Yeah, Elvis Presley. I liked Elvis Presley… Elvis Presley recorded a song of mine. That’s the one recording I treasure the most… It was called Tomorrow Is A Long Time. I wrote it but never recorded it.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner, Nov 1969)
“Tomorrow Is a Long Time” is an example of an exceptional Dylan song from 1962-63 that as far as we know he never chose to record in any of his Columbia studio sessions, although many lesser songs were recorded, sometimes more than once.
~Paul Williams (Bob Dylan Performing Artist I: The Early Years 1960-1973 )
Here are 6 fantastic live versions of this beautiful love song.
Nobody feels any pain
Tonight as I stand inside the rain
Ev’rybody knows
That Baby’s got new clothes
But lately I see her ribbons and her bows
Have fallen from her curls
She takes just like a woman, yes, she does
She makes love just like a woman, yes, she does
And she aches just like a woman
But she breaks just like a little girl
Civic Center Arena
Mankato, Minnesota
10 November 1996
Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
They’re selling postcards of the hanging
They’re painting the passports brown
The beauty parlor is filled with sailors
The circus is in town
Here comes the blind commissioner
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker
The other is in his pants
And the riot squad they’re restless
They need somewhere to go
As Lady and I look out tonight
From Desolation Row
Nice version giving us 6 out of the original 10 verses, and putting the “Einstein verse” after “The Agents”.
NEC Arena National Exhibition Center Birmingham, England 24 June 1998
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying
Oh, I’m sailin’ away my own true love
I’m sailin’ away in the morning
Is there something I can send you from across the sea
From the place that I’ll be landing?
No, there’s nothin’ you can send me, my own true love
There’s nothin’ I wish to be ownin’
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled
From across that lonesome ocean
)
