Dylan, Not Dark Yet and Trying to Get to Heaven, 2000
Here are a couple of late Bob Dylan compositions, Not Dark Yet and Trying to Get to Heaven, both performed in 2000. Some of his darker ones, not exactly uplifting. But I want to put up examples of his later songs that most people aren't familiar with, they tend to grow on you. There seems to an awful lot of good stuff from his tour of England in 2000. Lyrics here: Not Dark Yet and Trying to Get to Heaven.
Not Dark Yet, Sheffield, Great Britain, 2000
Well my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writing what was in her mind
I just don't see why I should even care
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there
Trying to Get to Heaven, Birmingham, Great Britain, 2000
Gonna sleep down in the parlor
And relive my dreams
I'll close my eyes and I wonder
If everything is as hollow as it seems
Some trains don't pull no gamblers
No midnight ramblers, like they did before
I been to Sugar Town, I shook the sugar down
Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door
Note the reference to Woody Guthrie's This Train is Bound for Glory. Bob's a long way from Woody's " This train is bound for glory, Don't carry nothing but the righteous and the holy. This train is bound for glory, this train." He's been on the train, ridden it a very long way and back again, and he knows that there's more than just the righteous and the holy on it, and now he's waiting for what's next, not exactly looking forward to it. He visualizes getting into heaven the same as trying to make it onto a train pulling out of town, trying to run fast enough to make it before the boxcar door closes.
