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"The Freewheelin'", Track #8

SWORD SWALLOWER: its a classic (06/08/11)

JOE DODGE: WHEN YOU ARE YEARNING FOR THE BETTER TIMES OF YOUR PAST,LISTEN TO THIS,CAN YOU RELATE? WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT,BUT NO ONE HAS SAID IT SO WELL. (09/20/07)

BILL COHEN: This is an agonizing song about growing up. I think that Dylan was inspired by something he read in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.Two great kings were educated together as children and were great friends. Certain themes reminded me of a few lines in this play. "Two lads that thought there was no more behind But such a day tomorrow as today, And to be boy eternal. Dylan describes his child hood with his friends and says "We never thought we would get very old" Further on in the song he talks about the simplcity of knowing right from wrong. In the play the two caracters say.We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i the sun. We changed innocence for innocence. We knew not the doctrine of ill doing. Dylan writes that they all knew wrong from right.. He wishes in the end that things could be like that again, but understood that they never could, and he, Dylan was on a train going West, perhaps to another concert, but away from something he loved and cherished.The play goes on to talk about foolish acts of temper caused the King to lose the wife he so loved. Perhaps a Divorce from Sara. (03/08/06)