Neighborhood Bully ¹

Bob Dylan © 1983 Special Rider Music

(Official lyrics @ www.bobdylan.com)

  Infidels session 8, Power Station NYC - 19.apr.1983, album version  

Well the neighborhood bully he's just one man
His enemies say he's on their land
They got him outnumbered 'bout a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He's the neighborhood bully.

Neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He's criticized an' condemned for bein' alive
Not supposed to fight back and have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down an' die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully.

Neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He's wandered the earth, an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded an' torn
He's always on trial for just bein' born
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well he knocked out a lynch mob he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize
Then he destroyed the bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him, he was supposed to feel bad
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well the chances are against it an' the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world made for him
There's a noose at his neck an' a gun at his back
An' a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well he's got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons an' he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh an' blood to fight his side
He's the neighborhood bully.

Well he's surrended by pacifists who all want peace
They play for it nightly that the bloodshed be ceased
An' they wouldn't hurt a fly, to hurt one they would weep
They lay an' they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He's the neighborhood bully.

Every empire that's enslaved him is gone
Egypt 'n' Rome, even the great Babylon
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one's command
He's the neighborhood bully.

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract he signed was worth what was written on
He took the crumbs of the world an' he turned it into wealth
Took sickness an' disease an' he turned it into health
He's the neighborhood bully.

What's anybody indebted to him for
Nothin' they say, he just likes to cause war
Pride an' prejudice, superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He's the neighborhood bully.

What has he done to wear so many scars
Does he change the course of rivers, does he pollute the moon an' stars
Neighborhood bully standin' on the hill
Runnin' out the clock, time standin' still
Neighborhood bully.