What is the worst ever line from a Bob Dylan song?

J.D. otm

in a song called marijuanaville by tenacious D:

"And they say I sound like Dylan when I'm stoned!"

fucking hate that song, fucking Jack Black is not funny

his line, from the same song:

I have dined with kings, I've been offered wings
And I've never been too impressed.

-- always reminds me of Charlene ("I've been undressed by kings..."), which at least is funny.

(By the way, when has he been "offered wings"? Hot wings? Or like when he flies the friendly skies? "Here, sir, let me pin this to your lapel...")

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Friday, May 26, 2006 3:29 PM Bookmark

C'mon, how awesome is it if he was offered hot wings? He sits down to table with the King, expecting some sumptuous repast, and His Highness passes him a wing platter and starts going on about his secret sauce recipe!

This Wing's On Fire

this was the right answer:

Anyone up in this bitch ever listen to Another Side of Bob Dylan? If y'all did, you'd know the worst line AND verse ever in a Bob song is from Ballad In Plan D.
Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me,
"How good, how good does it feel to be free?"
And I answer them most mysteriously,
"Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?"

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, May 26, 2006 2:46 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

MOST MYS-TEER-EE-US-LEE

ah ballad in plain d is pretty i think

It's weird because if there are any chains-- any chains whatsoever-- that birds are free from, it's the skyway's. Everybody knows that. They do have some trouble with the chains that go on your tires in winter time though.

Guess that's why it's so mysterious.

His friends from the prison should've shanked him.

i refuse to believe anyone has actually listened to ballad in plain d more than once

The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When along came a blackbird and pecked off her nose.

Super-lame, imho.

The hot wings thing is just cracking me up today, thank you samjeff.

Rhymes in Sara make me cringe:

Now the beach is deserted except for some kelp

And a piece of an old ship that lies on the shore.

You always responded when I needed your help,

You gimme a map and a key to your door.

It doesn't get much worse than:
"Crimson flames tied through my ears rolling high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads using ideas as my maps"

hell no this is AMAZING.

i kinda think that if you can't appreciate that sort of wonderful, ridiculous shit you can't possibly be getting as much out of dylaan as you could be.

"There's a whole lotta...sufferin' tonight...from da disease of conceit..."

(STUPID OBVIOUS PIANO CHORDS}

how has "Rainy Day Woman #12 and 35" escaped this thread???

damn near the worst Dylan song, easily the worst Dylan lyrics

hahaha, I heard "Disease of Conceit" for the first time this morning and it's what prompted me to revive the thread, but I forgot once I hit the hot wings.

do people hate rainy day woman just because it's the first track on a canonized album so it's like SUPERCHARGED burned

no, I have always hated it. and I love the rest of the album, my fave Dylan.

it's the penultimate "crazy circus crap"

"I've sucked the milk out of a thousand cows"

That one's quite a gambit, shamelessly awful and good at the same time. It reads like a rural version of Norman Mailer, but if you really visualize it, the macho posture is somewhat undermined by the thought of Dylan as a frail, needy calf.

I like "Señor" but many of the lines are Dylan trying to sound Dylan-esque:

Well, the last thing I remember before I stripped and kneeled
Was that trainload of fools bogged down in a magnetic field

yeah, senor is full of silly lines, but dylan and his band sell it, especially in the live 78 versions. he still performs it pretty well these days, seems to really enjoy singing it.
it's funny, i just read that Paul Nelson anthology/bio, and Nelson is really into this one unreleased (still?) song, "Dusty Old Fairgrounds," trying to get other artists (including the NY Dolls!) to record it, playing it for anyone who'd listen. It's weird, cuz I've heard it and it's sort of terrible! not a lost classic by any means.

sucked the milk out of a thousand cows rules wtf!

SERIOUSLY DUDES I WON'T HEAR A BAD WORD SAID ABOUT SENOR TALES OF YANKEE POWER

Son, this ain't a dream no more it's the real thing.

it's the penultimate "crazy circus crap"

Sorry but this is my number one grammar pet peeve. Penultimate is not a fancier way of saying ultimate. It means second to last.

The only way for the above statement to be true would be for someone to release an album of crazy circus crap, and put Rainy Day Women as the 2nd to last song.

pe·nul·ti·mate (p-nlt-mt)
adj.
1. Next to last.

The bridge that you travel on
goes to the Babylon
girl with the rose in her hair
Starlight in the East
and you're finally released
You're stranded but with nothing to share.

#1: always sounds like he's just straight up saying "goes to the Babylon," which is terrible
#2: "Babylon" is not an adjective so it really can't modify "girl" like that
#3: "travel on" and "Babylon" is awwwwwwful
#4: for some reason, in order to make "hair" rhyme with "share" (which, uh...), he pronounces "hair" "haaarrr"
#5: the "but" in the last line is superfluous
#6: wtf is he even trying to say with all this

bitches, man

no i have no idea

but i've decided disease of conceit is underrated. i like how dylan thinking he can get away w this shit is itself a symptom of the titular disease. it's soberingly meta.

and the answer to this question is still and forever "are birds free from the chains of the skyway".

LOL i know someone who uses that lyric as their email signature.

so many dylan lyrics are awful, and a lot hover over the great/awful divide. which is why i thought his "reinvention" in the 1990s (and continuing) as this kind of primitive sagelike conduit of the "old, weird america" is really off base. of all great lyricists, surely dylan is the one whose songs show their seams most fully.

his best lyrics are on john wesley harding, surely?

Who killed Davey Moore?
Why and what's the reason for?

that's a pretty strong song, lyrically. Especially for a dude in his early 20s.

gives me chills when the audience suddenly starts applauding on "i hit him, i hit him / yes it's true / but that's what i'm / PAID to do." i think they're applauding the line about cuba right before it but the timing is so strange.

That skyway thing...was he maybe writing about the Minneapolis Skyway? The one that the Replacements sang about?

dislike the dogs run free dissing in the first post >:(

xpost yo dog St Paul's got a ton of skyways too, it ain't just a mpls thing

(/western pride)

lolol i meant /eastern

I think I kinda like the "sun ain't yellow" line now.

xpost yo dog St Paul's got a ton of skyways too, it ain't just a mpls thing

And you chain birds to them? That seems mean.

New album has some clunkers, especially on "Tin Angel." "He pondered the future of his fate"? And this:

“Get up, stand up, you greedy-lipped wench
And cover your face or suffer the consequence
You are making my heart feel sick
Put your clothes back on, double-quick”

ze fkk?

"He pondered the future of his fate"

Hello David Coverdale

i don't know if this is the worst or the best:

Wiggle ’til you’re high, wiggle ’til you’re higher
Wiggle ’til you vomit fire

that's awesome is what that is

yeah under the red sky has some great oddball lyrics

Hey! Who could your lover be?
Hey! Who could your lover be?
Let me eat off his head so you can really see!

or
Handy Dandy, if every bone in his body was broken he would never admit it
He got an all-girl orchestra and when he says
“Strike up the band,” they hit it

i wouldn't say worst, and there's other keepers from Sara already referenced but

I can still hear the sounds of those Methodist bells,
I'd taken the cure and had just gotten through,
Stayin' up for days in the Chelsea Hotel,
Writin' "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" for you.

last line is just so yick

Like if Alanis Morrissette finally just wrote a song called "Dave"