take your song out

•"Dry Your Eyes"


Words and Music by Neil Diamond and J.R. Robertson


~    ~    ~    ~
Dry your eyes --

and take your song out,
it's a newborn afternoon.

And if you can't recall the singer

 you can still recall the tune. ...

Dry your eyes and play it slowly.
Just like you're marching off to war;

sing it like you know he'd want it,

like we sang it once before.
[musical notes]--

And from the center of the circle

to the midst of the waiting crowd,
if it ever be forgotten --

sing it long and
sing it loud --

and come dry your eyes.


~ ~  And he taught us more about giving
than we ever cared to know,
but we came to find the secret --
and we never let it go.

And it was more than being holy
and it was less than being free,


and if you can't recall the reason --
can you hear the people sing?...--

Right through the lightning and the thunder
to the dark side of the moon,


to that distant falling angel that descended much too soon

and come dry your eyes.

Come dry your eyes.

--------------------------
In the last concert of The Band in 1976 (filmed by Martin Scorsese, to become the documentary, The Last Waltz), Neil Diamond played acoustic guitar and sang that song with the weight and conviction and sincerity of a hymn.  Man.

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