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Darkest Hour Lyrics
It's the tenth of January,
and I still ain't had no sleep.
She comes waItzing in the nighttime
made of wings.
She is dressed up like a bandit
With a hundred sparkling rings,
looking for my company to keep.
Coming closer to me,
she doesn't say a word
in the shadow of the carved rock tower
Where the sounds of the night
were the only things we heard
in my darkest hour
She don't want to hear no secrets
She would guarantee me that
she knows there ain't no words
that can describe her.
With her white silk scarves
and her black Spanish hat,
she knows there ain't no way I can deny her
Yes, her blue velvet perfume
filling up the night,
The guards are all asleep
that watch the tower.
The moonlight held her breast
as she easily undressed
in my darkest hour
Her father's in his chambers with his
friends all gathered 'round.
They are plotting their enemy's demise
With their last detail done,
they await the coming sun,
while I am staring in my lover's eyes.
Her brothers and her sisters
are all through for tonight,
pretending that they've just
come into power
But she, far most of all,
knows that they can only fall
in my darkest hour
Hungry wings - their melodies,
while my love awakens me,
in the midst of the sunburst first light
Her hands are holding up the skies
as I hid my opened eyes -
Every move just for herself
and that's so right
Soon I went along my way,
with no words that could explain
as she began descending to the tower.
Her safety now concerns me
her circumstance to blame
in my darkest hour
and I still ain't had no sleep.
She comes waItzing in the nighttime
made of wings.
She is dressed up like a bandit
With a hundred sparkling rings,
looking for my company to keep.
Coming closer to me,
she doesn't say a word
in the shadow of the carved rock tower
Where the sounds of the night
were the only things we heard
in my darkest hour
She would guarantee me that
she knows there ain't no words
that can describe her.
With her white silk scarves
and her black Spanish hat,
she knows there ain't no way I can deny her
Yes, her blue velvet perfume
filling up the night,
The guards are all asleep
that watch the tower.
The moonlight held her breast
as she easily undressed
in my darkest hour
friends all gathered 'round.
They are plotting their enemy's demise
With their last detail done,
they await the coming sun,
while I am staring in my lover's eyes.
Her brothers and her sisters
are all through for tonight,
pretending that they've just
come into power
But she, far most of all,
knows that they can only fall
in my darkest hour
while my love awakens me,
in the midst of the sunburst first light
Her hands are holding up the skies
as I hid my opened eyes -
Every move just for herself
and that's so right
Soon I went along my way,
with no words that could explain
as she began descending to the tower.
Her safety now concerns me
her circumstance to blame
in my darkest hour
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I think it's safe to say that this song was inspired by Bob Dylan's style of writing. On one particular Arlo show I have, he plays this right after he covers "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and mentions having written some songs influenced by other people's style before playing this song. It is indeed true that Arlo Guthrie said he heard someone playing this song in a dream he had. And true to his humorous nature, he said that made him unsure that he actually wrote the song! He said he got up quickly and wrote parts of it down before he could forget. I love the imagery here. This woman is stylish, with her white silk scarves and her black Spanish hat. It brings to mind another woman who happens to be near and dear to me.
Guthrie has said that this song came to him in the middle of the night, in a dream. This song is beautiful, and maybe one of his best.
this song is brilliant! one of my very favourites!
This is such a beautiful and, unfortunately, a relatively unknown song. When I first purchased Arlo Guthrie's "Greatest Hits" album, way back when I was 15 or 16 years old, I did so mainly for "City of New Orleans" and "Alice's Restaurant". Barely a song or two in, I discovered "Darkest Hour", and I fell in love.
It is a song of opposites, and of dichotomies. "Her hands are holding up the skies," Guthrie sings, "As I hid my opened eyes". And it is a song about the night, and the stark beauty that comes with it. The singer's lover wears perfume that "fills up the night", and we are told that "the sounds of the night" are the only things that can be heard. These two motifs are brought together in one of the song's most beautiful stanzas:
"Her father's in his chamber with his friends all gathered 'round They are plotting their enemies' demise With their last detail done, they await the coming sun While I am staring in my lover's eyes"
There is also a sexuality in this song that is neither lewd nor impure. It is characterized rather by beauty and fragility, and it is in the delicate imperfection of the human countenance that the epiphany of this song is realized:
"The moonlight held her breast As she easily undressed In my darkest hour"
Just a stunning song. One of my favorites.