My Sportin' Life

Though I can't show you, the years of my life

That I spent on the road of freedom

Don't let it throw you, I know of your strife

I know what it's like to roam

I sang'em a glad song, played'em a sad song

Sang'em the whole night long, just for a dollar

Or what they could offer to somebody's ramblin' boy

When the fun was done I would pack my bags and I was gone

Though the women were kind

There was nothing to bind me to one

Well, somebody changed my rough and rowdy ways

Somebody changed my old carrousin' days

Oh, when I was a young boy, I learned to survive

Well, somebody came and stayed my sportin' life

I lived in the bar rooms, the juke joints and gin mills

I worked any dive in town, never too proud

To pass my hat around in every place I found

I'll sing you a glad song, play you a sad song

Sing'em the whole night long, just for a dollar

Or what you can offer to somebody's ramblin' boy

There were times when lonely was the only feeling left in me

Or when the cold and the rain

Made it hard on a man to be free

Then somebody changed my cold and hungry days

Somebody changed my rough and rowdy ways

Somebody changed my old carrousin' days

Oh, when I was a young boy, I learned to stay alive

Till somebody came and stayed my sportin' life