Bob Dylan — Idiot Wind
Album: Bootleg Series Vol.1-3Avg rating:
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Total ratings: 140
Length: 8:50
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Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out quick but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.
Even you, yesterday you had to ask me where it was at,
I couldn't believe after all these years, you didn't know me better than that
Sweet lady.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,
Blowing down the backroads headin' south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
I ran into the fortune-teller, who said beware of lightning that might strike
I haven't known peace and quiet for so long I can't remember what it's like.
There's a lone soldier on the cross, smoke pourin' out of my boxcar door,
You didn't know it, you didn't think it could be done, in the final end he won the war
After losin' every battle.
I woke up on the roadside, daydreamin' 'bout the way things sometimes are
Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin' me see stars.
You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies.
One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzin' around your eyes,
Blood on your saddle.
Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb,
Blowing through the curtains in your room.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart
You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart.
Now everything's a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped,
What's good is bad, what's bad is good, you'll find out when you reach the top
You're on the bottom.
I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
I can't remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed, your eyes don't look into mine.
The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone-faced while the building burned.
I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the springtime turned
Slowly into autumn.
Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull,
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
I can't feel you anymore, I can't even touch the books you've read
Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin' I been somebody else instead.
Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy,
I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory
And all your ragin' glory.
I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free,
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me.
You'll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above,
And I'll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love,
And it makes me feel so sorry.
Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats,
Blowing through the letters that we wrote.
Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves,
We're idiots, babe.
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out quick but when they will I can only guess.
They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can't help it if I'm lucky.
People see me all the time and they just can't remember how to act
Their minds are filled with big ideas, images and distorted facts.
Even you, yesterday you had to ask me where it was at,
I couldn't believe after all these years, you didn't know me better than that
Sweet lady.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,
Blowing down the backroads headin' south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
I ran into the fortune-teller, who said beware of lightning that might strike
I haven't known peace and quiet for so long I can't remember what it's like.
There's a lone soldier on the cross, smoke pourin' out of my boxcar door,
You didn't know it, you didn't think it could be done, in the final end he won the war
After losin' every battle.
I woke up on the roadside, daydreamin' 'bout the way things sometimes are
Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin' me see stars.
You hurt the ones that I love best and cover up the truth with lies.
One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzin' around your eyes,
Blood on your saddle.
Idiot wind, blowing through the flowers on your tomb,
Blowing through the curtains in your room.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart
You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart.
Now everything's a little upside down, as a matter of fact the wheels have stopped,
What's good is bad, what's bad is good, you'll find out when you reach the top
You're on the bottom.
I noticed at the ceremony, your corrupt ways had finally made you blind
I can't remember your face anymore, your mouth has changed, your eyes don't look into mine.
The priest wore black on the seventh day and sat stone-faced while the building burned.
I waited for you on the running boards, near the cypress trees, while the springtime turned
Slowly into autumn.
Idiot wind, blowing like a circle around my skull,
From the Grand Coulee Dam to the Capitol.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe.
It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe.
I can't feel you anymore, I can't even touch the books you've read
Every time I crawl past your door, I been wishin' I been somebody else instead.
Down the highway, down the tracks, down the road to ecstasy,
I followed you beneath the stars, hounded by your memory
And all your ragin' glory.
I been double-crossed now for the very last time and now I'm finally free,
I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline which separated you from me.
You'll never know the hurt I suffered nor the pain I rise above,
And I'll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love,
And it makes me feel so sorry.
Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats,
Blowing through the letters that we wrote.
Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves,
We're idiots, babe.
It's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.
Comments (20)add comment
Released 1979. ?
Godlike short story of a song
I really like this but I prefer the bite of the studio version. Either way it's a great song.
This just popped up on my PSD. Such a beautifully sensitive vesion compared to the studio version, which comes off angry to me. Gives it a whole new appreciate of the poetry.
The greatest songwriter of my lifetime.
The greatest songwriter of my lifetime.
Great to hear this odd autumn afternoon, comes to me as a beautiful psd gift, thank you! (had to beg for solitude time to bawl my heart out, raging storm and all that BS in my household this morning, some good ole Dylan and sunshine clears things nicely .. )
ThePoose wrote:
His great, bitter divorce song.
Yes, but surely he goes beyond the personal here. There's some great universal truths about relationships, power, control, pity, and responsibility in here.
I'd love to take credit for the following, but it's another's analysis.
He compares himself to Jesus in his self-righteous suffering ('There's a lone soldier on the cross...'), implies that his wife is such an idiot she's going to die ('One day you'll be in the ditch, flies buzzing around your eyes and blood on your saddle'), and generally spews venom at the entire world. But in the final verse, at the height of his self-pity ('You'll never know the hurt I suffered, nor the pain I rise above...') he comes out with something completely different. 'And I'll never know the same about you, your holiness or your kind of love, and it makes me feel so sorry...' Then, in the chorus following this verse- instead of 'You're an idiot babe,' it's 'We're idiots babe,' a very important distinction.
So over the course of eight minutes, Dylan lashes out in pain and anger, only to realise that he has to take responsibility for his own situation. It's a rare document of honesty and humility for the man, all the more genuine with the fact that he is realising this in the process of writing the song. It makes it all the more affecting, to me, to know that it isn't hatred that inspires his words, but sheer pain. A great song.
Dylan at his most cynical - a beautiful version of such a sad, sad poetic song.
--Shari
Mr Bob Dylan, you'll all ways get my vote of confidence and admiration for this and all your balladodesongpoems ... 
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BGGA wrote:
I've not heard this version, but I think I prefer it to "Blood on the Tracks".
Yeah, this version doesn't have so much hatred being spit out.
AAARRRGGGHHH Another version of his worst self-pitying stamp-on-someone-who-cant-bite-back track (I hesitate to say 'song')
It's true that the lyrics of this version are at least 40% different from those of the more-common one.
Boy that's not very nice, is it? The bitterness is disappointing.
I've not heard this version, but I think I prefer it to "Blood on the Tracks".
From Blood on the Tracks. Moral: Don't marry a Playboy pinup girl.
wow, the sentiment here is really harsh 
Eeyudeuh-weeyunnnd.
Love it.
I'm new to Dylan and liking his music. Hearing this song on RP made me take notice of this great artist!
wow wow wow
His great, bitter divorce song.