Song to Woody

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.

of course a tribute to the late woody guthrie.

i read that this song was based off of woody's "1913 massacre."

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..."

there is I think a dubbel meaning in the last two lines.

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

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.

this song is ridiculous 'cause it's kinda how i feel toward him. yeah... bomb!

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

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.