Expecting Rain

Simply Amazing tune, usually done well live too!! The MEZ doesn't have much to say on this one, other than it's greatness. I am interested in versions, one may post of certain dates. Others comments etc. MEZ

I like the song... but I cannot understand why he did not call it 'Nettie Brown' instead of Nettie Moore... he normally loves songs with the name 'Brown' in the title which makes his decision all the more (no pun intended) mysterious... using the name Moore weakens the song, in my opinion.

Along with 'CROSS THE GREEN MOUNTAIN, PO' BOY, HIGH WATER and others, a song as good as anything he's ever recorded. The cream of a decade's crop.

A modern classic.

I always bypass this song on Modern Times.

"Nettie Moore" in Düsseldorf, 19.04.2007:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/g4kwot

A very interesting song with a sad and beautiful chorus. One of my favorites. I used to like Ain't Talkin' more but now I think I like this one more.

siruso

Not sure why but I didn't like this on Modern Times, it was the live versions that brought me around.

My favourite on Modern Times, along with Workingman's Blues. When I saw Dylan live 3 times in Amsterdam last april he played this song twice and both of the times it was among my favourites.

Wow that version from Dusseldorf is simply stunning.
For me, it's the Mississippi of Modern Times. A true song, one from the heart. It's Bob Dylan in 2006, and an accounting of the loves and troubles that pre-occupy his thoughts. What is so beautiful about that version from Dusseldorf is the amazing intimacy Bob's sharing with the audience. At its best, the song is a journey through the past, a series of musical movements. Its delicacy is balanced upon both the underlying rhythmic pulses of the music and Dylan's prophetic deliveries of these lines. What I love about the song is its rawness, his fearlessness in conveying exactly what he wants to say in his own language.

Don't know why my baby never looked so good before
Don't have to wonder no more
She been cooking all day, gonna take me all night
I can't eat all that stuff in a single bite

I always smile when I hear it. It's classic Bob. Playfully sexual, evoking a bygone time while creating a wholly modern creation. And yet, this woman is not Nettie Moore. Nettie Moore is missed, long gone, a love of the past. And as with many of Bob's latter day songs, there is a conflict between the verse and the chorus a didactic quality, but by song's end, we hear that the present is a constant reminder of the happier past and vice versa, forever invoking and reminding one of the other.

When I heard them do it live in Seattle this year with Charlie, I realized there was something amiss. it did not gel. There is very little economy or discretion with the way Charlie plays and this song requires that. I fear that that is a bit of a sacrifice where Charlie is concerned. The finest version I've heard yet is from the concert I saw last year in Santa Monica. Easily the highlight of the night, the version is a brilliantly paced crescendo, it builds in intensity throughout until that final line
'I wish to God that it were night' which Bob practically screams out. And then the band takes the song into a brave new place, finding places for sounds that elevate the song into avant-garde territory. Denny finds a pattern and Stu picks it up on fiddle (I've always loved his playing on this song), Bob finds it on organ and responds emotionally in voice. It's such a unified performance, I always feel like this is all just an extension of Bob's quixotic brain. I remember thinking throughout that version in Santa Monica that it was the closest I had ever heard Bob get to a John Cage composition.
An overwhelming memory, I still get chills when I think of it.

Here she is.
Santa Monica CA
September 3 2008
http://www.sendspace.com/file/jg26gp

The best performances came from Fall 2006, no doubt. It had the magic.

Nov. 12
http://www.humyo.com/F/164399-53226037

Damn, that one's good.

An absolutely gorgeous song and another one of my personal favorites. Haunting, sad and beautifully moving. I'm always caught between tearing up and swooning whenever I hear it.

A video of the performance at Uniondale, 13.11.2006:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li0uTgWF0Is

I don't think I ever get tired of hearing this one. It's definitely made that list of tracks I try out on people who claim to dislike Dylan but have really only heard one or two songs.

your comment above is fast becoming true of most tracks on MT for me.

it is a great album

That's right, Mr. Mim is right, and this all goes to show that this latest part of Bob's recording career is fine indeed. Old Bob has made made some mighty fine songs.

The only good song on MT, and probably his last "classic" tune, if he keeps up with his current direction. Sombre and spartan, it's a masterpiece of mood.

Holy frijoles.

I like it. But what is wrong with me that I don't love it as much as everybody else?

It's a song that has great parts. The choruses are great. Some of the verses are great. But other verses (e.g., 'travel the world,' 'the judge is comin in,' 'gettin light outside') seem pretty dull to me. And there is one awful line deployed at a crucial moment - 'no knife could ever cut our love apart,' which makes love sound like a block of cheese.

Tighter editing could have helped, which is also true of that far lesser song 'Beyond the Horizon.'

Yep that's right, it's got some great parts and verses and words and things.
I would also add it sounds real good too.

Because you're not an impressionable sheep?

Just kidding.

It's the most respectable song on Modern Times, but not even half as good as songs like Mississippi and Standing in the Doorway. The lyrics are, as you say, half-wonky, and the percussion is rather mind-numbing.

The lyrics are interesting but the song itself is plodding, just as overrated as Red River Shore.

I always bypass Modern Times when I listen to this song. Well, except for Workingman's Blues

I like it, but it's not a favorite from Modern Times. My favorites are:

Ain't Talkin'
Spirit on the Water
Workingman's Blues #2

Yes...anyone who bypasses 'Ain't Talkin'' when listening to MT needs their heads examined. It is simply one of the greatest songs Bob Dylan ever cut.