"Big Rock Candy Mountain" (purchase/download) is an American folk song sung from the point of view of a hobo wishing for a better life. It was first recorded by - and its writing has been attributed to - Haywire Mac (aka Harry McClintock) in 1928. He scored a major country hit on the Billboard charts in 1939. While the song is rather daydreamy, it also humanizes the hobo experience, idealizing items which appear in a hobo's daily life such as hunger/handouts, cigarettes, jails, and police
"Big Rock Candy Mountain" Lyrics
Like so many American folk songs, "Big Rock Candy Mountain" has been cleaned up and dusted off from its original, less polished version, so that it might be more palatable to the mainstream (i.e. teaching it to children). In this case, the original lyrics were aimed at a young boy, attempting to romance him into a life on the bum, via promises of fabulous adventures and ultimate wish fulfillment.
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.
When the tune became more popular, stanzas were removed so that the song came off as that of a dreamy - if slightly deluded - hobo, rather than a ploy to lure children into a life on the bum. Still, even with the missing verses, it's a terrific eye on the historical role and lifestyle of the transient worker.
Who Has Recorded "Big Rock Candy Mountain"?
"Big Rock Candy Mountain," as mentioned above, was originally recorded by Haywire Mac, but its most popular version was recorded by Burl Ives in 1949. It's been recorded countless times for countless purposes by everyone from the Beat Farmers to Tom Waits, and is more recently known for its inclusion in an LL Bean advertisement on television (which employs the Haywire Mac recording). The same recording was also used in the popular film O Brother, Where Art Thou?
