“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall…”

When Columbia Records released the first, self-titled album by Bob Dylan in 1962 it went largely unnoticed by the general public. Only about 5,000 copies were sold at the time.

But Columbia music producer John Hammond, who signed Dylan to the label, had faith in the young folk singer.

He ignored the jibes of other music executives who dubbed Dylan “Hammond’s Folly” and, in eight sessions strung out over the next twelve months, he recorded a second album with Dylan for Columbia.

That album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, was released on May 27, 1963, three days after Dylan’s 22nd birthday.

It’s now considered one of the greatest and most influential albums in American music history.

The Freewheelin’ LP includes what remain some of Dylan’s best-known songs, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Girl from the North Country,” “Masters of War,” “Don't Think Twice, It’s All Right” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

“Blowin’ In The Wind” became the most famous song from the album. But the one that stuck in my mind even more when I first listened to the album in 1963 was “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

The song’s foreboding title, from a phrase in the chorus, was memorable in itself and has since been widely cited and repurposed.

I believe it struck a special chord with kids from the Baby Boom generation, like me.

We grew up at a time when a nuclear war between the US and the USSR seemed inevitable.

In elementary school, we practiced “duck and cover” drills and watched public service films like the one at right, in which a narrator and “Bert the Turtle” helpfully explain what to do when the A-bombs start falling.

Bert told us: “The flash of an atomic bomb can come at any time, no matter where you may be...When there is a flash, duck and cover, and do it fast!”

It seems a bit humorous now. But back then, during the height of the Cold War years, the possibility of an atomic Armageddon was a serious and constant fear.

Movies, TV shows, books, magazine stories and politically-oriented songs of the era helped stoke that fear by portraying what a nuclear holocaust and the hellish aftermath would be like.

That frightening scenario is also conjured up by “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

Many of the lyrics are early examples of the elliptical, dreamlike language Dylan became better known for later. But the title phrase seemed to be a clear metaphor for falling atomic bombs and nuclear fallout.

Bob Dylan singing “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” in 1964

This appears to be confirmed by the original liner notes for The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, written by journalist, historian and music critic Nat Hentoff. 

Hentoff said the song “was written during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 when those who allowed themselves to think of the impossible results of the Kennedy-Khrushchev confrontation were chilled by the imminence of oblivion.”

Dylan is then quoted as saying: “Every line in it is actually the start of a whole song. But when I wrote it, I thought I wouldn’t have enough time alive to write all those songs so I put all I could into this one.”

Fortunately, Bob and the world survived. A few days ago, he turned 71. I’m not many years from that myself.

Today, I can listen to “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” from a less paranoid perspective. But it still gives me the chills.

In case you haven’t read the lyrics, I’m reprinting them below. And, by clicking this link, you can listen to some of the many interesting cover versions that have been recorded by other musicians and groups over the years.

Here’s to you, Bob. Hope you had a great birthday! Glad you’ve been wrong about that hard rain so far.

“A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall” by Bob Dylan
(Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music)

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded with hatred
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

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Further listening: Dylan’s original recording and some of my favorite cover versions…

“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

On May 24, 1995, five days after its official premiere in Los Angeles, Braveheart was released to theaters nationwide in the USA.

The movie starred Mel Gibson as the 13th century Scottish rebel leader William Wallace. He also directed it. And, as you probably know, it was a huge success.

Today, almost everyone is aware of the famous (and oft-parodied) line Gibson shouts to his men, just before they fight the much larger English army at what is known historically as the Battle of Stirling Bridge:

       “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

This line is part of the response Gibson gives after one nervous Scottish soldier suggests it might be better to retreat and live to fight another day. Gibson says:

       “Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live — at least a while. And, dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!?! Alba gu bra!” *

If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen Braveheart, you can view a clip of this scene online.

The inspiring speech Mel gives in it is fictional, but Braveheart is based on true historic events.

William Wallace was a key leader of the Scottish rebellion against the English in the 13th century.

And, at the bloody Battle of Stirling Bridge, fought on September 11, 1297, his outnumbered followers did indeed defeat a larger English army.

That battle and the legends that developed about Wallace inspired Scots to continue and ultimately achieve the goal of Scottish independence.

Unfortunately, Wallace was caught, tortured, disemboweled and beheaded before that came to pass, as is graphically depicted in Braveheart.

History buffs have noted that some things in Braveheart stray more than a wee bit from the facts.

For example, the Lowland Scots that Wallace led didn’t wear kilts, like they do in the movie.

And, the bridge that played a major role in the Battle of Stirling Bridge — by creating a bottleneck that prevented English troops from overwhelming the Scots — was nowhere to be seen in the movie.

But somehow, as I rewatch Mel’s rousing speech on this anniversary of the release of Braveheart, those seem like nitpicks. Alba gu bra!

* In Scottish Gaelic, “Alba gu bra” means “Scotland forever!”

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Related reading and viewing… 

“About one-fifth of the people are against everything all of the time.”

On May 6, 1964, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy gave a speech at the University of Pennsylvania that included an oft-cited political quotation:

      “About one-fifth of the people are against everything all of the time.”

This quip (often quoted without the word “About”) is found in many books of quotations.

It’s an all-too-true observation about the knee-jerk attitudes of the subset of voters who base their political views on pre-existing prejudices, regardless of any facts.

Kennedy’s “joke” has been — and continues to be — cited, recycled and repurposed in articles, op-eds and editorials about politics.

However, no books of quotations I’ve seen explain the specific context of the quote when Kennedy said it. And, for some reason, the speech it’s from is not in the online archive of speeches Kennedy made while Attorney General (though it does include another speech he gave in Philadelphia the same day).

I was unable to find a copy of the full speech, but I did find a newsclip that explains the context.

It’s an Associated Press story that ran in many papers on May 7, 1964. And, interestingly, it shows that the context was the cultural and legal battle being waged in the 1960s for civil rights.

Both President John F. Kennedy, who appointed his brother Robert as Attorney General, and President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took office after JFK was assassinated in November 1963, generally supported enforcement of Supreme Court decisions requiring desegregation of schools and other facilities and pursued legislation to help ensure equal rights for African Americans.

Robert Kennedy was also a progressive on civil rights. During his years as Attorney General, from January 1961 to September 1964, he took a number of actions to further the goal of equal rights. For example, in September 1962, he sent U.S. Marshals to Oxford, Mississippi to enforce a federal court order requiring the University of Mississippi to admit it’s first black student, James Meredith.

Of course, efforts to end segregation were strongly opposed by many white citizens and politicians in those years, especially in Southern states.

One of the most notable opponents of desegregation in the Sixties was Alabama Governor George Wallace.

In his inaugural address as Governor in 1963, he famously committed himself to “segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

During his first year as Governor, Wallace became a darling of pro-segregation whites in Southern and Northern states by publicly trying to block federal enforcement of school desegregation and civil rights laws in Alabama, under the banner of “states’ rights.”

Buoyed by the celebrity status this gave him with many white voters, Wallace made a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1964. To the shock of many observers and President Johnson, who initially assumed he had a lock on the nomination, Wallace did surprisingly well in the Democratic primaries — including those in some Northern states. For example, Wallace won nearly a third of the vote in Wisconsin, Maryland and Indiana.

Robert F. Kennedy’s May 6th speech at the University of Pennsylvania came one day after the Indiana primary and Kennedy decided to comment on it.

Here’s how the Associated Press story summarized his comments:

     PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy says he “was not surprised” at the strong vote for Gov. George C. Wallace of Alabama in the Indiana presidential primary.
     Kennedy, speaking to 300 law students at the University of Pennsylvania Wednesday, said “there is a revolution now in the United States over civil rights and people don’t like to have their lives disturbed.”
     “It’s not surprising then,” he added, “that one-third of the people in Indiana voted for Wallace. About one-fifth of the people are against everything all the time.”
     Wallace, who campaigned against the civil rights bill pending in the Senate, got more than 29 per cent of the votes in losing to Democratic Gov. Matthew E. Welsh.

Indiana Governor Welsh was actually a supporter of and proxy candidate for President Johnson. And, of course, Johnson went on to win the Democratic nomination and the presidential election in 1964.

On that same election night in 1964, Robert Kennedy was elected U.S. Senator for New York. Four years later, his own run at the presidency was cut short when he was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.

Would Kennedy have won the 1968 presidential election if he’d lived? Possibly.

Republican Richard Nixon won with less than a 1% margin in the popular vote over Democratic nominee Hubert H. Humphrey, who was less well known and possibly less well liked than Kennedy.

As you may know, George Wallace ran as an independent candidate in the 1968 presidential election. He ended up getting 13.5% of the popular vote.

I suspect most of the people who voted for Wallace would have fit the demographics of the “one-fifth” Robert Kennedy had in mind when he made his famous observation about them on May 6, 1964.

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Further reading, listening and viewing…

The disputed origin of “Dixie Land.” Was it created by a blackface minstrel or black musicians?

The American Civil War is bracketed by two songs with lyrics that are familiar to most people.

The metaphorical end of that war has become associated with The Band’s 1969 song, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

The song that became the Confederate states’ anthem at the beginning of the Civil War is popularly known as “Dixie.”

There are a number of ironies about this famous “Southern” song. One is that it was written by a Northerner — Ohio-born minstrel musician Daniel Decatur Emmett.

In the late 1850s, Emmett was a musician and songwriter for Bryant’s Minstrels, a popular blackface minstrel troupe in New York City.

Emmett had a knack for writing catchy songs, such as “Polly Wolly Doodle” and “Old Dan Tucker.”

Dan Bryant, leader of Bryant’s Minstrels, asked Emmett to write a new “walkaround song,” a lively song that could be used to close shows and be performed on the street to attract customers to the theater where the group played, Mechanics’ Hall on Broadway.

Emmett rose to the occasion by writing a song that used and helped popularize a nickname for America’s Southern states, “Dixie Land,” sometimes given as “Dixie’s Land” or just “Dixie” for short.

On April 4, 1859, Bryant’s Minstrels premiered the song in a show at Mechanics’ Hall. The printed playbill called it “Dixie’s Land.” The sheet music published in 1860 used the title “I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land.”

Like other blackface minstrel songs, the original words were written with grammar and phonetic spellings designed to sound like an uneducated Southern slave might talk:

“I wish I was in de land ob cotton,
Old times dar am not forgotten;
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land!
In Dixie Land whar I was born in,
Early on one frosty mornin’,
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land!
Den I wish I was in Dixie! Hooray! Hooray!
In Dixie Land I’ll take my stand.
To lib an’ die in Dixie.
Away, Away, Away down South in Dixie.
Away, Away, Away down South in Dixie.”

The song became highly popular in both northern and southern states during the next two years.

In the South, the lyrics were altered to take on an even more militaristic tone and adopted as a Confederate anthem.

On February 18, 1861, not long before the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, “Dixie” was played at the inauguration of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Throughout the Civil War, it was sung with patriotic fervor by Southern troops and civilians.

Dan Emmett, a loyal Union man, was dismayed by the Confederacy’s use of his song. He reportedly told a fellow musician “If I had known to what use they were going to put my song, I will be damned if I’d have written it.”

In the decades after the Civil War, “Dixie” regained some of it’s former nationwide popularity — at least among white Americans.

But to many African Americans, the song’s image of happy “darkies” who love their lot as slaves on a Southern plantation seemed (and still seems) absurd and offensive.

In an NPR story about the song, University of Mississippi historian Charles Reagan Wilson noted that during civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s: “[Blacks] would sing a song like ‘We Shall Overcome’ or ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’...But then opponents of integration and black rights would sing ‘Dixie’ as a kind of counter-song asserting white privilege and white supremacy.”

The historic uses of the song make the epitaph on Emmett’s headstone in his hometown of Mount Vernon, Ohio, ironic in itself. It reads:

DANIEL DECATUR 1815–1904
WHOSE SONG “DIXIE LAND”
INSPIRED THE COURAGE AND DEVOTION OF
THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE AND NOW THRILLS
THE HEARTS OF A REUNITED NATION.

Perhaps even more ironic is the possibility that Emmett learned “Dixie” from members of the Snowden family, a family of free blacks who lived near the Emmett family’s farm in Ohio.

The Snowdens had their own musical group, the Snowden Family Band, who performed for black and white audiences from the mid- to late-1800s. Dan Emmett knew the Snowdens and is said to have played music with them.

According to Snowden family tradition, Emmett learned “Dixie” from Ben and Lou Snowden.

This claim is viewed skeptically by some scholars. But it is given credence by others, most notably Howard Sacks, Chair of the Department of Sociology/Anthropology at Kenyon College, who co-authored a book about the Snowdens titled Way up North in Dixie: A Black Family's Claim to the Confederate Anthem.

Long before that book was published in 2003, some local Ohioans were already convinced.

In 1976, the African American members of a local American Legion Post paid to have a new headstone placed on the joint gravesite of Ben and Lou Snowden in Clinton, Ohio. It says simply: “THEY TAUGHT ‘DIXIE’ TO DAN EMMETT.”

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Related reading and listening about blackface minstrels and Civil War songs...