The Big Rock Candy Mountain
(Bowdlerized version)
Words & Music:
Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock(?)
I donŐt know who wrote this bowdlerized version, but it is
an interesting one. Thanks to
correspondent Tom Loomis for the chords to this version. He highly recommends doing the long
glissando from low E to C# that Burl Ives used on the work "buzzin'"
in the chorus.
A D A
D A Bm A
A
E7
A
On a summer day in the month
of May a burly bum came hiking.
A D
A D A Bm A
A
E7
A
Down a shady lane through the
sugar cane he was looking for his liking.
Bm
A
Bm
A
E
A
E
A
As he roamed along, he sang a
song of a land of milk and honey.
A D A D A Bm A
A
E
A
Where a bum can stay for many
a day and he won't need any money.
CHORUS:
A
D A
E7 A
D A
Oh, the buzzin' of the bees in
the cigarette trees near the sody water fountain!
D
A
E7
A
E7
A
E
A
And the lemonade springs where
the bluebird sings on the Big Rock Candy Mountain.
At that Big Rock Candy
Mountain the cops have wooden legs!
The bulldogs all have rubber
teeth and the hens lay soft-boiled eggs!
The farmers' trees are full o'
fruit, their barns are full of hay.
I want t' go, where there
ain't no snow,
Where the rain don't fall
& the wind don't blow to that Big Rock Candy Mountain.
CHORUS:
There's a lake of gin we can
both jump in and the handouts grow on bushes.
In the new-mown hay we can
sleep all day and the bars all have free lunches.
Where the mail train stops and
there ain't no cops and the folks are tender-hearted.
Where you never change your
socks & you never throw rocks & your hair is never parted.
CHORUS:
Oh, a farmer and his son, they
were on the run to the hay field they were bounding
Said the bum to the son,
"Why don't you come to that big rock candy mountain?"
So the very next day they
hiked away, the mileposts they were counting.
But they never arrived at the
lemonade tide and the Big Rock Candy Mountain.
CHORUS: