
salon.com July 8, 2003 | TOKYO (AP) --
...Bob Dylan's lyrics... In the song "Floater" from his 2001 album, "Love and Theft," Dylan croons: "My old man, he's like some feudal lord, got more lives than a cat." He also sings, "I'm not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound" and then, "Sometimes somebody wants you to give something up, And tears or not, it's too much to ask."
On page 6 of Junichi Saga's book "Confessions of a Yakuza," the protagonist recalls: "My old man would sit there like a feudal lord." Later, he says: "I'm not as cool or forgiving as I might have sounded." On page 182, he says: "Tears or not, though, that was too much to ask."