Homeless Songs

Subject: Homeless Songs
From: Beer
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 12:58 PM

Did a quick check and I don't think there has been a thread on this topic.

Here is one simply called "Homeless" by Guy Clarke. Not sure who is singing it.
Adrien


http://youtu.be/8gyO2USeQNk

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Beer
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 01:00 PM

Oops!
I guess the singer is Shawn Camp.
ad.

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 03:07 PM

I am sure there are plenty. Songs for, by and about hobos and tramps and in some cases migrant workers come to mind.

From wikipedia

Songs
Musicians known for hobo songs include Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Utah Phillips, Jimmie Rodgers, Seasick Steve, and Boxcar Willie.

Examples of hobo songs include:

"Big Rock Candy Mountain" by Harry McClintock, recorded by various artists including Tom Waits, Lisa Loeb, The Restarts and Harry Dean Stanton.
"Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" recorded by Harry McClintock, Al Jolson, and others
"Hard Travelin'" and "Hobo's Lullaby" by Woody Guthrie
Here Comes Your Man by the Pixies is about hobos travelling on trains in California and dying because of earthquakes.[22]
"Hobo" by The Hackensaw Boys
"Hobo Bill", "I Ain't Got No Home" and "Mysteries of a Hobo's Life" by Cisco Houston
"Hobo Bill's Last Ride" by Jimmy Rogers, also recorded by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
"Hobo Blues" and "The Hobo" by John Lee Hooker
"Hobo Chang Ba" by Captain Beefheart
"Hobo Flats" by Oliver Nelson
"Hobo Jungle" by The Band
"Hobo Kinda Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
"The Hobo Song" by John Prine also covered by Johnny Cash
"Hobo's Lullaby" (aka "Weary Hobo"), written by Goebel Reeves, recorded by various artists including Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Emmylou Harris, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, and Ramblin' Jack Eliot
"Hobos on Parade" by Shannon Wright
"I Am a Lonesome Hobo", "Only a Hobo" and "Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie" by Bob Dylan
"Jack Straw" by Robert Hunter and Bob Weir
"Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet" a recording of a hobo singing on a London street, by composer Gavin Bryars.
"King of the Road" by Roger Miller
"Kulkurin Valssi" (Hobo Waltz) by Arthur Kylander
"Lännen lokari" (Western Logger) by Hiski Salomaa
"Last of the Hobo Kings" by Mary Gauthier
"Like a Hobo" by Charlie Winston
"Mary Lane" by Fred Eaglesmith
"Morning Glory" by Tim Buckley lyrics by Larry Beckett
"Papa Hobo" and "Hobo's Blues" by Paul Simon
"Ramblin' Man" by Hank Williams Sr.
"Streets of London" by Ralph McTell
"Waiting for a Train" by Jimmie Rodgers
"Hopscotch Willie" by Stephen Malkmus

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 03:43 PM

poor wayfaring stranger
ain't got a home in this?? no more
Sullivan's John
Loch Sheil?? Side
Dan O'Hara

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 03:49 PM

Danville Girl
Mister and Mississippi

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GUEST,Dave Illingworth
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 04:12 PM

Best version of Guy Clark's "Homeless" is by......Guy Clark.
Don McLean had a song "Homeless Brother"   -   a good song. In fact he sang it at last year's BBC Folk Awards (after he finally got his guitar in tune,,,,,)

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 04:49 PM

I still sing the old Charley Poole song "May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight Mister?"
In DT

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GUEST,Seayaker
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 06:52 PM

Homeless Wassail

It's in the DT

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Beer
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 07:03 PM

There are some great songs l;isted there VirginiaTam.

Always liked "The Hobo Song" by John Prine.
ad.

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: 12-stringer
Date: 29 Jan 13 - 07:06 PM

Tramp on the Street and its precursor, Only a Tramp

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: beeliner
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 01:11 AM

Amazing that no one has mentioned "Ain't Got No Home" by Clarence 'Frogman' Henry, a HUGE hit of the late 1950's.

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Newport Boy
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 04:17 AM

For a real protest, rather than a blues, how about the song from the BBC/Ken Loach play 'Cathy Come Home'. I thought I had already posted the lyrics a while ago, but I can't find it now. I'll try to add them at the end of the week.

Phil

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Bounty Hound
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 07:38 AM

Might be too obvious, but how about 'Streets of London', might have been done to death, but still a superbly written song. And if you want something with more of an 'edge' to it, how about the Levellers song 'Cardboard box city'
John

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GUEST,Barnacle (at work)
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 07:42 AM

What about Ewan McColl's "Go, Move, Shift" and "The Terror Times" - both about travelling people?

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Beer
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 08:05 AM

There are some new ones to me coming in. I don't know "Cathy Come Home", "Cardboard City' nor "The Terror Times". Hope I can find the lyrics and melody of these.
Ad.

Subject: Lyr Add: CATHY COME HOME
From: Newport Boy
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 08:54 AM

Here's the lyrics of 'Cathy Come Home'. I have posted them before. The song was used as a background to the Wednesday Play on BBC TV, a broadcast that was the direct inspiration of the charity 'Shelter'. There's a short clip from the start of the film here but the song comes later in the film. The sad thing is that it is almost as relevant today as it was 45 years ago - so much for progress.

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 neccessities 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.

I'll try and sort the music later

Phil

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 09:10 AM

Paul Simon's 'Homeless'?

DtG

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Beer
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 10:29 AM

Tramp on the Street by Hank Williams.
ad.

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 10:48 AM

Go to sleep you weary hobo Emmylou harris

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 12:07 PM

Lou and Peter Berryman have a song about the right 'to live in your car.'

How about 'King of the Road'? Not actually homeless, just about a guy who never settles down.

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Bert
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 04:17 PM

Ramblin' Boy by Tom Paxton
While London Sleeps

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Beer
Date: 30 Jan 13 - 04:29 PM

Phil Collins - "Another Day In Paradise"
ad.

Subject: Lyr. Req. Homeless Songs
From: GUEST,Gigi Erba
Date: 06 Aug 24 - 09:23 PM

Dear Joe,

I'd like to know if you can possibly help me in completing vs. correcting my lyrics transcription to :

"Hobo Blues " as sung by RL Burnside - Album : First Recordings recorded by George Mitchell in 1969 - video uploaded by Fat Possum Recordings. 2:27


" When I first thought to hobo'in, to hobo'in,
I took a freight train to be my friend, oh yeah
Well I hobo'd, I hobo’d   a great long way from home, oh yeah
Yes, my mother she followed me that mornin', me that mornin', me that morning
Followed me down to the yard, oh yeah
She said my son he's goin’,Lord, he's goin’, he's goin’
Yes he’s goin’ he’s   where some where , oh yeah
Yes I left my dear old mother,my dear old mother,my dear old mother
She’s my honor, need a crime, oh Lord "          ( ? )


Looking forward to hear from you I remain
Yours faithfully.   
Thank you very much .

Gigi

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: RTim
Date: 06 Aug 24 - 09:43 PM

HOMELESS WASSAIL
(by Ian Robb)

"Wassail, wassail, all over the town,
Our cup is white and our ale is brown"
But huddled on the iron grate
we poor and hungry curse our fate.

        No wassail bowl for such as these
        No turkey scraps, no ale nor cheese,
        This Christmas Eve our heart's desire
        Is a bottle of gin and a trashcan 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.

        No wassail bowl ...

Oh, where is He, that holy child
Once born of Mary, meek and mild?
And whither peace, goodwill to men
Now and forevermore, amen?

        No wassail bowl ...

All ye who dine with face aglow
In Reginensi atrio                                (in the Queen's hall)
Pray pause a while at pleasure's door
And sup some sorrow with the poor.

        No wassail bowl ...

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

        *** no final chorus !!! ***

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: RTim
Date: 06 Aug 24 - 09:45 PM

As sung by Finest Kind - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFI1x3vc264

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Neil D
Date: 06 Aug 24 - 10:22 PM

Poet/rapper Saul Williams does a cover of "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" that he reworks as a brutal commentary on homelessness. I've long forgotten how to make links but I would encourage seeking it out on Youtube. Some powerful, if gut wrenching, images.

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 24 - 11:51 PM

Dirk Powell's "Waterbound." gopherit

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GerryM
Date: 07 Aug 24 - 12:52 AM

Only a Hobo (Bob Dylan)
Queen of the Rails (Utah Phillips)
Raggedy, Raggedy (John Handcox via Almanac Singers)

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Aug 24 - 02:00 AM

One that always strikes me is I Remember Loving You, Written by Luigi del Puppo and Tino Chumlovich. Utah Phillips made it famous.

Subject: RE: Homeless Songs
From: GUEST,Gigi Erba
Date: 09 Aug 24 - 12:27 PM

Dear Newport Boy,
I'd like to know the author of the lyrics to " Cathy Come Home " and possibly the author of the melody as well.
Thank you very much .
Luigi Erba