Posted on 05/12/2019 9:21:13 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
That’s a great tune.
Here’s another bum ballad, Bill Grammer 1967:
[Verse 1:]
I appreciate the coffee that you’ve made
I appreciate the shelter of your roof
I’ll pay you back someday for all your kindness
And all the other liberties I took
Although I cannot say that I have loved you
I won’t forget how good it was to be
Among the people you call little darling
Mabel you have been a friend to me
[Chorus:]
Mabel you have been a friend to me
And somewhere down the line I’ll drink a toast
To the lady who encouraged me to try
And you took me in when I was down and broke
[Verse 2:]
I hope that life holds many thrills for you
And there are great big apples on your tree
I’m sorry that I could’t give you more than thanks
Mabel you have been a friend to me
If you hear that I’m somewhere and I’m doin’ well
Don’t you fail to stop and see me if you can
Oh you know that if you ever need a pal
I’ll sure be there to lend you a helping hand
If fortune treats me good and if I make it
I’ll remember where I rest my wandering feet
That you made part of the bitter journey sweeter
Mabel you have been a friend to me
[Chorus]
Then I Got high.
I got the same warning, only it was sixty years ago when ditch digging meant pick & shovel and wheelbarrow. To be avoided.
Heavy equipment operator? Fun work & good pay.
Ave Maria
Hank Thompson - Bummin’ Around
I still like the song though.
So sad. At the end of Glen Campbell’s life, his Alzheimer’s was so bad he forgot how to play the guitar.
Can you imagine this man, probably the most prolific and one of the greatest guitar players in music history forgetting how to play his guitar?
Heartbreaking.
Does: “Hey Hey Mama, said the way you move - gonna make you sweat; gonna make you groove” count?
SRV Voodoo just cuze it be awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgIB1OL09H0&list=RDNCIUf8eYPqA&index=2
That’s hard.
I am just becoming unable because of neorapathy and carpel tunnel and Arther rightous..
That stinks too.
Well, if you’re going to talk about Johnny Cash, then you need to talk about “Sunday Morning Coming Down”.
Genius.
Also just remembered “Flowers on the Wall” by the Statler Brothers.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
Which is a love song— written by the great John Hartford about the kind of love that spans the ages and the distances and dangers separating people in the modern age. He wrote this tune, btw, having read and watched “Dr. Zhivago”. Not a bum’s song— a survivors pledge of love to another’s.
A fantasy song of hobos from the Great Depression. Not all hobos were bums—people long out of work, who were willing to work... but gave up. And... a lot of bums.
BTW this song has a medieval background song sourced about a mythical place called Cockcaigne.
Also, the folk song which was “claimed” as written by Harry McClintock-— had a verse (left out in the published version)- which covered the concept of older male hobos recruiting young boys to travel with them (to help them in their old age) to protect them and.. to be prostitutes to them in exchange for their “road knowledge” and survival in hard times. Here’s the lyric:
The punk rolled up his big blue eyes
And said to the jocker, “Sandy,
I’ve hiked and hiked and wandered too,
But I ain’t seen any candy.
I’ve hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I’ll be damned if I hike any more
To be buggered sore like a hobo’s whore
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.”
Some hobo’s paradise, huh?
“.... i have squandered my existence, for a pocket full of mumbles-— such are promises. Still, a man hears what he wants to hear... and disregards the rest”.
And now has to stand tough, like a boxer to fight back against the massive foolish losses of a life of destitution.
Dang depressing song. And... brilliant.
Would disagree that “Brother Can you Spare a Dime” is about a bum... though it was written by a communist, so there is that.
The point of the song is, this is a Veteran, who carried a gun in khakis in WWI... came home to work, and did until there wasn’t any try as he might:
Once I built a railroad
I made it run
Made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad
Now it’s done
Brother, can you spare a dime?.....
...... built a tower, now it’s done.... etc.
Once in khaki suits
Gee we looked swell
Full of that yankee doodle dee dum.
Half a million boots went sloggin’ through hell
And I was the kid with the drum!
The UK Empire version of this concept is Rudyard Kipling’s
“Tommy” (well worth a read).
Veterans are not bums— but many many became them in that time. Just imho— we owe proven Veterans (especially combat veterans) a great deal more than... “thanks”.
Problem with Tom Dooley— he didn’t do it. Recent research points to a rival female to Laura Foster... both of whom vied for the love of Tom Dula (dooley) and one of whom was a slut wife to the sheriff (no kidding) who caught VD or gave VD to/ from the other girl via Tom’s tallywhacker. Both of them liked his uh... attentions and the one girl killed and buried Laura Foster. The doctor’s testimony in all this— was largely ignored under the force of the sheriff’s embarrassment at his wife having whored around him with a member of his former Confederate Army unit (CSA). The power of the moonshiner sheriff was threatened, and he pinned Dula- who took the rap for the murdering girl (with whom he was in love). This is some story.
Easily the greatest song Paul Simon ever wrote.
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