Oh a bum, a bum a jolly good bum
A bum I wanna be.
A bum gets up in the morning
To get the morning breeze. (CHORUS)
He washes his face in the frying pan
Forgets to comb his hair.
A bum, a bum a jolly good bum
A bum I wanna be.

Six o'clock in the morning
Mrs. Murphy comes around.
With a piece of bread and butter
That weighs a half a pound.
The coffee's like tobacco juice.
The bread is hard and stale.
And that's the way they feed the bums
In the Richmond County Jail. (Repeat Chorus)

One day I met a man
That I never met before.
He asked me if I wanted a job
Shoveling iron ore.
When I asked him what the wages were
He said "Dollar and half a ton."
Oh mister you can keep your job
I'd rather be a bum. (Repeat Chorus)

Three o'clock in the morning
I looked upon the wall.
The bedbugs and the roaches
Were having a game of ball.
The score was six to nothing.
The roaches were ahead.
Till a bedbug hits a homerun
And knocks me out of bed. (Repeat Chorus)