DON’T THINK TWICE IT’S ALRIGHT
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, and released
on the 1963 album “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”.
Dylan once introduced “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” as “a statement that maybe you
can say to make yourself feel better… as if you were talking to yourself.” Written around
the same time Suze Rotolo indefinitely prolonged her stay in Italy, “Don’t Think Twice,
It’s All Right” is based on a melody taught to Dylan by folksinger Paul Clayton. NPR‘s
Tim Riley discribed the song as “the last word in a long, embittered argument, a paper-
thin consolation sung with spite.”
As well as the melody, a couple of lines were taken from Clayton’s “Who’s Goin’ to Buy
You Ribbons When I’m Gone?” which was recorded in 1960, two years before Dylan
wrote “Don’t Think Twice.” Lines taken word-for-word or slightly altered from the
Clayton song are, “T’ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, darlin’,” and, “So I’m walkin’
down that long, lonesome road.” On the first release of the song, instead of “So I’m
walkin’ down that long, lonesome road babe, where I’m bound, I can’t tell” Dylan sings
“So long, honey babe, where I’m bound, I can’t tell”. The lyrics were changed when
Dylan performed live versions of the song and on cover versions recorded by other
artists.
It ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If’in you don’t know by now
An’ it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It’ll never do some how.
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m trav’lin’ on
Don’t think twice, it’s all right
It ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An’ it ain’t no use in turnin’ on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
but I wish there was somethin’ you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin’ anyway
So don’t think twice, it’s all right
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
Like you never done before
It ain’t no use in callin’ out my name, gal
I can’t hear you any more
I’m a-thinkin’ and a-wond’rin’ walkin’ down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I’m told
