MASTERS OF WAR

Bob Dylan is being considered for a Noble Prize for Literature. His poetry has inspired and led many of us to question the "authority" in our lives and enabled us to lead freer lives. I for one hope that he recieves that recognition that he so greatly deserves. In a recent interview on "60 Minutes",when asked about many of those early songs, he stated that they seemed to write themselves. He felt as if he were just a conduit for those words.
As a teenager whenever I was depressed or felt particularly troubled it was Dylan to whom I turned. Listening to his music alaways seemed to make me feel better. I don't know if he was just more depressed than I was or what but the end result was that I was able to continue with my life. I want to thank Bob Dylan for being a part of my life and the lives of my generation. Even though he was writing about a different time and a different war his words are as relevent today as they were almost 40 years ago.



MASTERS OF WAR
Bob Dylan

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
Til I'm sure that you're dead


"Masters of War" startles Dylan himself. "I've never really written anything like that before," he recalls. "I don't sing songs which hope people will die, but I couldn't help it in this one. The song is a sort of striking out,a reaction to the last straw, a feeling of what can you do?" The rage (which is as much anguish as it is anger) is a away of catharsis, a way of getting temporary relief from the heavy feeling of impotence that affects many who cannot understand a civilization which juggles it's own means for oblivion and calls that performance an act toward peace.

Of all the precipitously emergent singers of folk songs in the continuing renascence of that self-assertive tradition, none has equaled Bob Dylan singularity of impact. As Harry Jackson, a cowboy singer and a painter, has exclaimed: "He's so goddamned real it's unbelievable!" The irrepressiblereality of Bob Dylan is a compound of spontaneity, candor, slicing wit and an uncommonly perceptive eye and ear for the way many of us constrict our capacity for living while a few of us don't.

Odd, scraps of Jewish information, such as the well-known factoid that Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman. Dylan seems quite proud of the deliberate way he performed his do-it-yourself rechristening. His original plan was to perform under his first and middle names (a technique employed by Comedy Central star Jon Stewart, whose given name is actually Jon Stewart Lebowitz). Much has been written about the fact that Dylan is a Jew.

Spend some time on Google and read some it for yourself, but for my purpose it's interesting that Dylan (a Jew?) writes and sings about Jesus and Judas. Much of this email info can be found on the following link.

http://www.bobdylan.com/linernotes/freewheelin.html

I want to be sure to give the writer credit.