Travelin' across the country Playin' on the circuit line Sometimes I think about a man Who was here before my time Named for the 28th president With a Guthrie tacked to the end Born in Okemah shoes With the Dust Bowl blues A friend of the working man Now he wasn't partial to New York buildings That tried to touch the sky West Virginia coalmines that took so many lives For the way they drove the migrant workers Back over into Mexico way And the scabs they run When they heard he'd come And the bosses started to pray
Just a boy from Oklahoma On an endless one-night stand Wan'drin' and a-ramblin' Driftin' with the midnights and He played the blues and the ballads And all that came between His heart was in the Union And his soul was reachin' out For the servant's dream
Now I was talking to a man that met him In a bar near Clovis town He said the whole place was a-shakin' As he was passing his songs around In between the tunes he asked him Where he'd be when the morrow came He said through his grin I put my thumb in the wind And I'm off down the road again
Just a boy from Oklahoma On an endless one-night stand Wan'drin' and a-ramblin' Driftin' with the midnights and He played the blues and the ballads And all that came between His heart was in the Union And his soul was reachin' out For the servant's dream
Now you know that Woody Guthrie Is dead and buried in the ground Sometimes I sing his songs And I get to thinkin' that he's still around I'll hold that his fires everlastin' Testify that his voice has rung true And the ramblin' man's ris' And the kingdom's his But his songs are for me and you