IT’S A HARD RAIN GONNA FALL Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? Oh, where have you been, my darling young one? I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains, I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways, I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests, I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans, I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard, And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard, And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
“Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?” Oh where have you been Bob Dylan with the anti-slavery thinking? “Oh, where have you been, my darling” one that is greatly liked and preferred in America “young one?” “I've stumbled” I have fallen into evil ways “on the side of” on the wrong side of “twelve misty mountains” a dozen obscured and blurred, as if by a mist arising from a hidden source like Communism, major problems “I've walked” lived, worked “and I've crawled” and I’ve advanced slowly, feebly, laboriously, with frequent stops “on six crooked” on half a dozen dishonest, crooked, criminal “highways” public venues such as the Café Wha? “I've stepped” I have taken one of a series of actions taken to achieve a goal “in the middle” in the interior portion “of seven sad” of numerous deplorable; sorry “forests” cities “I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans” I have been the opening act for dozens of performers who were not commercially productive; they were idle, dead capital “I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard” I have composed and sung songs without conviction ‘mouthed empty words’ and I have been almost swallowed up by a place where worn-out and obsolete objects are kept; ‘a folk music graveyard’ “And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. “And it's a hard” it is a resistant to persuasion and appeal, obdurate “rain gonna fall” hatred gonna fall on these people that I met in my journey.
“Blue” as anti-slavery, the Civil War combatants, the Blues and Grays; Gypsy Davy 1992, “Well, she pulled off them long blue gloves” Dylan rid himself of his militant anti-slavery pro-Civil Rights boxing gloves “All made of the finest leather” whose composition was tantamount to inflicting punishment on himself, “leather” as in Balzac’s Luck and Leather, a book about a man whose luck ultimately brings punishment upon him (Dylan refers to it in Chronicles), “Gave to him her lily-white hand” gave to the cause of the segregationists his racist, lily-White; Lily Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts 1974, “Lily was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a child” “hand” style of writing “And said goodbye forever / Bid farewell forever” and Left the race mixin’ commies far behind.
“Eyes” as thoughts; In Gonna Change My Way of Thinking 1979, written during Dylan’s Christian period, he had this to say about Judaism, “You can mislead a man / You can take a hold of his heart with your eyes.”
“Stumble” as fall into evil ways; In She Belongs To Me 1965 (rather than I belong to her) Dylan described the CPUSA sarcastically, “She never stumbles” she never falls into evil ways “She's