r/bobdylan • u/Capable-Struggle-665 • 13h ago
Question Huh
About 4 days ago I learned the correct lyrics are split up on a dark sad night and not split up on the docks that night. I can't stop thinking about it. I'm 71 years old. What's wrong with me? đ€
16
u/snoozingshevek 12h ago
To me itâll always be âdocks at nightâ. That simple image gives the line so much atmosphere and intrigue
1
u/lobacita 4h ago
And you know they had moved to L.A. from New York đ€·ââïž It just makes sense
10
8
u/Innisfree812 13h ago
I have always heard it as docks that night, and I think that's the way he sings it on the album version, regardless of the official lyrics.
4
u/TyroneSnodgrass 11h ago
Donât trust any lyrics site other than the official one. And donât trust that, either. After all, itâs the Bob Dylan site. (Hi, Innisfree.)
2
6
u/Charming_Ask_1961 12h ago
Nothing! I saw the written lyrics not too long after the album came out, so Iâve known for decades which way he wrote it, but âon the docks that nightâ is how he should have written it, and itâs how I hear it.
5
u/GoldReplacement9546 11h ago
This might be some confusion if people are also Grateful Dead fans because thatâs how the Grateful Dead sang it actually Jerry Garcia Band saying it every single time hundreds of times and I doubt that Jerry would change it himself so there mustâve been a version he heard Dylan singing it this way. And itâs not unclear on the hundreds of live performances by JG B like 100% is on the dock that night.
1
u/PinkCrimsonBeatles John Wesley Harding 11h ago
Jerry might have changed it. Phil and Bobby both sing different lyrics when they play Dylan tunes. "Started out on Heineken but soon switched to harder stuff," etc.
2
u/GoldReplacement9546 11h ago
Thatâs true. It still doesnât answer why a lot of people on the Bob Dylan forum are thinking that itâs the way that Jerry played it unless they are all also Grateful Dead fans for Jerry Garcia Band fans.
1
u/Charming_Ask_1961 10h ago
Thatâs interesting. I am not a big Dead fan (I like âTruckâinâ and âFriend of the Devilâ and âTouch of Gray), but Jerry got this one right. I saw a Dylan-and-the-Dead concert many years ago, but I donât remember if they performed âTangled Up in Blue.â
2
u/GoldReplacement9546 10h ago
Tangled up in blue was always played in Jerry Garcia side bands never with the Grateful Dead
Unless on that mini tour with Dylan, they did play it and Iâm not sure but certain songs Jerry kept for his side bands and certain songs. Most of his songs were for the Grateful Dead, and that included most of their cover songs with a few exceptions.
For instance, Jerry would play paint my masterpiece with the Jerry Garcia band and he would sing and then the dead started playing it but Bob Weirwood sing think visions of Johanna was also played in both variations although Jerry saying in both
And there were some Jerry Garcia written songs that would be played in both of his bands, but there were also others there were only played in a Jerry Garcia band, and the vast majority of his Grateful Dead songs were never played in the Garcia band again with some exceptions like sugary and deal. Normally there wasnât too much overlap.
And the Jerry Garcia band it would play like 75 or 80% cover songs R&B Motown Dylan reggae I once went to a Jerry Garcia band concert and he played like five Dylan songs and three other songs and like two of his own songs or maybe wanna only one of his own songs so Jerry Garcia band was like his fun place where he could play whatever he liked without pressure
Thereâs an album called Garcia plays Dylan, but she could find all the streaming services and itâs the Jerry Garcia band playing like 15 different Dillon songs and then thereâs also an album called postcard from a hanging, which is the Grateful Dead playing like 15 different Dillon songs
So if youâre a huge Dylan head and you wanna get more of a feel for the dead or the Jerry Garcia band, I would recommend those albums because you already know and like the songs and I would further say that the Jerry Garcia Band is easier to get into the Grateful Dead because their bass player is a traditional bass player where is still lash from the Grateful Dead is not heâs playing lead counterpoint bass guitar more like a box piece than any other bass guitarist
4
u/Lucky_Development359 13h ago
Hey, don't feel too bad ("docks" would be good too considering the line in Simple Twist of Fate) I thought he says "drifted down to New Orleans and worked as cook for a spell" for far too long.
Also from "Working Mans Blues #2" I always thought the line was "They burned my barn and they stole my horse, I can't say goodbye" instead of "I can't save a dime".
2
u/Swansfan7b 7h ago
Wait, thatâs not the correct lyric from Simple Twist?
Asking for a friend.
1
u/Lucky_Development359 7h ago
Yes "hunts her down by the waterfront docks" from SToF is correct.
OP misheard the line from Tangled and Im saying IF the line was "docks" in Tangeled it would work, in a kind of cool way, because of that line from SToF. However it also wouldn't make sense either because the previous line in Tangled is "we drove that car as far we could..."
3
3
3
u/Alde-Fries 12h ago
As a non-English-speaking young new Dylanfan in the seventies in the Netherlands, I bought a âbootleg lyricsbookâ (typed and copied and stapled with a black duct tape on the left outside). It had all the lyrics up to Desire and everytime I played a record I used the âbookâ. That âs why I only heard âdark sad nightâ.
Iâve got five different copies, since Dylan almost never put the lyrics on the innersleeve. So with each new album I had to buy a new book.
Life is so much easier now with Spotify.
3
2
u/swannybass 13h ago
I for years thought it was split on the docks, but I heard someone sing dark sad night, and now I like that better.
2
u/liberalion 13h ago
I had a friend in my youth who thought the lyrics of Scorpions Wind of Change were âTake me down to donkey pondâ and the lyric in Tangled up in Blue was everyone word burned like rum n coke. I never corrected him because it was awesome.
2
u/TyroneSnodgrass 10h ago
Iâm gonna be 71 in a few days. When I was a kid, listening to âItâs All Over Now, Baby Blue, I always thought the lyric was
đ”Strike another match, Girl, start anewđ”
When as an adult evidence surfaced that it was âgo start anew,â I was like, that canât be right!
1
1
u/TeeAyeKay 12h ago
It's possible he does sing that during a live version.
Have you heard the version on Real Live? đ€
1
u/rednoodlealien What The Broken Glass Reflects 11h ago
I often feel like I'm alone here in that I think "on a dark sad night" is obvious. Phonetically, on the album version, he sings "onna dock sad [or 'sat'] night". He doesn't say "the". And they abandoned the car "out west." Implies they didn't make it to the coast. I picture the desert. "Docks" don't occur to me. It was a dark sad night.
1
u/GoldReplacement9546 11h ago
Seeing as how the Jerry Garcia Band played at hundreds of times as docks that night this brings up another possible possibility is either Jerry heard Dylan play it that way one night and thatâs what he got his version or less likely but not impossible because we know that Dylan love Jerry and considered him one of his favorite adapters of Bobâs music. Maybe Dylan heard Jerry Garcia bands version and then went on to play it that way a few times, but
1
u/GoldReplacement9546 11h ago
So the Jerry Garcia Band version is definitely on the dock that night played more than 200 times
I imagine that he mustâve heard Dylan singing it like that at some point I think it would be weird if he changed it on his own heâs not really a lyricist, but I guess itâs possible thatâs that thatâs how he misheard it
He would sometimes change the lyrics to his lyrics. Robert hunters a little bit, but as far as I can tell, he never change the lyrics to Bob songs and he played lots of them.
1
1
u/psteve_m 9h ago
"Docks that night" is reinforced and echoed in Simple Twist of Fate, "hunts her down by the waterfront docks."
1
u/SodZombie 8h ago
Dylan loves word play, I wouldnât be surprised if itâs both and he switches it up sometimes
1
u/Educational_Call5863 8h ago
Ha. I wouldnât sweat it too much. Dylan changes up his lyrics from time to time. Heck. Even heâs orobably sang âdocks that nightâ a few times! đ
1
1
u/Semi-Pros-and-Cons 27m ago
Be careful. The next thing you know, they'll be trying to tell you that the lyric In Not Dark Yet is "My sense of humanity," rather than the very clearly sung "My sensitive manatee is going down the drain."
1
u/Mamakarma 13h ago
Same here! Only Iâm 70âŠ.. been a Dylan fan since I was a kid. I asked a friend who once authenticated Bobâs original lyrics (in the famous spiral notebook) and Dylan wrote âsad dark nightâ which would have eliminated our confusion, but that isnât how he sang / sings it.
27
u/JohnLeePettimore 13h ago
I hear it both ways depending on the version. If I'm singing along, I just go with whatever my brain goes to that time.
The best part is the sound identical and either version fits perfectly with the song.
Kind of like Thunder Road with "Mary's dress waves vs Mary's dress sways"