Bob Dylan When I Paint My Masterpiece (demo version, 3/19/71) lyrics

Oh the streets of Rome are filled with rubble
Aged footprints are everywhere
You can almost think that you're seeing double
On a cold dark night by the Spanish stairs
Got to hurry on back to my hotel room
Where I got me a date with pretty little girl from Greece
She promised she'd be right there with me
When I paint my masterpiece.

Oh the hours I've spent inside the coliseum
Dodging lions and wastin' time
Oh those mighty kings of the jungle
I could hardly stand to see 'em
It sure has been a long hard climb.
Train wheels runnin' through the back of my memory
When I ran on a hilltop following a pack of wild geese
Someday everything is gonna sound like rhapsody

When I paint my masterpiece.

Sailing around the world in a dirty gondola
Sure wish I hadn't sold my old Victrola
Ain't nothing like to that good old rock-n-rolla

I left Rome and pulled into Brussels
On a plain ride so bumpy that I almost cried
Clergymen in uniform and young girls pullin' muscles
Everyone was there to greet me when I stepped inside
Newspapermen eating candy
Had to be held down by big police
Someday everything is gonna be different
When I paint that masterpiece.