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Only a Hobo


Bootleg Series 1-3 version

G                         C          G
As I was out walking on a corner one day,
                                     D
I spied an old hobo, in a doorway he lay.
    G                            C             G
His face was all grounded in the cold sidewalk floor
                                    D              G
And I guess he'd been there for the whole night or more.
C                G
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
                               D   C' G/b
Leavin' nobody to sing his sad song
G                 C         G
Leavin' nobody to carry him home
                        D        C' G
He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
A blanket of newspaper covered his head,
As the curb was his pillow, the street was his bed.
One look at his face showed the hard road he'd come
And a fistful of coins showed the money he bummed.
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leavin' nobody to sing his sad song
Leavin' nobody to carry him home
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
Does it take much of a man to see his whole life go down,
To look up on the world from a hole in the ground,
To wait for your future like a horse that's gone lame,
To lie in the gutter and die with no name?
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leavin' nobody to sing his sad song
Leavin' nobody to carry him home
Only a hobo, but one more is gone

Another Self Portrait version

The chords are virtually identical, with these slight changes to the refrain:

C                G
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
                               D
Leavin' nobody to sing his sad song
G                 C         G
Leavin' nobody to carry him home
                        D           G         C
He was only a hobo, but one more is gone, m-m-m
                 D           G
only a hobo, but one more is gone

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