The first ten times I heard Charlie Winston’s Like a Hobo, it was muffled and scratchy coming from a friend’s Mac laptop speakers in another room. All I could feel was the driving beat and the soulful first-person story of a young man. I mistook it for a lighter, folksy cover of the Temptations’ Papa Was a Rolling Stone. Then I thought it might be a remake inspired by Hoochie Coochie Man, Muddy Waters’ song that starts off with a gypsy  predicting to his pregnant mother that Muddy’s coming into the world as a damn baller — fine ladies, watch out.

When I finally got a chance to hear Hobo out of my own speakers, I realized that Winston’s song isn’t a cover, it’s a ripoff. In structure and storyline, it’s a patently American tale. The precocious young’en strikes out on his, or her, own. Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Bambi, Nemo. The tune starts with an eerie whistle rooted in the Spaghetti Western. Winston’s voice in the line “Always keep your head up” should pay royalties directly to Chris Isaak circa Wicked Games. The synthesized harmonica riff is Mississippi blues (Muddy’s home). From afar, “like a hobo from a broken home” = “like a rolling stone,” a song by another Yankee with hair like tumbleweed. Eric Clapton talked about how hard it was to produce the American blues sound. It’s more difficult to attempt a synthesize of Southern blues and Western country as Winston tries to do.

The song is sweet with the pure cane sugar of a one-hit wonder. Winston should see some success in the U.S., but only once and for a short period, and because he reminds us of our musical heritage not because Hobo adds anything new.

Temptations — Papa Was a Rolling Stone

Muddy Waters — Hoochie Coochie Man

Chris Isaacs — Wicked Games

Jackson Five — Papa Was a Rolling Stone

Bob Dylan — Like a Rolling Stone

Charlie Winston — Like a Hobo