Real story of the song "Big Rock Candy Mountain", now considered a childrens song...

old mark

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Tue Aug-17-10 07:38 AM
Original message

Real story of the song "Big Rock Candy Mountain", now considered a childrens song...

It originally was a hobo's song in teh 1920's, telling of the fables used by hobos to lure kids to travel along with the hobos so they could be used for sex.

I see it is now being used on TV ads to sell back to school supplies.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Rock_Candy_Mountain

This is a Wiki article that has some of the specifics, including the original last verse, which ends:

"I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I'm never gonna hike no more
To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore
By the Big Rock Candy Mountain"

This verse never made it to the early recording...but I guess it WAS a children's song of a sick sort.

mark

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Tuesday Afternoon

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Tue Aug-17-10 08:19 AM
Response to Original message

1. Charlie!

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Blue_Tires

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Tue Aug-17-10 11:11 AM
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2. funny you bring this up

i was thinking about that song the other day...i remembered singing it in 5th grade music class sometime around 1988

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old mark

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Tue Aug-17-10 11:14 AM
Response to Reply #2

3. There is a new version with very kid-oriented lyrics...the original lyrics

are quite different...Interesting how this song has changed over the 80 or so years it has been around.

I doubt they would sing it in grade schools if they knew the original...

mark

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Seneca

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Tue Aug-17-10 11:26 AM
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4. Interesting

My take was that it was an ironic escapist song to counter the harsh reality experienced by hobos during the Depression.

Of course, hobos had been around since there were trains, through good times and bad, and the song pre-dates the Depression by a couple of years, but it does serve that end: of making a harsh existence into a utopia.

The version on the 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' soundtrack is the best known recording.

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Petrushka

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Tue Aug-17-10 12:51 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. Then, there's the Burl Ives version --->

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=gPqrTaVXJhI&feature=fvw

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mitchum

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Tue Aug-17-10 12:59 PM
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6. "Gunsel" was the term used for a hobo's catamite...

but the sly Dashiell Hammett convinced his editors that the term meant "hoodlum"
I've always gotten a kick out of that.

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The Midway Rebel

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Tue Aug-17-10 01:23 PM
Response to Original message

7. mmmm....cigarette trees

definitely part of my school supplies

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old mark

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Wed Aug-18-10 08:00 AM
Response to Reply #7

8. ...along with the whisky waterfalls and lake of gin...you'll never get any homework done...nt

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