BLACK DIAMOND BAY
(Music by Bob DylanWords by Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy)
19751976 Ram s Horn Music
Up on the white veranda
She wears a necktie and a Panama hat.
Her passport shows a face
From another time and place
She looks nothin like that.
And all the remnants of her recent past
Are scattered in the wild wind.
She walks across the marble floor
Where a voice from the gambling room is callin her to come on in.
She smileswalks the other way
As the last ship sails and the moon fades away
From Black Diamond Bay.
As the mornin light breaks openthe Greek comes down
And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write.
"Pardonmonsieur" the desk clerk says
Carefully removes his fez
"Am I hearin you right?"
And as the yellow fog is liftin
The Greek is quickly headin for the second floor.
She passes him on the spiral staircase
Thinkin he s the Soviet Ambassador
She starts to speakbut he walks away
As the storm clouds rise and the palm branches sway
On Black Diamond Bay.
A soldier sits beneath the fan
Doin business with a tiny man who sells him a ring.
Lightning strikesthe lights blow out.
The desk clerk wakes and begins to shout
"Can you see anything?"
Then the Greek appears on the second floor
In his bare feet with a rope around his neck
While a loser in the gambling room lights up a candle
Says"Open up another deck."
But the dealer says"Attendez-vouss il vous plalt
As the rain beats down and the cranes fly away
From Black Diamond Bay.
The desk clerk heard the woman laugh
As he looked around the aftermath and the soldier got tough.
He tried to grab the woman s hand
Said"Here s a ringit cost a grand."
She said"That ain t enough."
Then she ran upstairs to pack her bags
While a horse-drawn taxi waited at the curb.
She passed the door that the Greek had locked
Where a handwritten sign read"Do Not Disturb."
She knocked upon it anyway
As the sun went down and the music did play
On Black Diamond Bay.
"I ve got to talk to someone quick!"
But the Greek said"Go away" and he kicked the chair to the floor.
He hung there from the chandelier.
She cried"Helpthere s danger near
Please open up the door!"
Then the volcano erupted
And the lava flowed down from the mountain high above.
The soldier and the tiny man were crouched in the corner
Thinking of forbidden love.
But the desk clerk said"It happens every day"
As the stars fell down and the fields burned away
On Black Diamond Bay.
As the island slowly sank
The loser finally broke the bank in the gambling room.
The dealer said"It s too late now.
You can take your moneybut I don t know how
You ll spend it in the tomb."
The tiny man bit the soldier s ear
As the floor caved in and the boiler in the basement blew
While she s out on the balconywhere a stranger tells her
"My darlingje vous aime beaucoup."
She sheds a tear and then begins to pray
As the fire burns on and the smoke drifts away
From Black Diamond Bay.
I was sittin home alone one night in L.A.
Watchin old Cronkite on the seven o clock news.
It seems there was an earthquake that
Left nothin but a Panama hat
And a pair of old Greek shoes.
Didn t seem like much was happenin
So I turned it off and went to grab another beer.
Seems like every time you turn around
There s another hard-luck story that you re gonna hear
And there s really nothin anyone can say
And I never did plan to go anyway
To Black Diamond Bay.
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