Hard Traveling is one of Woody Guthrie’s songs in the public domain, he wrote and published in 1946.
An illustration for the story Hard Traveling by the author Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie Songbook, 1946
I been a having some hard traveling
I thought you knowed
I been a having some hard traveling
Way Down the road
I been a having some hard traveling
Hard rambling, hard gambling
I been a having some hard traveling, Lord.
I been a riding them fast rattlers
I thought you knowed
I been a riding them flat wheelers
Way down the road
I been a riding them blind passengers
Dead enders kickin’ up cinders
I been a having some hard traveling, Lord.
Woody
I been a working in a hard rock tunnel
I thought you knowed
I been a leaning on a pressure drill
Way down the road
Hammer flyin, air hose suckin’
Six feet and mud I sure been a mucking
I been a having some hard traveling, Lord.
I been a working that Pittsburgh steel
I thought you knowed
I been a working that red hot slag
Way down the road
I been a blastin, I been a firin’
I been a duckin’ red hot iron
I been a having some hard traveling, Lord.
I been hittin’ some hard harvestin’
I thought you knowed
I been hitting some rough handling
Way down the road
Cut that wheat and stack that hay
Tryin’ to make about a dollar a day
I been a having some hard traveling, Lord.
I been a layin’ in a hard rock jail
I thought you knowed
I been a layin’ out ninety days
Way down the road
Mean old judge he says to me
It’s ninety days for vagrancy
I been a havin’ some hard traveling, Lord.
I been a hittin’ that Lincoln Highway
I thought you knowed
I been a hittin’ that Sixty-Six
Way down the road
Heavy load and a worried mind
Lookin’ for a woman
That’s hard to find
I been a havin’ some hard old traveling, Lord.
