The Big Rock Candy Mountain

My Dear Princess and Lovely Nieces,

In the Big Rock Candy Mountain
There's a land that's fair and bright...

A cheeky little lad with a habit for getting into trouble loved this song. It's the tale of a hobo's paradise:

All the birds and the bees
And the cigarette trees
The lemonade springs
Where the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain

This cheeky young fellow, by the name of Thomas, had this song sung to him by his dad. And even though the family moved to Bradford away from the farm where he grew up, and even though he missed the trees and the green rolling hills and the farm animals, this song transported him right back there whenever he heard it. 

Oh, I'm bound to go
Where there ain't no snow
Where the rain don't fall
The wind don't blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain

It always made him smile, wherever he was, whenever he heard it. 

I didn't find out about the importance of this song until many years later. He kept it to himself, locked in his heart. It was only when we watched the film "O Brother Where Art Thou?" together in 2005 after a night of whisky and dancing and diddly-dee music in a pub in Edinburgh that he told me about it. 

The movie featured the song. And he knew all the words. 

In the Big Rock Candy Mountain
You never change your socks
And the little streams of alcohol
Come a-trickling down the rocks

It was a special part of a special weekend I spent with the cheeky fellow. He flirted with Caro's friends and made best mates with the musicians in that pub. He got them to play Del Shannon for him and he whirled women thirty years younger than him around the pub. 

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 Mountain

So when I made a playlist for him last week, I had to include this song. In fact it was the first song. 

This version was sung by Burl Ives who added his own flourish to it. "Ooooh-hoo-hoo-hooooo" Burl began at the start of each chorus before launching into it....

In the Big Rock Candy Mountain
All the cops have wooden legs
And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs

As soon as the song came on, the cheeky wee fellow smiled despite being so very tired. He summoned up everything he had and sang along in a whispery voice.

I'm going to stay
Where you sleep all day
Where they hung the Turk
That invented work
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain

When I heard him singing what was left of his heart out I felt the tears pouring down my face. He was too tired to notice, I think. I hope. My heart broke because I wanted him to be free. 

And now he is. 

That cheeky little fellow has his strength back now. He's dancing and whirling and climbing the Big Rock Candy Mountain. His twinkle has returned and he has a dancing big black cat by his side. 

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 Mountain

That's where he is now. And I'm broken-hearted but happy. I was his son, you see. And one day I'll see him there. I know it. 

S.