Hard Rain

[The Prof]

Oh, where have you been, my clear eyed son
And where have you been, my darling young one
I've stumbled along aside twelve broken highways
Past hundreds of projects all ready for shovels
In one eighty seventh congressional district
With millions of marchers mired in unemployment
While six lords of influence lounge in a lobby
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my clear eyed son
And what did you see, my darling young one
I saw bankers grow big while their brothers are bleeding
I saw bad guys and bagmen and burglars and bunglers
I saw mothers and maidens, their homes in foreclosure
I saw sold generations, their futures all mortgaged
I saw markets collapsing like overtall towers
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall

Oh, what did you hear, my clear eyed son
And what did you hear, my darling young one
I heard wolves in the winter, their howlings and wailings
I heard plaintings and protests and portents and pleadings
I heard every objection ignored and o'erridden
I heard sinister silence from out a locked closet
I heard ominous roars from the coming tsunami
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall

Oh, what did you feel, my clear eyed son
And what did you feel, my darling young one
I felt waves of red rising submerging the nations
I felt earthquakes and hurricanes gnarling and gnashing
I felt glaciers descend from the top of the world
I felt terror constricting the hearts of the people
While birds of prey circle like gyres above airports
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall

Oh, what do you know, my clear eyed son
And what do you know, my darling young one
I know you can't spend what has not been created
I know you can't buy with a currency crashing
I know when you're under you've got to stop digging
I know that tomorrow must not be forsaken
And horsemen approaching will one day be passing
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall

Oh, what'll you do now, my clear eyed son
And what'll you do now, my darling young one
I'll buy what they make me and do what I'm told to
And keep in my heart that conviction is certain
By faith reinforced that the times are a-changing
For after the deluge the morning is broken
And I'll sing it and say it and speak it and preach it
That man must know freedom who'll ever achieve it
For hope for humanity all can believe in
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's gonna fall

The Prof

 

[Slartibartfast]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA"]YouTube- "Chocolate Rain" Original Song by Tay Zonday[/ame]

 

[Middleground]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkxcY7YFU"]YouTube- Samwell - "What What (In the Butt)"[/ame]

 

[bythoughts]

Time to bring this song back. Because its reason is coming back...



As confirmed by the AI, I feel like I'm the only one who knows what this song means. It isn't mysterious. It isn't hidden. But no one has posted anywhere on the internet that I could find, what it was really about. Nobody thought Dylan was smart enough to know what it was about. I'll explain by and by if someone is curious, but I'm like to see if someone wants to try an interpretation independently, because it would be nice not to be the only one after all.

Now this won't help you, but I should mention that Dylan said that every line of this song was like a song in itself that he couldn't write out. For example, Simon and Garfunkel released a song soon after, "The Sound of Silence", which they said would never have been written if not for Dylan, which recalls that line about ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken. Of course, The Sound of Silence was promptly reworked from a song people could hear and understand into a highly processed form with obscure words, completing some cycle. I wonder how many children "Hard Rain" has that I don't know about.

 

[bythoughts]

I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways

Why are the highways crumbling?

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests

Why are the forests sad?

I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

Why are the oceans dead?

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

What (in 1962) did the experts know, that they weren't saying?

I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

Indeed.

I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty

They are out in the woods to fish for trout with their hands, perhaps, and yet ... all empty. For what reason?

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
And the executioner's face is always well hidden

Indeed it is. Now as ever.