Here's the version in Long Steel Rail. The lyrics follow the Doc Watson lyrics in the DT. I haven't heard the Doc Watson recording, so I don't know about the tune.
-Joe Offer-

The Dying Hobo
Little Stream of Whiskey

By a western water tank, one cold November day,
Beside an empty boxcar, a dying hobo lay.
His pal was standing 'fore him, with a low and drooping head,
Listening to the last words the dying hobo said.

"So long, partner hobo, I hate to say goodbye,
I hear my train a-coming, I know she's getting nigh.
Tell the old conductor to just wail off the stops
To get a drink of whiskey come flowing down the rocks.

"To tell my girl in Danville she need not worry at all,
For I am just a-going where I will not have to work.
I will not have to work at all, nor even change my socks,
And little stream of whiskey come flowing down the rocks.

"I'm going to a better place where everything is bright,
Where handouts grow on bushes, you can sleep out every night.
Where I will not have to work at all, not even change my socks,
And little stream of whiskey come flowing down the rocks."

from Cohen, Long Steel Rail
as recorded by Burnett and Rutherford, 1926

The Burnett and Rutherford recording is on the Yazoo Kentucky Mountain Music box set.

---

Click to play