‘ Not Dark Yet ‘ is many folks’ favourite song on Dylan’s 1997 album, and for sure it pushes all the right buttons: a gorgeous vocal, a brooding melody, the darkling worldview and that seemingly effortless way he captured the dusk in his veins.
~Clinton Heylin (Still On The Road)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
It’s too hot to sleep, time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there
Some facts:
Dylan has played “Not Dark Yet” 152 times live
First time was @ Columbus Civic Center, Columbus, Georgia – 30 October 1997
Last performance: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Connecticut – 8 September 2012
If you see her, say hello, she might be in Tangier
She left here last early Spring, is livin’ there, I hear
Say for me that I’m all right though things get kind of slow
She might think that I’ve forgotten her, don’t tell her it isn’t so
This brilliant song has been performed 88 times live by Dylan.
First performance: Civic Center, Lakeland, Florida – April 18, 1976
Last performance: Coveleski Stadium, South Bend, Indiana – July 4, 2009.
They say ev’rything can be replaced
Yet ev’ry distance is not near
So I remember ev’ry face
Of ev’ry man who put me here
I see my light come shining
From the west unto the east
Any day now, any day now
I shall be released
The whole world is a prison. Life is a prison, we’re all inside the body. Freedom only comes from knowledge and knowledge is power. So just because you’re out there in the desert, facing an endless sky and an unknown nothingness, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re free. You’re trapped in the desert. Only knowledge of either yourself or the ultimate power can get you out of it. I don’t know that much.
– Bob Dylan to Philip Fleishman (Feb. 1978)
Performances:
51 acoustic w band – top year 2001 (18 times)
28 acoustic – top year 1976 (27 times)
1 time as an instrumental in 1978
420 times w/band – top year 1978 (111 times)
First live performance: War Memorial Auditorium, Plymouth, Massachusetts – 30 October 1975.