Bob Dylan – Song to Woody

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I'm out here a thousand miles from my home,
Walkin' a road other men have gone down.
I'm seein' your world of people and things,
Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings.

Hey, hey Woody Guthrie, I wrote you a song
'Bout a funny ol' world that's a-comin' along.
Seems sick an' it's hungry, it's tired an' it's torn,
It looks like it's a-dyin' an' it's hardly been born.

Hey, Woody Guthrie, but I know that you know
All the things that I'm a-sayin' an' a-many times more.
I'm a-singin' you the song, but I can't sing enough,
'Cause there's not many men that done the things that you've done.

Here's to Cisco an' Sonny an' Leadbelly too,
An' to all the good people that traveled with you.
Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men
That come with the dust and are gone with the wind.

I'm a-leaving' tomorrow, but I could leave today,
Somewhere down the road someday.
The very last thing that I'd want to do
Is to say I've been hittin' some hard travelin' too.

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Lyrics submitted by Jack, edited by Mellow_Harsher

Track duration: 02:40

"Song to Woody" as written by Bob Dylan

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Song to Woody song meanings
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12 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:This is an example of the great songs that get produced when the writer is truly inspired. It sounds like Bob knew he NEEDED to write this song. It comes straight from the heart.
    Flag whoryou6207on January 08, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Easily the best song on the album.
    Such an endearing tribute to his hero.
    Flag BraveSirRobinon January 10, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Dylan in his earlier days tried to be and sound a lot like Woody. Once Dylan knew he was swaying away from Woody's style and developing his own he felt like he had to write this song as a final good bye to the man who brought him to the point in life he was at at the time.
    Flag Rayznon April 08, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song brings back a kind of sense of nostalgia, like the "good old days" where life was simple, i'm sure it wasnt, but dylan has a fairly negative view on life now, or life when this song was written, and it makes me feel like we are all at some kind of dead end, and the only way to get away from it all is to find your inspiriation, for dylan it was woody.
    Flag hazzamatazzaon March 01, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:it's incredible how quickly dylan deviated from his influences like guthrie and hank williams and started doing stuff that was completely his own. a lot of bands and songwriters never seem to escape imitation
    Flag theegoist1917on February 14, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song is ridiculous 'cause it's kinda how i feel toward him. yeah... bomb!
    Flag haley52441on May 11, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I read that when Woody first heard Bob play this he said something along the lines of 'he's going to be a famous folksinger because of his voice - to bad his writing isn't that good'. I thought it was funny that everyone says that Dylan's a songwriting genious - shame he can't sing.
    Flag msr123on January 31, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I've been havin' some hard travelin', I thought you knowed
    I've been havin' some hard travelin', way down the road
    I've been havin' some hard travelin', hard ramblin', hard gamblin'
    I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been ridin' in fast rattlers, I thought you knowed
    I've been ridin' in flat wheelers, way down the road
    I've been ridin' in blind passengers, dead-enders, kickin' up cinders
    I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been hittin' some hard-rock minin', I thought you knowed
    I've been leanin' on a pressure drill, way down the road
    Hammer flyin', air-hole suckin', six foot of mud and I shore been a muckin'
    And I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been hittin' some hard harvestin', I thought you knowed
    North Dakota to Kansas City, way down the road
    Cuttin' that wheat, stackin' that hay, and I'm tryin' make about a dollar a day
    And I've been havin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been working at Pittsburgh steel, I thought you knowed
    I've been a dumpin' that red-hot slag, way down the road
    I've been a blasting, I've been a firin', I've been a pourin' red-hot iron
    I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been layin' in a hard-rock jail, I thought you knowed
    I've been a laying out 90 days, way down the road
    Damned old judge, he said to me, "It's 90 days for vagrancy."
    And I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord

    I've been walking that Lincoln highway, I thought you knowed,
    I've been hittin' that 66, way down the road
    Heavy load and a worried mind, lookin' for a woman that's hard to find,
    I've been hittin' some hard travelin', lord
    Flag Leadbelly Hollandon February 11, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:there is I think a dubbel meaning in the last two lines.
    Flag Leadbelly Hollandon February 11, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Yeah, dontthinktwice, the tune is the same. Oh, I love this song so much, I wrote my own version... "Song for Zimmy".

    "Hey, hey Bobby Dylan
    I composed you this piece
    To show you what happ'nin'
    in this 'ere country..."
    Flag HibbingismyHolyLandon January 18, 2006   Link

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