The Groom's Still Waiting At The Altar
(Words and Music by Bob Dylan)
1981 Special Rider Music

Prayed in the ghetto with my face in the cement,
Heard the last moan of a boxer,
seen the massacre of the innocent,
Felt around for the light switch,became nauseated.
She was walking down the hallway
while the walls deteriorated.

East of the Jordan,
West of the Rock of Gibraltar,
I see the turning of a page,
curtain rising on a new age,
See the groom still waiting at the altar.

Try to be pure of heart,
they arrest you for roberry,
Mistake your shyness for aloofness,
your shyness for snoberry,
Got a message this morning,
the one that was sent to me
About the madness of becomin'
what one was never meant to be.

East of the Jordan,
West of the Rock of Gibraltar,
I see the turning of a page,
curtain rising on a new age,
See the groom still waiting at the altar.

Don't know what I can say about Claudette
that wouldn't come back to haunt me,
Finally had to give her up
about the time that she began to want me.
But I know God has mercy
on them who are slandered and humiliated.
I'd a-done anything for that woman
if she didn't make me feel so obligated.

East of the Jordan,
West of the Rock of Gibraltar,
I see the turning of a page,
curtain rising on a new age,
See the groom still waiting at the altar.

Put your hand on my head,baby,
do I have a temperature?
I see people who are supposed to know better
standin' around like furniture,
There's a wall between you and what you want
and you got to leap it,
Tonight you got the power to take it
tomorrow you won't have the power to keep it.

East of the Jordan,
West of the Rock of Gibraltar,
I see the turning of a page,
curtain rising on a new age,
See the groom still waiting at the altar.

Cities on fire, phones out of order,
They're killing nuns and soldiers,
there's fighting on the border.
What can I say about Claudette?
Ain't seen her since January,
She could be respectably married
or running a whorehouse in Buenos Aires.

East of the Jordan,
West of the Rock of Gibraltar,
I see the turning of a page,
curtain rising on a new age,
See the groom still waiting at the altar.