The sixth track on Under the Red Sky, a slow blues built from repeated, nursery-rhyme style lines.
The words
An army of ten thousand men passes by in a series of strange, fable-like images.
The song paints a procession of ten thousand men, sometimes soldiers on a hill, sometimes figures in an odd dream, each verse adding a new detail in the manner of a counting rhyme. Between these images the singer turns to address a woman at home. The effect is playful and ominous at once, like a children's chant with something dark underneath. The band settles into a heavy, unhurried blues groove.
Lyrics on bobdylan.com ↗Listen
The words
An army of ten thousand men passes by in a series of strange, fable-like images.
The song paints a procession of ten thousand men, sometimes soldiers on a hill, sometimes figures in an odd dream, each verse adding a new detail in the manner of a counting rhyme. Between these images the singer turns to address a woman at home. The effect is playful and ominous at once, like a children's chant with something dark underneath. The band settles into a heavy, unhurried blues groove.
Lyrics on bobdylan.com ↗The same year · 1990
Read onMusicBrainz ↗