A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

(album: The Concert For Bangladesh - 1972)

[George: Like to bring on a friend of us all, Mr. Bob Dylan!]

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways,
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
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.

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it,
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping,
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding,
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

What did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warning,
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazing,
Heard ten thousand whispering and nobody listening,
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughing,
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded in hatred,
It's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And what'll you do now, my darling young one?
I'm a-going back out 'fore the rain starts a-falling,
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
The executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color and none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
Reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinking,
But I'll know my song well before I start singing,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

It's a hard rain's a gonna fall
It's a hard rain's a gonna fall