The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7324 Message #2374047
Posted By: GUEST,Bill Hamilton
25-Jun-08 - 12:39 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Great American Bum
Subject: Lyr Add: THE GREAT AMERICAN BUM
The number of verses and versions give a real insight to this county. I grew up in a railroad town and most of the men in the family for several generations were railroad men. They sang this song and similar ones on a regular basis. I learned the words below in the late thirties and early forties as well as many of the other verses floating around. Some versions leave the word "bay" off after "Frisco" and this doesn't make sense to me. As a side note, when I visited Maine for the first time last years, I confirmed the rock bound coast and remembered this song my dad sang. Hope someone likes the "town clowns and harness bulls" bit.
Come all you jolly jokers And listen while I hum The story I'll relate to you The great American bum
From north to south From east to west Like a storm of bees they come They lay in the dirt And where a shirt All dirty and full of crumb
Tra-la-la-la-la-lation That's my recommendation Hurrah, horree, horrum For we're three bums Three jolly old bums We live like royal Turks We have good luck in bumming our junk God bless the man that works
I beat my way from Frisco bay To the rockbound coast of Maine From Canada to Mexico And wandered back again I met town clowns and harness bulls As tough as the cops could be I've been in every calaboose In this land of liberty