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Top 100 Homeless Songs
​Song #62

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Charlie Musselwhite
"The Invisible Ones"

Charlie Musselwhite  is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the white bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield, or bands such as Canned Heat. He has often been identified as a "white bluesman".  Musselwhite was reportedly the inspiration for Elwood Blues; the character played by Dan 
​Aykroyd in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.

 "Invisible Ones" comes from Musselwhite's twenty-fourth studio album titled, Delta Hardware, and was released in 2008. The song was written by Musselwhite and Julio Bermudes and is a half-sung, half-spoken anthem for the homeless. 
I love that the song is not just an appeal for help, but is a cry for justice that breaks the vow of silence imposed by a society that chooses to remain in denial about the millions of poor and desperate people in our midst. Musselwhite gives “the invisible ones” a voice of their own to accuse the nation that has refused to even see their hungry children.

They may be called the invisible ones, he sings, yet they “have been here all along, right next door.” Homeless people are in every city and every state of the nation, and they become invisible only because they are shunned.

As Musselwhite sings, “You pass me right on the street, you just look away and down at your feet.”

Our society has banished these invisible ones from view and refused to hear their cries — even when they are handed over to hunger, homelessness, and ultimately, to death.


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"Invisible Ones"
Lyrics

Can you see us runnin', all through your streets
dark clouds rollin', bodies at our feet
our lives are empty, we're on our own
no one to help us, can you throw us a bone?
But you don't see us, you don't even try
'cuz you're in a hurry, you don't hear 'em cry

'Cuz we are the invisible ones,
the invisible ones, 
you've left to die

Been here all along, yeah right next door
just workin' class, we're the workin' poor
now if you had a nickel, and I had a dime
if you were in need, I'd give you mine
but then you pass me, right on the street
you just look away, down at your feet

'Cuz we are the invisible ones,
the invisible ones,
you can't see

oh ohhh
the invisible ones

On your front gate, 
you hung a sign
bring us the poor, and the tired inside
bring the huddled masses, we believed in you
wasn't nothin', that we wouldn't do
but you don't see us, you don't really try
we're the invisible ones, and we're left outside

We are the invisible ones,
the invisible ones,
we'll never die,
we'll never die,
we'll never die

Invisible ones, the invisible ones
oh oooh, oh oooh
invisible ones
ohhhh

Can't you hear me moanin'?
here to stay
the invisible ones

Well, we are the invisible ones
the invisible ones
the invisible ones
the invisible ones

Aint' goin' away
we're here to stay.

​
We are busy adding more songs relating to homelessness all the time
You can help by recommending  your favorites

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