Lyr Add: Masters of War (Bob Dylan)

Subject: masters of war tab
From: GUEST,cyrus
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 02:53 PM

Hi, I am looking for tab. of Masters of war by Bob Dylan. Could you please help me with that in Dm form.
cyrus

Subject: RE: masters of war tab
From: Ed.
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 03:08 PM

It's here in Am.

I leave it to you to work out how to transpose it, you might even learn something in the process.

Subject: RE: masters of war tab
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 04:24 PM

Thanks Ed. I appreciate your email. Looking for a Dm tab drop tuning for guitar the way Dylan did it out of the Dm formation.
Thanks
Happy Holiday.

Subject: RE: masters of war tab
From: Ed.
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 04:30 PM

OK.

Sorry if I'm being rude, but can't you work it out for yourself?

I didn't send you an email btw...

Subject: RE: masters of war tab
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 10:43 PM

This tune goes 40 or 50 years back and counting----Long before Dylan's song. This was "NOTTAMUN TOWN" as sung by Jean Ritchie (KyTrad here at Mudcat) and her wonderfully musical family from Viper, Kentucky. I find myself wondering now at this late date if the Ritchie family ever got credit for being the source for Bob's tune!?!?!?

Art

Subject: RE: masters of war tab
From: pavane
Date: 29 Dec 02 - 04:59 AM

According to a book of songs collected by Cecil Sharp & Maud Karpeles, Nottamun Town was sung by Misses Una & Sabrina Ritchie, between 1916 and 1918, at Hindman School, Knott Co., Ky.

Subject: RE: masters of war tab
From: Mugwump
Date: 29 Dec 02 - 08:02 AM

Fairport Convention do Nottamun Town on the "What We Did On Our Holidays" album.

Subject: RE: masters of war tab
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Dec 02 - 01:43 PM

cyrus hang in there ,i think what cyrus is looking for the with the low E dropped to D and played in d m and i dont believe you can get that sound out of Am with the same feel ,--hang in there cyrus

rasta

Subject: Lyr Add: Masters of War (Dylan)
From: voyager
Date: 23 Jun 25 - 12:02 PM

a bit of interpretation here (from Wikipedia) -

On January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his farewell address from the Oval Office. In this speech, he warned that "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."[28] In an interview, published in USA Today on September 10, 2001, Dylan linked his song to Eisenhower's speech, saying:

"Masters of War"… is supposed to be a pacifistic song against war. It's not an anti-war song. It's speaking against what Eisenhower was calling a military-industrial complex as he was making his exit from the presidency. That spirit was in the air, and I picked it up.[29]

Curiously, the B-2 bombers that dropped payload on IRAN were a flashpoint of development controversy going back to the 1980s ....

Masters of War (Dylan - 1963)
--------------------------------

MASTERS OF WAR
(Bob Dylan)

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
While the young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could?
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
I'll follow your casket
By the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead


voyager

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Masters of War (Bob Dylan)
From: GUEST,Jeff Roe
Date: 24 Jun 25 - 03:09 AM

How apposite

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Masters of War (Bob Dylan)
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 Jun 25 - 11:49 AM

An apposite quote, from J K Galbraith's The Age of Uncertainty, at the head of Chapter 8 ("The Fatal Competition"):

To understand the world you must know that the military establishments of the United States and the Soviet Union have united against the civilians of both countries.
            --- A high official of the Department of State
                   to the author, 1974

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Masters of War (Bob Dylan)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Jun 25 - 11:43 AM

The sentiments of Dylan's song are in the Italian "Gorizia tu sei maledetta" from WW1 and more distantly "Hanging on the old barbed wire".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Masters of War (Bob Dylan)
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Jun 25 - 02:19 PM

That depends on interpretation

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Masters of War (Bob Dylan)
From: GUEST,PHJim
Date: 01 Jul 25 - 08:10 AM

I wish I could remember the name of the celebrity who said something like, "I went to see Bob Dylan and I really hoped he'd sing Masters Of War, but he didn't. . .or maybe he did and I just didn't recognise it."