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GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador
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Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine,
When you gonna let me get sober?
Leave me alone, let me go home,
Let me go home and start over.
Hangin' around this dirty old town,
Singin' for nickels and dimes;
Time's gettin' rough and I ain't got enough,
To buy me a bottle of wine.
Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine,
When you gonna let me get sober?
Leave me alone, let me go home,
Let me go home and start over.
Pain in my head, I got bugs in my bed,
My pants are so old that they shine;
Out on the street I tell people I meet,
To buy me a bottle of wine.
Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine,
When you gonna let me get sober?
Leave me alone, let me go home,
Let me go home and start over.
Teacher will teach, a preacher will preach,
A miner will dig in a mine;
And I ride the rods, trusting in God,
Huggin' my bottle of wine.
Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine,
When you gonna let me get sober?
Leave me alone, let me go home,
Let me go home and start over.
Little hotel, older than hell,
Dark as the shaft in a mine;
Blankets are thin, I just lay there and grin,
'Cause of my bottle of wine.
Bottle of wine, fruit of the vine,
When you gonna let me get sober?
Leave me alone, let me go home,
Let me go home and start over.
Let me go home and start over.
Let me go home and start over.
Note: ride the rods - ride in the undercarriages of railroad cars so as not to be seen by railway inspectors - a most dangerous occupation, considered a hobo's rite of passage.
"A four-wheel truck is oblong in shape and is divided into halves by a cross-partition. What is true of one-half is true of the other half. Between this cross-partition and the axle is a small lateral rod, three to four feet in length, running parallel with both the partition and the axle. This is the rod."
~ Etulain, Richard, ed. Jack London on the Road: The Tramp Diary and Other Writings. (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1979), p. 91.