 Opinions about the song have been mixed . AllMusic critic Thomas Ward calls it " one of the great good @-@ time songs in Dylan 's canon " . Ward comments that " Dylan sings it as if he is having the time of his life " , adding that " rarely has he sung with such expressiveness " . Anthony <unk> , author of The Bob Dylan Albums , similarly praises the song 's " breadth of feeling " and " unparalleled expressiveness " , noting that " it appears Dylan simply improvised the song on the spot , and the passion within him allows the song to flow forth naturally " . Biographer John <unk> has described the song as " delightful " , while a New York Times review rates it one of the highlights of Volume 2 of The Bootleg Series Volumes 1 – 3 , commenting that it is one of only a couple of mid @-@ 60s songs on the compilation that " live up to their vintage " . Griffin describes it as " catchy but slight " and " a slight if charming little ditty " , but criticizes the decision to include it on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1 – 3 rather than the " masterpiece " composition " Sign on the Cross " . Heylin <unk> , characterizing " Santa @-@ Fe " in 1995 as a " pleasant enough <unk> " but suggesting that " Sign on the Cross " or another 1967 composition , " I 'm Not There " , would have been much better choices ( " I 'm Not There " was eventually released in 2007 on the I 'm Not There soundtrack , and both it and " Sign on the Cross " were included on The Basement Tapes Raw and The Basement Tapes Complete in 2014 ) . By 2009 , Heylin 's opinion had changed little and he writes that " of all the ' missing ' basement @-@ tape originals that appear on that three @-@ CD set , ' Santa Fe ' hardly represented an A @-@ list candidate . Just another discarded ditty , it relies on the usual wordplay and <unk> diction to obscure any <unk> to a deeper meaning " . Marcus dismisses it as no more than " a riff " , while a review in <unk> magazine calls it " the most lightweight tune on all three CDs , with <unk> lyrics " . Author Peter James , referring to Dylan and the Band 's Woodstock output , writes that " many great songs were written and recorded in [ Big Pink 's ] basement in 1967 , unfortunately ' <unk> @-@ Fe ' is not one of them . " He goes on to describe the song 's inclusion on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1 – 3 as " little more than a joke " . 
