Songs about Homelessness

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Sep 13 - 08:12 AM

Tom Waits write a lot about the homeless

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,Lareth
Date: 28 Apr 10 - 08:39 AM

Heard Canned Heats on the road again..

Im homeless and have been pretty much on adn off since I was 14-15. I try but never can push myself out of the ditch.

Im smart, good at things, and good willed, but sometimes thats just not enough, so staying a drifter aint half bad. Ive got to live in the same town for pretty much 8 years now. I live off of women.. Some cant do that, I was blessed with a decent face and a good mind.


Gonna keep checking this list every now and then, maybe get some good kicks out of the songs on tough times.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,Bernie
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 08:53 PM

Listen to Tom Russell's "Wedding dress Mary"....

"See her walkin'down Broadway at four in the mornin'
on the arm of an old shoppin' cart
lookin'in vain for a place to lie down
and somewhere to hang her heart,somewhere to hang her heart...

Tom has a reasonably large following,but I'm still amazed that so many
people seem to be unaware of him and his magnificent body of work...

---

online recording here (click)

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Joe_F
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 08:47 PM

Tom o' Bedlam. (If you have watched the stars go by, you were probably either a bum or a soldier.)

Subject: Lyr Add: AQUALUNG (Jethro Tull)
From: Nicholas Waller
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 07:51 PM

There's AQUALUNG from Jethro Tull, which might have a bearing - I particularly like the last two lines. But it is kind of bitter and aggressive (and possibly the old man isn't even homeless, but I think he is).

Sitting on a park bench
Eyeing little girls with bad intent.
Snot is running down his nose
Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.
Hey Aqualung. Drying in the cold sun
Watching as the frilly panties run.
Hey Aqualung. Feeling like a dead duck
Spitting out pieces of his broken luck.
Oh Aqualung.

Sun streaking cold, an old man wandering lonely.
Taking time the only way he knows.
Leg hurting bad as he bends to pick a dog-end
He goes down to the bog and warms his feet.
Feeling alone, the Army's up the road
Salvation a la mode, and a cup of tea.
Aqualung my friend, don't you start away uneasy
You poor old sod, you see it's only me.

Do you still remember December's foggy freeze
When the ice that clings on to your beard was screaming agony?
And you snatch your rattling last breaths with deep-sea-diver sounds
And the flowers bloom like madness in the spring.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Jayto
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 05:23 PM

Bottom of the World by Tom Waits
My only prayer by Chris Knight
2 of my favorites
cya
JT

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 05:12 PM

This was written by the guy who's recording my first album.

Sal

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 05:05 PM

Tom Paxton's "Last Hobo" came to mind as I looked through these. It may not be about homeless, per se, but I always loved the lyric and the music.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE NEXT TIME I'M YOUNG (Eli Yates)
From: sharyn
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 04:37 PM

Here is the Eli Yates song

THE NEXT TIME I'M YOUNG

My shopping cart sings on the cold morning pavement
Searching for dreams and aluminum cans
I catch my reflection in the shuttered up windows
And wonder how I ever got as old as I am.
The street has no markers -- it's just a river of concrete
Mile after mile, year after year.
I reckon I remember but I can't for the life of me
Understand how I ended up here.

Chorus:

And the next time I'm young I'll do it all different
I'll make the right moves and I'll make the right plans
And I'll have me a family and a good job to go to
And a house with a driveway where I park the sedan
And I'll never be poor and I'll never go hungry
And I'll wear fancy clothes out on my promenade
And I'll sit at the table as long as I want to
And I'll shut my own door at the end of the day.

Somewhere in a pocket of this greasy old backpack
Is a magazine picture of an old country town
Where there isn't much concrete, lots of good grass to walk on
And bushels of children running around.
The folks seem so friendly all smiling and waving,
Covered in sunshine as they walk to the fair.
As darkness crawls over me down in the alley
I wonder if someday I can maybe live there.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,Barnacle (at work)
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 12:13 PM

Howzabout

"Twopence on the Rope" as sung by Gary and Vera Aspey? You either slept on the cold ground or for 2d (old pence that is!), you could sling your arms over a suspended rope and spend the night there.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: sharyn
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 10:59 AM

Eli Yates, now deceased, wrote a song called "The Next Time I'm Young." Carol Denney, who knew him, recorded it on her CD, "The Cruel Lullaby." If I get permission from her, I'll post the words, but you can get the CD from her (lyrics included in the liner notes)

Subject: Lyr Add: I AIN'T GOT NO HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 09:35 AM

I AIN'T GOT NO HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE Woody Guthrie

I ain't got no home, I'm just a-ramblin' round
I'm just a wandrin' worker, I roam from town to town.
The police make it hard wherever I may go
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

My brothers and my sisters are stranded on this road
A hot and dusty road that a million feet done trod;
Rich man took my home and drove me from my door
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

Was a-farmin' on the share, and always I was poor
My crops I laid into the banker's store;
My wife took down and died upon the cabin floor
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

Now as I look round, it's mighty plain to see
The world is such a great and a funny place to be;
The gamblin' man is rich and the workin' man is poor
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore.

Words by Woody Guthrie
Tune from Carter Family "Can't Feel at Home In this World Anymore"

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 09:25 AM

And here's part of another Woody Guthrie song, Tom Joad.

Seen the pitcher last night, Grapes of Wrath, best cussed pitcher I ever seen. The Grapes of Wrath, you know is about us pullin' out of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and down south, and a driftin' around over state of California, busted, disgusted, down and out, and a lookin' for work.

Shows you how come us to be that a way. Shows the dam bankers men that broke us and the dust that choked us, and comes right out in plain old English and says what to do about it.

It says you got to get together and have some meetins, and stick together, and raise old billy hell till you get youre job, and get your farm back, and your house and your chickens and your groceries and your clothes, and your money back.

Go to see Grapes of Wrath, pardner, go to see it and don't miss. You was the star in that picture. Go and see your own self and hear your own words and your own song.

Woody Guthrie, in one of his People's World columns (1939-'40), reprinted in Woody Sez, New York, NY, 1975, p. 133.

That truck rolled away in a cloud of dust;
Tommy turned his face toward home.
He met Preacher Casey, and they had a little drink,
But they found that his family they was gone,
He found that his family they was gone.

He found his mother's old fashion shoe,
Found his daddy's hat.
And he found little Muley and Muley said,
"They've been tractored out by the cats,
They've been tractored out by the cats."

Tom Joad walked down to the neighbor's farm,
Found his family.
They took Preacher Casey and loaded in a car,
And his mother said, "We've got to get away."
His mother said, "We've got to get away."

Now, the twelve of the Joads made a mighty heavy load;
But Grandpa Joad did cry.
He picked up a handful of land in his hand,
Said: "I'm stayin' with the farm till I die.
Yes, I'm stayin' with the farm till I die."

They fed him short ribs and coffee and soothing syrup;
And Grandpa Joad did die.
They buried Grandpa Joad by the side of the road,
Grandma on the California side,
They buried Grandma on the California side.

...

Wherever little children are hungry and cry,
Wherever people ain't free.
Wherever men are fightin' for their rights,
That's where I'm a-gonna be, Ma.
That's where I'm a-gonna be."

Allegedly, John Steinbeck said, "If I had heard the song, I'd wouldn't have needed to write the book."

Subject: Lyr Add: VIGILANTE MAN (Woody Guthrie)
From: GUEST,Henryp
Date: 18 Feb 09 - 09:01 AM

Here's one by Woody Guthrie

VIGILANTE MAN

Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I've been hearin' his name all over the land.

Rainy nights down in the engine house,
Sleepin' just as still as a mouse,
A man came along and he chased us out in the rain.
Was that a vigilante man ?

Well, I rambled around from town to town,
Now, I rambled around from town to town,
And they herded us around like a wild herd of cattle.
Was that the vigilante man?

Well, why does a vigilante man--
Tell me why does a vigilante man--
Carry that sawed-off shotgun in his hand?
Would he shoot his brother and sister down?

Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
Have you seen that vigilante man?
I've been hearin' his name all over the land.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Genie
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 07:30 PM

Not a whole song about homelessness, just a verse:

"Show me the alley, show me the train,
Show me the hobo who sleeps out in the rain,
And I'll show you, young man, with so many reasons why,
That THERE BUT FOR FORTUNE go you and I, you and I."

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Genie
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 07:27 PM

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 11:05 AM

One of the best reference songbooks for the 1930's era has to be Hard-Hitting Songs for Hard-Hit People edited by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger et al, published by Oak (20 years after they put the draft together!).

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Deskjet
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 10:33 AM

I remember Don McClean singing something like..
"Smash your bottle on the gravestone and live while you can,
That homeless brother is my friend"

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Francy
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 01:38 AM

Bobby Bare put an album out in 1975 called Hard Time Hungries, with fifteen songs all about hard times and homelessness.....Most of it was written by Shel Silverstein.....Frank of (Toledo/Spokane)

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Genie
Date: 10 Jan 09 - 12:46 AM

I guess the Great Depression and dust bowl days generated quite a few songs about "hobos," "drifters," and other homeless people. Several have been mentioned.

Nobody's mentioned Tom Paxton's "Rambling Boy" yet, but I think that one would fit. It's not from that area but sort of about it, right?

Subject: Lyr Add: NO DISAPPOINTMENT IN HEAVEN
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 10:39 PM

Jeanne Ritchie suggested this old revival song for my Housing Songbook. It's another dimension of "homelessness" in my mind:

Words and music by F.M. Lehman © 1914
Rodeheaver's Gospel Songs, © 1922, pp. 34-35

NO DISAPPOINTMENT IN HEAVEN

There's no disappointment in heaven,
No weariness, sorrow or pain;
No hearts that are bleeding or broken,
No song with a minor refrain;
The clouds of our earthly horizon
Will never appear in the sky,
For all will be sunshine and gladness,
With never a sob nor a sigh

Chorus:

I'm bound for that beautiful city,
My Lord has prepared for His own;
Where all the redeemed of all ages
Sing "glory" around the white throne;
Sometimes I grow homesick for heaven,
And the glories I there shall behold:
What a joy that will be when my Savior I see,
In that beautiful city of gold.

We'll never pay rent for our mansion,
The taxes will never come due;
Our garments will never grow threadbare,
But always be fadeless and new;
We'll never be hungry nor thirsty,
Nor languish in poverty there,
For all the rich bounties of heaven
His sanctified children will share. (CHO)

They'll never be crepe on the doorknob,
No funeral train in the sky;
No graves on the hillsides of glory,
For there we shall nevermore die;
The old will be young there forever,
Transformed in a moment of time;
Immortal we'll stand in His likeness,
The stars and the sun to outshine. (CHO)

I sing it to the tune of "The Lightning Express."

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 06:20 PM

I remember hearing a song ten or twelve years ago with the line "Everything tastes a little better when you eat outside" (which I assume is also the title). I had thought it was by either Bill Morrisey or Greg Brown, but don't see it in either of their discographies. Google searches have come up dry.

Anyway, at the beginning of the the song its character is extolling the pleasures of eating outside at barbecues and picnics with family and friends, but by the song's end he's homeless and has no place to eat except outside.

Anyone know who's song it is?

Subject: Lyr Add: CATHY COME HOME
From: Newport Boy
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 05:49 PM

The song from Ken Loach's 1966 'Cathy Come Home' is one of the most powerful I've heard. Heard with the TV play, it's almost unbearable.

I couldn't find it in the DT or the Cat - so here it is. [Correct me if I've missed it.]

I've never managed to track down authorship, although it may be in the original credits but not listed anywhere. The story was by Jeremy Sandford, and music by Paul Jones, and I assume they wrote the song as well.

I've been singing this on and off for 40 years, and I'm horrified that it's still relevant.

CATHY COME HOME

I'd like to know just why they pay
A pound or fifteen bob a day
To a woman with a kid to keep.
It barely makes six quid a week.
I'd like to tell you of the men
Who work all hours that God can send
For a wage that barely buys
The necessities of life.

I want to tell you what it's like
For a woman on her own.
I'd like to tell you people
What it's all about.

I'd like to know just who decides
How much it costs to keep alive,
How much his fellow men should get,
But doesn't count their self-respect.
I know they've got enough to eat,
A roof above, somewhere to sleep,
But there's more to life than living.
There's more to life than that.

I want to tell you what it's like
For a family on the dole.
I'd like to tell you people
What it's all about.

I'd like to know how much is spent
To study our environment,
When it's bloody obvious what we lack
In terraces built back-to-back.
I'd like to know why we can't have
A garden, a bath, an inside lav,
Good schools, good roads, and decent shops,
Parks and trees and grass.

I want to tell you what it's like
On the other side of town.
I want to tell you people
What it's all about

I'd like to know just what to do
To put across our point of view.
We're tired of being pushed around,
Of waiting in the queue.

I'd like to tell you what it's like
I feel you ought to know.
I'd like to tell you people
What it's all about.

I'd like to see some changes made.
I'd like to see the wages paid
Improved for every one of us,
Not just the chosen few.
I'd like to know the reason why
We're born to live, but live to die.
I'd like to know the answers,
But no-one wants to tell.

I'd like to tell you what it's like,
It's something you should know.
I'd like to tell you people
What it's all about.


From the BBC Wednesday Play, 1966. Director: Ken Loach.

Phil

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Dan Schatz
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 04:12 PM

Probably the best song about homelessness I've ever heard came from Townes Van Zandt - a song called Marie. Here's a video of Townes singing it.

The video seems a little out of sync with the audio, but I promise you, it's worth a listen. I usually close my eyes to listen to this one anyway.

Dan

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Auxiris
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 11:57 AM

A little bit off the track, but I'm sitting here with tears running down my face after reading all these posts with songs that I already know or didn't know yet, thinking about the two terrifying months I spent as a homeless person over thirty years ago. I am one of the lucky ones.

Thank you all, more than I can say.

Aux

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 08:25 AM

Mr. Red-

"Ron Hayward Blues" is certainly a keeper. I'd like to add it to my collection.

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Genie
Date: 09 Jan 09 - 05:08 AM

I think Willie wrote it but maybe someone here knows for sure.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Beer
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 10:42 PM

Ooops! "Roy Orbison".

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Beer
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 10:41 PM

Genie,
I never knew that Willie Nelson wrote Pretty Papers. I always thought it was Roy Oberson and never did look to see who wrote it. Another great song sung by two great guys.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Tosher
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 08:39 PM

From Flannagan and Allen 1930-1940's

Underneath the Arches
I dream my dreams away
Underneath the arches
on cobblestones I lay

Every night you'll Find me
tired out and worn
Happy when the day light comes creeping
Heralding the dawn. I'm

Sleeping when its raining
and sleeping when its fine
I hear the trains rushing by above

Pavement is my pillow
No matter where I stray
Underneath the Arches I
Dream my Dreams away

And of Course from the same period, Al Boley killed in the London Blitz

Once I built a railroad
made it run Made it race against time
Once I built a railroad now its gone
Say Buddy can you spare a dime

Once built a Tower
To the sun made of rivets and lime
Once I built a Tower now its done
Hey buddy can you spare a dime

Once in Khaki suits ah gee we looked swell
full of that Yankee doodley down
Half a million boots went marching through hell
and I was the guy with the gun   

Oh say Don't you remember
they called me Al it was Al all the time
Say don't you remember I'm your pal
say buddy can you spare a dime.

                XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It seems like the homeless are always with us and their story's never change. We do the best that we can. I sometimes think that writing songs won't help. Ah well............

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Genie
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 07:57 PM

How about Willie Nelson's 'Christmas song' "Pretty Papers?"

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 06:35 PM

Some People Cry

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Beer
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:56 AM

Thanks for sharing that Little Robyn. Very touching indeed.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,Golightly
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:49 AM

Not forgetting Richard Thompson's gorgeous but somewhat romanticised 'Beeswing':


"The last I heard she was sleeping rough back on the Derby beat
White Horse in her back pocket and a wolfhound at her feet
And they say she even married once, a man named Romany Brown
But even a gypsy caravan was too much settling down
And they say her flower is faded now, hard weather and hard booze
But maybe that's just the price you pay for the chains you refuse"

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 07:45 AM

Ron Haywards Blues one of mine - there are various files audio and text. More political than hard luck story but it says what I want to say, and more in the pdf.

Hope it finds a home in your list...........

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Sleepy Rosie
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 06:16 AM

Thanks for contributions thus far.
LeTenebreux - I also found the Homeless Wassail in Digitrad, but no promised tune.... :-(
Little Robyn - Loved the Elephant & Castle gent, actually a pity that his voice becomes too lost beneath the recording which it is mixed into. IMO

I'll never forget being serenaded for several hours early one morning when in London, by a pair of bums. I was sitting reading some obscure up-your-arse piece of poetry/philosophy, while Vladimir and Estragon stirred from sleep, and into impromptu renditions of Frank Sinatra interspersed with jokes. One of them spotted me laughing to myself, and started to ridicule whatever piece of nonsense it was that I was reading at the time. They came over and tap danced for me and sang for me, and offered me their cider (as they always do). One even went and bought me a cuppa tea... When it was time to leave, one of the gents kissed me on the hand and on the cheek and said: "God bless you, god bless you. You are a true beauty."
It's good to be made to feel like a Queen for the day.

Lots of other responses to this thread which I will come back to.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Little Robyn
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 10:26 PM

A distant cousin of mine, John Alford, who used to be a London Bobby on a horse, sent this in his latest email:
"On a radio program I heard a recording made some time ago of an old tramp who used to walk around the Elephant and Castle in south London singing ' Jesus blood never failed me yet'. I don't know if he was asked but the recording was taken back to a studio and music added to it on a loop. It is so moving. If you go on to 'You tube' and type in the title click on the one with the picture of the cross or the one with the piano and you can listen to it. So moving to think of him singing away when he had nothing in this world."

The link to it is here.

I guess John would have known him.
Robyn

Subject: Lyr Add: HOMELESS WASSAIL (Ian Robb)
From: LeTenebreux
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 08:22 PM

Ian Robb's HOMELESS WASSAIL is brilliant:

Wassail, wassail all over the town
Our cup is white and our ale is brown
But huddled 'round this iron grate
We poor and hungry curse our fate

CHORUS:

No wassail bowl for such as these
No turkey scraps, no ale nor cheese
It's Christmas Eve, our heart's desire
Is a bottle of gin and a trash can fire

Good Christian, mind as home you go
With dreams of holly and mistletoe
That the holly bears a dreadful thorn
For those who wake to a frozen dawn

CHORUS

Oh where is he, that holy child
Once born of Mary meek and mild
And whither peace good will to men
Now and forever more, amen

CHORUS

All ye that dine with face aglow
In reginensi atrio
Pray pause a while at pleasure's door
And sup some sorrow with the poor

CHORUS

Wassail, wassail all over the town
Our cup and our ale is brown
This cold hunger, pain and care
Sweet Jesus Christ, it's hard to bear

Subject: Lyr Add: SELF-STORAGE (Charlie King)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 08:22 PM

Sis Cunningham certainly said and sang it well!

Charlie King composed "SELF-STORAGE" as a sardonic comment on an alternative to being homeless and unfortunately with the mortgage meltdown may surface as a viable option:

Words and music by Charlie King © 1986
Recorded on Feelings of Fire
Flying Fish FF 417

Self-Storage

Did you ever stop to wonder how you ever get by,
When the cookie jar is empty and the pie is in the sky?
When you hear the wolf a-knockin', and your money's running out,
And you're trying to make a chowder from your last mung sprout,
Did you ever stop to wonder where you'd lay your weary head,
When your closet's goin' condo and your ink's running red?
When you're standing in the bread line, out of dough and into debt,
And you're dodgin' bodies dropping through the gapin' safety net?
When the trickle down is fickle, and supply ain't on your side,
Then it's time for you to join me for an early morning ride –
To Bridgeport, Connecticut,
Where destitution and persecution,
Find a home-grown, sure-fire, free-market solution.

I was drivin' down the highway, it was I-95;
I was wonderin' how so many of us manage to survive,
Gettin' older, gettin' colder, out of fashion, out of cash,
Gettin' laid off, never paid off, gettin' sick, and gettin' trashed;
I was steamin' into Bridgeport when a building hove in view,
Just an old abandoned factory but the paint was bright and new,
A long-abandoned factory where you once could earn a buck,
Till the firm ran out of country and the workers out of luck;
Emblazoned on that factory in letters tall as me
Was a sign that hawked what had to be a growing industry,
The solution for the unemployed, the old, the sick, the poor,
Where the private sector lifts its lamp beside the factory door;
And what that sign said,
And what my eyes read,
Was Self-Storage.
I said "Self-Storage"? Uh huh, eight bucks a month.

Now suppose you've given up you'll ever find a decent job;
You're too smart to play the lottery, too virtuous to rob,
You're too rich to be on welfare, too poor to buy a meal,
Here's a neat and simple answer to the misery you feel;
A hundred bucks per annum is a price we all can pay,
Check out for a decade? Why not stow yourself away?
Don't be hangin' on the corner; don't be rapping on the stoop;
Don't be litterin' the lines for unemployment checks and soup;
The rich have themselves frozen if they're terminally ill;
Why not put yourself in storage if you can't afford your bill?
If your sector isn't growing; if you fail to pull your weight;
Why, just back into a closet, shut the light, lock the gate;
Say you voted for a tax cut but it only helped the rich,
Or you tried to be a Yuppie but designer jeans don't fit,
Or you lusted to be better off and couldn't ease the itch,
There's a factory in Bridgeport where you're sure to find your niche;
Four by four, got a lock on the door,
And friends, what's more,
Now they've got a name for it.
Call it: Self-Storage.

At first it seems so strange, locked in dark and tiny places,
In this land of far horizons, new frontiers, open spaces;
But on second thought you'll find that it's as common as can be:
In the nursing home, the flophouse, or the penitentiary;
Why there's folks right now in storage in this homeland of the free,
And if they can learn to live with it, then why not you and me;
It's just a change of attitude; it all comes down to style;
You can live within your limits, love the lock and crack a smile;
A bright image, a new package, Self-Storage is the rage;
We'll be driftin' up in droves to be driven to a cage,
With a Pac-Man pleasure center, nutrition substitutes,
And the Cabbage Patch edition of Trivial Pursuits;
I can't wait till they inaugurate promotional campaigns,
With a slogan aimed at any nagging fear that still remains:
"I'd rather be in Storage, wouldn't you?"
"If you were in Storage, you'd be home now too!"
"Into the closet and out of the street!"
"Home Sweet Storage can't be beat!"
So if you're running out of luck and you don't know what to do,
Your entitlement's been cut and you don't know what to do,
Or your golden goose is plucked and you don't know what to do,
Remember, you got a friend in Bridgeport;
If you can't beg, steal, borrow, or forage,
Join the millions of Americans in safe Self-Storage,
"Please, just lock me away..."

Warm regards,
Landlady's Daughter

Subject: Lyr Add: HOW CAN YOU KEEP ON MOVING (UNLESS YOU...
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 07:18 PM

one of my favorites...as sung by ry cooder



HOW CAN YOU KEEP ON MOVING (UNLESS YOU MIGRATE TOO?)
(Agnes Cunningham)

(C) - (F) - (G)
(C) How can you keep on moving un- (F) less you migrate (C) too?
They tell ya to keep on moving but (G) migrate, you must not do.
The (C) only reason for moving and the (F) reason why I (C) roam:
To move to a new lo- (G) cation and find myself a (C) home.

I can't go back to the homestead. The shack no longer stands.
They said I was unneeded, had no claim to the land.
They said, "Come on, get moving. It's the only thing for you."
But how can you keep moving unless you migrate too?

Now if you pitch your little tent along the broad highway,
The Board of Sanitation says, "Sorry, you can't stay.
Come on, come on. Get moving." It's their everlasting cry.
Can't stay, can't go back, can't migrate, so where the hell am I?

How can you keep on moving unless you migrate too?
They tell ya to keep on moving but migrate, you must not do.
The only reason for moving and the reason why I roam:
To move to a new location and find myself a home.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Little Robyn
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 01:59 PM

Slightly different but along similar lines is Peter La Farge's
Ballad of Ira Hayes
Robyn

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,Dan Schatz, traveling
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 01:36 PM

I wrote Hard Daily Life when I was a high school student, producing benefit concerts for the homeless. It's on my first album, The Road to Somewhere Else.

Dan

Subject: Lyr Add: MIDNIGHT CHOIR (Gatlin Brothers)
From: Beer
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 12:27 PM

I did make a mistake in the song The Midnight Choir. Rodney Crowell may have sung it but it was written by Larry Gatlin.

MIDNIGHT CHOIR
Gatlin Brothers
D
   The doors to the mission open at seven
A7
And the soup will be ready about   nine
Right now its six-thirty, they're ragged and dirty
D
They standin' and sittin', and layin' in   line
First they'll do a little singin', then hear a little preachin'
G
And get saved for the 3rd time this   week
D
A bowl of soup later and a   pat on the shoulder
A7 D
And by   midnight, they're back on the   street.

D
   They walk to the corner of 4th street and Broadway
A7
Then take the first alley on the   right
One of them asks a stranger, how 'bout a hand
D
And he gives 'em one finger at a   time
Then they spot an old buddy, with a bottle of heaven
G
Then pass around what means ev'ry- thing
D
One bottle for four, thank   God, someone scored

A7 D
And now the   Midnight Choir starts to   sing.

CHORUS: A CAPPELLA
Will they have Mogen David in heaven
Dear Lord, we'd all like to know
Will they have Mogen David in heaven, Sweet Jesus
If they don't, who the hell wants to go.

CHORUS: W/ACCOMPANIMENT
G D
Will they   have Mogen David in   heaven
E A7
   Dear Lord, we'd all like to   know
G D G
Will they   have Mogen David in   Heaven, Sweet   Jesus
D A7 D
If they   don't, who the   hell wants to   go.
G
Oh! ...   (Come on now...)

D A7 G D
TAG: If they   don't, who the   hell wants to   go,   Dear God.

SOURCE: LARRY GATLIN-STRAIGHT AHEAD/CBS JC 36250

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: GUEST,Ian Mather
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 11:37 AM

The native American Floyd Westerman wrote a rather hauntingly beautiful song called "Quiet Desperation."

Christie Moore sings it. The version I have is on his Live at Vicar St album.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 10:29 AM

Yeh Adrien, there's a lot of message in those two songs. I didn't post a link earlier to them but combined they almost exactly fit Rosie's description.

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Beer
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 10:19 AM

Sandy.
What you trying to do, make everyone cry? That video with the "Wild Irish Rose" is very powerful.
Thanks,.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 10:11 AM

Two other great ones:
George Jones       Wild Irish Rose
Wild Irish Rose

Ralph McTell         Streets Of London

Streets Of London

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Will Fly
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 08:47 AM

Well - nobody's mentioned it (as far as I can see), so I'll just chip in with Jimmy Rodger's "Waiting For A Train" - also a great version of it by Boz Scaggs with Steve Miller in there somewhere.

"All around the water tank, Waitin' for a train..."

Subject: RE: Songs about Homelessness
From: Beer
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 08:39 AM

The Hobo Song
Billy the Bum
Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis

All by John Prine
Adrien

Subject: Lyr Add: MOVING ON SONG (Ewan MacColl)
From: Cretzon
Date: 06 Jan 09 - 08:32 AM

Ewan MacColl's MOVING ON SONG is one I like - from the radio ballads. Easy to play, too. Seems to be know as Go Move Shift when anybody else does it.

                  Am
                  Born in the middle of the afternoon
                      D                         G   Am
                  In a horsedrawn carriage on the old A5
                  Am
                  The big twelve wheeler shook my bed,
                  D          Am             D         Em
                  "You can't stay here" the policeman said.
               
                  CHORUS
                  Am          G          D          Em
                  You'd better get born in some place else.
                     Am          Em         Am          Em
                  So move along, get along, Move along, get along,
                  F         G          Am
                  Go!      Move!       Shift!


                  
                  Born in the tatie lifting time
                  In an old bell tent in a tatie field.
                  The farmer said, "The work's all done
                  It's time that you was moving on."

                  CHORUS

                  Born on a common near a building site
                  Where is ground was rutted by the trailers wheels
                  The local people said to me,
                  "You'll lower the price of property."

                  CHORUS

                  Born at the back of a blackthorn hedge
                  Where the white hoarfrost lay all around.
                  No eastern kings came bearing gifts.
                  Instead the order came to shift.

                  CHORUS

                  The winter sky was hung with stars
                  And one shone brighter than the rest
                  The wise men came so stern and strict
                  And brought the orders to evict

                  CHORUS

                  Wagon, tent or trailer born,
                  Last year last month or in far off days.
                  Born here or a thousand miles away
                  There's always men nearby who'll say

                  CHORUS