Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast

In this episode, Henry joins Steven Rings, author of "What Did You Hear? The Music Of Bob Dylan," in his home studio to break down the music in the Time Out Of Mind masterpiece, "Tryin' To Get To Heaven."
Listen to the album version, and when you hear us start talking about the "2000 version" found on both Fragments and Tell Tale Signs, listen here.
Tryin' To Get To Heaven 
Written By Bob Dylan:
The air is getting hotter
There’s a rumbling in the skies
I’ve been wading through the high muddy water
With the heat rising in my eyes
Every day your memory grows dimmer
It doesn’t haunt me like it did before
I’ve been walking through the middle of nowhere
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

When I was in Missouri
They would not let me be
I had to leave there in a hurry
I only saw what they let me see
You broke a heart that loved you
Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore
I’ve been walking that lonesome valley
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

People on the platforms
Waiting for the trains
I can hear their hearts a-beatin’
Like pendulums swinging on chains
I tried to give you everything
That your heart was longing for
I’m just going down the road feeling bad
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door

I’m going down the river
Down to New Orleans
They tell me everything is gonna be all right
But I don’t know what “all right” even means
I was riding in a buggy with Miss Mary-Jane
Miss Mary-Jane got a house in Baltimore
I been all around the world, boys
Now I’m trying to get to heaven before they close the door

Gonna sleep down in the parlor
And relive my dreams
I’ll close my eyes and I wonder
If everything is as hollow as it seems
When you think that you’ve lost everything
You find out you can always lose a little more
I been to Sugar Town, I shook the sugar down
Now I’m trying to get to heaven before they close the door
Copyright © 1997 by Special Rider Music

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If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, Linda Maultsby and Peter White over on Substack.
Email us at [email protected]
Subscribe: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.

Henry ends 2025, reflecting on his trip to Dublin, Ireland to see Bob Dylan along with 2 All-Star guests, Erin Callahan and Michael Glover Smith.

Follow @songsofbob, @henrybernstein.bsky.social
If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, Linda Maultsby and Peter White over on Substack.
Email us at [email protected]
Subscribe: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.

Welcome to Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast, where we explore the man and the music one song at a time In this episode Henry welcomes his friend and mentor Rob Kelly for a homecoming and return to Bob Dylan podcasting! 
Rob and Henry discuss 1990's Under The Red Sky track, God Knows.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/god-knows/717157868?i=717157887
God Knows
Written by: Bob Dylan
God knows you ain’t pretty
God knows it’s true
God knows there ain’t anybody
Ever gonna take the place of you

God knows it’s a struggle
God knows it’s a crime
God knows there’s gonna be no more water
But fire next time

God don’t call it treason
God don’t call it wrong
It was supposed to last a season
But it’s been so strong for so long

God knows it’s fragile
God knows everything
God knows it could snap apart right now
Just like putting scissors to a string

God knows it’s terrifying
God sees it all unfold
There’s a million reasons for you to be crying
You been so bold and so cold

God knows that when you see it
God knows you’ve got to weep
God knows the secrets of your heart
He’ll tell them to you when you’re asleep

God knows there’s a river
God knows how to make it flow
God knows you ain’t gonna be taking
Nothing with you when you go

God knows there’s a purpose
God knows there’s a chance
God knows you can rise above the darkest hour
Of any circumstance

God knows there’s a heaven
God knows it’s out of sight
God knows we can get all the way from here to there
Even if we’ve got to walk a million miles by candlelight
 

Follow @songsofbob, @henrybernstein.bsky.social
If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, Linda Maultsby and Peter White over on Substack.
Email us at [email protected]
Subscribe: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.

Welcome to Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast, where we explore the man and the music one song at a time. This episode Henry completes the set of Bob Dylan Fan Club founders with Caroline Schwarz, discussing Spirit On The Water from 2006's Modern Times.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/spirit-on-the-water/187497036?i=187497259
Spirit on the Water
Written by: Bob Dylan
Spirit on the water
Darkness on the face of the deep
I keep thinking about you baby
I can’t hardly sleep
I’m traveling by land
Traveling through the dawn of day
You’re always on my mind
I can’t stay away
I’d forgotten about you
Then you turned up again
I always knew
That we were meant to be more than friends
When you are near
It’s just as plain as it can be
I’m wild about you, gal
You ought to be a fool about me

Can’t explain
The sources of this hidden pain
You burned your way into my heart
You got the key to my brain
I’ve been trampling through mud
Praying to the powers above
I’m sweating blood
You got a face that begs for love
Life without you
Doesn’t mean a thing to me
If I can’t have you
I’ll throw my love into the deep blue sea
Sometimes I wonder
Why you can’t treat me right
You do good all day
Then you do wrong all night

When you’re with me
I’m a thousand times happier than I could ever say
What does it matter
What price I pay
They brag about your sugar
Brag about it all over town
Put some sugar in my bowl
I feel like laying down
I’m pale as a ghost
Holding a blossom on a stem
You ever seen a ghost? No
But you have heard of them
I hear your name
Ringing up and down the line
I’m saying it plain
These ties are strong enough to bind

I been in a brawl
Now I’m feeling the wall
I’m going away baby
I won’t be back ’til fall
High on the hill
You can carry all my thoughts with you
You’ve numbed my will
This love could tear me in two
I wanna be with you in paradise
And it seems so unfair
I can’t go back to paradise no more
I killed a man back there
You think I’m over the hill
You think I’m past my prime
Let me see what you got
We can have a whoppin’ good time
 

Follow @songsofbob, @henrybernstein.bsky.social
If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, Linda Maultsby and Peter White over on Substack.
Email us at [email protected]
Subscribe: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.

Welcome to Songs of Experience: A Bob Dylan Podcast, where we explore the man and the music one song at a time. Henry welcomes writer, scholar, professor, front row warrior, fellow Swiftie and all around Bestie, Liz Cantalamessa to discuss Dylan's 2000, Oscar Winning song "Things Have Changed." 
Watch the Things Have Changed Video
Follow along with the lyrics here:
Things Have Changed
Written by: Bob Dylan
A worried man with a worried mind
No one in front of me and nothing behind
There’s a woman on my lap and she’s drinking champagne
Got white skin, blood in my eyes
I’m looking up into the sapphire-tinted skies
I’m well dressed, waiting on the last train

Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose
Any minute now I’m expecting all hell to break loose

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

This place ain’t doing me any good
I’m in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood
Just for a second there I thought I saw something move
Gonna take dancing lessons, do the jitterbug rag
Ain’t no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag
Only a fool in here would think he’s got anything to prove

Lot of water under the bridge, lot of other stuff too
Don’t get up gentlemen, I’m only passing through

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I’ve been walking forty miles of bad road
If the Bible is right, the world will explode
I’ve been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can’t win with a losing hand

Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet
Putting her in a wheelbarrow and wheeling her down the street

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed

I hurt easy, I just don’t show it
You can hurt someone and not even know it
The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity
Gonna get low down, gonna fly high
All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie
I’m in love with a woman who don’t even appeal to me

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake
I’m not that eager to make a mistake

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed
 

Follow @songsofbob, @henrybernstein.bsky.social
If you would like to support hosting my podcasts, please check out my Patreon where for $5 I will give you a shout out on the podcast of your choice. Thank you to, Rob Kelly, Roberta Rakove, Matt Simonson, and Christopher Vanni. For $10, in addition to the shout-out I'll send you a surprise piece of Bob Dylan merch! Thank you to Kaitie Cerovec who is already enjoying her merch! I have a merch shop! Check out all sorts of fun Bob Dylan (and more) items! Thank you to Mark Godfrey, Linda Maultsby and Peter White over on Substack.
Email us at [email protected]
Subscribe: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack.