Hobo

We have a fantastic show for you this week, and the word of the day is Vagabond. Yes, we are going to study the Great American Hobo, and we have a great line-up of actual hobos, bums and vagrants, who will be explaining the life of someone who roams the country looking for work, or avoiding work, or just looking for adventure. The origins of the American hobo go back to the late 1860s, a time of upheaval in the United States. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, the country was laid to waste, had ripped apart families and destroyed towns. After the war, soldiers on both sides often discovered they had no home to return to, and no job. And because they were used to the nomadic lifestyle of the military, they ended up wandering the country looking for work. These migratory casual workers were referred to as “hoboes”, and they were instrumental in rebuilding the infrastructure of the nation.

1 - Traveling Blues - Ted Weems   - 1924

2 - The Bum Song - Harry McClintock – 1928

Harry MacClintock

3 - In the Big Rock Candy Mountain - Harry McClintock - 1928

4 - The Big Rock Candy Mountains - No. 2 - Stuart Hamblen, aka "Cowboy Joe" – 1929

5 - Big Rock Candy Mountain - Yodeling Slim Clark – 1949

6 - I'm A Pennsylvania Bum - Jack Urban The Rovin' Miner - 1934

7 - Hobo Spring Song - Harry McClintock – 1928

8 - The Bum Song #2 - Harry McClintock – 1928

9 - The Bowery Bums - Hobo Jack Turner - 1929

10 - Hobo On Park Avenue - Hudson DeLange Orchestra – 1936

11 - Jo-Jo, the Hobo - Jan Savitt and his Top Hatters - 1941

12 - You're on the Right Track Baby - Martha Davis with Louis Jordan And His Tympany Five – 1947

13 - Hobo Jungle Blues - Sleepy John Estes - 1937

Sleepy John Estes

14 - Singing A Vagabond Song - Ted Lewis – 1930

15 - Can I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister - Harry McClintock - 1928

16 – Underneath the Arches – Connee Boswell – 1933

17 - My Last Old Dollar - Harry McClintock - 1928

18 - Last Dollar - Blanche Calloway & her Orchestra – 1931

19 - Nobody Knows You When You Are Down And Out - Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five;Jimmie Cox - 1954

20 - Down and Out Blues - Roger Wolfe Kahn and his orchestra – 1925

21 - Lonesome Road - Paul Robeson - 1946

22 - Lonesome Road Blues - Sam Collins – 1931

Sam Collins

23 - Blowin' down This Road - Woody Guthrie – 1940

Woody Guthrie

24 - I'm Goin' Down the Road - Burl Ives and Jack McCauley – 1945

Burl Ives

25 - Ain't We Crazy? - Harry McClintock - 1928

26 - The Dying Hobo - Travis B. Hale – 1927

27 - Hobo Bill's Last Ride - Jimmie Rodgers - 1930

28 - Hobo Bill's Last Ride - Pancake Pete Newman with the Sleepy Hollow Ranch Gang – 1947

29 - Hallelujah I'm a Bum - Harry McClintock – 1928

30 - Wear the Dead Man's Coat - Quiet Please - 1948

Note: Before recording the song Big Rock Candy Mountain, McClintock cleaned it up considerably from the version he sang as a street busker in the 1890s. Originally the song described a child being recruited into hobo life by tales of the "big rock candy mountain". In later years, when McClintock appeared in court as part of a copyright dispute, he cited the original words of the song, the last stanza of which was:

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."

In the released version this verse did not appear. By the 1950’s, the song had become so sanitized that it was considered a children’s song.

Hobo Family, Dorothea Lange