Bob Dylan - Tempest Lyrics






The pale moon rose in its glory
Out on the Western town
She told a sad, sad story
Of the great ship that went down

It was the fourteenth day of April
Over the waves she rode
Sailing into tomorrow
To a golden age foretold

The night was black with starlight
The seas were sharp and clear
Moving through the shadows
The promised hour was near

Lights were holding steady
Gliding over the foam
All the lords and ladies
Heading for their eternal home

The chandeliers were swaying
From the balustrades above
The orchestra was playing
Songs of faded love

The watchman, he lay dreaming
As the ballroom dancers twirled
He dreamed the Titanic was sinking
Into the underworld

Leo took his sketchbook
He was often so inclined
He closed his eyes and painted
The scenery in his mind

Cupid struck his bosom
And broke it with a snap
The closest woman to him
He fell into her lap

He heard a loud commotion
Something sounded wrong
His inner spirit was saying
That he couldn't stand here long

He staggered to the quarterdeck
No time now to sleep
Water on the quarterdeck
Already three foot deep

Smokestack was leaning sideways
Heavy feet began to pound
He walked into the whirlwind
Sky splitting all around

The ship was going under
The universe had opened wide
The roll was called up yonder
The angels turned aside

Lights down in the hallway
Flickering dim and dull
Dead bodies already floating
In the double bottom hull

The engines then exploded
Propellers they failed to start
The boilers overloaded
The ship's bow split apart

Passengers were flying
Backward, forward, far and fast
They mumbled, fumbled, and tumbled
Each one more weary than the last

The veil was torn asunder
'Tween the hours of twelve and one
No change, no sudden wonder
Could undo what had been done

The watchman lay there dreaming
At forty five degrees
He dreamed that the Titanic was sinking
Dropping to her knees

Wellington he was sleeping
His bed began to slide
His valiant heart was beating
He pushed the tables aside

Glass of shattered crystal
Lay scattered roundabout
He strapped on both his pistols
How long could he hold out?

His men and his companions
Were nowhere to be seen
In silence there he waited for
Time and space to intervene

The passageway was narrow
There was blackness in the air
He saw every kind of sorrow
Heard voices everywhere

Alarm-bells were ringing
To hold back the swelling tide
Friends and lovers clinging
To each other side by side

Mothers and their daughters
Descending down the stairs
Jumped into the icy waters
Love and pity sent their prayers

The rich man, Mister Astor
Kissed his darling wife
He had no way of knowing
It'd be the last trip of his life

Calvin, Blake and Wilson
Gambled in the dark
Not one of them would ever live to
Tell the tale on the disembark

Brother rose up 'gainst brother
In every circumstance
They fought and slaughtered each other
In a deadly dance

They lowered down the lifeboats
From the sinking wreck
There were traitors, there were turncoats
Broken backs and broken necks

The bishop left his cabin
To help others in need
Turned his eyes up to the heavens
Said, "The poor are yours to feed"

Davey the brothel-keeper
Came out dismissed his girls
Saw the water getting deeper
Saw the changing of his world

Jim Dandy smiled
He never learned to swim
Saw the little crippled child
And he gave his seat to him

He saw the starlight shining
Streaming from the East
Death was on the rampage
But his heart was now at peace

They battened down the hatches
But the hatches wouldn't hold
They drowned upon the staircase
Of brass and polished gold

Leo said to Cleo
I think I'm going mad
But he'd lost his mind already
Whatever mind he had

He tried to block the doorway
To save all those from harm
Blood from an open wound
Pouring down his arm

Petals fell from flowers
'Til all of them were gone
In the long and dreadful hours
The wizard's curse played on

The host was pouring brandy
He was going down slow
He stayed right to the end and he
Was the last to go

There were many, many others
Nameless here forever more
They never sailed the ocean
Or left their homes before

The watchman, he lay dreaming
The damage had been done
He dreamed the Titanic was sinking
And he tried to tell someone

The captain, barely breathing
Kneeling at the wheel
Above him and beneath him
Fifty thousand tons of steel

He looked over at his compass
And he gazed into its face
Needle pointing downward
He knew he'd lost the race

In the dark illumination
He remembered bygone years
He read the Book of Revelation
And he filled his cup with tears

When the Reaper's task had ended
Sixteen hundred had gone to rest
The good, the bad, the rich, the poor
The loveliest and the best

They waited at the landing
And they tried to understand
But there is no understanding
On the judgment of God's hand

The news came over the wires
And struck with deadly force
Love had lost its fires
All things had run their course

The watchman he lay dreaming
Of all the things that can be
He dreamed the Titanic was sinking
Into the deep blue sea





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Bob Dylan Tempest Comments
  1. l.... ....

    All for Love 💕 🙏

  2. K.... J....

    yes bob i love you sow much

  3. d.... o....

    The Word is the burning fuse of the silent revolution of the heart! The musical chords of the keys of the pianos of the children's smiles, is kept by the little birds little birds, in the nest of the stars! The Poet is an archer, from the poetic verses of the arithmetic of the wind of love! Its bow is inflected and rooted in the breadth of poignant lyricism! His quiver is full of arrows of idyllic fire, spreading and propagate the sentimentality of overwhelming novels; and carries between his teeth, the arrow of an epic verse! The Desert is an acoustic lute, played and touched, by the chords of the warm, cold and arid wind, inspired by the poetic paracusis of the parousia [παρουσία] of the verses of the literary composition, and sings, and narrates the stories of the hallucinating and delirious and palpable mirages, of the delicious oases of aphrodisiac women, with black eyes of hawk and rook feathers, and long hair, shining the glow of the moonlit scimitar of the night !! Seduction is boldly bodly poem, orchestrated in the sensitive and tenuous tuning, of the tuning fork of the five senses! The poetic Homero, gave me his eyes, for me to be long-winded, in the elementary arguments of the verses of life! The choreography of the firmament, presents, how many figured forms? The tense of the verb of love is always, in the present indicative, in the poetry verses of the heart@@@ZZZ

  4. C.... L....

    The kid looks a bit like Feargal Sharkey.

  5. R.... B....

    Do we still have time for this?

  6. D.... P....

    Bob Dylan the coolest dude to have ever lived 👍

  7. F.... J....

    Gostei do vídeo, linda canção. Boa noite pra todos...

  8. L.... P....

    Otimo clip com historia deixa laki quem comcorda.

  9. b.... ....

    The Last Picture Show

  10. c.... c....

    Fantástico!!! 🎸🎶👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

  11. b.... ....

    I like Bob's gang

  12. m.... ....

    this music video is basically Bittersweet symphony by The Verve, The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson & When I Come Around by Green Day all rolled into one!

  13. I.... T....

    He looks like he just waked up!

  14. F.... ....

    The Bob has his Stuff @5:00

  15. R.... ....

    I feel like I'm in the minority when I say I love Bob's old and new voice
    Yea this is raspy as fuck but I love it
    Kinda like Brian Johnson from AC/DC

  16. R.... ....

    When he got maced I lost it lol

  17. I.... T....

    this is cool as ****** 😜😎🙌

  18. K.... J....

    yeah bob

  19. h.... a....

    5:00 best moment

  20. E.... L....

    Awesome! 💜

  21. E.... L....

    Back many moons ago if that kid had stalked me I would have been in my glory!

  22. C.... F....

    Goddamn! And he didn't even get the girl! (Except in his fever dream.)

  23. E.... A....

    Shoutout to Joel Edgerton wielding the bat! XD

  24. c.... f....

    Fergal Sharkey in a Bob Dylan vid

  25. b.... ....

    Bad bob No good bob

  26. F.... ....

    It's a Dylans guiding group stepping over a helpless. Yehaaw! Welcome to the world!

  27. J.... S....

    ~❤❤❤ ~

  28. J.... Y....

    Good one Bobby, Dylan and only Dylan is the leader of any Gig. Go Bobby Go.

  29. R.... R....

    Ok, there’s a lot to unwind here. She drives a Gremlin? Why is there a guy from Kiss in the entourage? Is the tall Asian woman carrying an abacus? And, this video matches It Ain’t Me Babe more than the lyrics here. Good song though.

  30. L.... C....

    Shout out to my folks in Carbondale.

  31. M.... G....

    *gets beat up* ---> *hangs out with bob Dylan* -----> *gets beat up again*

  32. A.... T....

    Bob's a fan of Always Sunny 😁👍🏻

  33. j.... a....

    Stupid boy. Jail for ever.

  34. h.... ....

    I feel even more sorry for Gene Simmons having to walk in those shoes at the end than I do for the protagonist in this story.

  35. F.... ....

    stepping over a helpless. ...
    Welcome to the InetGen!

  36. M.... G....

    Is there any such thing as a bad Bob Dylan song, video or picture of him, past or present. No.

  37. �.... ....

    この救いの無さがディラン節

  38. c.... c....

    小伙子你这是何必

  39. J.... ....

    when this man goes...the world will have a huge void to fill

  40. C.... ....

    This song is shit.

  41. C.... ....

    Bob is morphing into a shit version of Tom Waits

  42. H.... B....

    Love is for fools

  43. B.... ....

    Bob looks like he's just generally going somewhere followed by gangsters and hookers and it's just his regular night stroll.

  44. H.... s....

    he sounds like a grandma who's smoked two packs a day for her entire life.

    H.... s....

    David Bowie was an eighty-ciggies-a-day man for most of his career and was still able to hit all the high notes in "Wild Is the Wind", for example.

  45. R.... C....

    A lot of young men need to watch this video.

  46. g.... s....

    Strains of Tom Paxtons "Last Thing On My Mind".

    g.... s....

    There is a slight similarity to Last Thing on my Behind but this is far superior to boring Paxtons song

    g.... s....

    No one was waxing wonderful about Mr. Paxtons song . Last Thing On My Behind that's funny now Your Gonna Make Me Loathsome When You Go.

  47. R.... r....

    0:45 I tried that IRL and the girl called the cops on me

  48. D.... W....

    Yeah dudes, just enjoy it if you like it, y know, some of the comments, "William Hill, I mean Shakespeare of our time, that's like sayin yr, favourite mathematics teacher is Kepler or Copernicus of our time. Just cos y can make a public coment don't mean y have to, but if y do have to, say something poiniant, for God's sake.

    D.... W....

    Says the guy who can't spell or punctuate.

  49. P.... B....

    Ha - that's about it. Try to impress some women, or be nice to her, and she gets out her rodent spray. Why do men (like myself) continue to make this vain effort to please a female who is never satisfied.

    P.... B....

    Kid stalks her and tries to force his way into her car, and that's your takeaway? She's to blame?

  50. B.... j....

    Espetacular

  51. S.... K....

    Is that Bernie Sanders playing the flower guy??

  52. s.... c....

    I like the beginning middle and end the best.

  53. R.... C....

    Bob Dylan, Jakob Dylan's dad sounds sort of raspy

  54. J.... J....

    bob dylan should do rap

  55. b.... ....

    Good song and marvelous musical performance. Brilliant movie. Love it!

  56. R.... C....

    I thought that instead of those other people walking with Bob Dylan, it should've been his son Jakob Dylan and Bob Dylan himself walking so that his son Jakob Dylan would've been featured or I thought of myself being featured walking with Bob and Jakob Dylan

  57. R.... T....

    Reminds me of when i hopped over someones fence and picked/stole a flower for my wife to be, the owner didn't understand young love and had a right go at me. I see his point now i'm 70, but i would do the same again given the chance Lol.

  58. D.... J....

    You can’t win over a woman today with just a rose 🌹! Creep got maced! Ha ha ha! Then he gets kidnapped! And beaten! What a loser! Hey, Gene Simmons is in Dylan’s posse.

  59. R.... D....

    this song should be in Joker

  60. R.... L....

    "Omg this is sexual harassment"

    R.... L....

    Millennial Snowflake

  61. J.... S....

    Dylan has turned into Louis Armstrong.

  62. E.... M....

    Man, that song sounds an awful lot like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcS9hqbJsqk

  63. R.... P....

    I want Bob to light a cigarette on a pawkin meter and walk down the road....

  64. L.... S....

    🤗🤗🤗

  65. D.... W....

    Actually, that's a great video.

  66. F.... ....

    RIP Bob Hunter ❤️

  67. J.... C....

    R.I.P. Robert Hunter, lyricist extraordinaire, who wrote this with Dylan.

  68. L.... ....

    3:35 is that Joel Edgerton?

    L.... ....

    Its his brother Nash - he has done a few Dylan music vids namely this - beyond here lies nothin and must be santa

  69. M.... K....

    Stalking doesn't pay.

  70. B.... K....

    I wanted him to get the girl in the end

  71. T.... K....

    I never thought I would laugh hysterical at a Dylan video; also the whole CD is awesome!

  72. S.... T....

    moral of the story..........................., when you are being chased by the police
    do not use and consequently cause pain
    and injury to an innocent bystander, ( the guy on the ladder) in your effort to avoid being caught
    right?

  73. N.... R....

    You are the sexiest man alive.🥰

  74. E.... C....

    I don't wanna sound like a dick but I hated that boy from the first second and I am happy he got the shit kicked out of him. This naive romanticism is really off-putting.

  75. N.... S....

    I love this song👍BOB DYLAN👍✔

  76. B.... L....

    that was highly entertaining!

  77. C.... R....

    The moral: If you've had your body, life, and heart broken in New York, it's useless to depend on Bob Dylan. ;-)

    C.... R....

    Code Red 😂 he’ll just step over your ass! And I would still love him as he stepped over me! Story to tell

  78. G.... M....

    I should of just ran him whoops. Speed bump

  79. N.... ....

    Today's lesson from Professor Zimmerman: "No, means NO!". Now, go enjoy your life...and whatever you do, don't listen to your heart...if you value your kneecaps.

    N.... ....

    But...but huh? Grab life by the you know what (🤦🏽‍♀️as long as it’s consensual...pc crap disclaimer)

  80. F.... ....

    This is it.

  81. G.... M....

    at 00:13 see john lennon..top left corner of screen...oh yeah bobby and john

  82. y.... ....

    name of the actor? He's something else.

  83. J.... O....

    One of Bob Dylan's best songs, ever

  84. b.... ....

    Bob Dylan, coolest cat ever

  85. P.... P....

    Can't comment any more on Bob . No more words left

  86. d.... ....

    bob my love

  87. D.... D....

    Those cigaretts have changed His voice

  88. d.... v....

    There is nothing funny about a stalker. This is horrible!!

  89. D.... S....

    Sou fã do Bob Dylan mas a voz dele está bem deteriorada

  90. T.... N....

    Correction: Do you have the eyes to see and the ears to here what I am layin' down here?
    It should be: Do you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear what I am layin' down here?


    Pardon the misspelling.

  91. T.... N....

    Jehanzeb Hasan's interpretation (see Comments, below) is valid, of course. but the story line in this video may be simpler than that. Namely, it's that times have changed. In 1960-1961, when Bob first arrived downtown from Minnesota, the times were such that the young man might have won over the young woman with such antics. Huh, not anymore. She gave a perfectly reasonable reaction to his attempts to meet her: that is, she pepper sprayed him (or was that Mace?). And that's it. After about 50 years of feminism, this is the acceptable, reasonable response from any woman to such actions from a young man. And Bob is walking by and thinking, "Times are a-changin'. Or have, in fact, changed. And, just maybe, you should have known that, young dude." And that's the end of the story. (Of course, there are safer ways to meet a young woman nowadays without, say, stalking her for blocks in midtown. Remember that, the next time the temptation tries to overtake you).

  92. J.... H....

    sad to see a legend go out like THIS! w.t.f. can't they just respect the work? sorry for the broken tears...... the video sucked dead donkey dick,also.worthy of Michael (bore) more.

  93. M.... W....

    A charming song, which I have already played many times. Dazzling tour de force.

  94. l.... ....

    i don't get the story...can someone please explain?

  95. M.... M....

    only thing also . that keeps us alive-yay

  96. E.... M....

    I like it. Great musicians. And Bob sing whit out nasal voice.

  97. L.... C....

    It's a direct reference to a short film Spike Jonze made starring Mark Gonzlez, except it takes an ironic twist when he gets pepper sprayed. I'm kind of surprised nobody's pointed this out, but I guess there's not much overlap between Dylan and Spike Jonze fans.