HIGHLANDS

I'm already there in my mind

HIGHLANDS


Well my heart's in the Highlands gentle and fair

Honeysuckle blooming in the wildwood air

Bluebelles blazing, where the Aberdeen waters flow

Well my heart's in the Highland,

I'm gonna go there when I feel good enough to go

Windows were shakin' all night in my dreams

Everything was exactly the way that it seems

Woke up this morning and I looked at the same old page

Same ol' rat race

Life in the same ol' cage.

I don't want nothing from anyone, ain't that much to take

Wouldn't know the difference between a real blonde and a fake

Feel like a prisoner in a world of mystery

I wish someone would come

And push back the clock for me

Well my heart's in the Highlands wherever I roam

That's where I'll be when I get called home

The wind, it whispers to the buckeyed trees in rhyme

Well my heart's in the Highland,

I can only get there one step at a time.

I'm listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound

Someone's always yelling turn it down

Feel like I'm drifting

Drifting from scene the scene

I'm wondering what in the devil could it all possibly mean?

Insanity is smashing up against my soul

You can say I was on anything but a roll

If I had a conscience, well I just might blow my top

What would I do with it anyway

Maybe take it to the pawn shop

My heart's in the Highlands at the break of dawn

By the beautiful lake of the Black Swan

Big white clouds, like chariots that swing down low

Well my heart's in the Highlands

Only place left to go

I'm in Boston town, in some restaurant

I got no idea what I want

Well, maybe I do but I'm just really not sure

Waitress comes over

Nobody in the place but me and her

It must be a holiday, there's nobody around

She studies me closely as I sit down

She got a pretty face and long white shiny legs

I say, "Tell my what I want"

She says, "You probably want hard boiled eggs?"

I say, "Alright, bring me some"

She says,"We ain't got any, you picked the wrong time to come"

Then she says, "I know you're an artist, draw a picture of me!"

I say, "I would if I could, but,

I don't do sketches from memory."

"Well", she says, "I'm right here in front of you, or haven't you looked?"

I say," all right, I know, but I don't have my drawing book!"

She gives me a napkin, she says, "you can do it on that"

I say, "yes I could but,

I don't know where my pencil is at!"

She pulls one out from behind her ear

She says "all right now, go ahead, draw me, I'm standing right here"

I make a few lines, and I show it for her to see

Well she takes a napkin and throws it back

And says "that don't look a thing like me!"

I said, "Oh, kind miss, it most certainly does"

She says, "you must be jokin.'" I say, "I wish I was!"

Then she says, "you don't read women authors, do you?"

Least that's what I think I hear her say,

"Well", I say, "how would you know and what would it matter anyway?"

"Well", she says, "you just don't seem like you do!" I said, "you're way wrong."

She says, "which ones have you read then?" I say, "I read Erica Jong!"

She goes away for a minute and I slide up out of my chair

I step outside back to the busy street,

But nobody's going anywhere

Well my heart's in the Highlands, with the horses and hounds

Way up in the border country, far from the towns

With the twang of the arrow and a snap of the bow

My heart's in the Highlands

Can't see any other way to go

Every day is the same thing out the door

Feel further away then ever before

Some things in life, it gets too late to learn

Well, I'm lost somewhere

I must have made a few bad turns

I see people in the park forgetting their troubles and woes

They're drinking and dancing, wearing bright colored clothes

All the young men with their young women looking so good

Well, I'd trade places with any of them

In a minute, if I could

I'm crossing the street to get away from a mangy dog

Talking to myself in a monologue

I think what I need might be a full length leather coat

Somebody just asked me

If I registered to vote

The sun is beginning to shine on me

But it's not like the sun that used to be

The party's over, and there's less and less to say

I got new eyes

Everything looks far away

Well, my heart's in the Highlands at the break of day

Over the hills and far away

There's a way to get there, and I'll figure it out somehow

But I'm already there in my mind

And that's good enough for now


_____________________________



Some lyric changes in live performances are:



...well my heart's in the Highlands

I can't go no any other place that I wanna go...

(I just don't know any place else to go...)



...every day is the same thing out the door

trying to repair what went wrong the day before...



...I'm already there in my mind

and that's (just) gonna have to be good enough for now!!!

PERFORMANCES

1999.06.25,
CHULA VISTA, CALIFORNIA

1999.07.27,
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

1999.11.14,
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSSETS

1999.11.18,
AMHERST, MASSACHUSSETS

2000.03.16,
SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA

2000.09.17,
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

2001.03.20,
ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA

2001.03.24,
NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA

2001.04.24,
COLUMBIA, MISSOURI





Bob Dylan is "ready to go", for he knows that "this world can't stand long". This "world full of lies", where "insanity is smashing up against" his soul, will be destroyed. Dylan however is longing for the "chariots that swing down low" to take him "over the hills and far away" to the "only place left to go", where he'll be when he gets called home. He is confident that he will "rise to worlds unknown", for his heart (the center of his being) is in the Highlands already, he even is already there in his mind, "and that's gonna have to be good enough for now".

The performance of this gem in Santa Cruz has been officially released on a bonus CD to "The Best Of Bob Dylan - Vol.2", together with the performance of "BLOWING IN THE WIND" from the same show. This 18-minute-CD can easily pass as one of the finest official live albums ever.

This song had been performed a) only five times, b) only inside the US, and c) not for half a year, when we rolled into Aberdeen in September 2000, where most everybody was expecting Bob to sing it, as the "Aberdeen waters" are mentioned in the first verse. But as Bob is not that predictable, it was not until Glasgow the next day, that he first performed it on a European stage. It was a wonderful performance indeed, and we sure are glad that we were honored to witness it amid other gems during that night in Scotland.

In 2001 Bob Dylan performed "HIGHLANDS" twice in Australia (in the same setlist as either "RING THEM BELLS" or "I AM THE MAN THOMAS"); and once it was performed in the US (one night before he pulled out "IN THE GARDEN"). "HIGHLANDS" did not appear on stage since 2001.
























































Biblical references:


~ Philippians 3 ~

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.


~ Colossians 3 ~

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.