HALLELUJAH, I'M A BUM
Tune: "Revive Us Again" (trad.)
Harry McClintock - 1897/1908
Why don't you work like other folks do?
How the hell can I work when there's no work to do?
(ALTERNATE LAST LINES: How the hell can I work when the sky is so blue?
OR: How can I get a job when you're holding down two?)
CHORUS:
Hallelujah, I'm a bum,
Hallelujah, bum again,
Hallelujah, give us a handout
To revive us again.
Oh, why don't you save all the money you earn?
If I didn't eat, I'd have money to burn.
CHORUS:
Whenever I get all the money I earn,
The boss will be broke, and to work he must turn.
CHORUS:
Oh, I like my boss, he's a good friend of mine,
That's why I am starving out on the breadline.
CHORUS:
When springtime it comes, oh, won't we have fun;
We'll throw off our jobs, and go on the bum.
ADDITIONAL AND ALTERNATE VERSES:
I can't buy a job 'cause I ain't got the dough,
So I ride in a boxcar 'cause I'm a hobo.
I went to a bar and I asked for a drink,
They gave me a glass and they showed me the sink.
*****
ADDITIONAL VERSES FROM CARL SANDBURG, THE AMERICAN SONGBAG, New York, NY, 1990 (originally published in 1927)
I went to a house,
And I knocked on the door;
A lady came out, says,
"You been here before."
I went to a house,
And I asked for a piece of bread;
A lady came out, says,
"The baker is dead."
