“Bob Dylan! It’s like trying to talk about the Pyramids. What do you do? You just stand back and… gape.”
– Bono
This song was recorded on Dylan’s 31st studio album Love and Theft (2001) as a tribute to bluesman Charley Patton. The song recaps the catastrophic 1927 Louisiana flood, which also inspired Patton’s song “High Water Everywhere.”
The song interestingly plays off of classic American songs, directly quoting songs by Robert Johnson, Larry Campbell, and Charlie Patton.
“Bob Dylan! It’s like trying to talk about the Pyramids. What do you do? You just stand back and… gape.” – Bono*