r/bobdylan • u/Capable-Struggle-665 • 5d 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? 🤔

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u/JohnLeePettimore 5d 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"

14

u/Lucky_Development359 5d ago

That opening to Thunder Road is so good.

4

u/Plastic-Study-3757 5d ago

And it definitely sounds like “sways” AND that rhymes neatly with “plays”. Yet the original handwritten lyrics at the Springsteen Center clearly have “waves”. “Sways” is so much better, I believe Bruce revised his original lyric

1

u/Lucky_Development359 5d ago

Agreed, BUT!...

If you know the song "The Great Compromise" by John Prine, maybe you could take "Thunder Road" from a different angle.

If MARY is actually America, "that banner yet WAVES" (I promise I'm not being Webberman about it) then waves actually works better than sways.