Hallelujah, I'm a Bum
"Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" (Roud 7992) is an American folk song that responds with humorous sarcasm to unhelpful moralizing about the circumstance of being a hobo. Song. The song's authorship is uncertain, but according to hobo poetry researcher Bud L. McKillips the words were written by an IWW member. Some verses, though, may have been written by a Kansas City hobo known only as "One-Finger Ellis," who scribbled it on the wall of his prison cell in 1897. There is also a questionable theory that Harry McClintock could have written it in  1897 when he was only fifteen. Sung to the tune of the Presbyterian hymn "Revive Us Again", the song was printed by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1908, and adopted by its Spokane, Washington branch as their anthem later that year. The success of their Free speech fights of 1909 led to its widespread popularity. The version published in 1908 goes: Other versions. The New Christy Minstrels created another version which added more story to the original. This version goes: In 1961, the Freedom Riders adapted the song, with these lyrics: In popular culture. A 1933 musical comedy  film is titled "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum". It stars Al Jolson, who featured a song of the same title, but entirely different tune. Only the lyrics "Hallelujah, I'm a bum" are reused. In the UK, where the word "bum" is crude slang for the human posterior, the soundtrack was edited so that "bum" was replaced with a short whistle. The music was quoted in the Charlie Chaplin movie "Modern Times" (1936), when Charlie is released from the home for the bewildered and trudges along the street before picking up a red flag that has dropped off the back  of a truck. To get the attention of the truck driver, Charlie starts waving the flag around, which causes a crowd of radical trade unionists to start marching behind him, believing that a revolution has begun. The sequence ends when Charlie, who has no idea the union members are following him, is arrested as a Communist agitator. The song is requested of Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes by a co-prisoner in an early scene of the Elia Kazan movie "A Face in the Crowd" (1957). The Porky Pig cartoon "Confusions of a Nutzy Spy" depicts a spy attempting to plant a  bomb on which "Hallelujah, I'm a Bomb!" is written. It was used in an episode of television series "Checkmate" where Doug McClure investigates a hobo camp. In 2012, the rock band, Local H, released their seventh studio album, "Hallelujah! I'm a Bum". The 1928 recording of the song was featured in Bob Dylan's Thanksgiving "leftovers"-themed episode of his "Theme Time Radio Hour" program. The song was featured in Season 3 Episode 2 of HBO’s The Leftovers (TV Series). The song is referenced in "Beer for Breakfast" by The Replacements, on their 1997 album "All for Nothing  / Nothing for All".