Blind Willie McTell

This morning I woke from what seemed like a very long dream in which I was trying to prove to two friends that Blind Willie McTell is the greatest song Bob Dylan has written. I told them that, as I couldn’t sing well enough, I would have to show them by reciting the words aloud. Then I found that I could not remember them all – even though I memorised the lyrics some years ago, I could only get verses one, two, and five, with none of three and only fragments of four. I went over and over and over it, tediously, in the dream, until I was so bored and frustrated I woke up. Only to find that, waking, I could remember no more than I had in my dream. It wasn’t until I got in here and could log on to the relevant web site that I could get the rest. So. All day, in and out of the other things I do, I’ve been singing:

Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying "This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem ... "