"Stake my future on a hell of a past
Looks like tomorrow is coming on fast
Ain't complaining 'bout what I got
Seen better times, but who has not?
Silvio, silver and gold
Won't buy back the beat of a heart grown cold
Silvio, I gotta go
Find out something only dead men know
Honest as the next jade rolling that stone
When I come knocking don't throw me no bone
I'm an old boll weevil looking for a home
If you don't like it you can leave me alone
I can snap my fingers and require the rain
From a clear blue sky and turn it off again
I can stroke your body and relieve your pain
And charm the whistle off an evening train
I give what I got until I got no more
I take what I get until I even the score
You know I love you and furthermore
When it's time to go you got an open door
I can tell you fancy, I can tell you plain
You give something up for everything you gain
Since every pleasure's got an edge of pain
Pay for your ticket and don't complain
One of these days and it won't be long
Going down in the valley and sing my song
I will sing it loud and sing it strong
Let the echo decide if I was right or wrong
Silvio, silver and gold
Won't buy back the beat of a heart grown cold
Silvio, I gotta go
Find out something only dead men know."
"Silvio," from 1988's reviled "Down In The Groove." The album contained only a handful of original Dylan compositions, with this particular song credited as a co-writing effort between Dylan and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter (though Hunter was responsible for virtually all the lyrics). Dylan must have liked it, though, since it became a staple of the Neverending tour, appearing in almost every show in the mid-90s. Performances diminished in frequency by 1998, and the song has only been played on rare occasion since. The youtube below is from the song's heyday: a summer 1996 performance at the Prince's Trust benefit concert in London.
