Lyrics to
Papa Hobo

This version of Papa Hobo was released by Paul Simon in 1972.

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It’s carbon and monoxide
The ole Detroit perfume
And it hangs on the highways
In the morning
And it lays you down by noon
Oh Papa Hobo
You can see that I’m dressed like a schoolboy
But I feel like a clown
It’s a natural reaction I learned
in this basketball town

Sweep up
I been sweeping up the tips I’ve made
I been living on Gatoraae
Planning my getaway
Detroit, Detroit
Got a hell of a hockey team
Got a left-handed way
Of making a man sign up on that
Automotive dream, oh yeah
Oh Papa Papa Hobo
Could you slip me a ride
Well, It’s just after breakfast
I’m in the road
And the weatherman lied

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Paul Simon has released many songs over the years besides Papa Hobo. Paul Simon released songs from 1965 to 2000 spanning across albums like The Paul Simon Songbook, Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, Paul Simon In Concert: Live Rhymin', Still Crazy After All These Years, One-Trick Pony, Hearts And Bones, Graceland, The Rhythm Of The Saints, Songs From The Capeman, and You're The One. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Paul Simon.

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About Lyrics and Papa Hobo by Paul Simon

The lyrics to Papa Hobo are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Paul Simon used when the song was created in 1972. The lyrics to Papa Hobo have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Paul Simon 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 Papa Hobo by Paul Simon. 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 Papa Hobo" means the words set to the music of Papa Hobo, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Paul Simon. 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 Papa Hobo and the lyrics to Papa Hobo are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Paul Simon who came here looking just for the lyrics to Papa Hobo, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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