Clothes Line Lyrics by Bob Dylan

Clothes Line

After a while we took in the clothes,
Nobody said very much.
Just some old wild shirts and a couple pairs of pants
Which nobody really wanted to touch.
Mama come in and picked up a book
An papa asked her what it was.
Someone else asked, "what do you care? "
Papa said, "well, just because."
Then they started to take back their clothes,
Hang em on the line.
It was january the thirtieth
And everybody was feelin fine.

The next day everybody got up
Seein if the clothes were dry.
The dogs were barking, a neighbor passed,
Mama, of course, she said, "hi!"
"have you heard the news? " he said, with a grin,
"the vice-presidents gone mad!"
"where? " "downtown." "when? " "last night."
"hmm, say, thats too bad!"
"well, theres nothin we can do about it," said the neighbor,
"its just somethin were gonna have to forget."
"yes, I guess so," said ma,
Then she asked me if the clothes was still wet.

I reached up, touched my shirt,
And the neighbor said, "are those clothes yours? "
I said, "some of em, not all of em."
He said, "ya always help out around here with the chores? "
I said, "sometime, not all the time."
Then my neighbor, he blew his nose
Just as papa yelled outside,
"mama wants you t come back in the house and bring them clothes."
Well, I just do what Im told,
So, I did it, of course.
I went back in the house and mama met me
And then I shut all the doors.