Story Behind The Song

Years ago I worked at a bus terminal in the city of Hartford Ct, and there I got to see a lot of people who lived on the streets and many of them have stories like this song that made them just walk away from society. It occurred to me that people often look at these homeless people with contempt and I've heard it said 'Get a job or they are just looking for handouts because they are lazy. Well the fact of the matter is, people take to the street often because after some tragic or traumatic experience, things just became overwhelming for them and they just drop out of society because of it. I wrote Uncle Joe to show you can't judge a book by it's cover. The biggest hearts are most vulnerable. Compassion is what we need to show those unfortunate ones that end up on the street.

Song Description

This song is a bit dark about a man who after losing everyone dear to him in a fire, gives up on life and takes to living on the street. Numb with grief he just walks the streets in a drunken daze. Once a pillar in the community ,now they just see him as a lazy bum.

Lyrics

He made his bed under those timeless Shining stars
When rivers froze he'd wear more clothes
And sleep in unlocked cars
He drank his days away on the outskirts of town
Down along the railway where his kind hung around

Chorus,
Oh, Oh uncle Joe how could they know.
Labeled you vagrant just a bum a little crazy don't you know.

He was a father to a son, a husband to a wife
A house full of orphans and gave them all a life
Food and clothes and loving care, a place that they called home
They loved the man that who cared for them
And they called him Uncle Joe

Chorus
Joe once a businessman and often out of town
He was away that tragic day his house burned to the ground
They said the smoke. it took them all they slept but never woke
Joe looked up and just said Oh, the last he ever spoke

Chorus twice