TRACK TALK #253 Neighborhood Bully

NEIGHBORHOOD BULLY
ALBUM : Infidels (1983)
Recorded : 19 Avril 1983
Released : 27 Octobre 1983

Aucune performance live.



Lyrics
Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
His enemies say he’s on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He’s the neighborhood bully

The neighborhood bully just lives to survive
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully

The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He’s wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He’s always on trial for just being born
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad
The bombs were meant for him. He was supposed to feel bad
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he’ll live by the rules that the world makes for him
’Cause there’s a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac
He’s the neighborhood bully

He got no allies to really speak of
What he gets he must pay for, he don’t get it out of love
He buys obsolete weapons and he won’t be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side
He’s the neighborhood bully

Well, he’s surrounded by pacifists who all want peace
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease
Now, they wouldn’t hurt a fly. To hurt one they would weep
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep
He’s the neighborhood bully

Every empire that’s enslaved him is gone
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon
He’s made a garden of paradise in the desert sand
In bed with nobody, under no one’s command
He’s the neighborhood bully

Now his holiest books have been trampled upon
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health
He’s the neighborhood bully

What’s anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin’, they say. He just likes to cause war
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed
He’s the neighborhood bully

What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers? Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill
Running out the clock, time standing still
Neighborhood bully

Il me souvient avoir pensé à l'époque qu'il n'allait pas fort : nous faire son juif qui surjoue le retour en Israël juste en sortant de la période Born Again Christian. Il me souvient avoir pensé qu'il était complètement paumé : crise de la quarantaine doublée de crises mystiques en série. Il me souvient avoir souhaité, sans trop y croire, que ça finirait par s'arranger. Et je me suis désintéressé de ce qu'il pourrait faire de neuf pendant une vingtaine d'années.

Il avait juste eu ce bref éclat Masked And Anonymous. Je pensais être le seul à avoir compris que c'est un chef d'oeuvre. Mais ça ne m'avait pas incité pour autant à écouter les disques.
Et puis je me suis inscrit sur ce forum, et j'ai découvet qu'il y a encore des jeunes gens que ça intéresse, qui vont même à ses concerts.

Mais quand même : défendre l'état ségrégationniste israélien !

Vu à Madrid, musée Thyssen :



The Bully of the Neighbourhood - John George Brown (1866)
https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/brown-john-george/bully-neighbourhood

Ils ont pas mal de tableaux de peintres américains, principalement paysagistes, du XIXème siècle, sans grand intérêt faut bien dire.
Mais celle-là, je ne pouvais pas la rater. Même s'il y a fort peu de chances que Dylan en ait connaissance, c'est plutôt à l'expression courante qu'on doit le titre de la chanson.