Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? Lyrics
Preoccupied with his vengeance
Cursing the dead that can't answer him back
I'm sure that he has no intentions
Of looking your way, unless it's to say
That he needs you to test his inventions
Use your arms and legs it won't ruin you
How can you say he will haunt you?
You can go back to him any time you want to
Trying to peel the moon and expose it
With his businesslike anger and his bloodhounds that kneel
If he needs a third eye he just grows it
He just needs you to talk or to hand him his chalk
Or pick it up after he throws it
Use your arms and legs it won't ruin you
How can you say he will haunt you?
You can go back to him any time you want to
while your face is so changed
Are you frightened of the box you keep him in
While his genocide fools and his friends rearrange
Their religion of the little ten women
That backs up their views but your face is so bruised
Come on out the dark is beginning
Use your arms and legs it won't ruin you
How can you say he will haunt you?
You can go back to him any time you want to
It sounds a bit Edie Sedgwick-y. Instead of inviting her to have an affair, he's trying to get her away from Warhol and hang out with him, but she sees it as a betray to Andy. His "inventions" and "bloodhounds that kneel" sound like Factory talk to me
There are two versions of this song - the one which appears on 'Biograph' was recorded with 'The Hawks', later known as 'The Band', and released officially as a single.
A previous version was recorded during the 'Highway 61 Revisited' sessions and accidentally released as 'Positively Fourth Street' in the first pressing of that single. This version is FAR superior, although the lyrics in the chorus use 'come on' instead of the 'use your hands and legs' that appears in the Hawks' version.
Gotta love the use of the word 'genocide'...I'm perplexed, it sounds more like 'jealous-eyed', but Bob was using a lot of wordplay in his songs at this time.
The lyrics sound like a clever invitation to a woman to an affair. It also sounds like it was released as an attempt to appeal to the pop market to effectively follow-up 'Like A Rolling Stone' (not counting 'Positively Fourth Street', which was a well-timed and opportunistic dig).
It's easy to say now, but the H61 session version of 'Crawl' would have been more effective.
@elephant_range Bob used the line 'you gotta lot of nerve to say you are my friend' to open Positively 4th St as well to close out 'Crawl out Your Window'. Same line, two Entirely different meanings. No one else was considering doing things like that, let alone pulling it off. This guy, along with some critics of Bob's stuff, helped introduce me to things like surrealism and multiple meanings.
@elephant_range Bob used the line 'you gotta lot of nerve to say you are my friend' to open Positively 4th St as well to close out 'Crawl out Your Window'. Same line, two Entirely different meanings. No one else was considering doing things like that, let alone pulling it off. This guy, along with some critics of Bob's stuff, helped introduce me to things like surrealism and multiple meanings.
i can relate to bob's attitude and perspective in this song on a very personal level
I felt that it was to a woman who is in a relationship in which she feels neglected, and Dylan is exploiting her vulnerability.
I guess its just: come and see me if you want it, dont look for a reason to stay where you dont wanna be, you dont mean that much to me, but I want you if you want me.
Kind of what I got from it, although I've never really believed I fully understood this song. It's a difficult read, but it's an excellent track.
Kind of what I got from it, although I've never really believed I fully understood this song. It's a difficult read, but it's an excellent track.
i agree with tiffany-twisted. this whole thing sounds like it's about edie. andy is the one she can go back to anytime she wants to. basically he is saying andy is just using edie. i never got the feeling that bob cared much about edie so i guess that's why he doesn't sound so desperate he probably just wants a good time but doesn't care where it goes... i like both versions.
Lyrically and in terms of words, this must be one of Dylan's most complex songs. Only a few of his songs are precise, and it is songs such as this one which really establish Dylan as a puzzle maker as much as they establish him as a brilliant songwriter. Every Dylan song has meaning. That is the first point to note. He simply obscures it, to the extent that his songs seem to be open to interpretation, which they are. Every listener must therefore form his own understanding of it. Dylan, like all great artists, detests the need to explain his work, his objectives with it and his success with these objectives but one reason for remaining elusive is that everyone must figure the puzzle out for himself. It is like any beautiful epigram by Wilde, or a short prose of Khalil Gibran. Once you start sorting things out with a Bob Dylan song, such as this one, the curiosity is half the joy.
Khalil Gibran was a master. Anyone unfamiliar with his work really needs to at least pick up The Prophet. Even if you're not a Christian (or a believer period), the compassion and clarity found within the pages is still a worthy read.
Khalil Gibran was a master. Anyone unfamiliar with his work really needs to at least pick up The Prophet. Even if you're not a Christian (or a believer period), the compassion and clarity found within the pages is still a worthy read.