BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN

“Big Rock Candy Mountain” is a song about a hobo‘s idea of paradise – a modern version

of the medieval concept of Cockaigne, and similar to the fishermen’s concept of Fiddler’s

Green. It was frequently sung by President Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s New Deal Armies,

nation-building schemes to employ men during the Great Depression. The song describes

a hobo’s vision of utopia, a place where the “hens lay soft boiled eggs” and there are

“cigarette trees”. The song is also rather ironic and satirical in that it additionally

describes mollified versions of things that one wouldn’t think should exist in paradise at

all, such as police (with wooden legs) and jail bars (made of tin), but sound appealing to

someone whose lifestyle runs afoul of the law.

The song apparently dates to around the 1890s, as a hobo ballad based on “An Invitation

to Lubberland”. Authorship is commonly attributed to Harry McClintock, whose version

is the first documented example of it. McClintock attempted to enforce a copyright on the

song but lost his lawsuit, which would put the song in the public domain. Sheet music

with a copyright date 1928, by Denton & Haskins Music Pub. Co. Inc., 1595 Broadway,

New York, N.Y., identify the author as Billy Mack. Before recording the song,

McClintock cleaned it up considerably from the version he sang as a street busker in

1897. Originally the song described a child being recruited into hobo life by tales of the

“big rock candy mountain”. Such recruitment actually occurred, with hobos enchanting

children with tales of adventure called ghost stories by other hobos.

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 headin 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 are all empty and the sun shines every day

On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees

Where 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 farmer’s 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 and the wind 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 a-trickling down the rocks

The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind

Banjo Mountain