Lyrics for Like a Rolling Stone as interpreted by oofus

Like a Rolling Stone Lyrics
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kidding you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hanging out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're going to have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him, "Do you want to make a deal?"

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinking, thinking that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it, babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

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MrMojoRisin5552
05-03-2002

Rated 0 
I believe this song is either about a woman who lived her whole life with money and prestige and one day she either realizes that all that money is worthless, or she loses that money somehow. She always looked down on the poor people, but never took time to look at them objectively, and now she's one of them.

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1 Reply
kchamber
06-13-2002

Rated 0 
How am I only the second person to post on one the consensus greatest songs of all time? I agree with MrMojoRisin, it's about a girl who ends up on her own in the real world.

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Hawken
06-14-2002

Rated 0 
Your right, How can only two people have posted on this song. This is no doubt one of the best songs of all time.

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pezking21
06-17-2002

Rated 0 
my take on it.. i just think it's about how children of the 60s (and still today) were so eager to get away from their parents and into the 'real world' but were greeted with a smack of reality in the face

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wendyclear
06-22-2002

Rated 0 
an amazin song a true renagade but aside from that about pezking21 i think that kids wanting to leave their parents and be all rebalious and "screw adults they don't know anything" i think that that has come about mostly bcos of war.like kids are supposed 2 bleave wat their parents tell them is right but then they're parents told them that 'you should go to war to honour your country and family and bla bla bla' so they went 2 war thinkn it was the rite thing 2 do then they came back with a memory of hell and the realisation that their parents weren't rite war isn't a proud thing it's a disgrace to humans and the result of human flaws. and now there r all these revolutionaries sayn war is wrong and wateva. and it's like 'hey these people r sayin that wat i was told is rite is wrong wat i believed is true is untrue and mayb my parents/the adults around me aren't always right and don't always know the answers and now it's progressed 2 'my parents aren't right these teachers and adults don't have the answers so screw them. just a thought i probably have NO IDEA

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Ciarán
08-04-2002

Rated 0 
Great song! the guy's a genius.

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luckye225
08-06-2002

Rated 0 
awesome. bob dylan is the best, no question. and this is one of the greatest rock songs of all time; really started a movement to "angry" rock.. before all this, there was just sorta happy love stuff or sad love stuff. and this was so different from most of the stuff people had heard. excellent.

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malsehen
08-13-2002

Rated 0 
My favorite song ever.
Even the covers by David Bowie or the Rolling Stones sound good but Bob's version is a masterpiece.
Love it

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gracelyn
08-15-2002

Rated 0 
I think the riches to rags aspect is a metaphor for love. She thought she had a perfect life, perfect husband, and scorned Bob's advances. Then the guy betrayed her and her world was shattered, so now Bob's having a great time gloating.

Whatever the case, I'm in complete agreement about what a classic song it is. Totally vindicating if someone who's hurt you gets theirs.

Altogether now, "How does it feeeeeel..."

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joeyfox1
09-02-2002

Rated 0 
i see what you're talking about and i mostly agree with you. it speaks about a girl who was rich and condescending and now she got broke after a guy came and conned her or stole all her money. I just don't understand what the "chrome horse", the "diplomat", the "siamese cat", the "Princess on the steeple", and "Napolean in his rags"

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1 Reply
dewdrop
09-12-2002

Rated +1 
This is most likely about deceased heiress/debutant/Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick. The lines "You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat/ Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat/ Ain't it hard when you discover that/ He really wasn't where it's at/ After he took from you everything he could steal." refer to Andy Warhol rather pointedly.
I've heard that the Dylan songs Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat and Just Like a Woman were also Edie-inspired, but I doubt it.


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2 Replies
bmx_ryan360
09-14-2002

Rated 0 
when i hear this song it makes me think of one of those signs next to Mt.'s on the highway. The signs that are like "watch for rocks"

i dunno it just makes me think of a rock tumbling down a hill about to smash into cars on a highway for some reason.....

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Whatstheword
04-02-2003

Rated -1 
I find the tone troubling. It takes pleasure in this girls fall from grace or inocence. It not compassionate at all. There seems to be a pleasure in taking her as low as possible- making deals with the mystery tramp presumably for a little company or place to stay or protection. Its cruel epiloge to a loss of innocence with no hope or redemption. No idealism or beauty. Almost a curse of fortune upon someone yet to fall- "Now, How Does This Feel, Bitchl"? The Jimi Hendrix version is even more so when he adds: "Look at ya!"

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1 Reply
Karl
05-11-2003

Rated 0 
This is a very nice song, so mellow yet so much passion. 10/10

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curious george
06-21-2003

Rated 0 
This is the moment of self relization, when everything you've spent most of your life putting up to hide the sad truth from your eyes comes crashing down and you are left with nothing but reality.

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sweetteeth15
06-28-2003

Rated 0 
bmx- lol...yeah i get that

totally one of my favoritest songs ever.....

I think it's about a rich girl who had everything and looked down on poorer people (like the narroator) in the song and she lost everything and I like the "how does if feel?" rubbing it in her face tone to it. I'll I can say is Karma. She probably deserved to be low for the way she treated people.

This line is great "You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it"
because it shows how even when she was rich and stuff she wasn't that great, kinda lonely, so she by snubbing poorer people was just doing what was done to her. major hypocrite. feeling the karma.

Good song.....Bob Dylan the genius. nehehehehee

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srh1son
04-28-2004

Rated 0 
If you pick up Bootleg Vol. 4, you'll get to hear Bob and the Band play an awesome version of Like a Rolling Stone prompted by a person in the audience screaming "Judas!" because of Bob's switch from acoustic folk singer, to elecktric hard rock folk singer.

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LP
05-02-2004

Rated 0 
As the saying goes: "Rolling stones gather no moss".

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Nogtopoo
05-15-2004

Rated 0 
whats the word i partly disagree with you- at first i think dylan is very much so implying she thought she was better by'laughing at every one who was hanging out' as in no time for normal people-same with the clowsn having frowns and stuff-he s certainly saying 'how does it feel' to be one of us not looking down on people and judging them.
However when it gets going further he says 'When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.' as in yer you were a bitch to us---but its alright look on the bright side you've left all that stress and problems behind--now 'how does it feel'. so quitt worrying we forgive ya and just be happy for what you've got and the simpllicity of your life. But again can see where your coming from-Regardless of which its still a good song

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pollyfarmer
05-22-2004

Rated 0 
One of my favorite songs. Bob Dylan is just amazing. The lyrics are excellent on their own, but his delivery just makes the song.

I've heard that he wrote this about Jackie Kennedy, and I can see that in some of the lyrics, but I don't know if he really intended it for her or not.

Basically, it's about somebody who used to be in a high position in life and fell dramatically. They never took the time to think about the little people, and now they are one of them. And when they look back, being up there wasn't really the best place to be.

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allenegirl
05-24-2004

Rated 0 
I absolutely love this song. I think it describes how a person feels when they get out on their own and things aren't easy like they thought it would be.

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edflint
05-24-2004

Rated 0 
the part about chrome horse with your diplomat, i thought was about john lennon and his sherpa/guru who had a siamese cat. great song though

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McShark
06-04-2004

Rated 0 
The first time Dylan played this song, it was at a folk festival, the name of which has escaped me. But he played it on an electric guitar, which was a violation of folk traditions in many fans' minds. He was actually booed off the stage. If you look at these lyrics, Dylan must have figured that this would happen. In his infinitely wondrous sense of irony, Dylan sets up the song so that the narrator of the poem is the audience at the festival, and he is the "Miss Lonely" who loses everything. By making the narrator so acerbic, he makes the audience look like a bunch of asses. Dylan knew that he would still be embraced by the musical community, even if he temporarily lost the respect of folk fans, so the message behind the song is that you can do your own thing without worrying about other people's opinions.

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Potatoes9000
06-17-2004

Rated 0 
FECKIN' AWESOME!

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ondra
09-25-2004

Rated 0 
Ha, ha. I told you so.

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