Bob Dylan – On the Road Again Lyrics

Track 6 on Bringing It All Back Home
5. Outlaw Blues 7. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
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Well, I wake up in the morning
There's frogs inside my socks
Your mama, she's a-hidin'
Inside the icebox
Your daddy walks in wearin'
A Napoleon Bonarparte mask
Then you ask why I don't live here
Honey, do you have to ask?

Well, I got to pet your monkey
I get a face full of claws
I ask who's in the fireplace
And you tell me Santa Claus
The milkman comes in
He's wearing a derby hat
And you ask why I don't live here
Honey, how come you have to ask me that?

Well, I asked for something to eat
I'm hungry as a hog
So I get brown rice, seaweed
And a dirty hot dog
I've got a hole
Where my stomach disappeared
Then you ask why I don't live here
Honey, I gotta think you're really weird

Your grandpa's cane
It turns into a sword
Your grandma prays to pictures
That are pasted on a board
Everything inside my pockets
Your uncle steals
And you ask me why I don't live here
Honey, I can't believe that you're for real

Well, there's fist fight in the kitchen
They're enough to make me cry
The mailman comes in
Even he's gotta take a side
Even the butler
He's got something to prove
Then you ask me why I don't live here
Honey, how come you don't move?
Track 6 on Bringing It All Back Home
5. Outlaw Blues 7. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
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About On the Road Again

This is a tongue-in cheek song about the Bohemian lifestyle that a lot of the “cool” people lived in Greenwich Village at the time. The imagery is full of strange and pretentious characters and events, and he can’t even get a square meal (surely a pastiche on vegetarians?).

The music is 12 bar blues, and not very original at that, but his delivery is amusing and shows a good vocal range, which many people would not associate with Dylan.

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