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From: JDL9615
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  • Jumped a train near Kansas City onto an ore car carryin' steel rods. Was in a hole up front. when I was near where I wanted go, climbed up on the car to get off. No sooner than I climbed on the edge of the car, the train slowed and the load shifted, slamming to where I was riding

  • aka "Weary Hobo", written by Goebel Reeves

  • But the song is. Thanks, i thought it was me who was confused.

  • Most of these aren't hoboes, I'm old enough to have known some. Hoboes weren't bums or homeless, they were migrants, just like the caravans of central Asia. Good song though

  • This slideshow isn't about hobos or migrants.

  • this tune written by Arlo's Dad, Woody!

  • 16 people are rich people that never slept in boxcars!

  • This song was written by Arlo's dad, Woody Guthrie.

  • Great work, so added you to our playlists here and beyond, :) thanks

  • in answer to who wrote it, woody guthrie did. arlo's daddy

    enjoy it for its simple beauty . guthrie wrote what he lived and, saw

    his music a wonderful gift

  • Beautifully executed video, thank you JDL.

    What we were once assured would never again happen in the USA is, sadly, now becoming an all-too-familiar site in every large city and in every small town. And it will get a LOT worse before it gets any better :-(

    I am truly thankful for a roof over my head. It may not be my own, but I'm safe and I'm dry.

  • Thank you, JDL...

  • Dude .....his pop wrote it....! Hobo's Lullabye, one of woody's finest.......

  • Goebel Reeves.........ignorance is bliss

  • Goebel Reeves... a lot of people think Woody wrote it, because it was his favorite song..... that's who wrote it. It's a great song!

  • this is one of my favorite songs..it relaxes the mind soul and body.its a great song,some of my freinds live like this.i soon to join.

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  • @JDL9615 : Thanks for this upload of one of my favorite Arlo songs off the album of the same name. The images - as well as the words - hit me this morning in a deep place in my heart. I have been there with those men and women, and I always knew before that "there but for the Grace of God go I". That's just it : next time you see them, smile, talk a moment, give change if you can, and know as you look into their eyes, that that there but for the Grace of God go you. Pax Aeternum brothers

  • Wonderful montage -- great work.

  • You people talking about make belief stuff out of the bible.... sheez!

  • Great song, great slideshow. One of my favorites

  • It's not about the bible. It's about the depression.

  • The first time I've heard this song, really nice and smooth, like it lots

  • Written bt Don Cocharn of Kingston Ontario

  • With jobs not here anymore in the US there will be more and more homeless folks. Bring the factories and industries back to the US. We need to help all Americans have a life not just giving it only to the rich.

  • @starlight1946 All thosse companies who moved to third world countries where the labour is cheap ought to have remembered the workers and communities that BUILT their companies. It's the same here in Canada - NAFTA was a big mistake on our part, too, and there's a lot of folks are getting their dinners from soup kitchens and food banks as a result.

  • When I was a boy in school the teacher told us when speaking of the great depression that we should not worry because the wise men who lead us had taken measures to assure that nothing like that could ever happen again. Being a boy, I belived that shit.

  • @freddlyo Obviously, she was a FDR democrat.

  • You have put a fantastic video together for this song. This is my favorite version after all these years. My mom fed the men who came to the back door in the mid '50's. I can barely remember it. The tracks were right across the road and that Illinois town was a stopping place. It was hard for many of the men when they came back from WWII. It is still hard.

  • Great song. My favorite part is that there will be no policeman in heaven. I think I prefer the Kingston Trio's faster version of this though.

  • "Who ever wrote it", haha you do know his father wrote it, right?

  • His dad woody Guthrie wrote it

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  • wow@ 1:51

  • to the untrain eye parting the red sea is turning water into wine and when a hobo pushes a shopping cart to a gabage can fire to warm his hands it rings true to the lost jesus gospel of a homeless stranger born in the barn of a manger...

  • Joseph and Mary were not homeless. They traveled to Bethlehem as required by the Roman census. Travel had its risks then, especially in finding a place to stay. And they did request a room at "the inn", so they must have had the funds to afford a room. Too bad they didn't have a travel agent or Traveocity, they might have done better.

    Yes, they were in a bad situation and had stay in the only place available. It must have been miserable. But they were NOT homeless.

  • @JDL9615 There's no record of the Roman census ever requiring everyone to return to their birthplace.

  • @UnusualTastes: Read the beginning of Luke's Gospel, Chapter 2. It's just like to the government to lose records. Some things seem to never change.

  • @JDL9615 You'd think it would've been written about somewhere else in history. Some peep out of somebody somewhere. Back in those days especially, everyone having to do that would be a massive undertaking. But okay.

  • @JDL9615 I think the point was that, "foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

  • @sunpie Yes you do understand the greater message. You see things as the Father wishes us to see and not as man sees.

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  • @JDL9615 oh yeah cuz the bible is historical fact...good call

  • travellers

  • @JDL9615 Mary and Joseph may not have been technically homeless--but they were stuck in a strange place and Mary was in labour and had to give birth in a stable. I'd say that's close enough. And anyway, the child who came would become the Word made flesh. The Lord of all who loves the poor and homeless. All else is nitpicking.

  • @JDL9615 must it have been miserable? could it have been preferable to them?

  • @JDL9615 I agree, Although they were certainly misplaced when they had to stay in Egypt.

  • This song was written by Arlos Daddy Woody during the depression.

  • HOBOZ LULLABY

  • no hobo yo

  • Isn't this one of his dad's (Woody) songs?

  • beautiful visuals too. thanks.

  • How beautiful?

  • My dad used to sing this to me when I was a baby and had to go to sleep :)

  • Arlo's father Woodie Guthrie wrote this song. 70 years after he wrote it and we still have major problems of homelessness in America.

  • @jokr8790 actually he didnt write it Goebel Reeves did, however woody's version is my favorite

  • @supsupese most folks think woody wrote it...he might as well have, it fits woody better than anything but you are correct. woody's version is the best.

  • OMG! THE DUDE AT 2:45 LOOKS JUST LIKE MY NAN'S FRIEND! SERIOUSLY I THINK IT'S HIM!

  • OMG! There's even a dog hobo?

  • "I know the police cause you trouble... They cause trouble everywhere..... but when you die and go to heaven..... you wont find no policemen there!" Peace to all the hobos.

  • this is a nice song and video it makes you thankful for all you have. god bless all you hobo's. my dad ralph lewis gooding aka hood river blackie was a hobo for many years. and this song made me miss him even more. i love you daddy.

  • His daddy Woody Guthrie wrote it as a lulaby for Arlo.

  • "Hobo's Lullaby" is a song written by Goebel Reeves, and famously performed by various people including folk singer Woody Guthrie, his son Arlo Guthrie.

  • my mom used to sing me this right before i went to bed every night.

    Love it so much.

  • His father, Woody Guthrie, wrote it.

  • @macpherf

    think it was written for Arlo...

  • As a small child my dad used to sing this song to me at night

  • i love this song

  • im a hobo by heart

  • @sw33069 same here buddy

  • @sw33069 me to..... :) peace to all the hobos on this planet

  • His dad did, as far as I know, but no one, and I mean no one, sings it like Arlo. Even Pete Seeger, who's just amazing.

  • if u like arlo youll love his dad woody guthrie..a true hobo

  • "When you die and go to heaven, you won't find no policeman there."

  • ...like raindrops on your windows on a grey autumn day,when your girlfriend left you and your only true love doggy died...your favourite team lost the final match and the beers on your freak" suddenly out of order" fridge are fuc.... warm!!...

  • written by Goebel Reeves....long ago

  • Goebel Reeves

  • One of my all-time favorite folk songs....sad as hell....the pictures put together with the song were very well thought out......if you like this try some Patty Griffin esp."Long Ride Home" and "Rain"

  • i was there we he wrote that song

  • Woody Guthrie. great song, not crazy about this version.

  • ha! killer man.. seriously

  • I smiled when some blamed Obama for the down turn!!....

    Come down to New zealand guys, we don't think we are the centre of all thats good or bad and we make a genuine attempt to look after our poor!

  • Such a beautiful song *tear*

  • His dad Woody Guthrie (as far as I know) Woody is the original~~

  • This is a good song...I remember my dad singing it to me...I am not a hobo anyways, lol

  • its weary hobo

  • its weary hobo

  • this song is so sad it touched my heart. it changes a person.

  • I didn't know this song. It's amazing, touching. Thanks for the video.

  • Woodys son.

    A institution in his own right.

  • Arlo Guthire? relative to Woody or just missprint?

  • this is my fave song it reminds me of my grampa i luv him

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  • reeves should have gone 2 new york in 1940 .

    think 'bout it

    top tune, thx

  • even look it up on GOOGLE!!

  • gnarwhalfuckyou is right Goebel Reeves wrote it! Woody Guthrie AND Arlo Guthrie SANG it NOT wrote it!!!!

  • I love this song. I saw Arlo in concert a while back and I told him after the show that I had raised three kids singing this song and "Lay Down Little Dogies" to them as lullabies. Arlo smiled and said, "Well. Did they turn out alright?" I said they were all three fine. Thanks for posting this great song with your marvelous photo montage.

  • Woody Guthrie wrote this song

  • Goebel Reeves wrote it.

  • my sincere apologies, you were right Woody Guthrie didn't write this song,Goebel Reeves did.

  • I think this ough to have been the hymn we sang at my father's funeral. He had once been a hobo when he was 17,

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  • haha love the first line.

    "GO TO SLEEP YOU EERIE HOBO!!"

  • lol....but it's "WEARY HOBO"

  • @JDL9615 You're right it is, "WEARY," not, "EERIE" I hope I spelled that right!! =D

  • @JDL9615 You are right, it is "Weary" not "Eerie"

  • @Extremepwnage14 hahahahaha

  • Arlo Guthrie for president, Country Joe McDonald for VIce President. BTW

    Arlo said this was his Father's favorite song.

  • Pete Seeger's gotta fit in there some where.

  • encore encore i love this song..........jk jk jk

  • pamelajsico, when I stayed at my Grandparents in Ripon, California in the late forties - early fifties, often hobos from the nearby railroad along highway 99 would come to their little goat dairy to work for grandpa Clewett. Grandma would fix good food from their meager pantry, and they asked for small jars to take some on their way. Now, as I consider my retirement years, I want to do what I can to live as my grandparents did. I sure do miss them!

  • Goebel Reeves wrote it in 1962.

  • LOL@ "whoever wrote it" pretty sure his dad wrote this song, but yes beautiful song

  • My grandma used to have a mark on her front porch that the hobos from the nearby train tracks would leave. It meant that there was warm food there for them. That it how she was.

  • she was a good woman, your grandma

  • @pamelajsico During the Depression my great-grandparents had what we would today call an acreage. My great-grandfather tended a massive garden that produced more than what they needed. So they would give to those who couldn't afford food. Most people were proud and would insist on doing work for their food so he had to leave things on his to-do-list alone so they could "earn" their meal. He would have given it to them either way. I have to ask if they had a mark, I know they helped many a hobo.

  • @pamelajsico Hobo Trail Marks. Indicated safe towns to get off a train at, or not to get off at. Places where you could get a meal in exchange for work. They had marks for everything including good places to set up camp at, towns with mean dogs, or nice people like your grandmother. I used to have a copy of their marks but I lost it, but I am sure you can find one online somewhere.

  • this song makes me want to cry!!!!! if you make fun of hobos think if you were a hobo would you be makeing fun of other hobos and i don't care if i speeled any of this wrong!!!

  • We will see a lot of Hobos again in the next time..

    Cause of the Greatest Depression (Obamageddon) -

    The Fall of The USA.

  • Hmm...you're obviously well-researched and well-thought out comment here has caught my interest. Would you mind showing me the reports and data that show that Obama has caused the economic crisis? I would really like to see that...

  • @tightness411 - haven't you heard yet? Nobama IS the current crisis in America, except that it's not him, nor any politician that created it, it's the owners of those politicians, the Banker Cartel, who are writing out the script that every politician this century has to quote, or die, i.e., like President Kennedy, who stepped out of line two weeks before his murder, when he signed an order to abolish Cartel Banker money control. Nobama and JW are good ol' buddies, in real life.

  • @tightness411 I don't think I (Double strike and double underline under I) can show you...I don't even believe Obama caused it. WEARY HOBO, GO TO SLEEP! ( I know that was out of order)

  • I cried, then i sent it to my cuz, and she cried!!!

  • I've never heard this song before, and now love it. The photographs you added to it do it justice. Just one comment though. There is a difference between a hobo, a tramp, and a bum as they are not all one and the same. Just my $0.02 worth. Hope it buys you a cup of coffee:)

  • Thanks, and you are correct .

    Don't get caught in the details and look at the big picture. The song is about hobos; the slideshow isn't. You are close to seeing it.

  • @wtf0987 I don't think 2c (2 cents) buys coffee anymore...probably did when my dad was a kid in the '50's

  • @wtf0987 What would you know about the difference, bet you've never missed a meal in your life. $0.02 don't buy squat these days so save it.

  • @stonedude77 I'm glad you informed me of this as I was just on my way to buy a cup of coffee, and wouldn't have had enough money. What happened, did you look down and realize your shortcomings?

  • It was written by Goebel Reeves. Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men that have come with the dust and are gone with the wind...

  • A fool knows the drunk by the color of his sin; 'but a drunk can only blame himself by the way sunlight hits his gin'.

  • Some folks chose the life. My ex among them.

    I heard the song on the CBC tonight... and checked out:

    Hobo's Lullaby

    by Goebel Reeves

    Go to sleep you weary hobo

    Let the towns drift slowly by

    Can't you hear the steel rail humming

    That's a hobo's lullaby

    -----------------------

    God Bless!

  • 3:06 What a picture,what a friendship,God Bless.

  • it made meh cry!

  • Really nice song, lots of imagery and hope in the song =) I wish good luck amongst all hobos.

  • He has this certain something in his voice:

    honesty...

    It's as if he cares about every hobo in the whole world...

  • I think of myself as a youth, leaving my homeland, traveling 'on my thumb' falling in with differing companions seeking solace in booze and weed(poor company indeed) seeking only to avoid my own babysoul within

    thank goodness for the cult of AA to help my healingsong

    those poor mens and womens who just wantered to get some help from the guvment it is so wrong back then that the guv didn't seek to help

    thank our stars for mr FDR

  • this is very beautiful

    even though tis immensely saddening

    so many transients have mental illness or alcohol/drug slavery

    some of course are just out there and checking out the realm surround

    much obliged

    mynah bird

  • I've been thousands of miles through the southeast chasing an Arlo Guthrie appearance with much success. This is a song that he truly made his own! And I haven't even ever heard Woody's version. I love you Arlo.

  • In the 50's I grew up close to train tracks. We'd have hobos come to our house. Mom gave one some coffee grounds. A few days later a few more showed up too beg. Come to find out, the first one put a can lid on one of our trees. That was to let others know they could get a free hand-out. Finally Mom told one of them she couldn't afford to give away food. She had 5 kids. They understood. By the way the can lid disappeared from the tree,  and we never saw another hobo at our house.

  • a powerful song 1 of my favs

  • It's a Goebel Reeves song-Woody Guthrie also recorded it.

  • VandilLoco, a jelly fish has more of a spine than you'll ever have.You're the lowest life form this world has ever known.YOU ARE A COWARD!!

  • chill. it was an entirely harmless comment.

  • Uncalled for and immature

  • i don't believe you

  • My mom ( who would be 90 now) also knew this tune as "When I'm gone, you'll soon forget me".

  • WEIRD.:(

  • Utah would say, "The past didn't go anywhere, it's right here with us." He also said that Ben Reichman, who used to travel with Emma Goldman, wrote in his book 'The Damnedest Radical' : A hobo works and wanders, a tramp dreams and wanders, and a bum drinks and wanders. Try to keep that sorted out in your head. My friend taught me a very moving version of this song that she and her family sang to her uncle as he died. I love the part about there being no police in heaven.

  • Goerbal (not spelled correctly) Reeves, wrote it

  • I 'found back' this song after more than 30 years on You Tube and it still moves me!

  • The melody was originally written by George Frederick Root in 1864, for a song called Just Before the Battle, Mother.

  • I agree that it sounds a lot like like Just Before the Battle, but I hear some slight differences. Whether it's enough for a George Harrison to win a "My Dear Lord"/"he's So Fine" lawsuit - I dunno!

  • so sad indeed...god bless the homeless.

  • Wow, that's sad, i hope god bless them :S

  • "whoever wrote it" Ye Gods, you are not familiar with America's formost balladeer and songwriter? Read his autobiography (mostly fictional) "Bound for Glory"; read Joe Klein's bio of him: in fact read anything you can find on the man. Truly and original...

  • poor hobos god bless them

  • Written by Goebel Reeves. Recorded by Woody and Arlo Guthrie (separately), Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Utah Phillips (my friend and hero), and Pete Seeger (who just turned 90)

  • 90! I'm gonna miss that generation.

  • the song was written by Geobel Reeves in the 1950s, a hobo balladeerm he died alone in a Vets hospital. great song ...

  • Seems more relevant every day. The poor we have with us always.

  • Ok, duh, I see that this is his son Arlo's version

  • Woody Guthrie wrote this song. I don't know who sang and recorded this version though. It's almost unrecognizable compared to Woody's...which is far better.;)

  • nice job...just makes you be thankful for each day with a roof over your head...and something to eat in your belly.

  • You said you didn't know who wrote this song. I think it was written by woody guthrie, arlo's dad and a noted singer/songwriter.

  • this song is from the great depression. its not bad but its not good. i dont know why people think its funny

    but thanks for postingi need it for a progect

    :)

  • Poor hobos. I feel bad for them

  • Thanks for posting! Great images!

  • Thank You

  • sounds pretty nice there in heaven, no crime and all.

  • The Hobo's Lullaby is one of the most beautiful songs ever been made. I've never been homeless myself, but as a truth seeker yes - I've felt like that often (cannot find any ideology to fit in or sufficient answers to certain questions). In a way I feel the whole life is about being a hobo: searching, wondering, enjoying, being able to stay, able to leave, able to keep and able to change one's mind if you been wrong, or to return back if the new road chosen proved to be a bad choice.

  • the name hobo came from being a "hoe boy"they were men who tied a sack of there posesions to hoe to find work on farms the phenomnon happened at the end of the civil war and again during depression thease were the people Woody guthrie sang the song about. the word hobo means some one with their hoe looking for work. i think the meaning has been lost

  • I never knew that. I thought it was a pejorative term. Thanks.

  • People become homeless for a variety of reasons. We'll probably see many more soon, as a consequence of the decline of common sense values, and the acceptance of greed as the norm. Who are you to pass judgement upon people who find themselves on the road, for whatever reason? I spent some time on the road in my youth, and I met plenty like you, but fortunately even more kindly souls, who gave me a helping hand which was very welcome.

  • I love this song!