The Lost Verse *

God said to King David,
“Sing me a song.”
King David said, “Lord,
I’ve got this face mask on!”
God said, “What!
You can just sit there
and self isolate
if you really want, Dave,
but the next time
Mother Nature sneezes
you’d better run!”
King David asked, “Where
d’you want this singing done?”
God said, “That clearway
out on Freeway Kingdom Come.”

* Text discovered scrawled on a napkin,
and wedged inside a truck stop jukebox
out on Highway 61.

Father of night,
Father of day
Father, who taketh
the darkness away
Father, who teacheth
the bird to fly
Builder of rainbows
up in the sky
Father of loneliness
and pain
Father of love
and Father of rain
Father of day,
Father of night
Father of black
Father of white
Father, who build
the mountain so high
Who shapeth
the cloud up in the sky
Father of time
Father of dreams
Father, who turneth
the rivers and streams
Father of grain
Father of wheat
Father of cold
and Father of heat
Father of air
and Father of trees
Who dwells in our hearts
and our memories
Father of minutes
Father of days
Father of whom
we most solemnly praise

~ Bob Dylan

64 thoughts on “The Lost Verse *”

  2. Singing the blues on Hwy 61, Minnesota bound. Lonely
    stretch of road, Lord bring
    this trucker safely home.
    Amen amen
    let me sing it
    Again.
    Take care, be safe! 🎶🎶

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. You too 🤞
      And thanks for reminding
      of a favourite song …

      “I made a wish upon a star
      I could have a brand new car
      Got tired of wishing
      So I stole one
      Seventeen and knew it all
      My dreams were big but my
      thoughts were small
      So many roads somehow
      I chose the wrong one
      But Jesus and mama
      always loved me
      Even when the devil
      took control
      Jesus and mama
      always loved me
      This I know music 🎶”

      ~ Confederate Railroad

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  5. Bob at his best …David…

    “Father of loneliness
    and pain
    Father of love
    and Father of rain
    Father of day,
    Father of night
    Father of black
    Father of white
    Father, who build
    the mountain so high”

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  13. Sweet juicy jazzy jackanapes
    Crusading king of Fairy Hill
    Immortal motley troubadour
    Breezed into town with time to kill
    To put the free back in free fall
    Peal forth the vow in disavow
    Ah, but I was so much Adler then
    I’m Junger than that now
    TV sophists spewed skewered truth
    Cut Ethos, Pathos, Logos dead
    No musketeering buccaneers
    But lame tame talking heads instead
    With propaganda for proper geese
    He cackled at their sacred cow
    Ah, but I was so much Adler then
    I’m Junger than that now
    Provincial ham let figments strut
    While stuttering beneath his breath
    “Wh-wherefore art thou Juliet?”
    His sad performance died the death
    Outrageous fortune took the blame
    While it was she who took the bow
    Ah, but I was so much Adler then
    I’m Junger than that now
    Soon leery learned the golden rule
    In prison’s schoolyard hide and seek
    Found respite from the siren call
    Played truantly eight days a week
    With John and Paul, and Pete, and Bob
    Unlatched the lightning bolt of Tao
    Ah, but I was so much Adler then
    I’m Junger than that now
    Embraced the peaceful warrior’s way
    Through battlefields of poison dust
    Explaining to the deaf and blind
    “In heinous blasphemy you trust
    Cool off your mumbo jumbo jets
    ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and that means thou”
    Ah, but I was so much Adler then
    I’m Junger than that now
    With righteous anger, sanctioned style
    Refusal to be compromised
    By inchworms who would take a mile
    Their dress sense, world view, he despised
    “Stomp out the unacceptable!”
    His motto and so solemn vow
    Ah, but I was so much Adler then
    I’m Junger than that now

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    1. Brilliant, Ben 👌

      According to Carl Jung,
      and my mother,
      I am much addled
      right here and now.
      Not just when
      I was much younger.
      But I blame Timothy Leary.
      Even Jack Kerouac,
      could clearly see 👀
      what Aldous Huxley,
      and Jerry Garcia,
      did to poor pitiful me 😎

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      Reply

      4. Hard to fact check ☠️ 🤔

        One of these days
        and it won’t be long
        Going down the valley
        and sing my song
        Gonna sing it loud
        and sing it strong
        Let the echo decide
        if I was right or wrong
        Silvio silver and gold
        Won’t buy back the beat
        of a heart grown cold
        Silvio I gotta go
        Find out something
        only dead men know
        ~ Bob Dylan

        Liked by 1 person

  18. Wow, that’s really beautiful, David.
    I thought you had written that and then I noticed Bob Dylan’s name.

    I must confess I wasn’t really familiar with Dylan’s work until I started reading your blog.

    My knowledge of most singers of the ’60s and ’70s came from the LPs and 45s that my elder sister played at home.

    Because in my own records, I never really listened to music.

    I listened to stories and narrations on records.

    So whatever music, songs and singers I imbibed from that time period I got from listening to my sister’s records.

    And she never listened to Dylan.

    Now learning from you of Dylan’s songs and lyrics, I can see why.

    For this was the girl who was trying to constantly destroy my own faith as a child telling me things like “Jesus didn’t really exist. And if he did, he was just an ordinary man. He wasn’t divine or God.”

    She was agnostic most of her life but she now attends an old fashioned Spiritualist Church where she spends time talking to ghosts instead of talking to God.

    So I can now see why she never listened to Dylan even though he was one of the musical greats of that time period.

    His lyrics certainly didn’t fit the philosophy she embraced.

    Glad I’m finally learning about Dylan from you, David.

    Better late than never.

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    1. Anyone who would swipe a
      Salvador Dali picture off her
      little brother could never be
      a Bob Dylan lover 💔
      Dylan’s songs have been the
      lyrics of my life. He seems to
      ever express real issues and
      experiences. Even when it
      comes to interfacing with deity.
      With a firm foundation, based
      on the the good book . . .

      “But mark this: There will be
      terrible times in the last days.
      People will be lovers of themselves,
      lovers of money, boastful, proud,
      abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love,
      unforgiving, slanderous, without
      self-control, brutal, not lovers of the
      good,  treacherous, rash, conceited, 
      lovers of pleasure rather than lovers
      of God. Having a form of godliness
      but denying its power. Have nothing
      to do with such people.”
      ~ Paul the Apostle

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