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First recorded in 1928 by Harry Haywire Mac McClintock--this tale of a "hobo heaven" has made folks laugh and cry for almost a century as it good-naturedly rips off the "happy hobo" facade and lets listeners catch a glimpse of just how hard and hopeless life is for so many, simply by asking what "real-world" fact each trait of Big Rock Candy Mountain is responding to.

Some day I hope to write a sequel to this wondrous song.

It will likely include snippets from the following brainstorming word salad:

2. Near the big rock candy mountain....
There's a fleet of limousines
With the windows down, and when the sun comes round
Little flowers push up through the seats
There's a stack of maps and passports
Beside each toilet pit
So everyone can clean themselves
After they take a nap! Hey!

The scarecrows all have smartphones
And empty diamond eyes
And they all stand guard at the mountain's base
Near the rows of rusted tanks

A little further onward
Beyond the green grass graves
The fireweed and kudzu roots wind
Through endless bottle chains

At the entrance there's no fence or door
You just pluck a banjo string
And a crow named Joe
will show you where to go
And give you a song to sing

There isn't a verse or chorus, just a chuckling caw, caw, caw
As you walk on in through a rainbow arch
strangest place you never saw!
In the big rock candy mountain!

In the big rock candy mountain
There ain't no work or leisure

The kids skip rocks with golden rings
While grandma sings with pleasure
And shares her history
With a song for you and me:


Where the body's a treasure
And waking up's a pleasure

Since they hog-tied the bosses
And fed 'em all of their losses

Since they ran out all the preachers
that said to just pray and work cheaper

Where the internets ain't been invented yet
And there ain't no interest in a TV set

Because nobody's needing to plug in or unwind
Where the power lines are all made of trailing vines

Where the people talk funny
And they love to dance when it's sunny

Where the inventor of trains was declared insane
And you wash your clothes
By dancing out in the rain

(If ya wear 'em at all, that is!)
In the big rock candy mountain...


Where they parked all the cars
In giant stacks
And you can see the stars
When you lay on your back

Where there ain't no planes or napalm explosions
And no draglines for cell phones and there's no erosion

Where the soil is rich and it smells like love
In the valleys below and in the sky above

Where cryin's just fine but laughing's more common
And there's plenty of fruit
That never goes rotten



And the only government is winter and spring
And mayors summer and fall
Distribute everything

To each and everyone as they have need
And the kids play all day in the dirt and the weeds
And they never go to school or memorize a creed

Where all the concrete's cracked and full of dandelions
And the shops are all closed because nobody's buying

And every hobo with a nose here understands
That the funny old promised land's in their hands

In the big rock candy mountain

credits

from songs that sing me, Vol. I: a personal anthology, released November 27, 2022

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Seth Mountain 이산 image

Seth Mountain 이산 South Korea

Seth Martin (aka Seth Mountain or 이산), is a roots musician originally from the Pacific Northwest (US).

Continuing in the radical tradition of artists like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, and Utah Phillips, Martin has been living in Seoul since 2015. He regularly performs with Korean and foreign folk, indie and rock acts.

"Quite possibly the closest thing we have to Woody Guthrie."
--Bill Mallonee ... more

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