When The Ship Comes In ¹

Bob Dylan © 1963, 1964 Warner Chapell Music
      renewed 1991 Special Rider Music

(Official lyrics @ www.bobdylan.com)

▹Witmark Demos, NYC - august 1963
▹Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC - 28.aug.1963, March on Washington
▹"Theo Bikel Audio letter tape" - early september 1963 version below
▹The Times...session 4 - 23.oct.1963, album version
▹Concert at Carnegie Hall, NYC - 26.oct.1963
  ▵ I wanna sing one song here... recognizing that there are Goliaths nowadays. 
     An'...er people don't realize just who the Goliath's are but in older days 
     Goliath was slayed and everybody looks back nowadays and sees how Goliath was. 
     Nowadays there are crueler Goliath's who do crueler crueler things but one day
     they gonna be slain too, and people 2,000 years from now can look back 
     an' say remember when Goliath the second was slain

Oh the time will come up
When the winds will stop
And the breeze with cease to be a-breathin'
Like the stillness in the wind
Before the hurricane begins
The hour that the ship comes in

And the sea will split
And the ships will hit
And the sands on the shoreline will be a-shakin'
And the tide will sound
And the waves will pound
And the mornin' will be a-breakin'

The fishes will laugh
As they swim out of the path
And the seagulls they'll be a-smilin'
And the rocks on the sand
Will proudly stand
The hour that the ship comes in

And the words that are used
For to get the ship confused
Will not be understood as they're spoken
For the chains of the sea
Will have busted in the night
An' be buried [at/on] the bottom of the ocean

A song will lift
As the main sail shifts
And the boat drifts on to the shoreline
And the sun will respect
Every face on the deck
The hour that the ship comes in

Then the sands will roll
Out a carpet of gold
For your weary toes to be a-touchin'
And the ship's wise men
Will remind you once again
That the whole wild world is watchin'

Oh the foes will rise
With the sleep still in their eyes
And they'll jerk from their bed and think they're dreamin'
But they'll pinch themselves an' squeal
And they'll know that it's for real
The hour that the ship[s] come[s] in

Then they'll raise their hands
Sayin', "We'll meet all your demands"
But we'll shout from the bow, "Your days are numbered"
An' like pharaoh's tribe
They'll be drownded in the tide
An' like Goliath they'll be conquered.