Rocks And Gravel

In "Rocks and Gravel," Bob Dylan uses road construction as a metaphor for needing a good woman's love. Just as rocks and gravel were an essential ingredient for a solid foundation for a road (according to Dylan, anyway), a good woman's love was the foundation for the satisfaction of Dylan's "weary soul." Takes rocks and gravel, baby, make a solid road Make a solid road Takes a good woman mama To satisfy my weary soul

The idea of a 20-year-old from a loving middle-class home crooning about his "weary soul" might seem ridiculous, but the song certainly doesn't sound that way. In "Rocks And Gravel," Dylan shows an early example of the power that would eventually make him a legend. He was like a spirit-channeler (and would later allude to being exactly that) summoning unimaginable depths of grief and sorrow from generations of ghosts of bluesmen of the past. The song is raw and powerful and makes it easy to understand why so many early fans of Dylan believed his wild tales of hopping freight trains and living on the road since he was a toddler. He certainly sounds like an ancient soul speaking through a young man's mouth.

The "rocks and gravel" metaphor signals the young Dylan's deep immersion in American folk music, particularly the blues. That music sprang out of the American working class, and the lyrics frequently appealed to homespun wisdom and earthy poetic devices. Dylan's first album (Bob Dylan, 1962) was nearly all covers of old folk songs. On his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, on which "Rocks And Gravel" was supposed to appear, he quickly switched to nearly all originals. At this point, though, his originals, while displaying uncommon lyrical brilliance, still very much resembled the musical tradition that was his foundation. Within a couple years he'd produce Bringing It All Back Home and become known for avant-garde (detractors would say "artsy-fartsy"), truly groundbreaking music, but with "Rocks And Gravel" he was still working within the recognizable vein of the music that had gripped him with obsession since he was a child.