Lyrics for Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands as interpreted by klskrvtz

Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands Lyrics
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, who among them 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 among them do they think could 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 leave 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 leave 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 saintlike 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?



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Qsqaw
07-05-2002

 Rated  +2 
Someone is in Love!

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theprynce
06-11-2003

 Rated  0 
How can there be only one comment on this song?! That's freaking insane! It is the best track on Blonde On Blonde! It's a perfect end to the CD. I love this song so much. It's so beautiful and so poetic.

-=The Prynce

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critic10
05-20-2004

 Rated  0 
this song is almost too long..... but i love it anyway, beautifully written and sang.

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critic10
05-20-2004

 Rated  0 
but what is it about?

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moe2000
05-21-2004

 Rated  0 
it's about his wife at the time, don't remember her name though.

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JonnyCharles
06-18-2004

 Rated  +3 
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

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Korno
09-23-2004

 Rated  0 
i thought it was about Joan Baez? because in On The Road With Bob Dylan, when Joan and Sara are sitting together, it refers to it as "Sara" and "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands", sitting together. and Dylan did have a relationship with Baez earlier so... its possible.

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queenjane
09-26-2004

 Rated  0 
its true that it could be possible korno but if u listen to 'sara' then you'll see that one of the lyrices says he wrote it for her.

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serge_67
11-17-2004

 Rated  +2 
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.

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crf
01-02-2005

 Rated  +1 
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?

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cavern
02-03-2005

 Rated  +4 
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....

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KathleenScene
03-10-2005

 Rated  0 
It's about Sara Lowndes, she was a playboy bunny who was previously married to some magazine guy then she married bob. One of their kids was Jakob Dylan (the Wallflowers) I love it because it makes me feel like I know her without knowing real facts, just the way he interprets her. I agree, it is the best love song in the world.

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KathleenScene
03-10-2005

 Rated  0 
It's about Sara Lowndes, she was a playboy bunny who was previously married to some magazine guy then she married bob. One of their kids was Jakob Dylan (the Wallflowers) I love it because it makes me feel like I know her without knowing real facts, just the way he interprets her. I agree, it is the best love song in the world.

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Fypast
03-31-2005

 Rated  +1 
I think "warehouse eyes" might be about how he stores the image of her in his mind. "arabian drums" I'm not so sure. I think it might be a reference to his heart (beating drums/heart beats). Both he's asking if he should hold onto them (and wait) or leave them at her gate (give up hope).

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HibbingismyHolyLand
01-18-2006

 Rated  0 
Other than the beautiful lyrics... The last two or three minutes of the song are my favorite. The musical aspect is simply beautiful here.

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Quadrophenic
02-18-2006

 Rated  0 
If I can find a girl my age that i'm attracted to, that appreciates this song, i'm gonna marry her.

Bob Dylan is a poet more than a musician. If anyone says that he has a bad voice or is a bad musician, tell them that his music isn't supposed to sound good necessarily. Not all poetry sounds amazing on the ears. The main point of them is to get a certain feeling across to the listener. In this song, the listener is able to pick up his exact feeling on his lover. Although it may seem monotonous to some listeners, this length is what it takes for him to get his point across about his love. A four minute song would not nearly reveal his true feelings.

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1 Reply  · 
bobdylaniscool
02-20-2006

 Rated  0 
i think bob dylan is an excellent musician, though he is a better poet. His style seems harsh to people who are accustomed to radio pop, and as far as im concerned those people should not be listening to Dylan anyways. My friends listen to emo and rap, and they can't understand Bob Dylan, and i think it's better that way. Bob Dylan should not be exploited

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Lurgee
03-18-2006

 Rated  +1 
i love this song a lot... first it was too long, but after reading the text and listening to it again it fits perfect... i just love the way it ends the album... after listening to this song i don't want to listen to anything else because it's such a good end.

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effort
06-13-2006

 Rated  0 
Just my take on 'warehouse eyes, my arabian drums' - for me it always meant his, for him, probably almost untolerable consciousness and awareness level and therefore restlessness - that he hopes his wife, muse, will soothe or take away but then again the sadeyed prophets say there will never be real communion.

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mobster_ie
07-07-2006

 Rated  +2 
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!

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cavern
07-23-2006

 Rated  +2 
And by the way, I think the "sad-eyed prophet" is actually himself

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1 Reply  · 
fivebelievers
10-05-2006

 Rated  0 
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!

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catewelsh
10-19-2006

 Rated  +2 
“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?

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Blackjack Davey
10-31-2006

 Rated  0 
anyone notice this song is in waltz timing

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GypsyOfTheLowlands
12-29-2006

 Rated  0 
A few musings and bits of info:

The "magazine husband" was magazine photographer Hans Lownds, Sara's first husband.

A man who helped me with my creative writing said once that, "If you start with the particular in your writing, you'll end up with this general." This is exactly what Dylan does in this song. He starts with the particular- his experiences and his love for Sara. Then he arrives at the general. Everyone on this page has connected to the song because all they really want is for someone to feel about them the way Dylan feels for Sara in this song. We all just want someone to "wait" like Bob does.

The song makes me feel that Sara has been wronged by everyone- "Farmers', "Businessmen", "Magazine husband"- and that she's trapped in the "lowlands" of her mind. She has a "gate" up around her "ghost like soul" but Dylan is prepared to wait to get close to her.



I wish the stupid people my age who think that love songs are that crap on the radio with fake voices and passion could hear this. THIS is a love song.

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