Lay for the Day: 29th July

Lay for the Day 29th July

1966: Bob Dylan crashes his motorbike on a country road near his home in Woodstock, New York. It proved to be a lucky fall. Without this sudden break in his career, Dylan, who was certainly obeying the ‘live fast’ part of the rock’n’roll credo, might well have followed up with the ‘die young’ conclusion, as many of his talented contemporaries did over the next few years.

On the same date in 1890, Vincent Van Gogh, who had shot himself in the chest two days earlier, died in the arms of his brother Theo.

Before You Fall [see it on YouTube]

You lost the plot,
The camera and the costumes and the lot,
You lost some friends,
But that’s not how the story ends.
You had a ball
Beating your head on that brick wall
But now you’re done
And it’s time for you to go on.
’Cause now you know
It takes no time at all
To go down slow
To where the proud must crawl,
So next time call before you fall.
Call me, call me, call me…

You had to swerve
Round the bend where others lost their nerve,
Ran out of breath,
Nearly scared yourself to death.
You twist and shout,
No one hears you when you’re down and out.
Back from the void
You step overjoyed,
’Cause now you know
It takes no time at all
To go down slow
To where the proud must crawl,
So next time call before you fall.
Call me, call me, call me…

Woah rock and roll
Nearly scored another great own goal
But welcome home,
It’s time to reconnect the phone.
I wasn’t there
When solid ground became thin air
But nor were you
And still you made it through.
And now you know
It takes no time at all
To go down slow
To where the proud must crawl,
So next time call before you fall.
Call me, call me, call me…

Words and music by The Children
from Come Aboard

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar