Once upon a time you dressed so fine,
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware, doll,
You're bound to fall" – you thought they were all kidding you.
About everybody that was hanging out;
Now you don't talk so loud,
Now you don't act so––so proud
About having to be a-scrounging around, scrounging around for your next meal –
How does it feel,
How does it feel,
To be without a home,
To be––direction home,
Like a complete unknown,
Like a rolling stone?
You gone to the finest school, alright, Ms. Lonely,
But you know you only used to get juiced in it,
Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you're better––you're gonna have to get used to it.
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now––but––his eye––
Into the vacuum of his eyes––
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say, "Do––would you like to––come on now, would you like to come up and make a deal?"
How does it feel,
How does it feel,
To be without a home,
Like a complete unknown,
With no direction home,
Like a rolling stone?
Princess up on the steeple and all them pretty people,
Thinking and drinking that they got it made,
Exchanging all the precious gifts and things,
But you'd better take your diamond ring down, now, you'd better pawn it, babe.
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used –
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse:
When you ain't got nothing, girl, you got nothing to lose –
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.
How does it feel,
How does it feel,
To be without a home,
With no direction home,
Like a complete unknown,
Just like a rolling stone,
Like a rolling stone,
Just like a rolling stone,
Like a rolling stone?
1
Obviously Dylan mixes up his lines here: he starts the correct line ("You used to laugh about"), but gets mixed up after saying "[y]ou" and finishes the line with something like "be so proud". The words in the middle are somewhat garbled and therefore it's difficult to say what they actually are. Dylan garbles many lines throughout this song and he sings in a very absentminded manner. When there seems to be a sort of discontinuity I generally use a double "–", which at times connects two parts of different lines and at others just sort of indicates a jumble of words that I cannot decipher.