Percy's Song

Joan Baez does it I think - at least she sings it in Don't Look Back.

The tune is based on an older folk song (which is acknowledged in the chorus), the story is about a friend of Dylan's(?) or maybe just a friend of a friend of a friend - actually, the lyrics don't bear too close attention

Longest song ever.

ahhh, Arlo Guthrie's done it

it's not quite the Litany of Siants..but yeah it does go on

ahhh .... from a message board at tuensmith

According to Dylan, the beautiful melody line of this song came from Paul Clayton. "Paul was just an incredible songwriter and singer," said Dylan in 1985. "He must have known a thousand songs. I learned 'Pay Day at Coal Creek' and a bunch of other songs from him. We played on the same circuit and I traveled with him part of the time. When you're listening to songs night after night, some of them rub off on you. 'Don't Think Twice' was a riff that Paul had. [See above.] And so was 'Percy's Song.'
Something I might have written might have been a take off on 'Hiram Hubbard,' a civil war song he used to sing, but I don't know. A song like that would come to me because people were talking about the incident. A lot of folk songs are written from a character's point of view. 'House of the Rising Sun' is actually from a woman's point of view. A lot of Irish ballads would be the same thing. A song like Percy's Song, you'd just assume another character's point of view. I did a few like that."

Evidently "Oh the cruel wind and the rain" is also known as "two sisters"

Oh, "Hiram Hubbard" is a great song

Fairport's version is like a camera's slowly moving, showing you this huge crowed room full of figures, in grey light, but just enough detail (in lyrics and performance) to keep me from getting too tranced out (no small accomplishment)

Fairport version=best English folk rock moment evah.