Songs about nomadic life, homelessness, etc.

[travelaround]

"(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay"
By Otis Redding

Sittin' in the morning sun
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes
Watching the ships roll in
Then I watch them roll away again, yeah


I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away, ooh
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time


I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the Frisco Bay
Cuz I've had nothing to live for
And look like nothing's gonna come my way


So, I'm just gon' sit on the dock of the bay
Watchin' the tide roll away, ooh
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time


Looks like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same, listen


Sittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone, listen
Two thousand miles I roam
Just to make this dock my home, now


I'm just gon' sit at the dock of a bay
Watchin' the tide roll away, ooh
Sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time


[video=youtube]


Sadly, this is the first-ever posthumous #1 single. He died in a plane crash at the age of 26 only two days after he finished recording the album this was on.

 

[Van Vliet]

"Convoy" by C.W. McCall


and its counterpart..

"C.B. Savage" by Rod Hart

 

[fantym1]

slow2day: Me & You & a dog named Boo


I sang this (2 myself) every day I was overseas. I still sing it & the now puppers sing along

 

[Morgana]

Lyle Lovett, The Truck Song

 

[user 22017]

Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Blues

 

[gizmotron]

 

[INTJohn]

 

[Morgana]

Guy Clark, LA Freeway
"Down the road in a cloud of smoke to some land I ain't bought ..."

 

[peteg59]

Guess this falls under "etc.", but it's good tuneage while knocking back the miles on the road,,,

 

[INTJohn]

 

[LargeMarge]

.
Sean Rowe -- 1952 Vincent Black Lightning.
!!! Caution -- this performance may change your DNA !!!

 

[peteg59]

/\...Thats one gittar pickin' fool right thar!!!

 

[user 22017]

He is a great guitarist, but how did you connect that song with nomads or homelessness? The name of the motorcycle? Couldn't find the connection in the lyrics.

 

[peteg59]

etc..?

 

[RvNaut]

Life on the road you say? ... a friend, Charles from old-home, wrote this tune about living on the road...

 

[Morgana]

Emmylou Harris, Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight


(maybe a little more about getting on the road than staying on the road)

 

[user 22017]

Life Is a Highway Lyrics​

[Intro]
Woo
Hmm, yeah

[Verse 1]
Life's like a road that you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There's a world outside every darkened door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore
Where the brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won't hesitate
To break down the garden gate
There's not much time left today, yeah

[Chorus]
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're goin' my way
I wanna drive it all night long

[Verse 2]
Through all these cities and all these towns
It's in my blood and it's all around
I love you now like I loved you then
This is the road and these are the hands
From Mozambique to those Memphis nights
The Khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights
Knock me down, I'm back up again
You're in my blood, I'm not a lonely man

[Refrain]
There's no load I can't hold
The roads are rough, this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Just tell 'em we're survivors

[Chorus]
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long (Woo)
If you're goin' my way
I wanna drive it all night long (All night long)
A gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, yeah
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long (Hmm, yeah)
If you're goin' my way (You're goin' my way)
I wanna drive it all night long (All night long)


[Bridge]
There was a distance between you and I (Between you and I)
A misunderstanding once
But now we look it in the eye
Ooh, yeah (Hmm, yeah)

[Instrumental Break]

[Refrain]
There ain't no load that I can't hold
The roads are rough, this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Tell 'em we're survivors

[Chorus]
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long (All night long, yeah)
If you're goin' my way
I wanna drive it all night long (A gimme, gimme, gimme, a gimme, gimme, yeah)
Life is a highway (Life is a highway)
I wanna ride it all night long (Woo, yeah)
If you're goin' my way (Goin' my way)
I wanna drive it all night long (All night long, yeah; come on, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, yeah)
Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long (Yeah, I wanna drive it all night long, baby)
If you're goin' my way (You're goin' my way)
I wanna drive it all night long (All night long)

lyrics from genius.com

 

[user 22017]

I'm surprised nobody shared On the Road Again, by Willie Nelson. Maybe because it is about a band (rather than ordinary folks).

https://genius.com/Willie-nelson-on-the-road-again-lyrics

 

[Malamute]

I'm surprised nobody shared On the Road Again, by Willie Nelson. Maybe because it is about a band (rather than ordinary folks).

https://genius.com/Willie-nelson-on-the-road-again-lyrics

I did a cross country motorcycle ride on my 1947 H-D right after that came out, I met up with a guy on another bike that had a stereo, he played it regularly when we stopped or were on slower roads. We ended up riding together for 3 days. I always remember that ride when i hear it.


OK, not a song, and not highways, but this has long pinged some deep part of my consciousness and the underlying feeling and perhaps genetic hardwiring has long been a part of my life and lifestyle and seeking adventure.


Robert W. Service

The Call of the Wild​

Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven,
which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God's sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert's little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.

Have you known the Great White Silence,
not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies).
Have you broken trail on snowshoes?
mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map's void spaces,
mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is,
can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild -- it's wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
"Done things" just for the doing,
letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that nature renders?
(You'll never hear it in the family pew).
The simple things, the true things,
the silent men who do things --
Then listen to the Wild -- it's calling you.

They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase;
you're a credit to their teaching --
But can't you hear the Wild? -- it's calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind,
there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling. . .let us go.

 

[Morgana]

Have we had "Snowing on Raton" yet?

Mother thinks the road is long and lonely
Little brother thinks the road is straight and fine
Little darlin' thinks the road is soft and lovely
I'm thankful that old road is a friend of mine

Townes van Zandt here
Robert Earl Keen (with a little help) here

Come morning I'll be through them hills and gone