#186 / When The Deal Goes Down

 

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At one time - five years ago, but maybe it's still true - Ringo Starr said that his favorite Bob Dylan song is "When The Deal Goes Down." Here it is, in the official Bob Dylan video, on YouTube: 

Ringo, according to that article I have linked, thinks of the song as a "beautiful love song," and "very romantic." And it certainly can be heard that way (check out the video; that interpretation fits).

Still, as I so often find when I listen to Dylan's music, I hear a song that is telling us about God's love for all of us. When I hear Dylan sing, "I'll be with you when the deal goes down," I hear echoes of Matthew 28:20, in the King James version of the Bible: 

Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

I find I keep coming back to this song. I have written about it before, and, in fact, more than once, and it's on my "Memorial Songs" playlist. You can review the lyrics below, and see what you think. I have highlighted some lines in the last verse, which I am naming now as my favorites:

oooOOOooo

When The Deal Goes Down

 

In the still of the night, in the world's ancient light
Where wisdom grows up in strife
My bewildering brain, toils in vain
Through the darkness on the pathways of life
Each invisible prayer is like a cloud in the air
Tomorrow keeps turning around
We live and we die, we know not why
But I'll be with you when the deal goes down

We eat and we drink, we feel and we think
Far down the street we stray
I laugh and I cry and I'm haunted by
Things I never meant nor wished to say
The midnight rain follows the train
We all wear the same thorny crown
Soul to soul, our shadows roll
And I'll be with you when the deal goes down

The moon gives light and shines by night
I scarcely feel the glow
We learn to live and then we forgive
O'er the road we're bound to go
More frailer than the flowers, these precious hours
That keep us so tightly bound
You come to my eyes like a vision from the skies
And I'll be with you when the deal goes down

I picked up a rose and it poked through my clothes
I followed the winding stream
I heard a deafening noise, I felt transient joys
I know they're not what they seem
In this earthly domain, full of disappointment and pain
You'll never see me frown
I owe my heart to you, and that's sayin' it true
And I'll be with you when the deal goes down

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Image Credits:

(1) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph1GU1qQ1zQ
(2) - https://youtu.be/CEoGqUqy-0w?si=c0uuMMqWb-Gh5Lyi