Like the wind and the rain / Like a southbound train

September 3, 2006 9:24 PM

"Rock Me Mama," apparently a Bob Dylan unreleased track, also known as "Wagon Wheel" as played by Old Crow Medicine Show (and I'm sure the song has roots further back) - any music buffs know of this song and/or various recordings of it?

I remember hearing it around a month ago on my iPod, and I made note that I should come back and hear it again when I got back to my computer, but never did (it was ~4am driving through north dakota).

I'm almost positive that it was Dylan playing the song - but going through the Dylan in my iTunes isn't helping me at all. The title of the song was something oblique, so searching by the title or lyrics doesn't help. I also can't remember being able to really comprehend many of the lyrics beyond rock me mama, if that might help anyone.

posted by kjell to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

I think these are the lyrics, along with some comments about the song.
posted by iconomy at 9:32 PM on September 3, 2006

Definetly - I should have mentioned that hearing the OCMS version of the song is what kicked me back to this mysterious, I think it was Bob Dylan version that I heard a bit ago and can't quite pull from the caverns of my iTunes library. I can mention also that I've looked through a few pages of google results for different combinations of the chorus, (rock me mama, wagon wheel, southbound train...) to little avail.

Maybe I'm just going nuts. But this has kept coming back to me and I really want to figure it out.
posted by kjell at 9:41 PM on September 3, 2006

I'm confused about the question -- are you saying you are sure it's not "Rock Me Mama" which appeared on the Pat Garrett outtakes?
posted by jgee at 10:14 PM on September 3, 2006

I love this song and I heard an interview with Ketch Secor (fiddler and singer for OCMS) I think on World Cafe. He said something along these lines. The chorus is Dylan's. The verse, is Secor's.

Secor wrote the song when he was in high school in New Hampshire after hearing an old Dylan bootleg. On the bootleg Dylan is playing and just repeats the chorus over and over. So it's kind of co-written by Dylan and Secor.

That's what I remember. I'd love to get that original bootleg.
posted by catfishjohn at 10:20 PM on September 3, 2006

I'd love to get that bootleg too, unless I already have it and just can't figure out what it's called in my library. Because I swear that I heard Dylan singing the song, I just can't find it.

jgee - It may well be (I don't have the cd). Here's a tab that makes it look like indeed.

I'm just trying to dredge out maybe an different name for the song. I'm darn sure that I've heard it and it's in my Library somewhere, pretty sure that it's sung by Dylan. But for the last two weeks I've been trying to find it, and haven't been able to.
posted by kjell at 10:39 PM on September 3, 2006

I believe Dyan wrote the chorus and OCMS wrote the rest of Wagon Wheel.
posted by null terminated at 11:22 PM on September 3, 2006

Here's the OCMS version on youtube.
posted by null terminated at 11:24 PM on September 3, 2006

Looks like it's on The Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. 1 Disc 2 Track 12.
posted by null terminated at 11:37 PM on September 3, 2006

Yup, that's definitely it. Email's in my profile if you're interested.
posted by null terminated at 12:07 AM on September 4, 2006

Dan posted the OCMS version in July; I hope the powers that be can forgive a self-link here since the mp3 is still up.
posted by Tuwa at 6:46 AM on September 4, 2006

When I saw OCMS play, they said basically what catfishjohn said above -- that they'd heard Dylan singing the chorus over and over in between songs on some studio outtakes (something like that -- it could be the bootleg linked above) and it had gotten in his head, so he'd written some verses. I love the song -- glad this thread reminded me I'd been wanting to find the Dylan version.
posted by salvia at 3:06 PM on September 4, 2006