My Own Version Of You

Bob Dylan © 2020 Special Rider Music

(Official lyrics @ www.bobdylan.com)

Rough And Rowdy Days sessions, Sunset Sound Studio LA January/February 2020 ?  

All through the summers into January
I've been visiting morgues and monasteries
Lookin' for the necessary body parts
Limbs an' livers and brains an' hearts

Ah, bring someone to life is what I wanna do
I wanna create my own version of you

Well it must be the winter of my discontent
I wish you'd taken me with you wherever you went
They talk all night and they talk all day
Not for a minute do I believe anything they say

I'm gonna bring someone to life, someone I've never seen
You know what I mean, you know exactly what I mean

I'll take the Scarface Pacino and Godfather Brando
Mix 'em up in a tank and get a robot commando
If I do it up right and put the head on straight
I'll be saved by the creature that I create

I get blood from a cactus, gunpowder for ice
I don't gamble with cards and I don't shoot no dice
Can you look at my face with your sightless eye?
Can you cross your heart and hope to die?

I'll bring someone to life, someone for real
Someone who feels the way that I feel

I'll study Sanskrit and Arabic to improve my mind
I want to do things for the benefit of all mankind
I say to the willow tree, don't weep for me
I'm sayin' to hell for all things that used to be
When I get into trouble then I hit the wall
No place to run, no place at all
I pick a number between one and two
And I ask myself what would Julius Caesar do

I'll bring someone to life in more ways than one
Don't matter how long it takes, it'll be done when it's done

I'm gonna make you play the piano like Leon Russell
Like Liberace, like St. John the Apostle
I'll play every number that I can play
I'll see you baby on judgment day
After midnight, if you still want to meet
I'll be at the Black Horse tavern on Armageddon street
Two doors down, not that far to walk
I'll hear your footsteps, you won't have to knock

I'll bring someone to life, balance the scales
I'm not gonna get involved in any insignificant details

You can bring it to St Peter, you can bring it to Jerome
You can bring it all the way over, bring it all the way home
Bring it to the corner where the children play
You can bring it to me on a silver tray

I'll bring someone to life, spare no expense
Do it with decency and common sense

Can you tell me what it means to be or not to be?
You won't get away with foolin' me
Can you help me walk that moonlight mile?
Can you give me the blessings of your smile?

I'll bring someone to life, use all of my powers
Do it in the dark in the wee small hours

I can see the history of the whole human race
It's all right there, it's carved into your face
Should I break it all down, should I fall on my knees
Is there light at the end of the tunnel, can you tell me please?
Stand over there by the cypress tree
Where the Trojan women and children were sold into slavery
Long before the first crusade
Way back before England or America were made
Step right in to the burnin' hell
Where some of the best known enemies of mankind dwell
Mr Freud with his dreams, Mr Marx with his ax
See the rawhide lash rip the skin from their backs
Got the right spirit, you can feel it, you can hear it
You got what they call the immortal spirit
You can feel it all night, you can feel it in the morn'
It creeps in your body the day you were born
One strike of lightnin' is all that I need
And a blast of 'lectricity that runs at top speed
Show me your ribs, I'll stick in the knife
Gonna jump-start my creation to life

I wanna bring someone to life, turn back the years
Do it with laughter and do it with tears.