Lyrics to
Only A Hobo

This version of Only A Hobo was released by Rod Stewart in 1970.

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As I was out walking on the corner one day
I spied an old hobo, in the doorway he lay
His face was all covered in the cold sidewalk floor
I guess he’d been there for a whole night or more

He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leaving nobody to carry it on
Leaving nobody to sing his sad song
Only a hobo, but one more is gone

A blanket of newspaper covered his head
The step was his pillow
The street was his bed
One look at his face
showed the hard road he’d come
and a fistful of money
showed the coins that he’d bummed

He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leavin’ nobody to sing his sad song
Leavin’ nobody to carry it on
Only a hobo, but one more is gone

Does it take much of a man
to see a whole life go down
To look on the world
from a hole in the ground
Too late for your future
like a horse that’s gone lame
To lie in the gutter
and die with no name

He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leavin’ nobody to sing his sad song
Leavin’ nobody to carry it on
Only a hobo, but one more is gone

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Rod Stewart has released many songs over the years besides Only A Hobo. Rod Stewart released songs from 1969 to 2005 spanning across albums like An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down, Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells A Story, Never A Dull Moment, Smiler, Atlantic Crossing, A Night On The Town, Foot Loose & Fancy Free, Blondes Have More Fun, Foolish Behavior, Tonight I'm Yours, Body Wishes, Camouflage, Every Beat Of My Heart, Out Of Order, Vagabond Heart, Lead Vocalist, Unplugged... And Seated, A Spanner In The Works, If We Fall In Love Tonight, When We Were The New Boys, Human, It Had To Be You... The Great American Songbook, Stardust...The Great American Songbook: Volume III, and Thanks For The Memory... The Great American Songbook: Volume IV. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Rod Stewart.

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About Lyrics and Only A Hobo by Rod Stewart

The lyrics for Only A Hobo are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1970 song by Rod Stewart. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Only A Hobo have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Only A Hobo - Rod Stewart and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Only A Hobo by Rod Stewart in multiple ways. 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 Only A Hobo" means the words set to the music of Only A Hobo, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Rod Stewart. 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 Only A Hobo and the lyrics to Only A Hobo are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Rod Stewart who came here looking just for the lyrics to Only A Hobo, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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