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