Gates Of Eden

Bob Dylan

Tom: C

D                                Am 
Of war and peace the truth just twists 
     G                        D           G  D 
Its curfew gull and glides 
                             Am 
Upon four-legged forest clouds 
       G                     D         G  D 
The cowboy angel rides 
                              A7 
With his candle lit into the sun 
                   G         C             G               A 
Though its glow is waxed in black 
D                        F               G           D           G  D     
All except when 'neath the trees of Eden 
 
The lamppost stands with folded arms 
Its iron claws attached 
To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail 
Though it shadows metal badge 
All and all can only fall 
With a crashing but meaningless blow 
No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden 
 
The savage soldier sticks his head in sand 
And then complains 
Unto the shoeless hunter who's gone deaf 
But still remains 
Upon the beach where hound dogs bay 
At ships with tattooed sails 
Heading for the Gates of Eden 
 
With a time-rusted compass blade 
Aladdin and his lamp 
Sits with Utopian hermit monks 
Side saddle on the Golden Calf 
And on their promises of paradise 
You will not hear a laugh 
All except inside the Gates of Eden 
 
Relationships of ownership 
They whisper in the wings 
To those condemned to act accordingly 
And wait for succeeding kings 
And I try to harmonize with songs 
The lonesome sparrow sings 
There are no kings inside the Gates of Eden 
 
The motorcycle black madonna 
Two-wheeled gypsy queen 
And her silver-studded phantom cause 
The gray flannel dwarf to scream 
As he weeps to wicked birds of prey 
Who pick up on his bread crumb sins 
And there are no sins inside the Gates of Eden 
 
The kingdoms of Experience 
In the precious wind they rot 
While paupers change possessions 
Each one wishing for what the other has got 
And the princess and the prince 
Discuss what's real and what is not 
It doesn't matter inside the Gates of Eden 
 
The foreign sun, it squints upon 
A bed that is never mine 
As friends and other strangers 
From their fates try to resign 
Leaving men wholly, totally free 
To do anything they wish to do but die 
And there are no trials inside the Gates of Eden 
 
At dawn my lover comes to me 
And tells me of her dreams 
With no attempts to shovel the glimpse 
Into the ditch of what each one means 
At times I think there are no words 
But these to tell what's true 
And there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden