Bob Dylan - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues Lyrics

Bob has given a hilariously ridiculous explanation of what this song is all about that no one should take seriously. The song without Paul Griffin's piano is good bordering on great, but the addition of the piano makes it unique and legendary. They did so many takes of this in the studio that Paul knew totally where Bob's voice was going at each point in the song, and he was right there to help it along.

not to go to her too soon

Is this thompkins square, alphabet city. Drag queens and heroin? Avenue B

Who needs a chorus? Not Bob. The greatest album ever made. It rendered everything that came before it meaningless. It inspired everything that came after it.
I revere Bob and recognize his greatness. I was born in 1968, so I will never know what it was like to hear this organically. What must it have been like to walk into a record store in 1965, come out with this tucked under your arm, and then take it home and play it? I will never know. I am nostalgic for things I never experienced. I realize of course that is a contradictory sentence there. is there a word for that?

No chorus, no rules--just genius. Undimmed by 40 years.

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez when it's Easter time, too
And your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there and they really make a mess outta you
Now, if you see Saint Annie, please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move, my fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength to get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor, won't even say what it is I've got
Sweet Melinda, the peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English and she invites you up into her room
And you're so kind and careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice and leaves you howling at the moon
Up on Housing Project Hill, it's either fortune or fame
You must pick one or the other, though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you're lookin' to get silly, you better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you, and man, they expect the same
Now, all the authorities, they just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms into leaving his post
And picking up Angel, who just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first but left looking just like a ghost
I started out on burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff
I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough

If it weren't for "Desolation Row", this would be my favorite song of Dylan's. Ever.

his poetry is sublime.

Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez when it's Easter time, too
And your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there and they really make a mess outta you
Now, if you see Saint Annie, please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move, my fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength to get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor, won't even say what it is I've got
Sweet Melinda, the peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English and she invites you up into her room
And you're so kind and careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice and leaves you howling at the moon
Up on Housing Project Hill, it's either fortune or fame
You must pick one or the other, though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you're lookin' to get silly, you better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you, and man, they expect the same
Now, all the authorities, they just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms into leaving his post
And picking up Angel, who just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first but left looking just like a ghost
I started out on burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff
I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough

Songwriter: Bob Dylan

one of the most underrated dylan songs yet so special

anyone listening this on loop?...How can this man be so relative in 2019.

The last two weeks I've been doing that.

I always say that. How can all this old poetry be so relevant on the brink of 2020

I'm going back to New Orleans, I do believe I've had enough

James Broussard Hey, I worked (very briefly!) as a waiter at Broussard's in the Quarter, on Royal Street I think. Any relation?

The day this was posted was literally the best thing to happen to the internet ever

Never has there been a more accurate song about a city than this one...good ol juarez

The Grateful Dead covered Dylan the best.

I want that jacket so bad

Beastie Boys Finger Lickin Good brought me here.

I always thought he said "worries" instead of "juarez"

Love this one.

I'M looking for Saint Annie, and sweet Melissa!

Man I've been listening this 55 years and still love it, and at one point didn't even know who I was listening to, just a kid, listen to my best friend's brother's record collection.

A beautiful song - but why weren't the guitars in tune?

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez when it's Easter time, too
And your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through
Don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue
They got some hungry women there and they really make a mess outta you
Now, if you see Saint Annie, please tell her thanks a lot
I cannot move, my fingers are all in a knot
I don't have the strength to get up and take another shot
And my best friend, my doctor, won't even say what it is I've got
Sweet Melinda, the peasants call her the goddess of gloom
She speaks good English and she invites you up into her room
And you're so kind and careful not to go to her too soon
And she takes your voice and leaves you howling at the moon
Up on Housing Project Hill, it's either fortune or fame
You must pick one or the other, though neither of them are to be what they claim
If you're lookin' to get silly, you better go back to from where you came
Because the cops don't need you, and man, they expect the same
Now, all the authorities, they just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms into leaving his post
And picking up Angel, who just arrived here from the coast
Who looked so fine at first but left looking just like a ghost
I started out on burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff
I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough
The BEST of many from the prolific genius.
Songwriters: Bob Dylan

Juarez? Whorez what's the diff? Cartells wouldn't allow this song bringing attention to Juarez these days.....

Did anyone do free association better than Dylan?

Highway 61 is a masterpiece. My personal favorite "desolation roe".

take another shot

thanks alot

wont you come see me queen jane

Play at 2x for that Viva las Vegas vibe

"The cops they don't need you and man they expect the same", one of my favorite Dylan lyrics

Now, all the authorities, they just stand around and boast
How they blackmailed the sergeant-at-arms into leaving his post

Love this

I love how he ain't gonna work on your farm no more...

songs about whores are always great

Very rocking rendition by Bryan Ferry !

"I started out on burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff
Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff

I'm going back to New York City, I do believe I've had enough"


Damn! I had this feeling a couple of months ago. Gives me chills every time a listen to this song.. Thank you Bob!

How can one comment on this. There are no words or images left as Bob has used them all. Got to meet Belinda, waited a while now, guess one day ...Might buy me something on housing hill while I wait.

When I faced troubles in my life, Bob Dylan, specially this song, used to give me a relief. Thank you, mr. Dylan.

That was a really bad time in my life. Thanks Bob for the relief you gave me from it.

ps: they will post more albums, after his decease

B
O
M
B
a
Y
🍻😈

Masterpiece.

Love his Triumph Motorcycles t shirt.The song is one of his best.Great humour,his lighter side.Must balance that with Masters of War next...

Just listened to masters of war

Beastie boys stole the end line.

Warren Zevon stole the main piano riff XD

One of my favorites from Zimmy. I followed Bob Dylan for many, many years. He's a national treasure.

I started out on Burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff..... everybody said they stand behind me when the game got rough....... but the joke was on me there was nobody even there to bluff........... one of the best songs ever written

Ain't that the truth son.

A lot of what rock is about is using "hip" phrases.

@crushsatan Twistin' my melon man!

They’ll really make a mess outta you 😂✌️👌

Muito obrigado

Love This sonG.

I started out on Burgundy, but soon hit the harder stuff! Gateway wine?

Lionel Ducote I happen to read that line just as it was played on the track 🙏

@m s Double Good! Love this song.

Bob Dylan is a pharmakon!

Such a cool, but sad song. Anybody caught in a drug scene and lived to tell the story, this is an anthem.
The last line is great. For me it was Grants Pass, OR...I do believe I've had ... e...nough.

I cannot help but think of Faulkner, whose writing career began in New Orleans where he wrote Soldier's Pay under the sway and agency of Sherwood Anderson who introduced F. to the editors and the publishing world of NYC - both Nobel laureates: D. and F.

Fuck You!

Such lovely

One of my Faves!

I'll meet you in the belly of the whale when you get swallowed little puppet, and perhaps you can help out your father for once instead of just being a bad boy. Only then, when you risk your own life to help others- will you finally become a REAL boy- and not just fake. Pretend.

When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are!! Conscience though boy- did you have any? But you smashed that old know-it-all Jiminy Cricket good! Now you won't be bothered by any darn conscience and can always do whatever you want whenever you want it!! Why feel bad when you can feel good?

who are you talking to?

@inertia27 Desolate, isn't it?

School- you were supposed to go to school Little Schoolboys, but along the way you all became slaves to entertainment and jackasses- because you got to do whatever you wanted to do instead of doing what you were supposed to do. But guess what my little Jackasses? God has plans for you...

Traditionally Peter Pan is always played by a woman, not a man. But lost boys you are!! The Lost Boys.

But it sucks to even have the name "Mountain Girl" be robbed from me by a person who hasn't spent any time on the mountain, hasn't spent any time on the hill, who was always a woman and never looked like a girl...

BROKEN GLASS!!!! And yes, this is also what Jewish couples do at weddings!! Step on the broken glass!! Weeeeeee!! So much fun being married to you Little Jew Boy!! Looks like I'm going NOWHERE!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA What a fucking joke that is!!! Yes no direction home!! A complete unknown!!! HHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA Rub it in that bitch's face some more rich man who lives in a mansion!! RUB IT IN HER FACE!!!!

But my glass slipper must be broken from my evil stepsisters trying on my shoes. All I can feel is broken glass. Every foot step. Broken shards of glass cutting my soul.

Just like, just like, just like... it just goes on and on. Cinderella is a shoe that fits quite well for me too- for I had to be back before midnight from the dance... And in my real life I was not well treated, and my face badly scarred from the cinders that fly from fire. Universal almost is this myth. The Indians also have a myth that they told long before any white person ever told them about Cinderella called Cinder Girl- and it goes much the same way. I'd love to meet my evil stepsisters one day who fought so hard over Jerry's money, and know what they did with it all. How did they change the world and make it so much better? Didn't they care so much about the environment and about telling people's stories that hadn't been told? Well, lets see what they accomplished with unlimited resources and people backing them. Not much huh? But they certainly loved to live like Queens.

who are you talking to?

Ain't it funny though that Tom Thumb himself probably never made it out of Tattershall, Lincolnshire, UK? But just a little person I am, with big adventures.

Juarez is so many places, isn't it Bob? Latin America isn't known for being creative, but repetitive- especially when it comes to historical figures and place names. I was just at a Parque Benito Juarez just today in Ecuador, but what it really reminds me of is the major subway station in Guadalajara where a recorded woman's voice tells you "Juarez. Juarez." Just in case you are blind or stuffed into a car like a sardine and can't see anything. Juarez is also the name of a neighborhood next to Bosque de Chapultepec where I ate Little Cesears pizza once or twice as well as skateboarded on a weekend when the main street was closed. But no, I've never actually been to the town of Juarez. That is in Chihuahua State on the other side of El Paso, and the US State Department considers it to be a level 3 area- at high risk for crime. I've already been robbed of everything I have once or twice, and raped by God itself- I'd rather not go for another round.


Its kind of scary because if you ever started to get Alzheimers or something in a place like Argentina where they name all the streets in every town the same historical figures names, you might totally think you were in a different town than what you actually are just because the street names all seemed so familiar. And maybe you might find your street, but you would never find your house.

Can't I just pull over and ask someone for directions?

If you get too big for your britches, you end up stealing someone else's pants.

One person's pain is another person's pleasure.

I’m goin back to New York City I do believe I’ve had enough

New York City, Home Sweet Home?

D Heller Finger licking good.

Had this song playing on the drive back home to NYC after living in Delaware for 2 years.

No one out Dylans Dylan

warren3427 hahaha so true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDheLViZbrk

Right on.

Highway 61 Revisited is definitely in the top 5 greatest albums of all time!

So is Bringing it All Back Home

might be in the top 1

@William White Forreal

No 2 after Blonde on Blonde

Just love this song that piano intro always sends shivers down my spine, simply to good for words. The live version b side of Positively 4th St. Got me thrown out of pie and mash shop, because I got it to repeat 5 times 😀😀😀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs7E6q3un-k

Probably written in like ten minutes! A fantastic song. Love the line " I started out in burgundy but soon hit the harder stuff". Classic Dylan

Happy birthday Bob

Everybody said they'd stand behind me when the game got rough
But the joke was on me, there was nobody even there to bluff

The Iceman, They don’t have any money anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3rNJwPqGHA&feature=youtu.be

One of my favorite Dylan albums. I'm thinking it might have been the first of his I bought, but don't quote me on that.

Un cigarrillo, sentir la lluvia y ahì te quiero ver

what he does with his voice is astounding

Fred Fat I know... it’s hard to describe. It’s like he sings so monotone, but it works so well.

well he is from northern Minesooootaa yaaa

Criminally underrated

underrated??? wtf?? just about every critic in the world will say this is one of the greatest recorded works in history

@William White Underrated is one of the most common comments under old songs for some reason.

@paranoid plane97 underrated is an overrated word

Good thing I kept looking for Dylan tunes.. idk who to thank.... probably my persistence!!

I never really heard you until God started talking to me. I had a bunch of Grateful Dead bootlegs and I think you played with them on some shows. I thought you sucked. Your voice was terrible. I didn't really like the Grateful Dead either to begin with. I don't remember where I decided that you were alright at, but somewhere between the 5th and 10th playing of an album. And then God went insane about you. Next thing you know I'm walking down the road talkin' some WWIII blues myself, and had to go buy every god damn album I could get my hands on. I've forgotten how emotionally over the edge I was at the time, but I remember now that I am writing here tonight- I just felt like that again. It was during my laughing phase that you were really a big hit. I also cried for years on end, but it phased out into laughing after about 5 years. Seems like a huge dichotomy to blame solely on my biological chemicals. I don't laugh as much as I used to, and its not a good laugh. Its insane. Whoever said "laughter is the world's best medicine" obvious had not laughed as much as I have, nor have the people who say "its good to cry" cried a river like I did. For years on end. Everyday. All day long.


For a while I talked to God and Bob and sometimes became Bob in the desert. I found a can opener one time out on this dry playa, it had probably been sitting there since you were a little boy- I called it "Bob's can opener." I carried it around for like a year after that, and everytime I saw that rusted piece of trash, I thought of you. I would never starve if I just had a can of food in the desert with Bob around.



Did I tell you that I went insane? I am so tired of talking- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy-gwgJPW2c

Moral of the story: don't use up all of your good laughs...save a few for later. And invest in a Swiss army knife.

I believe I'm in love with you. 909 545 3020. 7/25/2019, 11:20 a.m., PDT.

A story of trying to "score" in Mexico!

Bob dylan.....such a way with words and language! !
He can paint pictures with one sentence. His words spark emotions, memories, reverence.....things said everyone can relate to in their own personal way. Unreal.

An early favorite of mine....i used to skip school ,just to play my dads records . This was always on
Thanks dad, rip

im annonymous glad to hear you did something constructive on your day off

I expect your learned more about life that way.

Same here!

At 16 I found it pretty stunning. It was like I'd always known it, and was just hearing it for the first time in years.

AND TO THINK, WE USE TO SKIP HIGH SCHOOL TO DRINK BEER, OR TO BE SPECIFIC COLT MALT LICQUER

GREAT song, GREAT album!!!

Why are most beaches/coast lines aligned north and south? Imagine the sun setting in the North.....

As for coasts, they hold their own, and tell stories nobody can ever guess... they keep their own secrets close and their magic.... thats another story worth telling in time.

@Esther Ruby I have to agree, their in a Click. Been Fun-------------------thanks

@Lionel Ducote ditto, take care and enjoy the journey, wherever it may lead you!✌🔅

Great question. Seems like you might be interested in how the earth's continents were formed. If you research "Pangaea" it might help provide an answer. I'm no expert in this field, but have been curious just like you.
"About 300 million years ago, Earth didn't have seven continents, but instead one massive supercontinent called Pangaea, which was surrounded by a single ocean called Panthalassa..." Hope this helps.

@Crabby Creates I know a girl who thinks the earth is flat. perhaps she has an easier answer than the real one? I was kind of kidding in that original question. Arkansas Humor. Has to be some "Rhyme to the Reason" Gravity, Centrifugal force, Plate tectonics, Time? or and what else.

....And there's this version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXs2ZCRdEhA

This song has gotten me through some of the hardest things in my life. Thank you Bob.

Robert Donaldson Bob Dylan really can reflect the souls emotions. This album and ‘Blonde on Blonde’ maser pieces

Yea, like the mIlitary.

Me too, Robert! :-)

Same, brother!

One of life's consolations, and on several occasions by no means a small one. No, not several; numerous is the word.

I'm so glad that classic Dylan songs are finally appearing on YouTube - his poetry is perfection...Thank you for posting.

wunnerful, wunnerful

How GREAT is this album!! When it came out many people said it was the greatest phonographic recording of ALL TIME. People just flipped. But then LATER THE SAME YEAR Bob came out with Blonde on Blonde (the first double album) and people said, no, wait, Blonde on Blonde was the greatest phonographic recording ever made. And I agree with BOTH evaluations...just incredible mind changing music. Analog of course...digital music cannot impact emotions like analog.

Don't forget "Bringing it all Back Home". A perfect trifecta.

@hch49 65-67 had Bringing it All Back Home, Rubber Soul, Highway 61 Revisited, Pet Sounds, Revolver, Blonde on Blonde, Sgt. Pepper, Velvet Underground, John Wesley Harding... must've been so fucking cool (altough it's still cool now, cause we can listen to it :D)

@Tigermoon I was there. Awesome, it was.

What a time to be alive.

Een waanzinnig goed nummer .

Simply the best.

Note: The "Music in this video" info is incorrect.

And she takes your voice and leaves you howling at the moon.