234 – Bob Dylan – A hard rain’s a gonna fall (1963)

Escrita por Bob Dylan, foi escrita no verao de 1962, gravada por ele em 6 de dezembro de 1962 e lançada em 27 de maio de 1963, pela Columbia Records.  

Em 22 de setembro de 1962, Dylan apareceu pela primeira vez no Carnegie Hall e tocou tres musicas, como parte de um show com muitos artistas e foi lá a primeira vez tambem que tocou essa música. 

Um mês depois, em 22 de outubro, o presidente Kennedy aparecia na TV pra anunciar que havia descoberto os misseis sovietivos em Cuba, iniciando assim a crise dos misseis cubanos. 

Dylan iria tocar essa canção no famoso Concert for Bangladesh, organizado por George Harrison e Ravi Shankar. Em 4 de dezembro de 1975, Dylan gravaria outra versao ao vivo em Montreal. Em 23 de maio de 1994, Dylan gravou ao vivo no Japao, com uma orquestra de 90 músicos. Em 2007, Dylan gravaria uma versao exclusiva pra Expo Zaragoza. 

Foi regravada por Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Leon Russell, Brian Ferry, Jason Mraz, Robert Plant, Jimmy Cliff, entre tantos outros. 

O fotografo Mark Edwards tirou uma série de fotografias ilustrando a letra da música, que foi eixibida em vários lugares, como no predio da ONU em New York City. Foi publicada em livro em 2006. 

A letra:

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Oh, what did you meet my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And what'll you do now my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest dark forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell it and speak it and think it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my songs well before I start singin'
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Bob Dylan ao vivo em 1963:



Joan Baez, tambem ao vivo:



A versao de Jason Mraz: