The darkly inspirational photo for Gasoline Alley lp cover
rod stewart, “only a hobo”
from: gasoline alley, 1970
“As I was out walking on the corner one day
I spied an old hobo, in the doorway he lay
His face was all covered in the cold sidewalk floor
I guess he’d been there for a whole night or more
He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leaving nobody to carry it on
Leaving nobody to sing his sad song
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
A blanket of newspaper covered his head
The step was his pillow
The street was his bed
One look at his face
Showed the hard road he’d come
And a fistful of money
Showed the coins that he’d bummed
He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leavin’ nobody to sing his sad song
Leavin’ nobody to carry it on
Only a hobo, but one more is gone
Does it take much of a man
To see a whole life go down
To look on the world
From a hole in the ground
Too late for your future
Like a horse that’s gone lame
To lie in the gutter
And die with no name
He was only a hobo, but one more is gone
Leavin’ nobody to sing his sad song
Leavin’ nobody to carry it on
Only a hobo, but one more is gone”
Gasoline Alley is one of the most durable acoustic rock-folk records you’re gonna find. It’s chock full of quietly gigantic, delicately arranged and comfortably delivered classics. But the group’s emotionally demolishing interpretation of Bob Dylan’s “Only a Hobo” sets itself in the territory of esteemed musicality largely driven by the grief-stricken disbelief in Mr. Stewart’s voice. How can one not be riven with tears when the final instrumental chorus crescendoes deep back into British trad. melodics for the knockout instro-chorus-hook? It took a tiny army of stringed players to do it. Its soldiers included:
Ron Wood- bass, Martin Quittenton, Rod Stewart-guitars, Stanley Matthews- mandolin, Dennis O'Flynn, Dick Powell – violins, w/ Mick Waller- cymbals
