"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
With your mercury mouth in the missionary times
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes
And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes
Oh, do they think could bury you?
With your pockets well protected at last
And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass
And your flesh like silk, and your face like glass
Who could they get to carry you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I put them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace
And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace
And your basement clothes and your hollow face
Who among them can think he could outguess you?
With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims
And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns
Who among them would try to impress you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I put them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
The kings of Tyrus with their convict list
Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss
And you wouldn't know it would happen like this
But who among them really wants just to kiss you?
With your childhood flames on your midnight rug
And your Spanish manners and your mother's drugs
And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs
Who among them do you think could resist you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
Oh, the farmers and the businessmen, they all did decide
To show you the dead angels that they used to hide
But why did they pick you to sympathize with their side?
Oh, how could they ever mistake you?
They wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm
But with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm
And with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms
How could they ever, ever persuade you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row
And your magazine-husband who one day just had to go
And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show
Who among them do you think would employ you?
Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold
And your saint-like face and your ghostlike soul
Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes
And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes
Oh, do they think could bury you?
With your pockets well protected at last
And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass
And your flesh like silk, and your face like glass
Who could they get to carry you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I put them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace
And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace
And your basement clothes and your hollow face
Who among them can think he could outguess you?
With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims
And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns
Who among them would try to impress you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I put them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
The kings of Tyrus with their convict list
Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss
And you wouldn't know it would happen like this
But who among them really wants just to kiss you?
With your childhood flames on your midnight rug
And your Spanish manners and your mother's drugs
And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs
Who among them do you think could resist you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
Oh, the farmers and the businessmen, they all did decide
To show you the dead angels that they used to hide
But why did they pick you to sympathize with their side?
Oh, how could they ever mistake you?
They wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm
But with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm
And with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms
How could they ever, ever persuade you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row
And your magazine-husband who one day just had to go
And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show
Who among them do you think would employ you?
Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold
And your saint-like face and your ghostlike soul
Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you?
Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?
Lyrics submitted by klskrvtz, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands Lyrics as written by Bob Dylan
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
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"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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I have come to a radical decission: THIS IS THE BEST LOVE SONG I HAVE EVER HEARD In both Englilsh or Spanish It's more than a song, not even a poem, it's a prayer. It's about his wife at the time, Sara Lownes (hence Lowlands), ex-playgirl and mother of Jakob (The Wallflowers). Her first husband was an editor of a magazine ("your magazine husband who ne day just had to go") and his father was a metal worker ("and your sheets like metal/and your sheet metal memory of Cannery Row"). I spent a whole lot of time, months, trying to figure out what some parts pf the lyrics meant, searching the web and doing a lot of hard thinking. I came up with the idea idea of emptiness, of a void, in his warehouse eyes (now I see that they're eager to capture her, and it's just....wonderful).
And her mercury mouth, you know, mercury slips away at contact.
Well, there's so much to say that I realize it's silly to try to explain it line by line.
But I'm simply obsessed with this song. I know it by heart, I bet that not even Dylan himself can say that.
"your flesh like silk, your face like glass"
"your silhouette when the sunlight dims Into your eyes where the moonlight swims"
"your saintlike face, your ghostlike soul"
Damn!
Simply perfect. And his voice. The constant crescendo.
where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes....
@cavern I agree with you deeply
I can never get over this song. Why? Because it is a total love song that does not even mention the word love. It's not sappy at all like most love songs. The imagry he use's just set's my nerves on fire. LIke think about it......what a way to praise a woman. Smashing! Perfect! Alot of people say the song is too long, but they are all wrong. The time is perfect. YOu need more than 3- 4minutes to describe your lover in a song. YOu need around 11 minutes...hehehe. When I get high I could just listen to this song over and over again....hehehe.
I think people are right that this is an amazing lovesong it captures all the feelings and emotion that well up inside people when they think about the one they love. And anybody who says this song is too long is an idiot and should be shot!!! a few things amaze me about this song, the first is that this song was recorded in 1 take with no rehearsals(so what you hear on the album is the absolute birth of the song!) Dylan dissappeared for several hours and left the recording band sitting in the studio and then appeared back at the studio and told them he had a song he wanted to record so they just went directly into the studio with no idea of what was about to played (or how long it was going to be!) so if you listen very carefully at the end of certain verses you can hear the band winding down believing tohe song to be over and then suddenly braking back into the flow of the song as they realise Dylan wasn't finished. Up to that point the longest song they ever heard was like a maximum of 5 maybe 6 minutes, and along comes Dylan with this 11 minute masterpiece! But they all agreed it had to be that long! I think for this reason the emmotion within the song is much purer because it has not been diluted by repetition, so we hear it as it sounds to his lover for the first time!
His wife Sara, from the song 'Sara' on 'Desire':
I can still hear the sounds Of those Methodist bells I'd taken the cure And had just gotten through Stayin' up for days In the Chelsea Hotel Writin' "Sad-Eyed Lady Of the Lowlands" for you
And by the way, I think the "sad-eyed prophet" is actually himself
Yeah, maybe
“Warehouse eyes” might mean that he can “take it all in,” that he has a place for Sara in his soul (eyes are the window to the soul). Others only see a small portion of her personality, while he sees that there is a great more to her, and that to be her lover, a man would have to acknowledge and make room for all of her. Additionally, it could mean that he feels empty inside.
“Arabian Drums” could be a reference to his music: should he continue on with his career or set it aside to wait for her?
Other than the beautiful lyrics... The last two or three minutes of the song are my favorite. The musical aspect is simply beautiful here.
Someone is in Love!
would anyone be so bold as to venture an opinion on the metaphors 'warehouse eyes' and 'arabian drums'? They're pretty obscure so I'm sure everyone understands them slightly differently.... I always thought of 'warehouse eyes' as sort of trying to contain what he sees, ie. sara (or whoever this song is addressed to) within himself. There's probably more to it than that though, and 'arabian drums' i just don't know.....anyone?
as already mentioned, this song was about his wife, Sara Lowndes. In fact, the rather strange title is actually a derivation of her name:
SAd eyed lady of the LOWlaNDs
I find it particularly moving to listen to this song, knowing that when he wrote it he had no idea that ten years later he would be writing the tragic corrollary "Sara" on the Desire album.
This song is so rich with imagery, but the images are so unpredictable it always sounds new and fresh, compared to the hackneyed lyrics we always hear in other love songs. "mercury mouth" "voice like chimes" and many more.
Also, I love his vocal performance in this song - he may not be a conventional singer, but no one else could cover this song and sound as in love as he does - he sounds as though he's having sex with the words!