Father of Night
This song is really an original psalm, from Bob Dylan’s 1970 album New Morning (a gift from my Uncle Glenn many years ago). I just recently “rediscovered it”, perhaps because I’ve conquered my prejudice against Dylan’s Christian inclinations. [His so-called “Christian phase” was actually not until ten years later.]
The descending female backup vocals haunt me (presumably Hilda Harris, Albertine Robinsin, and Maeretha Stewart); Dylan’s strikingly clean piano playing sustains his gravel voice. The song is over in less than a couple of minutes, but it leaves you silent, maybe fearful.
Father of night, Father of day, Father, who taketh the darkness away, Father, who teacheth the bird to fly, Builder of rainbows up in the sky, Father of loneliness and pain, Father of love and Father of rain. Father of day, Father of night, Father of black, Father of white, Father, who build the mountain so high, Who shapeth the cloud up in the sky, Father of time, Father of dreams, Father, who turneth the rivers and streams. Father of grain, Father of wheat, Father of cold and Father of heat, Father of air and Father of trees, Who dwells in our hearts and our memories, Father of minutes, Father of days, Father of whom we most solemnly praise.