A talking blues on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, in the comic spoken style of Woody Guthrie, about a dream of surviving a nuclear war.
The words
A man tells a doctor about his dream of wandering an empty city after the bombs, and finds everyone else has the same dream.
Framed as a visit to a psychiatrist, the song recounts a dream in which the speaker survives atomic war and roams a deserted America looking for anyone else alive. It is told in the half-spoken talking-blues form, each episode ending on a punchline. The comedy carries real Cold War dread underneath, and the ending turns the joke on the listener: everyone, it seems, is having the same nightmare.
Lyrics on bobdylan.com ↗Listen
The words
A man tells a doctor about his dream of wandering an empty city after the bombs, and finds everyone else has the same dream.
Framed as a visit to a psychiatrist, the song recounts a dream in which the speaker survives atomic war and roams a deserted America looking for anyone else alive. It is told in the half-spoken talking-blues form, each episode ending on a punchline. The comedy carries real Cold War dread underneath, and the ending turns the joke on the listener: everyone, it seems, is having the same nightmare.
Lyrics on bobdylan.com ↗Connections
On the map
In threads
The same year · 1963
- Blowin' in the WindThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
- Girl from the North CountryThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
- Masters of WarThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
- A Hard Rain's a-Gonna FallThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
- Don't Think Twice, It's All RightThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
- Bob Dylan's DreamThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
- Down The HighwayThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
- I Shall Be FreeThe Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
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