Utah Phillips - Hallelujah I'm a Bum

HALLELUJAH, I'M A BUM!

Tune: Revive Us Again
Written by: Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock
Adapted by Spokane IWW Winter of 1908 For Use on Song Card of That Year)

LYRICS (as written by Haywire Mac, not the ones performed here by Utah):
O, why don't you work Like other men do?
How in hell can I work
When there's no work to do?

(Chorus)
Hallelujah, I'm a bum!
Hallelujah, bum again!
Hallelujah, give us a handout
To revive us again.

O, why don't you save
All the money you earn?
If I did not eat
I'd have money to burn.
(Chorus)

O, I like my boss -
He's a good friend of mine;
That's why I'm starving
Out in the breadline.
(Chorus)

I can't buy a job
For I ain't got the dough,
So I ride in a box-car
For I'm a hobo.
(Chorus)

Whenever I get
All the money I earn
The boss will be broke
And to work he must turn.
(Chorus)

VISIT:
http://www.utahphillips.org

• Category

  Music

[ganlesat]

This song was play by the volunteers of the A.Lincoln International Brigade in Spain 1936/39 !

[Nullifidian]

I've got to laugh at that story Utah starts telling at around the 4:00 mark. I've heard it in another incarnation as a joke on Israel's occupation of Gaza. A father writes to his son being held indefinitely in an Israeli jail that things are going badly. His farm animals died and without his son's help he doesn't know how he'll be able to plow the land for the upcoming planting. The son writes back that his father should avoid plowing the fields because that's where the guns and rockets are...

[AnneMeansGrace]

I used to drive past the Kaiser Aluminum plant he's talking about all the time. The union got greedy and now instead of better benefits the plant is closed. It happened a long time ago, this song must have been recorded a while back.

[yossariancomplex]

He's so human, it's wonderfull. Hallelujah!

[Justin Suarez]

I first heard this while falling asleep in a homeless shelter in 2008. I have been employed and self sufficient since.

[nickbagelboy]

I LOVE THIS SONG!! :D And the whole meaning!! Can anyone please tell me what kind of greyhound bus ticket he is talking about? Cause ive heard of people being able to to buy a pass, but they can use it whenever they want. But I cant find the type of pass that is. Help please!!

[Patrick Knowles]

long live this man's memory

[reboandzooty]

socialism will win

[Mullahgrrl]

They didn't win all the battles though.

[Rich Schock]

i'd be willing to give the fascists the good songs if we could win the class war!

[cavejohnsonful]

Indeed, they may have won all the battles, but we had all the good songs!