Memorial Song: “Song to Woody” by Bob Dylan

“Song to Woody” holds the distinction of not only being one of the most memorable tribute songs in the world, but one of the first songs Bob Dylan ever penned. Its simple, stripped-down acoustics make it the ideal memorial song for remembering the people who influenced us and made us who we are today.

This memorial song appeared on Dylan’s debut album in 1962 as a thank-you to Dylan’s most-beloved folk legend, Woody Guthrie. As a folk singer, Guthrie re-popularized this genre that has existed in some form for hundreds of years. Guthrie’s best-known contribution to the genre was his song “This Land is Your Land,” a protest to the patriotic “God Bless America,” which Guthrie saw as overly-zealous and alienating. Throughout his career, Woody Guthrie preached community, love and acceptance.

Bob Dylan’s own songs take a huge piece of Guthrie’s aesthetic, which Dylan pays back in spades on “Song to Woody.” Dylan sings,

“Hey hey Woody Guthrie I wrote you a song
About a funny old world that’s coming along
Seems sick and it’s hungry, it’s tired and it’s torn
It looks like it’s dying and it’s hardly been born.”

Guthrie was still alive when Dylan wrote this tune for him, but it took on even greater meaning following Guthrie’s death from Huntington’s disease in 1967. He was only 55 years old when he died, yet he made perhaps the greatest impact on the 1960s folk revival than any other artist. His son, Arlo Guthrie, took up the torch alongside Dylan as two of the artists who brought folk ballads to the mainstream.

What makes “Song to Woody” so compelling is its little hints to Guthrie’s own songs. Dylan sings, “Here’s to the hearts and the hands of the men that come with the dust and are gone with the wind,” he references Guthrie’s song “Pastures of Plenty,” where he sings, “We come with the dust and we go with the wind.” Even the melody itself is partially taken from Guthrie’s “1913 Massacre.”

That’s what is most beautiful about true folk songs. Artists were never afraid to borrow lines or melodies from their fellow artists who influenced them. In fact, in the genre, this was seen as the only way to show your appreciation for the artists who came before you. Rather than seeing it as stealing, the artists reinterpreted old tunes, bringing them back to life for the younger generations.

In this sense, folk songs are always immortal, ever-evolving to meet the times. This changing quality of “Song to Woody” makes it the perfect memorial song not just from one artist to another, but for any of the people who significantly change us. Chances are that you have someone in your life who has had such an impact that the course of your lifestyle changes forever. These people give us inspiration, and we look to them when we need strength. Let this song be the ultimate memorial to all of those iconic people.

Listen to “Song for Woody” below, and read the full lyrics right here.