(The Historical Bum)
I'm just a lonesome traveler, The Great Bum. Highly from history I have come. I built the of Ages, 'twas in the Year of One And that was about the biggest that 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 about the biggest thing man had ever done.
I was straw boss on the Pyramids, the of Babel, too; I opened up the ocean let the children through, I fought a million battles and I lost a one, And that was about the thing that man had ever done.
I beat the Roman, I beat the daring Turk, Nero's army with thirty minutes work, I fought the leaders and I licked them everyone And that was about the thing that man had ever done.
I stopped old Caesar's Romans, and I stopped the Kubla I took but half an hour's work to the Pharaoh's bands; I knocked old Kaiser flat, then I dumped the bloody Huns, And that's the biggest thing that man has ever done.
I was in the Revolution we set the country free; Me and a couple of Indians that the Boston tea; We won the at Valley Forge, the battle of Bully Run; And that was the biggest thing that man has ever done.
Next, we won the war, some other folks and me, And every slave from sea to sea was all loose by me. I old Madam slavery, and I wed this freedom dame. And that's the biggest thing that man has ever done.
And I took to farming on the great midwestern plain, The dust it a hundred years, but never come a rain' Well, me and a million fellas left there on the run And that was about the biggest thing man has ever done.
I clumb the rocky where the Columbia River rolls, Seen the salmon the rapids and the falls 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 walk the Gate I've seen foot of film that Hollywood has run But Coulee is the biggest thing that man has done.
Three times the size of Boulder or the highest the Tower of Babel a plaything for a kid From the rising of the to the setting of the sun The Coulee is the biggest thing that man has done.
There was a man the ocean, I guess you knew him well, His name was Adolf Hitler, goddam his soul to We kicked him in the and put him on the run, And that was the biggest thing that man has ever done.
I'm living with my freedom wife in this big land we It takes all forty States for me to spread my quilt. Our kids are millions now; they run from sun to sun. And that's about the biggest thing man has ever done.
I built mines and mills and factories to run for Sam; I turned th' ploughs and wheels to feed my soldiers in your This job's a tough 'un, it'll take us everyone, 'Cause is about the biggest thing that man has ever done.
There's warehouse and teamsters and guys that skin the cats Guys that run my mill, my furnace and my blast stop the Axis rattlesnakes and thieves of old Nippon And that will be the biggest thing that man has done.
I'd better quit my talking, 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 biggest thing that man has done.
I better quit my talking now; I you all I know, But remember, pardner, wherever you may go, I'm older than your old folks, and I'm than the young, And I'm about the biggest thing man has ever done.