I Shall Be Released

They say everything can be replaced,

Yet every distance is not near,

So I remember every face

Of every man who put me here.

I see my light come shining from the west unto the east,

Any day now, any day now, I shall be released.

They say every man needs protection,

They say every man must fall,

Yet I swear I see my reflection

Some place so high above this wall.

I see my light come shining from the west unto the east,

Any day now, any day now, I shall be released.

Now yonder stand with me in this lonely crowd

A man who swears he's not to blame.¹

All day long I hear his voice shouting so loud,

Crying out that he was framed.

I see my light come shining from the west unto the east,

Any day now, any day now, I shall be released.

¹ The phrasing here seems a bit awkward. It is possible the Dylan is sort of accidentally combining several different versions. For example, from the version that appears on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Volume II and Biograph, this line and the following line are: "Down here next to me in this lonely crowd, / There's a man who swears he's not to blame." On the Before the Flood version, the lines are: "Now yonder stands a man in this lonely crowd, / A man who swears he's not to blame." There are still other phrasings in other versions of the song.