Re: [Harp-L] Chugging and Choo-Choo Noises

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Wilbur wrote:
<One of my favorite lines " it takes a train to cry ". Just can't remember what song that came from.

The song in question is Bob Dylan's "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry."

As per many of Dylan's songs, those words never appear in the lyrics:

I ride the mail train
I can't buy a thrill
I been up all night baby
Leaning on the window sill
And if I die on top of the hill
If I don't make it
I know my baby will

Don't the moon look good 
Comin' up over the trees
Don't the sun look good
Comin' up over the sea
Don't the brakeman look good
Flaggin' down the double E
And don't my gal look fine
When she's running after me

Well the winter time is comin'
The panes are filled with frost
I went to tell everybody 
But I could not get across
I want to be your lover babe
I don't wanna be your boss
Don't say I didn't warn you
When your train gets lost

In my interpretation, the first verse is a meditation on the loneliness of fame; the second is a wistful summary of life's simple pleasures; and the third is a direct message to his audience to stop thinking of him as a prophet, and start thinking for themselves.

And a train runs through it, from the title on.

Is that some great f---in' stuff, or what?

regards, Richard Hunter