On Saturday, Patti Smith was performing Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” at Dylan’s Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. Dylan was not in attendance. During her performance, Smith had a bit of trouble. But to her credit, the lyrics are rather tricky. There are 550 words, and a lot of the lines begin with a repetitive cadence. And that’s what she got tripped up on.
Smith repeated a line in the second verse and then when she realized she was off, she wasn’t able to regroup without stopping. So she paused, and calmly asked the orchestra to start over again. She said, “I apologize. I’m sorry, I’m so nervous.” The crowd had her back, and applauded. After that, Smith also stumbled in the third verse after singing the wrong lyric, but that time she was able to push through.
Check out the clip of the performance below. The trouble starts around the one hour, five minute mark.
