One of the longest songs on Street-Legal, a slow waltz packed with abstract nouns and symbolic figures.
The words
A man caught among temptations, duties and lost loves finds he never has a moment to stop and reflect.
The song is a long allegorical journey in which the narrator meets a parade of figures and ideas, from rulers and soldiers to a mysterious woman, each pulling him a different way. Verse after verse in a rolling three-time rhythm, it piles up grand abstractions while a refrain keeps returning to the pressure of having no space to think. The tone is weary and bewildered rather than angry. The violin and backing voices give it a stately, almost hypnotic sway.
Lyrics on bobdylan.com ↗Listen and watch
The words
A man caught among temptations, duties and lost loves finds he never has a moment to stop and reflect.
The song is a long allegorical journey in which the narrator meets a parade of figures and ideas, from rulers and soldiers to a mysterious woman, each pulling him a different way. Verse after verse in a rolling three-time rhythm, it piles up grand abstractions while a refrain keeps returning to the pressure of having no space to think. The tone is weary and bewildered rather than angry. The violin and backing voices give it a stately, almost hypnotic sway.
Lyrics on bobdylan.com ↗The same year · 1978
Read onMusicBrainz ↗