At first blush, you might think the song Big Rock Candy Mountain is a children’s tune, something along the lines of a ditty with words such as “sugar and spice and everything nice” but, truth be told, the original version of Big Rock Candy Mountain might make you blush (or might cause your grandmother to blush, at any rate).
The general gist of the song? It’s a description of a lazy man’s paradise: streams of alcohol, lakes of whiskey and stew, lemonade springs, cigarette trees, as well as handouts that grow on bushes and even soft-boiled eggs that come pre-boiled; the Big Rock Candy Mountain is where “they hung the jerk that invented work.”
NOTE: Not all hobos were lazy, irresponsible, or running away from something; many were riding the rails looking for work. These probably hated the song Big Rock Candy Mountain for the impression it gives that all hobos were just looking for a handout and wanted to avoid work at all costs.
My first exposure to the song was as a wee lad, when I heard the version by Burl Ives (1884-1957). My more recent exposure was actually the one most people today are probably most familiar with – the original version of the song by Harry McClintock (1884-1957), as featured in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou?
Harry McClintock, who was, as mentioned, the first to record the song (in 1928), claimed to have written the song in 1895 (when he would have been ten or eleven years old).
In the superficially romantic but inherently dangerous subculture of hoboing, McClintock’s nom de rails was “Haywire Mac” – a moniker that may indicate that he was viewed as being a little mentally or emotionally “off” by those with whom he associated in that life.
Then again, maybe “Haywire Harry” was crazy like a fox; he wasn’t actually a do-nothing type of guy, without ambition, at all. As a boy, he pulled a Toby Tyler and ran off to join the circus. He thereafter traveled the world, working here and there in various capacities, including on the railroad in Africa (all the live-long day, presumably), as a sailor on the high seas, and as a mule-train packer in the Philippines, not to mention as an aide to journalists covering the Boxer Rebellion in China. Thereafter he became not just “a hobo,” but “the hobo,” working hard at professionally presenting himself as sort of a caricature of that type. Perhaps his persona as a bum or hobo influenced comedian Red Skelton in his recurring role as “Freddie the Freeloader.”
The first lyrics to Big Rock Candy Mountain contain some downright obscene things, so I will display here instead the popular sanitized version of the lyrics, as recorded by McClintock in 1928:
One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hiking
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning"
"I'm headed for a land that's far away
Besides the crystal fountains
So come with me, we'll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains"
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There's a land that's fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out every night
Where the boxcars all are empty
And the sun shines every day
And the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
The farmers' trees are full of fruit
And the barns are full of hay
Oh, I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall
The winds don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railway bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew
And of whiskey too
You can paddle all around it
In a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
The jails are made of tin
And you can walk right out again
As soon as you are in
There ain't no short-handled shovels
No axes, saws nor picks
I'm goin' to stay
Where you sleep all day
Where they hung the jerk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
I'll see you all this coming fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
The jazzy 1942 version by this same Harry McClintock, which was recorded with Hal Borne and his Orchestra, and released with a music video of sorts, was slightly risqué by modern standards and presumably quite risque by the standards of that time. It surprised me a bit, actually, how revealing the costumes are in it, indicating that comestibles were not the only things freely available for the taking on The Big Rock Candy Mountain:
Links to the most important and/or interesting versions follow:
Original 1928 version by Harry McClintock, as featured in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Burl Icle Ivenhoe Ives:
John Hartford (1937-2001):
Johnny Dunn:
Albums with the Versions linked to above
O Brother, Where Are Thou Soundtrack
https://www.amazon.com/Brother-Where-Art-Thou/dp/B00004XQ83/garrphotgall-20
Harry McClintock – Haywire Mac: The Great American Bum
https://www.amazon.com/Haywire-Mac-Great-American-Bum/dp/B002QAZPLQ/garrphotgall-20
America’s Folk Singer Burl Ives – 38 All-Time Greatest Hits
https://www.amazon.com/All-Time-Greatest-Hits-Burl-Ives/dp/B00024373G/garrphotgall-20
John Hartford – Down from the Mountain: Live Concert Performances by the Artists & Musicians of O Brother, Where Art Thou?
https://www.amazon.com/Down-Mountain-Concert-Performances-Musicians/dp/B00005MJYJ/garrphotgall-20
Previous installments of the series “The Name of That Tune” are:
#1: The End of the World: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-world
#2: City of New Orleans: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/city-of-new-orleans
#3: Hobo’s Lullaby: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/hobos-lullaby
#4: Ghost Riders in the Sky: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/ghost-riders-in-the-sky-a-cowboy
#5: Sixteen Tons: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/sixteen-tons
#6: The Battle of New Orleans: https://ramblingnotesofageezer.substack.com/p/battle-of-new-orleans