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Cops and Whiskey Lake Screenprint on cotton. Mythos Merch 2016 Rhonda Ratray
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Big Rock Candy Mountain by
Harry McClintock
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
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 all are empty
And the sun
shines every day
On 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 them
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 ...
I'll see you
all this coming fall
In the Big
Rock Candy Mountains.
Big Rock Candy Mountain, was first recorded by Harry McClintock in 1928, and appears
to be a modern version of the medieval concept of Cockaigne. Cockaigne or Cockayne /kɒˈkeɪn/ is a land of
plenty, an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts
and pleasures are always at hand and where the harshness of peasant life does
not exist. In Specimens of Early English Poets (1790) George Ellis printed a 13th-century French poem called "The Land of
Cockaigne" where "The houses were made of barley sugar and cakes, the
streets were paved with pastry, and the shops supplied goods for nothing.” Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting "Luilekkerland" (The Land of Cockaigne), 1567. Literally translated as, ”relaxed luscious, delicious land” pictures sleepy revelers
lounging in abundance. The
Brothers Grimm translated a similar fairy tale, Schlaraffenland “The Land of milk and honey.” This story also
describes a land of extreme abundance, as well as a land of opposites, where
the weakest and meekest are the strongest.
What could be better for a person, than to have all their
needs met? Is it the lap of luxury to live in a place where no one has to
"work" for money with plenty of clean water, food, and ample
alcohol? Another kind of luxury, where
the police are not a threat, where traveling is easy and sleeping under
the stars every night is always warm and comfortable… That sounds like utopia.
The land of milk and honey… Big Rock Candy Mountain is a Neverland.
What is the message beyond reveling in the
fantasy of a decadent Willy Wonka world, a place so opposite of the one we
inhabit? Is it to imagine a world of pure wish fulfillment? A true escapist
fantasy: escaping the human condition? Is it in recognizing the actual abundance in
nature? Is it found the cliché’ “If
something sounds too good to be true…it probably is.” Does the song make a mark of you? In the
tradition of Fairy tales, does it serve to be a warning for children,
for teenagers and dreamers?
The lesser known last verse reveals the cautionary nature
of the song. Originally the song described a
child being recruited into hobo life by tales of the "Big Rock Candy
Mountain." McClintock sanitized the song considerably from the version he
sang as a street busker in the 1890s. When he
appeared in court as part of a copyright dispute, he cited the original words
of the song, the last stanza of which was:
The punk rolled up his big blue eyes
And said to the jocker, "Sandy,
I've hiked and hiked and wandered too,
But I ain't seen any candy.
I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I'll be damned if I hike any more
To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains."
I created these pieces as part of the series, Mythos Merch These hankies incorporate some hobo symbols and commemorate some of my favorite attractions from Big Rock Candy Mountain. I love a good story and the tale of Big Rock Candy Mountain is just that, with its straight up tourist trap hucksterism and charm. I actually didn’t know about the final stanza until I began researching the song and I had been strictly thinking of BRCM as a vision of paradise. Anyway, this song always had a special place in my heart and I always like walking along railroad tracks. Please enjoy these hobo hankies from bum paradise.
You can see more on my website: http://ratray.com/recent-work.html
These will be on view at the Distillery in south Boston as part of the show "wish you were there."
