Sunday, June 7, 2015

Hiding Too Long

Racists and bigots
Say they are patriots though
We know they are not.

Dylan performed "Hiding Too Long," also known as "You've Been Hiding Too Long," in 1963 at Town Hall in New York. It's a rant, though a well intended and blunt one, and falls right into the middle of his protest song catalog. The song is hard to find outside the Internet. The only album on which it appears is "The 50th Anniversary Collection 1963," the second of Sony's super-rare albums to extend the copyrights on Dylan's songs. This collection was limited to 100 copies, and the only way to get a hand on one outside paying huge prices is to download it if you can find it somewhere.

Come you phoney super-patriotic people that say
That hating and fearing is my only way
That this here country has got to be
You're thinking of your sales, you ain't thinking of me.
You're not thinking of any George Washington
You're not thinking of any Thomas Jefferson
But you say that you are and you lie and mislead
You use their names for your aims, for your selfish greed.
Don't speak to me of your patriotism
When you throw the Southern black boy in prison
And you say the only good niggers are the ones that have died
Don't think I'll  ever stand on your side.
Don't think I'll ever stand on your side
Though you make it so hard for me to love
My face will never feel the slap of your glove
My hands will never buy the cards that you play
My feet will never walk down the road that you lay.
Get out in the open, stop standing afar
Let the whole world see what a hypocrite you are
I ain't joking and it ain't no gag
You been hiding too long behind the American flag.



2 comments:

  1. Hello there Robert, Thank you for posting this analysis of a song from Bob Dylan's Music Box http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/248/Hiding-Too-Long-Youve-Been- Come and join us inside and listen to every song composed, recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, plus all the great covers streaming on YouTube, Spotify, Deezer and SoundCloud plus so much more... including this link.

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  2. Thanks for posting this! It sounds to me like the fourth line should read "You're thinking of yourselves..."

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