Monday, June 16, 2025

MUSIC MONDAY

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BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAINS

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I was listening to the soundtrack of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a favourite film, well worth watching.

The opening of the film is accompanied by the song Big Rock Candy Mountains, which sets out a hobo’s idea of paradise.

There is also a children’s version,

The lyrics and video link are below but few would know of the surprising dark origins of the song. I didn’t until I looked up the song.

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Video link to the version from O Brother, Where Art Thou?


Lyrics:

One evening as the sun went down
And the jungle fire was burning
Down the track came a hobo hikin'
And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning
I'm headed for a land that's far away
Beside 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
On 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 wind don't blow
In The Big Rock Candy Mountains

"In The Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
Ad the little streams of alcohol
Come a-trickling down the rocks
The brakemen have to tip their hats
And the railroad bulls are blind
There's a lake of stew and of whiskey, too
You can paddle all around 'em 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-handle shovels
No axes, saws or picks
I'm a-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 comin' fall
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains"

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Facts:

"The Big Rock Candy Mountains" was first recorded and copyrighted by Harry McClintock in 1928, a hard time for many with the Great Depression just about to start. McClintock said that he wrote the song in 1895, based on tales from his youth hoboing through the United States while working for the railroad as a brakeman.

The song was first recorded by McClintock, also known by his "hobo" name of Haywire Mac. McClintock said that he wrote the song, though it was likely partially based on other ballads. Before recording the song, McClintock cleaned it up considerably from the version he sang as a street busker in the 1890s.

The song was not popularised until 1939, but it achieved more widespread popularity in 1949 when a sanitised version intended for children was re-recorded by Burl Ives. It contains the verse:

Oh, the buzzin' of the bees in the cigarette trees
The soda water fountain
Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings
In that Big Rock Candy Mountain.

Sanitised versions have been popular, especially with children's musicians; in these, the "cigarette trees" become peppermint trees, the "streams of alcohol" trickling down the rocks become streams of lemonade and the lake of whiskey becomes a lake of soda pop.

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The dark origins:

From:

Kids were often seduced into the hobo lifestyle by “jockers” — aggressive hobos who would trick children and then force the kids to work for them begging and sometimes to perform sexual favors.

McClintock says that the version he wrote in 1898 was much more adult than the version he recorded in 1928. During a court case questioning the authorship of “The Big Rock Candy Mountain,” McClintock produced the final verse from his original song:

“The punk rolled up his big blue eyes and said to the jocker, “Sandy, I’ve hiked and hiked and wandered too, But I ain’t seen any candy. I’ve hiked and hiked till my feet are sore, I’ll be God damned if I hike any more, To be buggered sore like a hobo’s whore In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.”

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Haywire Mac:

Harry Kirby McClintock (October 8, 1884 – April 24, 1957), also known as "Haywire Mac", was an American railroad man, radio personality, actor, singer, songwriter, and poet, best known for his song "The Big Rock Candy Mountains".

In his youth, McClintock ran away from home to join the circus and drifted from place to place throughout his life. He railroaded in Africa, worked as a seaman, supplied food and ammunition to American soldiers while working as a civilian mule train packer in the Philippines, and in 1899 worked as an aide to newsmen in China covering the Boxer Rebellion.[citation needed]
 
In America, Mac traveled as a railroader and minstrel. He worked for numerous railroads during his life.

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