"Oh, the gentlemen are talking and the midnight moon is on the riverside,
They're drinking up and walking and it is time for me to slide.
I live in another world where life and death are memorized,
Where the earth is strung with lovers' pearls and all I see are dark eyes.
A cock is crowing far away and another soldier's deep in prayer,
Some mother's child has gone astray, she can't find him anywhere.
But I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise,
Whom nature's beast fears as they come and all I see are dark eyes.
They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes,
They tell me revenge is sweet and from where they stand, I'm sure it is.
But I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized,
All I feel is heat and flame and all I see are dark eyes.
Oh, the French girl, she's in paradise and a drunken man is at the wheel,
Hunger pays a heavy price to the falling gods of speed and steel.
Oh, time is short and the days are sweet and passion rules the arrow that flies,
A million faces at my feet but all I see are dark eyes."
"Dark Eyes," off 1985's Empire Burlesque. Dylan hauled out and dusted off this song at the request of Patti Smith during their joint December 1995 tour, after Dylan told her she could pick any song of his she wanted for their duet performances. Dylan hasn't played it since, but we still have the recordings, one of which you can download here.
Dylan and Patti Smith perform "Dark Eyes" during the New York show, Dec. 11, 1995. Too bad it was a school night for the 14-year-old Dylanologist, or he would have been there for sure...
