Lyrics to Black Diamond Bay

This version of Black Diamond Bay was released by Bob Dylan in 1976.

Our Bob Dylan Songs profile has Black Diamond Bay lyrics from 1976 and most if not all of the lyrics by Bob Dylan that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Bob Dylan or about the 1970s in general.

Up on the white veranda
She wears a necktie and a Panama hat
Her passport shows another face
From another time and place
She looks nothing 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 calling her to come on in
She smiles, walks the other way
As the last ship sails and the moon fades away
From Black Diamond Bay.

As the morning light breaks open the Greek comes down
And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write
“Pardon monsieur” the desk clerk says
Carefully removes his fez
“Am I hearing you right ?”
And as the yellow fog is lifting
The Greek is quickly heading for the second floor
She passes him on the spiral staircase
Thinking he’s the Sovjet Ambassador
She starts to speak, but he walks away
As the storm clouds rise and the palm branches away
On Black Diamond Bay.

A soldier sits beneath the fan
Doing business with a tiny man who sells him a ring
Lightning strikes, the light 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 say “Attendez-vous, s’il vous pl it”
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 ring it 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 on 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, “Help there’s danger near
Please open op 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 you money, but 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 basemen blew
While she’s out on the balcony where a stranger tell her
“My darling je vous aime beacoup”
She sheds a tear and then begins to pray
As the fire burns on and the smoke drifts away
From Black Diamond Bay.

About Lyrics and Black Diamond Bay by Bob Dylan

The lyrics to Black Diamond Bay are the words, verses and chorus for the song released by Bob Dylan in 1976. Elements of the lyrics to Black Diamond Bay are both direct in meaning and also metaphorical with the real meanings of the song only known by Bob Dylan and any collaborating writers working on the lyrics for Black Diamond Bay back when it was created.

Some people have an interest in the etymology behind words and phrases. You can take apart the lyrics to Black Diamond Bay by Bob Dylan in a number of ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Black Diamond Bay" means the words set to the music of Black Diamond Bay, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Bob Dylan. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Black Diamond Bay and the lyrics to Black Diamond Bay are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Bob Dylan who came here looking just for the lyrics to Black Diamond Bay, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.