The Songs He Sang
Hard Travelin': Lyrics
As performed by Cisco Houston
Woody Guthrie
Appears on:I've been doing some hard traveling I thought you knowed I've been doing some hard rambling way down the road Hard traveling hard rambling hard drinking hard gambling I've been doing some hard traveling Lord I've been doing some hard rock mining I thought you knowed I've been leaning on a pressure drill way down the road Well the hammer flying and the air hose sucking And six feet of mud, I sure been mucking I've been doing some hard traveling Lord I've been working that Pittsburgh steel I thought you knowed I've been pouring that red-hot slag way down the road I been blasting I've been firing I've been pouring red-hot iron I've been doing some hard traveling Lord I've been layin' in a hard rock jail I thought you knowed I've been layin' out ninety days way down the road The darned old judge he said to me it's ninety days for vagrancy And I've been doing some hard traveling Lord I've been walking that Lincoln highway I thought you knowed And I've been hittin' that sixty six way down the road Got a heavy load got a worried mind I'm a' looking for a woman that's hard to find And I've been doing some hard traveling Lord I've been doing some hard traveling I've been having some hard rambling I've been doing some hard traveling I've been doing some hard traveling Lord
The following two verses are not included in the performance on the CD Best of Vanguard Years.
I've been riding them fast passengers
I thought you knowed
I've been hitting them flat wheelers
way down the road
I've been ridin' them
blind passengers
dead enders
kickin' up cinders
I've been doing some hard traveling Lord
I've been doing some hard harvesting
I thought you knowed
From North Dakota to Kansas City
way down the road
Cutting that wheat and
stacking that hay
just trying to make 'bout a dollar a day
And I've been doing some hard harvesting Lord
Of note:
If any song could be a signature tune, this would certainly be among the favorites. One of Woody's best songs, and a performance that Cisco certainly was pleased with, as he named one of his LPs after it. Captures the flavor and the sweat without glamorizing or fantasizing. It is THE song of the Open Road.
Notes from the Folk Song & Minstrelsy Set
Woody and Cisco did a lot of traveling the country together and separately. Together they sang on corners, in saloons and at the camps of migratory workers. Sometimes they thumbed it, sometimes they caught a fast freight. For a time, they knocked around in Woody's 1927 Chevrolet. Cisco has vividly described this car: "Its four wheels all went in different directions. You had to turn the steering wheel several times around before you got any response from the front wheels, which on occasion came perilously close to being too late."
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