Hallelujah, I'm a Bum

See also Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (film) for the 1933 movie.

"Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (Roud 7992) is an American folk song that responds with humorous sarcasm to unhelpful moralizing about the circumstance of being a tramp. The song's authorship is uncertain, although it may have been composed in 1897 by Harry McClintock.

Sung to the tune of "Revive Us Again", the song was printed by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1908, and adopted by its Spokane branch as their anthem later that year. The success of their free speech campaign of 1909 led to its widespread popularity.

The version published in 1908 goes:

Why don't you work like other folks do?

How the hell can I work when there's no work to do?

Refrain

Hallelujah, I'm a bum,

Hallelujah, bum again,

Hallelujah, give us a handout

To revive us again.

Oh, why don't you save all the money you earn?

If I didn't eat, I'd have money to burn.

Whenever I get all the money I earn,

The boss will be broke, and to work he must turn.

Oh, I like my boss, he's a good friend of mine,

That's why I am starving out on the breadline.

When springtime it comes, oh, won't we have fun;

We'll throw off our jobs, and go on the bum.

Other versions

The New Christy Minstrels created another version which added much more story and life to the original. This version goes:

I went to a house and I knocked on the door;

The lady comes out and says, "You've been here before"

She gives a loud whistle and I run for my life!

Well, wouldn't you know, it's the constable's wife.

Refrain:

Hallelujah, I'm a bum,

Hallelujah, bum again,

Hallelujah, gimme a handout

And you'll be my friend

"Now, why don't you settle down and get yourself a wife?"

"I'd rather be a BUM for the rest of me life!"

"If you got a job, then you'd be my honey"

"I wouldn't marry you if I had lots o' money!"

Refrain

"

"And shing for my thupper when I'm down and out"

Recordings

• Harry McClintock
• Fats Waller 1939 Fine Arabian Stuff
• Al Jolson
• Utah Phillips Legends of Folk, We Have Fed You All
• Pete Seeger

Published Versions

• 1908 song card, Spokane I.W.W.
• American Songbag 1927 Carl Sandburg page 184-185
• Edith Fowke and Joe Glazer, eds., ""Songs of Work and Protest'' 1973 page 127
• Little Red Songbook Centenary Edition, 2005
• Rise Up Singing page 181

References

• Hallelujah, I'm a Bum
• The 1909 Spokane, Washington Free Speech Campaign: h2g2