Sunday, April 19, 2026

Bob Dylan – 'Japanese Singles Collection'

 

ボブ・ディラン = Bob Dylan
日本のシングル集 = Japanese Singles Collection


Good selection of songs, right? 
Track 15 of CD1 is rare and a nice inclusion.


The 'Japanese Singles Collection' was released in March 2020 for the Japanese domestic market on the Sony Music Japan International label.  It was released to coincide with Bob's planned 14-date 2020 Japanese tour, scheduled for April 2020 in Tokyo and Osaka, that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The tour was set to feature small, intimate venues like Zepp DiverCity and Zepp Namba. 
 A sticker with the fifteen tour dates is attached to the front shrinkwrap.


The 31 singles in this collection from 1965 through 1985 are in Japanese domestic market release date order, not chronological order.

The audio (in Sony's Blu-spec 2CD) has really impressive sonics.


For the freeload, post one verse from some of your favorite Zimmy's songs.

40 comments:

  1. In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain
    And the all-night girls they whisper of escapades out on the "D" train
    We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight
    Ask himself if it's him or them that's insane
    Louise, she's all right, she's just near
    She's delicate and seems like the mirror
    But she just makes it all too concise and too clear
    That Johanna's not here
    The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face
    Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

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  2. Johnny's in the basement, mixin' up the medicine
    I'm on the pavement, thinkin' about the government
    The man in a trench coat, badge out, laid off
    Says he's got a bad cough, wants to get it paid off
    Look out, kid, it's somethin' you did
    God knows when, but you're doin' it again
    You better duck down the alleyway, looking for a new friend
    The man in the coon-skin cap in a pig pen
    Wants eleven dollar bills, you only got ten

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    Replies
    1. ^^^Sorry, c'est moi. Also, all of Clothes Line Saga & Bob Dylan's 115th Dream....and so many, so much more

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  3. I had a job in the great north woods

    Working as a cook for a spell

    But I never did like it all that much

    And one day the ax just fell

    So I drifted down to New Orleans

    Where I happened to be employed

    Workin’ for a while on a fishin’ boat

    Right outside of Delacroix

    But all the while I was alone

    The past was close behind

    I seen a lot of women

    But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew

    Tangled up in blue

    As a young kid, I would frequently go with my father to Delacroix Island, down to Johnny Melarine's boat launch, for day long fishing trips. The road there ended with a metal Sunbeam Bread sign, with the inscription, "Welcome to the End of the World."

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  4. If he can be believed - he has said this song is autobiographical:

    "You walk into the room
    With your pencil in your hand
    You see somebody naked and you
    You say, "Who is that man?"
    You try so hard, but you don't understand
    Just what you will say when you get home
    Because something is happening here
    But you don't know what it is
    Do you, Mister Jones?"

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  5. "Ah, but I was so much older then / I'm younger than that now"

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  6. Well, the Lone Ranger and Tonto
    They are ridin’ down the line
    Fixin’ ev’rybody’s troubles
    Ev’rybody’s ’cept mine
    Somebody musta tol’ ’em
    That I was doin’ fine

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  7. I started out on burgundy
    But soon hit the harder stuff
    Everybody said they'd stand behind me
    When the game got rough
    But the joke was on me
    There was nobody even there to bluff
    I'm going back to New York City
    I do believe I've had enough.

    The guilty undertaker sighs
    The lonesome organ grinder cries
    The silver saxophones say I should refuse you
    The cracked bells and washed-out horns
    Blow into my face with scorn
    But it's not that way
    I wasn't born to lose you

    All the early Roman kings
    In their sharkskin suits
    Bow ties and buttons
    High top boots
    Drivin' the spikes in
    Blazin' the rails
    Nailed in their coffins
    In top hats and tails

    Well, the Book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy
    The law of the jungle and the sea are your only teachers
    In the smoke of the twilight on a milk-white steed
    Michelangelo indeed could've carved out your features
    Resting in the fields, far from the turbulent space
    Half asleep near the stars with a small dog licking your face.

    The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face
    Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place.

    I was born here and I'll die here against my will
    I know it looks like I'm movin' but I'm standin' still
    Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb
    I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from

    Come senators, congressmen
    Please heed the call
    Don't stand in the doorway
    Don't block up the hall
    For he that gets hurt
    Will be he who has stalled
    The battle outside ragin'
    Will soon shake your windows
    And rattle your walls
    For the times they are a-changin'

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  8. She was there, in the meadow, where the creek used to rise
    Blinded by sleep, and in need of a bed
    I came in from the East, with the sun in my eyes
    I cursed her one time, then I rode on ahead

    The cabaret was empty now, a sign said, "Closed for repair"
    Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair
    She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarely saw
    Thinkin' 'bout Rosemary and thinkin' about the law
    But, most of all she was thinkin' 'bout the Jack of Hearts

    Down every street there's a window
    And every window made of glass
    We'll keep on lovin' pretty baby
    For as long as love will last
    Beyond here lies nothin'
    But the mountains of the past

    Thanks Babs

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  9. Granpa died last weekend and he's buried on the rocks
    everybody talks about how badly they were shocked
    but me i something something
    I knew he'd lost control
    when he built a fire on Main Street
    and shot it full of holes.

    (from memory, obvs)

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  10. To go a bit away from the obvious:

    Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash
    They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash
    To an undercover cop who had a sister named Jan
    For reasons unexplained, she loved the Monkey Man
    Tweeter was a boy scout 'fore she went to Vietnam
    And found out the hard way nobody gives a damn
    They knew that they'd find freedom just across the Jersey Line
    So they hopped into a stolen car, took Highway 99

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  11. No one tried to say a thing
    When they carried him out in jest
    Except, of course, the little neighbor boy
    Who carried him to rest
    And he just walked along, alone
    With his guilt so well concealed
    And muttered underneath his breath
    "Nothing is revealed"
    C in California

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  12. ANON RF: You know it has to be:

    And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
    Down the foggy ruins of time
    Far past the frozen leaves
    The haunted frightened trees
    Out to the windy beach
    Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow
    Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky
    With one hand waving free
    Silhouetted by the sea
    Circled by the circus sands
    With all memory and fate
    Driven deep beneath the waves
    Let me forget about today until tomorrow

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  13. Sorry in advance for quoting the whole darn thing, but it's a masterpiece in its entirety.

    - Jon in Cali

    With your mercury mouth in the missionary times,
    And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,
    And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes,
    Oh, do they think could bury you?
    With your pockets well protected at last,
    And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass,
    And your flesh like silk, and your face like glass,
    Who could they get to carry you?
    Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
    Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
    My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
    Should I put them by your gate,
    Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
    With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace,
    And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace,
    And your basement clothes and your hollow face,
    Who among them can think he could outguess you?
    With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
    Into your eyes where the moonlight swims,
    And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns,
    Who among them would try to impress you?
    Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
    Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
    My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
    Should I put them by your gate,
    Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
    The kings of Tyrus with their convict list
    Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss,
    And you wouldn't know it would happen like this,
    But who among them really wants just to kiss you?
    With your childhood flames on your midnight rug,
    And your Spanish manners and your mother's drugs,
    And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs,
    Who among them do you think could resist you?
    Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
    Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
    My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
    Should I leave them by your gate,
    Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
    Oh, the farmers and the businessmen, they all did decide
    To show you the dead angels that they used to hide.
    But why did they pick you to sympathize with their side?
    Oh, how could they ever mistake you?
    They wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm,
    But with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm,
    And with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms,
    How could they ever, ever persuade you?
    Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
    Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
    My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
    Should I leave them by your gate,
    Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
    With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row,
    And your magazine-husband who one day just had to go,
    And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show,
    Who among them do you think would employ you?
    Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
    With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold,
    And your saintlike face and your ghostlike soul,
    Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you?
    Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
    Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes,
    My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums,
    Should I leave them by your gate,
    Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm old Tom Moore from the bummer's shore in that good old golden days
    They call me a bummer and a ginsot too, but what cares I for praise ?
    I wander around from town to town just like a roving sign
    And all the people say, "There goes Tom Moore, in the days of '49"

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  15. Tommy Hall wrote some of the best Dylan-inspired lyrics, and sung them from memory. There's that same stream-of-consciousness freedom and risk-taking, with a sense of poetic intent that keeps the song strangely coherent. There's a huge difference between being inspired by Dylan, drawing from the same well, and "doing Dylan".

    Slip Inside This House
    Bedouin in tribes ascending from the egg into the flower
    Alpha information sending states within the heaven shower
    From disciples the unending subtleties of river power
    They slip inside this house as they pass by

    If your limbs begin dissolving in the water that you tread
    All surroundings are evolving in the stream that clears your head
    Find yourself a caravan like Noah must have led
    And slip inside this house as you pass by

    Slip inside this house as you pass by
    True conception, knowing why
    Brings even more than meets the eye
    Slip inside this house as you pass by

    In this dark we call creation, we can be and feel and know
    From an effort, comfort station, that's surviving on the go
    There's infinite survival in the high baptismal glow
    Just slip inside this house as you pass by

    There is no season when you are grown
    You are always risen from the seeds you've sown
    There is no reason to rise alone
    Other stories given have sages of their own

    Live where your heart can be given and your life starts to unfold
    In the forms you envision in this dream that's ages old
    On the river layer is the only sayer
    You receive all you can hold like you've been told

    Every day's another dawning, give the morning winds a chance
    Always catch your thunder yawning, lift your mind into the dance
    Sweep the shadows from your awning
    Shrink the fourfold circumstance
    That lies outside this house, don't pass it by
    Higher worlds that you uncover, light the path you want to roam
    You compare there and discover, you won't need a shell of foam
    Twice born gypsies care and keep
    The nowhere of their former home
    They slip inside this house as they pass by

    Slip inside this house as you pass by
    You think you can't, you wish you could
    I know you can, I wish you would
    Slip inside this house as you pass by

    Four and twenty birds of Maya baked into an atom you
    Polarized into existence, magnet heart from red to blue
    To such extent, the realm of dark
    Within the picture, it seems true
    But slip inside this house and then decide

    All your lightning waits inside you, travel it along your spine
    Seven stars receive your visit, seven seals remain divine
    Seven churches filled with spirit, treasure from the angels' mine
    To slip inside this house as you pass by

    Slip inside this house as you pass by
    The space you make has your own laws
    No longer human, Gods are cause
    The center of this house will never die

    There is no season when you are grown
    You are always risen from the seeds you've sown
    There is no reason to rise alone
    Other stories given have sages of their own

    Draw from the well of unchanging and its union nourishes on
    In the right rearranging till the last confusion is gone
    Water brothers trust in the ultimust
    Of the always singing song they pass along

    One-eyed men aren't really reigning
    They just march in place until
    Two-eyed men with mystery training finally feel the power fill
    Three-eyed men are not complaining
    They can yo-yo where they will
    They slip inside this house as you pass by
    Don't pass it by

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    Replies
    1. "Drawing from the same well" reminds me of a Townes Van Zandt story (probably apocryphal) about how all songwriters fish in the same river, but Dylan is upstream of everyone else and catches the best lines.

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  16. But now we've got weapons of chemical dust
    If fire them we're forced to, then fire them we must
    One push of the button and they shot the world wide
    And you never ask questions when God's on your side
    Through many dark hour I been thinkin' about this
    That Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kiss
    But I can't think for you, you'll have to decide
    Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side
    So now as I'm leavin', I'm weary as hell
    The confusion I'm feelin' ain't no tongue can tell
    The words fill my head, and they fall to the floor
    That if God's on our side, he'll stop the next war

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  17. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

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  18. Several verses that I might have selected are already here, and I compliment all of y'all on good taste. It's hard to select just one from this song, but...

    The machine guns are roaring
    The puppets heave rocks
    The fiends nail time bombs
    To the hands of the clocks
    Call me any name you like
    I will never deny it
    Farewell Angelina
    The sky is erupting
    I must go where it’s quiet

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  19. I really appreciated his Theme Time Radio Hour Series.

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  20. Link
    https://workupload.com/file/TZ4FHP82Rwn

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  21. To live outside the law you must be honest

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  22. God said to Abraham kill me a son
    Abe said man you must be puttin' me on
    God said, no, Abe said what?
    God said you can do what you want Abe, but the next time you see me comin' you better run

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    Replies
    1. We regularly take Mississippi Highway 6 to Clarksdale, then head south to Merigold MS (a favorite pottery). When we turn onto Highway 61, this verse gets shouted.

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    2. decades ago, that drive was so pretty

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  23. All the tired horses in the sun ?how'm I supposed to get any ridin' done

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    Replies
    1. I thought it was "how'm I supposed to get any writing done," which obviously Bob wasn't doing much at the time.

      Delete
  24. They're selling postcards of the hanging
    They're painting the passports brown
    The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
    The circus is in town
    Here comes the blind commissioner
    They've got him in a trance
    One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
    The other is in his pants
    And the riot squad, they're restless
    They need somewhere to go
    As Lady and I look out tonight
    From Desolation Row

    That's probably my favorite. I guess I identify as "pessimist."

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  25. I live on a street named after a saint
    The women in my church wear powder and paint
    Where the jews and the catholics and muslims all pray
    I can smell a proddy from a mile away

    The only thing that I did wrong
    Was stay in Mississippi a day too long

    -- Gonna see the wandering Jew in concert Saturday night! Wish me luck!

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  26. Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
    Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out 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

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  27. One more cup of coffee before i go - to the valley below .

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  28. stuck inside of Mobile.....

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  29. I'll take it just for the cover, never really been a fan of Zimmy

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