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Tears of Rage Lyrics
We carried you in our arms on Independence Day
But now you'd throw us all aside and put us all away
What dear daughter 'neath the sun could love a father so
To wait upon him hand and foot and always tell him no?
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we're so low
And life is brief
It was all so very painless for you to run and receive
All of that false instruction we never could believe.
And now the heart is filled with gold as if it was a purse
Oh, but what kind of love is this that goes from bad to worse?
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we're so low
And life is brief
We pointed you the way to go and scratched your name in sand
But you thought it was nothing more than a place for you to stand
I want you to know that while we watched, you discovered no one would be true
And I myself was among the ones who thought
it was just a childish thing to do.
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we're so low
And life is brief
But now you'd throw us all aside and put us all away
What dear daughter 'neath the sun could love a father so
To wait upon him hand and foot and always tell him no?
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we're so low
And life is brief
All of that false instruction we never could believe.
And now the heart is filled with gold as if it was a purse
Oh, but what kind of love is this that goes from bad to worse?
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we're so low
And life is brief
But you thought it was nothing more than a place for you to stand
I want you to know that while we watched, you discovered no one would be true
And I myself was among the ones who thought
it was just a childish thing to do.
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we're so low
And life is brief
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The opening song to their first album, this sad account of a daughter's rejection of her father is sung beautifully by Richard Manuel. Never had Richard sounded this intense or emotional..it's something you've truly got to hear. If you like his voice then I recommend "I Shall Be Released", "Rockin' Chair", and "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)". Although the credits to the song are Dylan/Manuel, I'm pretty sure Dylan wrote the lyrics and Richard came up with the piano. There's a version of the song on "The Basement Tapes" with Dylan singing lead and Richard in the background. Definetely worth checking out.
Hi. I absolutely love this song and have known it since the 70s when I had both versions (Basement Tapes and Big Pink). Still have them of course. I agree with you Richard Manuel's voice is just so full of pain and intense - beautiful). In fact there isn't a song on Big Pink and "The Band" I don't like but particularly fond of Jawbone, Rocking Chair (again Richard Manuel's voice is something else), Unfaithful Servant and King Harvest although love many of the others on the two albums. Never much liked Rag Mama Rag funnily enough. I am fascinated...
Hi. I absolutely love this song and have known it since the 70s when I had both versions (Basement Tapes and Big Pink). Still have them of course. I agree with you Richard Manuel's voice is just so full of pain and intense - beautiful). In fact there isn't a song on Big Pink and "The Band" I don't like but particularly fond of Jawbone, Rocking Chair (again Richard Manuel's voice is something else), Unfaithful Servant and King Harvest although love many of the others on the two albums. Never much liked Rag Mama Rag funnily enough. I am fascinated by Tears of Rage which is a song that has always moved me immensely. MY guess (just an opinion) is that Richard Manuel DID write some of the lyrics. Reason I say this is that unlike songs written by Dylan alone (by the way Dylan's poetry to me is pure inspiration and I virtually worship the ground he walks on) this song (to me anyway) DOES have some rational meaning. Whereas Dylan's songs to me (and that is the genius of them I think) are a constant enigma and just full of these beautiful metaphors and images and you can make what you will of them. This song though seems to be "about" something. Yes a daughter's rejection of her father. But what is the second verse about ?? This is surely the description of a child's trust and innocence ("you ran out to receive")being abused ? Children run out to their parents don't you think ? What do you think of "Why must I always be the thief" means ? Is this the father still talking or the daughter ? And a thief of what ? Love ? Then if you move to the next verse it seems to be a father's apology to his daughter for betraying her trust and abusing a child's innocence ("you discovered that there was no one true") ? Do you agree with this ? "I myself really thought it was just a childish thing to do" seems to be an apology don't you think ? Entreating the daughter to understand that he was not the instigator of her childish disappointment. Anyway really interested in your comments !!
@shoebobs perfectly put pal
@shoebobs perfectly put pal
Wow, such a beautiful song. All about the absurdity of life and the beauty of life. In the end, dust to dust. But in the mean time, at least we have...oh who am I kidding, we're all dead in the end.
The lines "What dear daughter 'neath the sun could love a father so To wait upon him hand and foot and always tell him no?" seem to me a pretty clear allusion to King Lear and his daughter Cordelia's refusal to flatter him. Indeed, one could interpret the whole song as a exegesis of King Lear.
I love this song. It's so cool how the electric guitar is plugged into an organ! I like the Basement Tapes version of this song too but I agree with "shoebobs", Richard Manuel's rendition is positively spectacular. Music From Big Pink is one of those few PERFECT albums. And this song is the perfect opening. I love everything about this song. The sad, honest lyrics. The flawless music. Perfect.
manuel just sings with such emotion and the guitar organ and piano sync into such hypnotic waves, this is by far the number one track on big pink and number two all time by the band behind 'it makes no difference' the woodstock performance of this song is great too, dylans version is much more bland though, if youve seen interviews with manuel youd be surprised that he can sing like he does too bad he went and off'd himself 20 years ago
Great song
But what does it mean?
@rustykenhas Wikipedia gives some "experts" opinions on the song...
@rustykenhas Wikipedia gives some "experts" opinions on the song...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_of_Rage#Commentary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_of_Rage#Commentary
Or more of a look at the relationship between a father and their daughter (where the daughter has disowned them for some reason ... greed??)
Or more of a look at the relationship between a father and their daughter (where the daughter has disowned them for some reason ... greed??)
Or more indepth ... http://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/2112
Or more indepth ... http://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/2112
Idk if it was intended or not - I’d tend to think so - but I get undertones of a rejection of the “don’t trust anyone over 30” crowd/ethos. Dylan was always suspicious of it, didn’t take part in many of the things the sixties are known for (Woodstock/Monterey, etc) even though he was one of the big names of the early sixties folk/protest movements...like it was taken as too far.