When they opened up the strip I was young and full of zip I wanted some place to call my home And so I made the race and I staked me out a place And settled down along the Cimarron
When they opened up the strip (when Dylan first hit the strip of folk joints on McDougal Street in Greenwich Village) I was young and full of zip (Robert Allen Zimmerman was young, idealistic also full of poetry - computing to convert a file, words into a compressed form in order to save storage space) I wanted some place to call my own (Dylan was looking for steady gig, In Postively Fourth Street Dylan told the folkies that he knew they were "dissatisfied with their position and their place") And so I made the race, and staked me out a place (he beat out the other folk singers) / And settled down along the Cimarron (a river in Oklahoma - freedom according to the D to E Dictionary - as in the works of Mark Twain)
It blowed away (blown away), it blowed away (blown away) My Oklahoma home, it blown away Well it looked so green and fair when I built my shanty there My Oklahoma home, it blown away
It blowed away, it blowed away,
My Oklahoma home, it blowed away.
It looked so green (healthy, vigorous, or flourishing) and fair (not using dishonest methods or discrimination) when I built my shanty there (a rough public house, especially one selling alcohol illicitly - Dylan was schmecking even back then) / But my Oklahoma home (Dylan's roots in the Left, in Woodrow Wilson Guthrie who hailed from Oklahoma) it blowed away (it was destroyed)
Well I planted wheats and oats, got some chickens and some shoats Aimed to have some ham and eggs to feed my face Got a mule to pull the plow, I got an old red muley cow And I also got a fancy mortgage on this place
I planted wheat (songs as in these allegorical Springsteen poems, "Well Franky went in the army back in 1965 I got a farm deferment, settled down / took Maria for my wife / But them wheat prices kept on droppin' till it was like we were gettin' robbed / Franky came home in '68, and me, I took this job" (Highway Patrolman) "Tractors and combines / Out in the cold / Sheds piled high / With the wheat we ain't sold silos filled with / Last year's crops / If something don't break me / We'll gonna drop" (Sugarland) and oats, got some chickens and some shows [or shoats whatever that is), Aimed to have some ham (unskilled folk musicians) and eggs to feed my face (feed my ego) / Got a mule (people who carry drugs on behalf of others) to pull the plow (deal with verbally or in some form of artistic expression - Peter Paul and Mary with Blowin In The Wind), got an old red muley cow (got sponsorship from the Reds, the CPUSA) / And got a fancy mortgage on the place (got a record contract with Columbia)
It blowed away, it blowed away, All the crops I planted (all the songs I wrote) blowed away. You can't grow any grain (a grain of truth) if you ain't got any rain (unless you ar); All except the mortgage blowed away. It looked so green and fair, when I built my shanty there, I figured I was all set for life. I put on my Sunday best with my fancy scalloped vest And went to town and picked me out a wife.
Black car shinin' on a Sunday morn Mama go to church now, Mama go to church now Friday night daddy's shirt is torn Daddy's goin' downtown, daddy's goin' downtown Ain't no one understand this sweet thing we do
She blowed away, she blowed away My Oklahoma woman blowed away. Mister as I bent and kissed her, she was picked up by a twister; My Oklahoma woman blowed away.
Then I was left alone a-listenin' to the moan Of the wind around the corners of my shack; So I took off down the road when the south wind blowed, A-travelin' with the wind at my back. I blowed away, I blowed away Chasin' a dust cloud up ahead.Then she got lost in the days. The smile Rainey depended on dusted away, the arms that held him were no more his home. He lay at night his head pressed to her chest listening to the ghost of the Ramones.Once it looked so green and fair, now it's up there in the air; My Oklahoma farm is overhead. Now I'm always close to home no matter where I roam, For Oklahoma dust is everywhere. Makes no difference where I'm walkin', I can hear my chickens squawkin' I can hear my wife a-talkin' in the air. It blowed away, it blowed away, My Oklahoma home blowed away. But my home is always near; it's in the atmosphere, My Oklahoma home that blowed away. I'm a roamin' Oklahoman, but I'm always close to home And I'll never get homesick 'til I die. No matter where I'm found, my home is all around; My Oklahoma home is in the sky. It blowed away, it blowed away, My farm down upon the Cimarron. But all around the world, wherever dust is whirled, Some is from my Oklahoma home. It blowed away, it blowed away, My Oklahoma home blowed away. Oh it's up there in the sky in that dust cloud rolling by, my Oklahoma home is blowed away.