You Don't Move Me

I just don’t feel it anymore.

The things that once excited me leave me cold. There is no joy, no transcendence, only greed and self-interest and disrespect and competition. They have sucked the life out of this music I once loved so much with their selfishness and self-aggrandizement. I am tired of hearing about who's "in" with the band, how many shows someone went to, where they sat, which obscurity got played this time, which band member they went drinking with, and on and on...

I want to be moved, I want to be transported. And the music itself just doesn’t move me anymore. I keep hearing about how Band X's new record is better than the last, how these latest shows by A Certain HOF Singer/Songwriter are so amazing—and yet the most exciting thing I’ve heard in months is the new Dylan bootleg series release. Christ, that man had it. (Sometimes still does.) There are songs, and then there is “Blowin’ in the Wind.” There are performances, and then there is Dylan spitting nails on “Masters of War.” Calling us to arms on “Chimes of Freedom.” And duetting with Rambling Jack Elliott on “Mr. Tambourine Man,” for my money one of the greatest lyrics ever written by anyone.

I always said I would have this song played at my funeral, now I know which version I want. Here, there is no jangly (and in my opinon trite) accompaniment, there is just the acoustic guitar right up in your face, that piercing harmonica, and that voice :

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand,
Vanished from my hand,
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship,
My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip,
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin'.
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Though you might hear laughin', spinnin', swingin' madly across the sun,
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'.
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Then take me disappearin' 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.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.

Copyright © 1964; renewed 1992 Special Rider Music


You can have your Next Big Thing from Philadelphia Currently Performing Sub-Par Material To Embarrassingly Small Audiences. You can have your Future of Rock'n'Roll Whose Fans Desperately Cling to the Past. I'll be at home listening to Bob and waiting for another Maybe Pete show in search of that Indefinable Thing, that Buzz...

"Some people have a hard time explaining rock 'n 'roll.
I don't think anyone can really explain rock 'n' roll.
Maybe Pete Townshend, but that's okay.
Rock 'n' roll is a lifestyle and a way of thinking...
and it's not about money and popularity.
Although some money would be nice.
But it's a voice that says, '' Here I am...
and fuck you if you can't understand me.''
And one of these people is gonna save the world.
And that means that rock 'n' roll can save the world...
all of us together.
And the chicks are great. But what it all comes down to is that thing.
The indefinable thing when people catch something from your music.
What I'm talking about is-- Wait, what am I talking about?
- The buzz. - The buzz."