Ballad for a Friend

Written by: Bob Dylan
Sad I’m a-sittin’ on the railroad track
Watchin’ that old smokestack
Train is a-leavin’ but it won’t be back

Years ago we hung around
Watchin’ trains roll through the town
Now that train is a-graveyard bound

Where we go up in that North Country
Lakes and streams and mines so free
I had no better friend than he

Something happened to him that day
I thought I heard a stranger say
I hung my head and stole away

A diesel truck was rollin’ slow
Pullin’ down a heavy load
It left him on a Utah road

They carried him back to his home town
His mother cried, his sister moaned
Listenin’ to them church bells tone

Copyright © 1962, 1965 by Duchess Music Corporation; renewed 1990, 1993 by MCA