(The Historical Bum)
I'm a lonesome traveler, The Great Historical Bum. Highly educated history I have come. I built the Rock of Ages, 'twas in the of One And that was about the biggest thing man had ever done.
I worked in the of Eden, that was the year of two, Joined the apple pickers union, I always my due; I'm the man that signed the contract to raise the sun, And that was the biggest thing that man had ever done.
I was straw boss on the Pyramids, the of Babel, too; I opened up the ocean let the migrant through, I a million battles and I never lost a one, And that was about the thing that man had ever done.
I the daring Roman, I beat the daring Turk, Defeated Nero's with thirty minutes work, I fought the leaders and I licked them everyone And that was the biggest thing that man had ever done.
I stopped old Caesar's Romans, and I stopped the Kubla I took but half an hour's to beat the Pharaoh's bands; I knocked old Kaiser Bill flat, then I dumped the Huns, And that's about the biggest thing man has ever done.
I was in the Revolution when we set the country Me and a couple of Indians that dumped the Boston We won the battle at Forge, the battle of Bully Run; And that was about the biggest thing man has ever done.
Next, we won the slavery war, other folks and me, And every slave sea to sea was all turned loose by me. I divorced old Madam slavery, and I wed freedom dame. And that's about the biggest that man has ever done.
And then I took to farming on the great plain, The dust it blowed a hundred years, but never a rain' Well, me and a million other fellas left on the run And that was about the thing that man has ever done.
I clumb the rocky canyon the Columbia River rolls, Seen the salmon leaping the rapids and the The big Coulee Dam in the state of Washington Is just the biggest thing that man has ever done.
There's a building in New York that you the Empire State I rode the rods to 'Frisco to the Golden Gate I've seen foot of film that Hollywood has run But is the biggest thing that man has ever done.
times the size of Boulder or the highest pyramid Makes the Tower of a plaything for a kid the rising of the river to the setting of the sun The is the biggest thing that man has ever done.
There was a man across the ocean, I you knew him well, His was Adolf Hitler, goddam his soul to hell; We him in the panzers and put him on the run, And that was about the biggest thing man has ever done.
I'm living with my freedom wife in this big we built; It takes all forty eight for me to spread my quilt. Our kids are several now; they run from sun to sun. And that's about the thing that man has ever done.
I mines and mills and factories to run for Uncle Sam; I turned th' ploughs and wheels to feed my in your lands; This Nazi job's a 'un, it'll take us everyone, 'Cause this is about the biggest thing that man has done.
warehouse guys and teamsters and guys that skin the cats Guys that run my mill, my furnace and my blast We'll stop the Axis rattlesnakes and thieves of old And that will be the biggest that man has ever done.
I'd better my talking, 'cause I told you all I know, But please remember, pardner, you may go, The people are a peaceful world, and when the job is done That'll be the thing that man has ever done.
I better quit my talking now; I you all I know, But please remember, pardner, you may go, I'm older than old folks, and I'm younger than the young, And I'm about the thing that man has ever done.