Ballad of Easy Rider

I'm gonna do a song now

That I wrote for a low-budget motorcycle movie

Friend of mine was putting together this biker movie

And he wanted to save some money on the budget of the whole thing

So he did something unusual at the time

He dubbed his record collection onto the soundtrack

And he kinda liked the way it sounded

But he thought

Maybe he should get somebody to write a song for the movie

Just like everybody else did

And he, I don't think he wanted Dimitri Tiomkin or any of those guys

But he thought of Bob Dylan

He flew to New York with a film can with the movie

And he screened the movie for Dylan

And Dylan sat in the screening room

Wrote down some notes on a little paper napkin

Said, "Here give this to McGuinn, he'll know what to do with it"

So Peter finally got back on a plane and flew out to California

And he came over to my house with this little napkin

And he said, "Bob wants you to have this, man"

So I looked at the napkin and it said, "The river flows, it flows to the sea

Wherever that river goes, that's where I wanna be

Flow, river, flow"

I got my guitar out and I made up a tune for it

And finished off the words

And we called it the Ballad of Easy Rider

And I have to say

When it came out I put Bob's name on the credits

About 2:00 in the morning, a few weeks later, I got a call

And it was Bob, he said, "Roger, I don't need that

You can take my name off, man

I don't need the money"

What a guy

The river flows

It flows to the sea

Wherever that river goes

That's where I want to be

Flow, river, flow

Let your waters wash down

Take me from this road

To some other town

All that he wanted

Was to be free

And that's the way

It turned out to be

Flow, river, flow

Let your waters wash down

Take me from this road

To some other town

Go, river, go

Go to the sea

Flow, river, flow

Past the shady tree

Flow to the sea

The river flows

It flows to the sea

Wherever that river goes

That's where I want to be

Flow, river, flow

Let your waters wash down

Take me from this road

To some other town