Songs about the homeless

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Sir
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 06:35 PM

Hey, no one's mentioned "King of the Road". (Woody's "I Ain't Got No Home" is taken from a gospel song "This World Is Not My Home")

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 08:31 AM

WOW! I am overwhelmed - all I needed was three songs about the homeless for a service at our UU church, and there must have been about a hundred mentioned by now. I'm glad I have a couple of months to track them all down and pick the ones that fit best - thanks again, everyone.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: hanrahan
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 07:24 AM

"Wandering"

hanrahan

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Wolfgang Hell
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 06:12 AM

Songs about travelling people surely do apply, perhaps some songs about feeing, and songs about the Scottish Highland clearances (Robin Williamson's "Return no more" is a beautiful though recently written example for the last mentioned).
Traveller's songs, i.e. songs collected from travellers' singing, many of them of course about being homeless, can be found in:
E.MacColl, P. Seeger, Traveller's songs from England and Scotland, Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1977
P. Kennedy, Ed., Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, Chapter: Songs of the travelling people.

Martin Ryan has mentioned "Blue tar road". I'll post it in a separate thread.
Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Bill
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 04:24 AM

Howdy again,

Just remembered another one involving Stephen Foster. It's Larry Kaplan's "Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts" which can be found in DT. It deals with the events following Stephen's death at Bellevue, and it considers many others who may have had similar situations.

Allinkausay,

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Bill
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 04:15 AM

Howdy All,

Stephen Foster was mentioned early in the thread. One of his best (in my opinion) that certainly fits in this tread is Hard Times Come Again No More.

Allinkausay,

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 03:00 AM

I had to interview a homeless, alcoholic young man at the Union Gospel Mission yesterday. I guess it was the first time I've ever exchanged more than a few words with a homeless person. He was clean and sober when I talked to him, and I liked him a lot. I wondered what will happen when he leaves the mission and goes back into the hard, cold world. Thinking about that almost made me cry.
We need to think when we sing these good songs. These are real people we're singing about.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Barry
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 02:31 AM

Adding more to the list. Highland Clearance - Land Of MacLeod, gypsy life-Thirty Foot Trailer, homeless & missing- Another Man Done Gone, by choice-My Ramblin Boy, friend of the homeless- He Was A Friend Of Mine, orphan & homeless-Motherless Chrildren & Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, between a rock & a tree stump- In The Pines, between a rock & a hard place-Take This Hammer, between a rock & a rail-Waitin For A Train, Down Where The Drunkards Roll, you probaly want to shoot me by now, goodnight- show me the way to go home. Barry

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Jan 98 - 01:31 AM

I am late to the thread, but surprised no on has mentioned 'Larimer Square' by Utah Phillips, about 'Urban renewal' in Denver...and possibly his 'Yuba City'about the murder of 21 hobo/migrant workers a few years ago.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: leprechaun
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 11:52 PM

Besides "I Ain't Got No Home" another Woodie Guthrie song is "Hard Travelin'" and how about "Old Lone Wolf" and "Blowing Down That Old Dusty Road" and "Ramblin' Round Your City" and "So Long, It's Been Good to Know You" and "Do Re Mi" (If you ain't got the do-re-mi)

A good homeless song from the musical Paint Your Wagon - "I was Born Under a Wandering Star."

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Barry
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 09:33 PM

dwditty, never new who that was by, or even called (thought it was Cried To The Hobo). Now that I see it, I can still hear the tune, was it done by the Blues Project, I can only remember 1 voice doing it though? Barry

Subject: Lyr Add: MORNING GLORY (Tim Buckley)
From: dwditty
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 09:10 PM

Tim Buckley's Morning Glory qualifies, I think, from both sides of the coin:

  
  G                      Cmaj7
  I lit my purest candle close to my
  G                       Cmaj7
  Window, hoping it would catch the eye
  G                   Cmaj7
  Of any vagabond who passed it by
  Am                 C        G
  And I waited in my fleeting house
  
  Before he came I felt him drawing near
  As he neared I felt the ancient fear
  That he had come to wound my door, and jeer
  And I waited in my fleeting house
  
  D                    C      Em     Cmaj7
  "Tell me stories," I called to the Hobo;
  D                    C      Em     Cmaj7
  "Stories of cold," I smiled at the Hobo;
  D                   C     Em     Cmaj7
  "Stories of old," I knelt to the Hobo;
  Am                           C        G
  And he stood before me in my fleeting house
  
  "No," said the Hobo, "No more tales of time;
  Don't ask me now to wash away the grime;
  I can't come in 'cause it's too high a climb,"
  And he walked away from my fleeting house
  
  "Then you be damned!" I screamed to the Hobo;
  "Leave me alone," I wept to the Hobo;
  "Turn into stone," I knelt to the Hobo;
  And he walked away from my fleeting house
  
  Outro:
  D / / / C / Em / Cmaj7

Also, if you run across an album called "Sin & Soul" by Oscar Brown, Jr.(circa 1960) - pick it up. It is now out on CD. While this stuff is actually classified as jazz, I find it closer to "urban" folk. One song - Somebody Buy Me A Drink - fits this thread nicely.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: BK
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 07:53 PM

The Gordon Lightfoot song is called, as someone surmised, "Home From The Forrest." It's quite a good one, esp for winter, even though the subject has a -presumably cheap- room. If you'd like the words, leave me a message on my personal page (I think that can be done) and I'll dig them up later, or, they might be in the Data base??

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: judy
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 07:41 PM

How about "Ramblin' Boy","Tramps and Hawkers", "The Rich Man and the Poor Man","The Starving Child (WPA Lullaby)" and "Too Old to Work" in Tom Glazer's Songs of Peace, Freedom and Protest

Plenty of begger's songs: "The Jolly Beggar" Sailor and soldier songs could be thrown in because they often went to sea or war because they had no money. And of course all songs about itinerant workers (harvesters, tinkers and such,

judy

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From:
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 05:43 PM

There is also Honky Red, by Murray MacLachlan. He had a hit in Canada in the 1970's.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Jack mostly folk
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 03:34 PM

Since "homeless" is an ageless issue I thought of yet another great song about the homeless by John Stewart. Check out "Justiceville" If that one don't get ya right where the blood's pumped, you better see a doctor. It's a new contempory song. John has websites but Clack's Cellar can link you to all of Stewart's sites. John Stewart is Angel Bravo. Check him out.

Subject: Lyr Add: GERALDINE AND RUTHIE MAE^^
From: hanrahan
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 03:06 PM

GERALDINE AND RUTHIE MAE
Sarah Elizabeth Campbell
on "A Little Tenderness," Deja Disc Records, San Marcos, TX.

1. Geraldine and Ruthie Mae
They'll be cruising Main today
Through the walkways and alleys in the dawning's cold bluster.
They might find a bite to eat
And a place to rest their feet.
Lord, it seems to take all the strength that they can muster.

CHORUS: I don't want to be like them
When my voice is frail and thin,
Hiding in the shadows at night,
Counting hours 'til it's light.

2. This winter's been a hard one:
Lots of rain and no sun.
Old legs hurt and it's hard to keep them moving.
It's the fourth winter that they've thought
Each other is all they've got,
With their old carts pushed by hands as frail as birds' wings. CHORUS

3. Geraldine and Ruthie Mae,
Going crazier every day,
In a city going full speed around them,
With their bundles and their bags,
Their trinkets and their rags,
In a world going full speed around them. CHORUS

4. Geraldine and Ruthie Mae,
They'll be cruising Main today,
In a word that's going full speed around them.

I believe Sarah hails from Austin where she hosts an open mike consisting of only songs of sorrow and woe. Buy her CD. It's lovely.
hanrahan

Subject: Lyr Add: SIDEWALKS OF THE CITY^^
From: rechal
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 01:23 PM

Lucinda Williams wrote a beautiful song called "Sidewalks of the City" (I think).

As you walk along the sidewalks of the city

You see a man with hunger in his face

And all around you, crumbling buildings and graffiti

As you bend down to tie your shoelace.

Sirens scream, but you don't listen

You have to reach home before night

And now the sun beats down, it makes the sidewalks glisten

And somehow you just don't feel right

Hold me, baby, give me some faith

Let me know you're there, let me touch your face

Give me love, give me grace

Tell me good things, tell me that my world is safe

(I forget the next verse)

A woman stops you with a question

So you drop some money in her hand

She sleeps in doorways and bus stations

And you'll never understand.

Hold me, baby etcetera

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Moira Cameron
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 01:22 PM

I just thought of another good one: "In the month of January". A young girl gets pregnant, is abandonned by her lover and her and her baby are made homeless and destitute by her parents.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Moira Cameron
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 01:18 PM

Any of the traditional Beggarman songs would be appropriate. I remember hearing one--the first verse is all that I remember:

Of all the trades in England, the beggin' is the best, For when a beggar's tired, he can sit him down to rest.

CH: Oh a beggin' I will go, oh a beggin' I will go.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Susan from California
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 11:31 AM

And what about the one that starts off "I ain't got no home " by Woody Guthrie? I'm not sure of the exact title, can't find the CD (in the car perhaps?) Anyway it starts like this, and it's probably in the database...I don't know how to check there while I'm doing this, sorry!

I ain't got no home,I'm just a ramblin 'round Work when I can get it I roam from town to town

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Sir
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 09:46 AM

How 'bout one from the musical "Annie"? I'm not sure of the title but it was something like "Thanks alot Herbert Hoover". (Not to get political but it lays a lot of blame at the feet of one man.)

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Bert
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 09:17 AM

There's "While London Sleeps" Which I posted to the thread "Tune Up: Fantasy Folk Circle cont'd." last July.

Also, Jimmie Rodgers sang "Hobo Bill".

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 09:13 AM

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions and lyrics. I'm very surprised at some of the songs that came up - one of the things I love about this forum is the wide range of viewpoints.

Barry, I hope someone in the forum helps us find the rest of Sissy Lee.

Hanrahan, if you have any suggestions on how I might hear Sarah Elizabeth Campbell's Geraldine & Ruthie May, I'm all ears. I'm not familiar with Sarah Elizabeth Campbell, but if you suggest a recording I'll pursue it.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: hanrahan
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 07:38 AM

You gotta hear Sarah Elizabeth Campbell's Geraldine & Ruthie May....hanrahan

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 05:12 AM

Coincidentally, I was just promised a tape copy of an album by a man called Liam Weldon who died a few years ago. AMong several excellent songs he wrote was "The Blue Tar Road" about the life of tinkers/itinerants/travellers (the PC terms change).

Regards

Subject: Lyr Add: I REMEMBER LOVING YOU^^^
From: Jack mostly folk
Date: 21 Jan 98 - 01:55 AM

I can never sing or hear "I Remember Loving You" without giving thoughts and compassion to those homeless who don't want to be homeless. Most everyone gives "U" Utah Phillips credit for penning it. Ah but reading liner notes on Philo 1030 Fred Holstein"s album. Utah Phillips writes: ("I Remember Loving You " was mistakenly attributed to me on the album jacket. I learned it from Diane Campbell of Victoria, British Columbia, and wrote the chorus and last verse myself. The real author is still, unfortunately, unknown to me.- Utah Phillips)

I(1)look at my brown suitcase, and think of all the places I've(5)been.
The railroad yards and the prison guards and all the dumpy little towns along the(1)way
And the whispering of the people as they watch every move that I go (5)through.
I remember most all these things, but mostly I remember Loving (1)you.

ref..
I remember loving(4) you...
back when the world was (1)new
I think you love me (5)to...
I remember loving (1)you.(twice)

Oh the buckskins smell so the people tell as we huddle in a boxcar from the rain
The flashing lights that cut through the night and railroad bulls who hauled us off the train
Oh the winter's cold when the northern blows I'm huddled to a boxcar til I've turned blue
I remember most all these things but mostly I remember loving you. ref..

Oh the winter snow and the frozen sleet comes soaking through the cardboard in my shoes
In a promise land where a man might find cigarettes and booze
Oh the alleyways full ragged strays- the doorway wino's I tell my troubles to.
I remember most all these things, but mostly I remember loving you. ref..


The chorus or ref is a great sing along.

Fred Holstein's singinging is by far my favorite version. He also sings "Streets of London" on that album. The album is called "Chicago and Other Ports" Well worth searching out, I think it's only on vinyl and cass. Good luck and enjoy, I love it when someone hits on a great mudcat subject.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 11:28 PM

Just thought of a couple of others--When a Fellow is Out of a Job, and Wandering

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 10:58 PM

To be literal, there's The Boll Weevil. Or, for a more accurate reflection of today's reality, try Buddy Can Spare a Dime.

Subject: Lyr Add: NO VACANCY^^
From: Gene
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 08:15 PM

And another favorite of mine is this one by Merle Travis and co-written by the great Cliffie Stone, who died recently.

NO VACANCY
Recorded by Merle Travis
Writers: Cliffie Stone & Merle Travis

Not so long ago when the bullets screamed
Many a happy dream I dreamed
Of a little nest where I could rest when the world was free
But now that the mighty war is won
Troubles and trials have just begun
Facing that terrible enemy sign
'NO VACANCY!'

CHORUS

NO VACANCY! NO VACANCY!
All along the line, the same sign's a-waitin' for me
NO VACANCY! NO VACANCY!
And my heart beats slower when I read on the door
NO VACANCY!

All along the road of life I roam
Looking for a place to call my own
Not a fancy mansion nor a bungalow for me
But ev'rywhere I look I seem to find
Hangin' on the door, that same old sign
And my heart beats slower, when I read on the door
NO VACANCY!

Subject: Lyr Add: MACARTHUR'S HAND^^
From: Gene
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 07:43 PM

One of my favorite songs that deals with both the affects of war and the aftermath is by Cal Smith, of COUNTRY BUMPKIN fame...

MACARTHUR'S HAND
Recorded by Cal Smith
Writer: Don Wayne

With high cheek bones and dark, sad eyes and shaggy coarse black hair
The old man squared his shoulders and returned the judge's stare
Then the judge pronounced him guilty to the charge of vagrancy
He said, "I've heard, Your Honor, now Your Honor, you hear me."

CHORUS
For I once shook the great MacArthur's hand
He pinned his medal on me 'cause I was his kind of man
I stood my ground in that red hot hell, when brave men turned and ran
Yes, I once shook the great MacArthur's hand.

I've got no job or money, just a few old ragged clothes
But I'm not a thief or beggar and it's no crime to be broke
I hadn't harmed a single soul when they arrested me
I was fit to fight your war, am I not fit to walk your streets.

CHORUS

I came through that hell unharmed, that's what the records show
But MacArthur knew the scars and hurt the war left on men's souls
And I'm not at all concerned about what your kind think of me
I earned a great man's handshake and that's all the pride I need.

CHORUS

Subject: Lyr Add: Sissy Lee
From: Barry
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 06:56 PM

A few that might fit "Drentwater's Farewell", "A-Begging I Will Go" & "Highlander's Lament". One that i've never been able to figure out all the words to & had forgotten about is "Sissy Lee", I'll post what I've got & maybe someone can fill in the blanks.

[Oh Sissy Lee was in Eastern square sitting
knittiong a cartagin never to were
At 79 with her memory fading
Joys of this life she's forgotten & nobody cares]

[Oh Sissy Lee by the baker shop window
Was just an ol widow no money to spend
They bade he move on but they gave no (reductions?)
The food in the window was fed to the pigs at days end]

[Oh Sissy Lee gazed & looked at the statue
Of the unknown soldiers who died long ago
When food it was cheap & life was still cheaper
The (time ?) he fought for his country & fell to the foe]

[Oh Sissy Lee passed the baker shop window
She saw the fresh cream cakes being thrown in the bin
Oh & under........oh the sadness..........me
I've worked all my life now I feel that it's time to give in]

[Oh Sissy Lee...................stood on th cupboard
She read the newspaper while sipping her tea
The headlines..........no free meals for children
While on the next page the dumped 10 million tons in the sea]

[Oh Sissy Lee bleary eyed feeling weary
Accended the stairs for some much needed sleep
She never awoke she was found 3 days later
A few at the grave stood (the kind they....?)]

The tune was haunting, it was sung at a Passim's (coffeehouse in Harvard Sq.,Cambridge) open singers party (maybe 20 yrs ago) under the guidence of Peter Johnson, the woman who sang it was a fiddler in a group called the Poodles. Sure would be nice to hear the full version again.
Barry

HTML line breaks added. -JoeClone, 24-Jul-01.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 06:14 PM

The most cheerful possibility is "The Big Rock Candy Mountain".

Tinkers and gypsies were homeless, although maybe not in the sense you're thinking about.

There's also Stephen Foster--"Old Folks at Home" definitely fits, and maybe "My Old Kentucky Home". Performing them in the context of modern homelessness would change the whole effect (although, to try to avoid the debate we had, they're obviously not authentic expressions of the feelings of actual uprooted slaves or free blacks).

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From:
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 06:03 PM

There is that Gordon Lightfoot song, the name of which escapes me now. Old man came home from the forest, or something like that. As he is dying he remembers being a happy child. I think of it whenever I see a homeless old beggar asleep on a grate. It's on one of his early LP's, maybe his first one. He wrote some great songs in those days.

I think some of those hard-times-in-Old-England songs might be of assistance too, but someone with better specific knowledge would have to help you. I know I have heard some which mention homeless farm labourers and such. I think there are broadside ballads which deal with the plight of the homeless poor, but perhaps you are looking for something more current. I've read historical accounts of times being so hard that travelling farm labourers had no work, and were being found dead of starvation. Someone must have written a ballad about it at some point.

I like When This Old Hat Was New, sung by Chris Foster on All Things In Common, which Nigel was kind enough to send to me, but as poor as the old man is I think he still has the dignity of shelter left to him, although in short supply of food, warmth, and human kindness.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From:
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 05:25 PM

See Little Beggar Man on another new thread also.

Subject: RE: Songs about the homeless
From: Sir
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 04:47 PM

I imagine you could find many on the romantic side of being a homeless drifter - "Gentle On My Mind", "Rainy Night In Georgia", "Go to Sleep My Weary Hobo", "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" were my first thoughts. For something more melancholy I remember a Porter Wagoner song called "Skid Row Joe".

Subject: Songs about the homeless
From: Susan-Marie
Date: 20 Jan 98 - 02:44 PM

I could have sworn that we had a thread about this a few months ago, but when I did a forum search on "homeless" all I came up with was Women's Song Circle and Sacchrine Overload.

Anyway, I'm looking for folk songs about the homeless. I already have "Terror Time" and "Streets of London". Any other suggestions? I know Celtic Thunder does one called "Four Strong Walls" but I haven't figured out which CD it's on yet. Anyone know it?