Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs

Bob Dylan’s forthcoming album, Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased, 1989-2006, is now available for free online listening – a week ahead of its release!

This isn’t just a random collection – it’s a stunning album with its own very distinctive style and flavour (the first disc is especially good). There are some wonderful songs, including two outtakes of the 2001 masterpiece, “Mississippi”. (Is “Mississippi” the best song ever written? Yes.)

One of the new songs, “Red River Shore,” has got me completely smitten. Here are some of the lyrics:

Now I’m wearing the cloak of misery
And I’ve tasted jilted love
And the frozen smile upon my face
Fits me like a glove
But I can’t escape from the memory
Of the one that I’ll always adore
All those nights when I lay in the arms
Of the girl from the Red River shore
...
Well, I’m a stranger here in a strange land
But I know this is where I belong
I’ll ramble and gamble for the one I love
And the hills will give me a song
Though nothing looks familiar to me
I know I’ve stayed here before
Once, a thousand nights ago,
With the girl from the Red River shore