American Ballads and Folk Songs: page - 0127

Complete Text, Lyrics & Sheet Music

	Oh, why don't I work like other men do? How the hell can I work when the skies are so blue? Chorus: Hallelujah, I'm a bum! Hallelujah, bum again, Hallelujah, give 's a handout, Revive us again. If I was to work and save all I earn, I could buy me a bar and have money to burn. Oh, the winter is over and we're all out of jailj We are tired of walking and hungry as hell. Oh, I ride box cars and I ride fast mails, When it's cold in the winter I sleep in the jails. I passed by a saloon and I hear someone snore, And I found the bartender asleep on the floor. I stayed there and drank till a fly-mug came in, And he put me to sleep with a sap on the chin. Next morning in court I was still in a haze, When the judge looked at me, he said, "Thirty days." Some day a long train will run over my head, And the sawbones will say, "Old One-Finger's dead." [27]