Album: Cher (1971)

Charted: 4 1

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• I was born in the wagon of a travellin' show
  My Mama used to dance for
  The money they'd throw
  Papa would do whatever he could
  Preach a little gospel
  Sell a couple bottles of doctor good
  
  Gypsys, tramps and thieves
  We'd hear it from the people of the town
  They'd call us gypsies, tramps and thieves
  But every night all the men would come around
  And lay their money down
  
  Picked up a boy just south of Mobile
  Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal
  I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
  Rode with us to Memphis
  And Papa would'a shot him if
  He knew what he'd done
  
  Gypsys, tramps and thieves
  We'd hear it from the people of the town
  They'd call us gypsies, tramps and thieves
  But every night all the men would come around
  And lay their money down
  
  I never had schoolin' but he taught me well
  With his smooth southern style
  Three months later I'm a gal in trouble
  And I haven't seen him for a while, oh
  I haven't seen him for a while, oh
  
  She was born in the wagon of a travelin' show
  Her Mama had to dance for
  The money they'd throw
  Grandpa'd do whatever he could
  Preach a little gospel
  Sell a couple bottles of doctor good
  
  Gypsys, tramps and thieves
  We'd hear it from the people of the town
  They'd call us gypsies, tramps and thieves
  But every night all the men would come around
  And lay their money down
  
  Gypsys, tramps and thieves
  We'd hear it from the people of the town
  They'd call us gypsies, tramps and thieves
  But every night all the men would come around
  And lay their money down Writer/s: Bob Stone
  Publisher: CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 11

• Martina Monica Maestas from Salt Lake City UtahI have enjoyed both songs title "Half-Breed" and "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves", with at times, "Dark Lady" play on the song track, all repeatedly. Storytelling in these cultures, as we story-tell in our individual families, as these songs suggest, and many others, both sadly, comedic, with intrigue, and with certainty, are so integrated in our cultures that as we live, our lives can reflect the other titled songs, of the same nature, as 'life storytelling songs of our own poetic nature as a man species'. -MMM, paraphrasing from perhaps, a life storytelling and poetic perspective, individual life throughout a world culture-wise window look inside a fact or fictionalized thought of literature life as our own.
• Sebastian from UkIronic the name of the lyricist is Stone because (an maybe even Cher didn't know this) but "Dr Good" was a euphemism, a hundred years or so ago, for heroin (sometimes morphine and sometimes cocaine).
  Quack doctors would sell bottles of the stuff, pretending it was a cough linctus, buyers would get hooked and become lifelong customers (whether or not they lived very long is another matter, but at least they died happy).
  The men coming around and laying their money down was for whatever narcotic the Quack was peddling on any given occasion.
• Susan from Atlanta, GeorgiaI've always liked this song. I think the people CALLING them gypsies (NOT GYPSYS like the title of the song misspells it), tramps and thieves is the whole point, Showgirlmimi -- the people in the towns will partake of their entertainment, but then put them down for what they do. I'm sorry your family has received such putdowns, but I'm glad tramps was not a label you've had to endure.
  
• Showgirlmimi@gmail.com from UkI have always loved this song and wondered how it come about to be written. My mother and her mother and her mother before her were born in wagons of travelling shows in the UK. However I want to point out they were certainly not prostitutes. They were travelling bioscope, menagerie, equestrian etc. Over years the travelling shows were replaced by fairground rides. Laying the money down. Well to me this puts me in mind of my great great grandfather and his brother and indeed many other showmen who gambled heavily. In fact travelling shows were lost and won in gambling games. My family are travelling show people, not in fact gypsies. However we do know what it is like to be called gypsies and thieves. Must say were never labeled tramps though.
• Patrick from Bremen, GaI agree with KAT. Karen, you're right as well. More than likely the "dancing" was more along the lines of strip-dancing, and the mother (and later the narrator) were both prostitutes, along with many of the other women in the "traveling show".
  
  Another possibility of this song: The gypsies, tramps and thieves are running a traveling show. I'm thinking along the lines of a carnival or fair. Don't know if they're common in other regions, but here in the South (where the song does take place...Mobile, Memphis), we have small amusement parks that are set up in large parking lots, usually in a mall parking lot or in a shopping center parking lot. The carnival/fair/amusement park takes up maybe no more than half an acre, or maybe about 100 parking spaces (in a lot of over 1,000 spaces), with the typical rides and games.
  
  Most of these are family-run. One of the biggest is McNair. They'd usually stay in tents or RVs parked elsewhere, and then run the rides and games in the daytime and evening. Most people would come at night, play the games and ride the rides, hence "laying their money down".
  
  Of course, with it being just the men, then the entertainment is more adult-oriented: booze, sex, gambling, and quite possibly, drugs.
• Karen from Manchester, NhWhen I hear the phrase "lay your money down", I think of gambling. I have this whole mind-picture of a camp of gypsies: women dancing, various men doing different things, like gambling, selling booze, "preaching a little gospel", while "outsiders" come in and enjoy. Of course, I've been known for being a bit naive...
• Kat from Adelaide, AustraliaI think ALL the comments, so far, are right.
  
  Great song, with a real lot going on in the lyrics.
  
  Yes Dale, it's very much about hypocricy.
  
  Good comment Kristin, it is creepy and haunting - nut really damn catchy too!
  
  And no Dale, you're not the only one to think the men that "lay their money down" is a reference to prostitution. I think the literal reading of the lyric is that the men are laying their money down every night for the dancing and the "bottles of Doctor Good", but there's definitely the double meaning there - at least in my (dirty) mind.
• Darren from Bedford, United Kingdomis it just me or does the bit that says about "the men....laying their money down" infer that the gypsies are prostitutes? Recently saw the song being sung by a bunch of 15 year old girls at a amateur dramtic production and suspected that is was only me that read this in the lyrics.
• Paul from Kennewick, WaAn awesome classic! I think one of the most haunting and effective features of it was during an episode of The X-Files which was filmed almost entirely in black and white when Mulder and Scully were still together.
• Kristin from Bessemer, Althis record is kind of a bit of everything: creepy, sad, haunting, depressing...but overall, still a great song!
• Dale from Santa Fe, NmI like the message: people are hypocrites.

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