Mother of Muses

Baltimore, Maryland. 24th November, 2023

Mother of muses sing for me

Sing of the mountains and the deep dark sea

Sing of the lakes and the nymphs in the forest

Sing your hearts out.. all you women of the chorus

Sing of honour and fame and.. glory be

Mother of muses, sing for me

Mother of muses sing for my heart

Sing of a love.. too soon to depart

Sing of the heroes... that stood alone

Whose names are engraved on tablets of stone

Who struggled with pain so the world could go free

Mother of muses, sing for me

Sing of Sherman, Montgomery and Scott

And of Zhukov and Patton and the battles that they fought

Who cleared the way for Presley to sing

Who cleared the for Martin Luther King

Who did what they did and then went on their way

Man, I could tell their stories all day

I’m falling in love with Calliope

She doesn’t belong to anyone... why not give her to me

She’s speaking to me, speaking with her eyes

I’ve grown so tired.. of chasing lies

Mother of muses wherever you are

I’ve already outlived my life by far

Mother of muses unleash your wrath

Things I can’t see.. they’re blocking my path

Show me your wisdom... tell me my fate

Hold me upright... make me walk straight

Forge my identity from the inside out

You know what I’m talking about

Take me to the river and release your charms

I want to lay down in your sweet lovin’ arms

Wake me - shake me - free me from sin

Make me invisible like the wind

Got a mind to ramble - got a mind to roam

I’m travelin’ light, and I’m slow coming home

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In the midst of the recent US Fall tour I was listening to the album Trouble No More quite a bit. To me it seems that how Bob is singing in many of those songs, the outtakes and the live versions, is somehow linked to how he is singing in the Rough and Rowdy Ways live shows. Using the same parts of his voice, from the same place somehow, maybe a different version of that place.

Listening again to ‘You Changed My Life’, I began to write out the words, and this verse,

“There's someone in my body that I could hardly see

Invading my privacy, making my decisions for me

Holding me back, not letting me stand

Making me feel like a stranger... In a strange land”

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…reminded me in some kind of these lines from Mother of Muses,

“Mother of muses unleash your wrath

Things I can’t see.. they’re blocking my path

Show me your wisdom... tell me my fate

Hold me upright... make me walk straight

Forge my identity from the inside out

You know what I’m talking about”

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Holding me back, not letting me stand / blocking my path, hold me upright

There's someone in my body that I could hardly see / Things I can’t see

Making my decisions for me / tell me my fate

Making me feel like a stranger... In a strange land / Forge my identity from the inside out .. Make me invisible like the wind

There's someone in my body that I could hardly see / Forge my identity.. from the inside out

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One strike of lightning is all that I need, and a blast of ‘lectricity that runs at top speed

The ghost of ’lectricity howls in the bones of her face, where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place

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