KING OF THE ROAD
(Roger Miller)

Trailer for sale or rent,
Rooms to let, fifty cents.
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain't got no cigarettes,

Ah, but two hours of pushing broom
Buys an eight by twelve, four-bit room
I'm a man of means, by no means
King of the road.

Third boxcar, midnight train
Destination Bangor Maine.
Old worn-out suit and shoes,
I don't pay no union dues.

I smoke old stogies I have found,
Short, but not too big around
I'm a man of means, by no means
King of the road.

[Bridge]
I know every engineer on every train
All of the children and all of their names
And every hand-out in every town
And every lock that ain't locked
When no one's around, I sing:
Trailer for sale or rent...

©1964, Tree Publishing Company

Source: Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy, by Dorothy Horstman (1975, 1996, Country Music Foundation Press, Nashville), page 366

Roger Miller's comments about the song:

You know, it's funny. One night in a motel in Phoenix, Arizona, I wrote "Dang Me" in just a few minutes. It took me six weeks to write "King of the Road." I was driving from Davenport, Iowa, to Chicago, and somewhere along the way I saw a sign on the road which read, "Trailers for Sale or Rent," and for some reason that phrase stuck in my mind. It wasn't until later, in Boise, Idaho, that I really sat down and made something out of it....although I had to induce labor to get it completed. I got stuck after the first verse, so I went out to a Boise store and bought a statuette of a hobo. I sat and stared at it until the rest of the tune came to me.

I typed what's in the book - but, like Jeri, I hear "all of their children, and all of their names" on the Roger Miller recording.