Henry's Songbook

Go to sleep, you weary hobo
And let the towns drift slowly by
Can't you hear the steel rails humming
And that's the hobo's lullaby

Though your clothes are torn and ragged
And your hair is turning grey
Soon you'll be in a nice warm boxcar
Free among the new mown hay

And though policemen they cause you trouble
And they cause trouble everywhere
When you die and you go to Heaven
Then you'll find no policemen there

So stand up my people sing of freedom
Never you mind what's over yonder hill
You just stand up sing your songs of freedom
And always remember old Joe Hill

(as sung by Danny Kyle)

[1980:] [Woody Guthrie had] considered hopping a freight at first, but shelved that idea after an Okemah friend, Miles Reynolds, lost a leg when he fell between two boxcars [...]. Still, he did spend a lot of time in the hobo camps at the edge of railroad yards on his way south. Invariably, they'd have a fire going and a stew bubbling, and wouldn't be averse to sharing it. More often than not, the hoboes were simply migratory farm workers moving on to the next job. An estimated 200,000 followed the wheat harvest north across the plains each summer, and thousands of others were fruit pickers, cowboys, and boomers. It was a pretty dreary life, but they developed an elaborate mythology and customs to make it more palatable. [...] They made up songs about life on the bum: some dripping with overripe romanticism, but others with a rough honesty that cut through the myths ... and Woody soaked it all in. He spent the early part of the summer of 1929 on the road, nibbling at the edge of hobo culture, but never really becoming part of it. (Klein, Woody Guthrie 43f)

[1993:] Goebel Reeves' classic is best known as Woody Guthrie's favourite song. It's been sung by tons of folks, including Wisconsin songwriter Larry Penn who has this to say:

"Better it were left to sociologists to point out parallels between today's homelessness and the rise of the railroad bum. Some become apparent on consideration of the shifts in the national economy and the fact that once there were as many as forty railroads in and out of Chicago alone. The hobo population (no census can be taken) is estimated to have reached well in excess of a million during the Great Depression. Sympathy for the 'bos among the general population was no doubt akin to sympathy for today's vagabonds. Clearly, hobos were never popular with the railroads. Most made it a practice to hire "bulls" who were born cruel to police the property. No wonder hobos got weary." (Sing Out 38/2)

[1998:] Goebel Reeves, a.k.a. The Texas Drifter, was a true hero, a songwriter, hobo, yodeller and member of the IWW (The Industrial Workers of the World), continuously battling with the Railroad Police and the Scabs at factory gates using just his songs.I got the last verse from an old 'Wobbly' on a Greyhound bus journey between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. (Notes Danny Kyle, 'Heroes and Soft Targets')