Desire / Oh Sister
Oh, sister, when I come to lie in your arms
You should not treat me like a stranger.
Our Father would not like the way that you act
And you must realize the danger.
Oh, sister, am I not a brother to you
And one deserving of affection?
And is our purpose not the same on this earth,
To love and follow his direction?
We grew up together
From the cradle to the grave
We died and were reborn
And then mysteriously saved.
Oh, sister, when I come to knock on your door,
Don't turn away, you'll create sorrow.
Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore
You may not see me tomorrow.
Hearing this in the coffee shop as I sit and type. What a great album. Here's a question I've been pondering: do these lyrics (c. 1975) show Dylan approaching a kind of tipping point leading up to the full fledged conversion in '79, so obvious on Slow Train Coming? I'd think so, but then between these two albums we have Street Legal, which is a good album, but hardly indicative of the stuff he'd be putting out on the next three albums. Desire (or at least this song) is, I think.
You should not treat me like a stranger.
Our Father would not like the way that you act
And you must realize the danger.
Oh, sister, am I not a brother to you
And one deserving of affection?
And is our purpose not the same on this earth,
To love and follow his direction?
We grew up together
From the cradle to the grave
We died and were reborn
And then mysteriously saved.
Oh, sister, when I come to knock on your door,
Don't turn away, you'll create sorrow.
Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore
You may not see me tomorrow.
Hearing this in the coffee shop as I sit and type. What a great album. Here's a question I've been pondering: do these lyrics (c. 1975) show Dylan approaching a kind of tipping point leading up to the full fledged conversion in '79, so obvious on Slow Train Coming? I'd think so, but then between these two albums we have Street Legal, which is a good album, but hardly indicative of the stuff he'd be putting out on the next three albums. Desire (or at least this song) is, I think.
posted by Quin Finnegan at 11:52 AM
2 Comments:
Weren't all the songs on Desire cowritten by Jaques Levy? I wonder what his influence was, if any, in the direction of Dylan's conversion. I'd say "Senor" on Street Legal also shows movement in that direction. But then again there are signs of it all along the way, beginning with Gospel Plow and In My Time of Dying.
The good life: sitting in a coffee shop and having a Dylan song come on.
It certainly is. Although today they're playing DMX or something close to him. Which isn't quite the same as Dylan, at least for me. Anyway, you're right about Levy, so maybe that's it. As it turns out, Levy is a playwright and lyricist for 'Fame!' and 'Oh Calcutta!'. And he provides some interesting commentary for the Desire sessions here:
http://www.expectingrain.com/dok/who/l/levyjacques.html
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