Lyrics to
Hobo Jungle

This version of Hobo Jungle was released by The Band in 1975.

Our About The Band page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Hobo Jungle from 1975 as well as all of the other lyrics from The Band that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to The Band or about the 1970s in general.

There was a chill that night in the hobo jungle
Over the train yard lay a smooth coat of frost
And although nobody here really knows where they’re goin’
At the very same time nobody’s lost

Then the fire went out and the night grew still
This old man lay frozen on the cold, cold ground
He was a stray bird and the road was his callin’
Ridin’ the rods
Sleepin’ under the stars
Playin’ the harp from a rollin’ box car

She attended the fun’ral in the hobo jungle
Long were they lovers though never could they wed
Drifters and rounders, oooh, and distant friends
Here I lie without anger or regret
I’m in no one’s debt

Man goes nowhere
Ev’rything comes like tomorrow
But she took that last ride there by his side
He spent his whole life pursuing the horizon
Ridin’ the rods
Sleepin’ under the stars
Playin’ the harp from a rollin’ box car

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The Band has released many songs over the years besides Hobo Jungle. The Band released songs from 1968 to 2002 spanning across albums like Music From Big Pink, The Band, Stage Fright, Cahoots, Moondog Matinee, Northern Lights - Southern Cross, Islands, Jericho, High On The Hog, Jubilation, and The Last Waltz. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Band.

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About Lyrics and Hobo Jungle by The Band

The lyrics to Hobo Jungle are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that The Band used when the song was created in 1975. The lyrics to Hobo Jungle have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only The Band and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to Hobo Jungle by The Band. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Hobo Jungle" means the words set to the music of Hobo Jungle, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Band. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Hobo Jungle and the lyrics to Hobo Jungle are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Band who came here looking just for the lyrics to Hobo Jungle, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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