Homeless Man (Harry Robertson) I've travelled hard these last ten weary years And my youthful dreams have slowly turned to tears If you think I am complaining I can tell that I'm not For I know that this is just a drifter's lot Many years my home has been the wayside camp I have starved and sweated on the river bank And I've fought with fists and feet Roughnecked drifters that I meet Broken dreams and bottles pave my lonely street As a homeless boy I thought when I'm a man I will change this world and right what wrongs I can Since then I have met defeat It's a bitter bread to eat And the homeless boy is now the homeless man Happiness has not been mine upon this earth Both my parents left me when they met their death And I'll drink before I eat With the drifters that I meet For this sorrow here is mine and mine alone Now my friends I think that I must move along And I'm glad that you have listened to my song For the road is all I've known And I must wander it alone As an outcast, homeless drifter and unknown Source: From the singing of Paul Lawler Darwin Australia, late 1970s. Paul learned the song from the late Declan Affley, one of the most important figures in the Australian folk scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Much to his disgust, because of the similarity of their voices, Paul was known in Sydney for a time as 'Little Declan'. Paul doesn't sing much these days, but he sings folk and folk idiom songs as well as anyone I've ever heard, including personal heroes such as Roy Bailey, Gordon Bok or Al O'Donnell. In the past few years, he has been busy building fire spectacles for the Maleny/Woodford festival in Queensland and other productions, including the biggest catherine wheel in the southern hemisphere. I notice that DT has 'The Wee Pot Stove' (Dark Engine Room). A nice recording was done of it relatively recently by the Cork group Any Old Time on their album 'Crossings'. Anyhow, here is another fine song from the pen of Harry Robertson: PS Oct00
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!