About The Song
Waylon Jennings once described his second #1 country hit “I’m A Ramblin’ Man” as his “‘bubblegum”’ country song, pretty close to rock and roll in his view. Actually the tune started out more like “back-porch blues,” songwriter Ray Pennington’s description of a style patterned after R & B legend Jimmy Reed. Pennington, who was working for King Records in Cincinnati when he wrote the piece in the mid-1950s, built it specifically for a band he was moonlighting with. Ray claims that when there wasn’t sufficient material on the radio, he’s just write something. For “I’m A Ramblin’ Man,” Pennington tried to put in a few big cities and some areas of the country that he especially liked. Ray was enamored with West Virginia and he was living in Cincinnati. He also thought of Chicago as a swinging place and he got all of those geographical locations in there.
Waylon Jennings and Ray Pennington found themselves in RCA’s Studio A on February 8, 1974 preparing for a session. Pennington had brought along “I’m A Ramblin’ Man,“ which Waylon was planning to cut, but Ray had another tune with him that enamored Jennings even more called “Oklahoma Sunshine.” That was the one Jennings really wanted, so he made a deal with Pennington that if Ray would let him have “Oklahoma Sunshine,” he would also record “I’m A Ramblin’ Man” and have Pennington serve as producer. Ray agreed and Waylon cut both songs that day.
A few months before, on Waylon’s previous album “This Time,” he had stirred up controversy (which he was pretty good at) by recording the material at a different studio owned by Tompall Glaser, and RCA had refused the masters, suggesting it would cause problems for the company with the electricians’ union. Eventually, the label solved the issues and accepted the masters for “This Time,” and even allowed Waylon to record most of his follow-up album “Ramblin’ Man” at Glaser Sound Studio as well, although the title track was laid down at RCA.
“I’m A Ramblin’ Man,” buoyed by Dave Kirby’s snappy lead guitar, reached the #1 plateau on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart on September 28, 1974. The song also generated the first of several disagreements between Waylon and the Country Music Association. On October 14, 1974, Waylon was set to perform on the CMA awards telecast, where he was nominated for “Male Vocalist of the Year.” The day of the show, producers told him he’d have to cut his performance of “I’m A Ramblin’ Man” down to two minutes. Concerned that an abbreviated version would “damage the song,” as he put it, Jennings walked off the set. Never mind that the tune had already peaked at #1 a couple of weeks earlier, so what damage could a shortened performance have done? He never offered an explanation, but Waylon was Waylon, and he could be quite difficult at times
Video
Lyrics
I’ve been down to Mississippi
Down through New Orléans
Yes I have
I’ve played in California
There ain’t too much I haven’t seen
No there ain’t
Lord, I’m a ramblin’ man
Don’t fool around with a ramblin’ man
Left a girl in West Virginia
Up there where that green grass grows
Yes I did
Got a girl in Cincinnati
Waitin’ where the Ohio River flows
Oh, girl
I’m a ramblin’ man
Don’t give your heart to a ramblin’ man
You better move away
You’re standing too close to the plain
Once I mess with the ol’ mind
Your little ol’ heart won’t be the same
But I’m a ramblin’ man
Don’t mess around within your ramblin’ man
You better not
Well, up in Chicago
I was known as quite a boy
Yes I was
Down in Alabama
They call me the man of joy
Still do
Well, I’m a ramblin’ man
Don’t fall in love with a ramblin’ man
You better move away
You’re standing too close to the plain
Once I mess with the ol’ mind
Your little ol’ heart won’t be the same
Oh, I’m a ramblin’ man
Don’t mess around with any ol’ ramblin’ man