{"id":634,"date":"2016-03-10T07:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T12:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=634"},"modified":"2017-02-16T09:12:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T14:12:59","slug":"hobos-lullaby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hobos-lullaby\/","title":{"rendered":"Hobo&#8217;s Lullaby (Goebel Reeves)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hobo&#039;s Lullaby\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O841fwAZgEA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I got this from Cisco, again, as far as I can remember &#8212; <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-635 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Cisco-songs-of-the-open-road-1-291x300.jpg?resize=192%2C198\" alt=\"Cisco songs of the open road-1\" width=\"192\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Cisco-songs-of-the-open-road-1.jpg?resize=291%2C300&amp;ssl=1 291w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Cisco-songs-of-the-open-road-1.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/>it&#8217;s on his <em>Songs of the Open Road<\/em>, which was one of my favorite albums, and I can&#8217;t think where else I would have heard it.<\/p>\n<p>I always liked the odd juxtaposition of the pretty, gentle lullaby melody and the verse about the policemen &#8212; radicals need to be comforted sometimes, same as everybody else. I thought the verse about &#8220;in her heart your mother loves you&#8221; was kind of sappy, but it seems less so with the passing of years.<\/p>\n<p>This was composed by a Texas singer and hobo named Goebel Reeves, who had a brief run of record and radio <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-637 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Goebel-Reeves2.jpg?resize=175%2C175\" alt=\"Goebel Reeves2\" width=\"175\" height=\"175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Goebel-Reeves2.jpg?w=250&amp;ssl=1 250w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Goebel-Reeves2.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" \/>success after Jimmie Rodgers made yodeling western songs popular. He wisely headed for New York, presented himself as an authentic western hobo, and was romantically billed as &#8220;The Texas Drifter,&#8221; &#8220;The Broadway Wrangler,&#8221; and &#8220;The Singing Bum.&#8221; He was a pretty singer, and apparently a good entertainer, but these days most of us just remember him for writing this song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got this from Cisco, again, as far as I can remember &#8212; it&#8217;s on his Songs of the Open Road, which was one of my favorite albums, and I can&#8217;t think where else I would have heard it. I always liked the odd juxtaposition of the pretty, gentle lullaby melody and the verse about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hobos-lullaby\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hobo&#8217;s Lullaby (Goebel Reeves)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hobo&#039;s Lullaby (Goebel Reeves) - 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I'd heard that Reeves was hugely popular in both places, but all I knew of his music was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Ry-Cooder-LP.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5865,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/aimee-mcpherson\/","url_meta":{"origin":634,"position":1},"title":"Aimee McPherson","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been seeing reviews of a new biography of Aimee Semple McPherson, and they reminded me of this comic ballad, which I hadn't thought about in years, or maybe decades... so I tried to sing it, found I still knew all the words, and here it is. 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