In a nice bit of Random Weekend serendipity, today’s 4th of July selection starts with the line “We carried you in our arms on Independence Day.” Funny how things work out sometimes.
‘Tears of Rage’ has shown up as on Random Weekends once before, only then it was the version performed by Bob Dylan on The Basement Tapes. As I wrote back then, Dylan wrote this song with The Band’s Richard Manuel.
This version is the opening track on The Band’s classic 1968 album Music from Big Pink, which epitomized the roots rock movement and is considered by many one of the greatest albums of all time.
And now you’d throw us all aside and put us all away
Oh, what dear daughter ‘neath the sun could treat a father so?
To wait upon him hand and foot and always tell him “No”
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we’re so alone
And life is brief
It was all so very painless
When you ran out to receive
All that false instruction
Which we never could believe
And now the heart is filled with gold
As if it was a purse
But, oh, what kind of love is this
Which goes from bad to worse?
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we’re so alone
And life is brief
We pointed you the way to go
And scratched your name in sand
Though you just thought it was nothing more
Than a place for you to stand
I want you to know that while we watched
You discovered no one would be true
That I myself was among
The ones who thought
It was just a childish thing to do
Tears of rage, tears of grief
Why must I always be the thief?
Come to me now, you know we’re so alone
And life is brief
Meet Me In Montauk 
Talk about coincidence as I’m sure frequent commenter Dana will bring up, we had a conversation on Friday about The Band as it applied to a final jeopardy question we were having some trouble figuring out. I wondered if you would have gotten the correct answer. We will soon find out 😊 Happy 4th of July!
Yes, Peg, I was going to mention our Final Jeopardy conversation, but you beat me to it. So, for those who may be curious, the question (or answer) was:
Written in 1930, this song was a No. 1 hit in 1960 & was covered by The Band to support a 1976 Presidential candidate.
No cheating by Googling the answer (though that is what we did😀)!
I did not know the answer so I just looked it up. Would not have guessed it!
I feel so much better 😊
Music from the Big Pink is such a wonderful album. Great Jeopardy question, too! Have a great Independence Day.
Am I allowed to guess inthis forum? Actually, it’s not a guess, as a fan of The Band I know the answer … and I actually caught the original telecast. A great band they are!
By all means, go for it!