Hi, K. Brobeck -
Welcome to the Mudcat Cafe. We have "Dying Hobo" in our Digital Tradition Folk Song Database here (click). We'll have to do some more work and see what else we can dig up on it. It has been published in some of the best-known American folk songbooks - The Folk Songs of North America (Alan Lomax), and Ozark Folksongs (Randolph), to name two - also in Sigmund Spaeth's Weep Some More, My Lady.
-Joe Offer-
Here's the entry on the song from the Traditional Ballad Index:Dying Hobo, The [Laws H3]
DESCRIPTION: An old hobo lies dying as winter approaches. He speaks of the "better land... where handouts grow on bushes" that he is destined for, sends a message to his girlfriend, and dies. His partner "swiped his (coat and hat) and caught an eastbound train"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: railroading train death friend robbery
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE,So,SW)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws H3, "The Dying Hobo"
Randolph 837, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
BrownIII 360, "The Dying Hobo" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more)
Hudson 112, pp. 251-252, "The Dying Hobo"; 113, p. 252, "The Hobo's Death" (2 texts)
Lomax-FSNA 219, "Around a Western Water Tank" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, p. 131, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
JHCox 56, "The Dying Hobo" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 478, "The Dying Hobo" (source notes only)
DT 644, DYINHOBO LTTLSTRM
Roud #1937
RECORDINGS:
Burnett & Rutherford, "Little Stream of Whiskey" (Columbia 15133-D, 1927 (rec. 1926); on BurnRuth01)
Travis B. Hale & E. J. Derry, Jr., "The Dying Hobo" (Victor 20796, 1927)
Kelly Harrell, "The Dying Hobo" (Victor 20527, 1926; on KHarrell01 -- a rather strange version combining the first verse of "The Dying Hobo" with a story, taken from "George Collins," of a girl mourning her dead lover)
George Lay, "The Dying Hobo" (AFS 12,050 A19, 1959; on LC61)
McMichen's Melody Makers, "The Dying Hobo" (Columbia 15464-D, 1929)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Big Rock Candy Mountain" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hobo's Last Ride" (plot)
Notes: Several sources list this as a parody of "Bingen on the Rhine." Laws, however, does not mention the connection; perhaps he knew versions with different tunes? - RBW
File: LH03Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index InstructionsThe Ballad Index Copyright 2005 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.
The version in Lomax, "Around a Western Water Tank," seems to me to be Danville Girl. It has parallels with "Dying Hobo" - but it lacks a dying hobo...