(The Great Bum)
I'm just a traveler, The Great Historical Bum. Highly from history I have come. I built the Rock of Ages, in the Year of One And that was about the biggest thing man had ever done.
I worked in the Garden of Eden, was the year of two, Joined the apple pickers union, I paid my due; I'm the man that the contract to raise the rising sun, And that was about the biggest thing man had ever done.
I was straw boss on the Pyramids, the Tower of Babel, I opened up the ocean let the migrant through, I fought a million and I never lost a one, And that was about the biggest thing man had ever done.
I beat the daring Roman, I beat the Turk, Nero's army with thirty minutes work, I fought the greatest leaders and I licked everyone And was about the biggest thing that man had ever done.
I stopped old Caesar's Romans, and I stopped the Khan; I took but half an hour's to beat the Pharaoh's bands; I knocked old Kaiser Bill flat, I dumped the bloody Huns, And about the biggest thing that man has ever done.
I was in the when we set the country free; Me and a of Indians that dumped the Boston tea; We won the battle at Valley Forge, the of Bully Run; And was about the biggest thing that man has ever done.
Next, we won the slavery war, some folks and me, And every from sea to sea was all turned loose by me. I divorced old Madam slavery, and I wed this dame. And about the biggest thing that man has ever done.
And I took to farming on the great midwestern plain, The dust it blowed a hundred years, but never come a Well, me and a million other fellas there 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 and the falls The big Coulee Dam in the state of Washington Is about the biggest thing that man has ever done.
a building in New York that you call the Empire State I rode the rods to 'Frisco to walk the Golden I've seen every of film that Hollywood has run But Coulee is the thing that man has ever done.
Three times the size of Boulder or the highest Makes the of Babel a plaything for a kid From the of the river to the setting of the sun The Coulee is the 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 kicked him in the and put him on the run, And that was about the biggest thing that man has done.
I'm living with my freedom wife in this big we built; It all forty eight States for me to spread my quilt. Our kids are millions now; they run from sun to sun. And that's about the thing that man has ever done.
I built mines and and factories to run for Uncle Sam; I th' ploughs and wheels to feed my soldiers in your lands; This Nazi job's a tough 'un, take us everyone, 'Cause this is about the biggest that man has ever 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 and thieves of old Nippon And that will be the biggest thing that man has done.
I'd better my talking, 'cause I told you all I know, But please remember, pardner, you may go, The people are building a peaceful world, and when the job is That'll be the thing that man has ever done.
I better quit my talking I told 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 the biggest thing that man has ever done.