Climbers and Hoboes

[catbirdseat]

Harry McLintock was writing about hoboes, but he might have just as well been referring to climbers. I just love this song, The Big Rock Candy Mountains. It was used in the movie, Brother Where Art Thou. The last stanza, I wrote. I'm sure you can do better.

 

One evening as the sun went down

And the jungle fires were burning,

Down the track came a hobo hiking,

And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning

I'm headed for a land that's far away

Besides 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

And 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 winds 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 trickling down the rocks

The brakemen have to tip their hats

And the railway bulls are blind

There's a lake of stew

And of whiskey too

You can paddle all around it

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-handled shovels,

No axes, saws nor picks,

I'm bound to stay

Where you sleep all day,

Where they hung the jerk

That invented work

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

 

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

Where all the dudes are hip

And the bright clean grippy granite

Ne’er causes you to slip

The rangers have to tip their hats

And the buffets are all free

There's a splitter crack

And a flake or two

You get good gear all along it

Pull the lip, you’re through

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

[chucK]

Your verse doesn't match the cadence of the original in the last 5 lines.

[catbirdseat]

Like I said, if you can do better, have at it.