Bob Dylan Lyrics

Album: ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN

Ballad In Plain D Lyrics

I once loved a girl, her skin it was bronze

 With the innocence of a lamb, she was gentle like a fawn

 I courted her proudly, but now she is gone

 Gone as the season she's taken.

 

 Through young summer's breeze, I stole her away

 From her mother and sister, though close did they stay

 Each one of them suffering from the failures of their day

 With strings of guilt they tried hard to guide us.

 

 Of the two sister, I loved the young

 With sensitive instincts, she was the creative one

 The constant scapegoat, she was easily undone

 By the jealousy of others around her.

 

 For her parasite sister, I had no respect

 Bound by her boredom, her pride to protect

 Countless visions of the other she'd reflect

 As a crutch for her scenes and her society.

 

 Myself, for what I did, I cannot be excused

 The changes I was going through can't even be used

 For the lies that I told her in hopes not to lose

 The could-be dream-lover of my lifetime.

 

 With unseen consciousness, I possessed in my grip

 A magnificent mantelpiece, though its heart being chipped

 Noticing not that I'd already slipped

 To a sin of love's false security.

 

 From silhouetted anger to manufactured peace

 Answers of emptiness, voice vacancies

 Till the tombstones of damage read me no question but, "Please

 What's wrong and what's exactly the matter ?"

 

 And so it did happen, like it could have been foreseen

 The timeless explosion of fantasy's dream

 At the peak of the night, the king and the queen

 Tumbled all down into pieces.

 

 "The tragic figure" her sister did shout

 "Leave her alone, God damn you, get out"

 And I in my armor, turning about

 And nailing her in the ruins of her pettiness.

 

 Beneath a bare light bulb the plaster did pound

 Her sister and I in a screaming battleground

 And she in between, the victim of sound

 Soon shattered as a child to the shadows.

 

 All is gone, all is gone, admit it, take flight

 I gagged in contradiction, tears blinding my sight

 My mind it was mangled, I ran into the night

 Leaving all of love's ashes behind me.

 

 The wind knocks my window, the room it is wet

 The words to say I'm sorry, I haven't found yet

 I think of her often and hope whoever she's met

 Will be fully aware of how precious she is.

 

 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"?