing down low
Well my heart's in the Highlands
Only place left to go
I'm in Boston town, in some restaurant
I got no idea what I want
Well, maybe I do but I'm just really not sure
Waitress comes over
Nobody in the place but me and her
Well, it must be a holiday, there's nobody around
She studies me closely as I sit down
She got a pretty face and long white shiny legs
I say, "Tell me what I want"
She say, "You probably want hard boiled eggs"
I said, "that's right, bring me some"
She says, "we ain't got any. You picked the wrong time to come"
Then she says, "I know you're an artist, draw a picture of me!"
I say, "I would if I could, but, I don't do sketches from memory"
she says, "I'm right here in front of you or haven't you looked?"
I say, "all right, I know, but I don't have my drawing book!"
She gives me a napkin, she says, "you can do it on that"
I say, "yes I could but, I don't know where my pencil is at!"
She pulls one out from behind her ear
She says, "all right now, go ahead, draw me, I'm standing right here"
I make a few lines, and I show it for her to see
Well she takes a napkin and throws it back
And says, "that don't look a thing like me!"
I said, "oh, kind miss, it most certainly does"
She say, "you must be jokin.' "I say, "I wish I was!"
Then she says, "you don't read women authors, do you?"
At least that's what I think I hear her say
Well I say, "how would you know and what would it matter anyway?"
Well, she says, "you just don't seem like you do!"
I said, "you're way wrong"
She says, "which ones have you read then?" I say, "I read Erica Jong!"
She goes away for a minute and I slide out out of my chair
I step outside back to the busy street, but nobody's going anywhere
Well my heart's in the highlands, with the horses and hounds
Way up in the border country, far from the towns
With the twang of the arrow and a snap of the bow
My heart's in the highlands
Can't see any other way to go
Every day is the same thing out the door
Feel further away then ever before
Some things in life, it gets too late to learn
Well, I'm lost somewhere
I must have made a few bad turns
I see people in the park forgetting their troubles and woes
They're drinking and dancing, wearing bright colored clothes
All the young men with their young women looking so good
Well, I'd trade places with any of 'em
In a minute, if I could
I'm crossing the street to get away from a mangy dog
Talking to myself in a monologue
I think what I need might be a full length leather coat
Somebody just asked me
If I'm registered to vote
The sun is beginning to shine on me
But it's not like the sun that used to be
The party's over and there's less and less to say
I got new eyes
Everything looks far away
Well, my heart's in the Highlands at the break of day
Over the hills and far away
There's a way to get there and I'll figure it out somehow
But I'm already there in my mind
And that's good enough for now
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