Expecting Rain

Bob's finest rocker of the 2000's, this song is far more than meets the eye. IMO of course...

Well, I’m stranded in the city that never sleeps
Some of these women they just give me the creeps
I’m avoidin’ the Southside the best I can
These memories I got, they can strangle a man

Well I came ashore in the dead of the night
Lot of things can get in the way when you’re tryin’ to do what’s right
You don’t understand it—my feelings for you
You’d be honest with me if only you knew

I’m not sorry for nothin’ I’ve done
I’m glad I fought—I only wish we’d won
The Siamese twins are comin’ to town
People can’t wait—they’re gathered around

When I left my home the sky split open wide
I never wanted to go back there—I’d rather have died
You don’t understand it—my feelings for you
You’d be honest with me if only you knew

My woman got a face like a teddy bear
She’s tossin’ a baseball bat in the air
The meat is so tough you can’t cut it with a sword
I’m crashin’ my car, trunk first into the boards

You say my eyes are pretty and my smile is nice
Well, I’ll sell it to ya at a reduced price
You don’t understand it—my feelings for you
You’d be honest with me, if only you knew

Some things are too terrible to be true
I won’t come here no more if it bothers you
The Southern Pacific leaving me at nine forty-five
I’m having a hard time believin’ some people were ever alive

I’m stark naked, but I don’t care
I’m going off into the woods, I’m huntin’ bare
You don’t understand it—my feelings for you
Well, you’d be honest with me if only you knew

I’m here to create the new imperial empire
I’m going to do whatever circumstances require
I care so much for you—didn’t think that I could
I can’t tell my heart that you’re no good

Well, my parents they warned me not to waste my years
And I still got their advice oozing out of my ears
You don’t understand it—my feelings for you
Well, you’d be honest with me if only you knew

A song that couldn't be borne anywhere but Love & Theft. I've always heard this song as a dialogue between Bob and America as a whole. Each verse is wholly American in its own distinctly weird way. Some I can explain, others just sound &feel that way to me. Some lines sound plain autobiographical, but it all moves in this adrenaline rush of a song very quickly. Perhaps it's the context of how/ when I first heard the song on 9/11. The Siamese Twins could not be anyone but Bush/ Cheney at the time, but now I just hear it as any famous couple that gathers attention wherever they go...always a strong American tradition.
Regardless, it's obvious it's one Bob has always felt a need to do in concert and I always feel the band loves to tear it out. The more I listen to the last couple of years, the more I hear Denny Freeman's virtuoso work in these great rockers. And this version from 07 is a fine example. The rest of the band is killing it as well and Bob sounds incredible as it slow burns to a frenzy by the end. Pretty wild!

From 2007, here's the second of the year from
Gothenburg Sweden (an amazing concert all round y'all!)
http://www.sendspace.com/file/bofn6d

Anyone else dig this one? Any interpretations or favorite versions to post???
Thanks Peeps!

i always think of the Twin Towers when I hear the Siamese Twins.
in my mind, i hear "the Siamese Twins are tumbling down," which
is kind of macabre.

on the lighter side, i always thought he was crashing trunk-first into the barn.

I really like live versions of this song from '01 up until about '03. After that, it grew very bland, especially this year.

One of my favorites on Love and Theft. A lot of the lyrics in the song are easy for me to interpret into personal feelings and events. (I'm avoiding the Southside the best I can, My woman's got a face like a Teddy Bear) I also love the I'm stark naked but I don't care. line. One line always throws me off though. She's Tossin' a baseball bat in the air. What does that mean? I'm not trying to look for deeper meaning into that line, I don't even know what it means on the surface.

Strangely, I feel just the opposite. I think it was relatively tame those early years and took on new edges and sounds once Freddy arrived. I also think Denny and the gang actually are my favorite performers of most Love & Theft material, but this one especially, that version from Sweden i posted being a good example.

As for 2010 being bland, I think this year he's kinda gone overboard with some wild renditions. Some have not worked, they're so experimental (Linz comes to mind), others actually work in a strange way (Binghampton, Tokyo).
But I'd be hard pressed if I could actually call this year's versions bland...

And it is a very weird image regarding 'the baseball bat'
It seems quite dangerous...

I love the current live versions of this song, with the organ really adding to the song. I think this is one of the very few songs which actually really benefits a lot from the organ.

This is one of my favorite Dylan songs, its a song i love to hear live and enjoy whichever way Bob takes it. I have never heard any songs that like this one, and Bob must know the quality of it as he plays it most nights.. Not too sure if this link will work but if so, aound the 13.40min mark is a fantastic version/video from 2002 Philadelphia..

http://www.dylanvideo.com/apps/videos/v ... 11-02-pt-3

i love how you keep expecting him to say "if youre honest with me ill be honest with you" but he never does

I'm a fan 2010 versions. I particularly liked it live in Nice when it felt on a couple of occasions that it was all about to come off the rails but somehow didn't. More of a trip than safer versions from other years.

"I'm here to create the new imperial empire"

Dare anyone venture an explanation for that line?

I always thought of the creating the new imperial empire line, as some sort of shout out to the music and way of life (on the Road spreading his songs to the people, like some old preacher of whats true) that Bob Dylan leads..(If that makes any sense..?) But thats just my opinion i may be right or wrong..

one of those songs that needs a rest just like the tweedle brothers got - they came back better - less anyoing Id wish the same for Honest with Me

Like so much of Love & Theft, I consider a lot of the song to be about America & Americans. I think this song is a romance between the character of America and its actual denizens. And in an American sense, the song is about distrust when you just consider the one title line. 'You'd be honest with me if only you knew'. It's a line that doesn't make sense, when you look at it. The subject he's speaking to would be honest with the singer...if only you knew...knew what? I've always interpreted it as 'the truth', whatever that means, simply due to the idea that Bob Dylan is a bit of a 'truth'-seeker in that Joseph Campbell vein... Yet in the context of Love & Theft being an album about America, as an idea, it takes on a whole new complicated meaning.
If you (citizens) only knew 'the truth', you'd be able to be honest with me (America The Great).
This line you cited fits that context for me of course which only grows more horrific as we realize his sick and symbiotic relationship with his followers. It then slides into that last verse, a strange coercive line about his parents warning him not to waste his years, followed by the weird image of the advice oozing out of his ears, the words of wisdom slowly being lost as he moves closer to insanity.
Then that last frantic confused Frankenstein monster-like 'You don't understand it! My feeling for you!'
ending with the absurdity and riddle that the whole song is about...
'You'd be honest with me if only you knew.'

Just my interpretation of course...
The song's really quite bizarre and surreal though. One of my favorites...

"I'm here to create the new Imperial Empire"

the nature and purpose of an empire remain the same no matter what name it bears: Roman, Mongol, British, American, Klingon...they're all imperialists no matter who the new guy in charge is? it's an arguable point, certainly, but could that be his inference perhaps?

I love that line. It's like at one and the same time he's sick of hearing that and wants nothing to do with it but the advice has sunk in deeply, and those years are dwindling. It's an odd combination of rebellion and pathos.

I have no idea what any of this:

My woman got a face like a teddy bear
She’s tossin’ a baseball bat in the air
The meat is so tough you can’t cut it with a sword
I’m crashin’ my car, trunk first into the boards

means, but I just love the images, and the vague sexuality (unusual for Dylan to say the least, I think you'd have to go all the way back to sword swallowers and high heels and borrowed throats to find another - and never so delightfully playful and strange).

Like much of Love and Theft, nearly ten years on "meaning" is as mysterious as it is tantalizingly close. Whatever holds these songs together is powerful stuff though, I feel I haven't even begun to tire of them.

Agree.

My woman got a face like a teddy bear
She’s tossin’ a baseball bat in the air

i always felt this line was about contrast and also about how looks can be deceiving.
she looks 'childish' but she is a dangerous woman too,well capable of looking after herself.

When I was a kid we would play pick-up baseball games in a local park.

The 'coolest' kids would walk from the park entrance to the ball field, tossing their bats in the air. Ideally they would be holding the bat by the handle, toss it in the air, where it would do a full turn and they would catch it by the handle without it hitting the ground, and then they would repeat the process.

Memphis, 24.4.2006
http://www.sendspace.com/file/3vc3pf

I could'nt find even a half way passable version of this old clunker to post

That version is f'n crazy TruthIsObscure!!
I love the organ sound from 2006...so creepy....
Thanks a ton!

"Honest with me" in the context of an album titled "Love and Theft" makes it intersting from the get go.I think it's about inverse logic: never wanting to back home, smashing a car trunk first, heaving a bat in the air (not intened use), getting tripped up doin' what's right; caring for someone to one's own surprise. It's a gem.

Re: imperial empire. It could be a refernce to the Emporer's New Clothes fable-- in the previous line he's starked naked, huntin bare. So now he saying screw it--I'm naked, let's create an imperial empire vs. the inhertited, assumed of the power the emporer wields. Inverting the fable perhaps.

This version is ok http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N27RpfeqmN0

2004 11 09 East Lansing.
http://www.mediafire.com/?anfciy0ktaq1k06
astonishing & powerful performance!

Nov. 11, 2001 Penn State
http://www.sendspace.com/file/unnd0o

The bad news: you have to sit through some of Bob's guitar "playing"

The good news: Bob belts this one out with an intensity that you don't see often on the NET