Talk:Big Rock Candy Mountain

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I may be reading this article wrong, but if McClintock claimed to have written the song in 1897, wouldn't it be in the public domain by now anyway? - Hephaestos 23:18 4 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Maybe--IANAL. Then again, if Burl Ives turns out to own it, then it's still protected. --Len.

Haven't we reached a stage when this song is no longer "best remembered" from a 1940s Burl Ives recording? -Acjelen 21:42, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

I fail to see what Burger King contributes to the history of Big Rock Candy Mountain. So they used a perversion to hype some poorly named sandwich? Yep, that really sucks. They got Hootie to help them suck. The suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked, this side of the golden arches.

I have this soing on my computer, (it was recorded from a wax cylinder)and it mentions nothing of a whiskey lake... but it does metion a lake of stew

"there's a lake of stew, and whiskey too, you can paddle all around them in a big canoe, in the big rock candy mountains"

I thought that it said "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."

I'd think that "them" would refer to at least two lakes. Julyo 02:51, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Original last verse?

The article currently says that McClintock first sang the last verse of the song like this:

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.

Where does that information come from? There's no citation. And what about this word "jocker"? The only dictionary I can find it is the Urban Dictionary -- hardly a reliable source. The second meaning it gives makes sense in the context of this verse -- "A homosexual hobo who lives by begging his male companion for money" -- but if that's really a legitimate slang that has been around since the 1890s, how is it that Oxford and other dictionaries hasn't heard of it? Anyway, a reference for these lyrics is really needed. Joel Bastedo 20:00, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

I have found the term in several collections of hobo jargon which agree that a jocker is an experienced hobo who teaches young "punks" the ways of the street, and that the relationship of jocker and punk is often sexual. So that must be what McClintock meant. Joel Bastedo 16:09, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

The lyrics for the original final verse are published on page 204 of John Greenway's 1953 survey American Folksongs of Protest (University of Pennsylvania Press). However, Greenway omits the "To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore" line in favor of "To be * * * * * * * *". Greenway's recording of the song substitutes another line entirely. Greenway says that McClintock's claims to authorship are based largely on his proliferation of these lyrics. Unfortunately, Greenway provides no citations. I've been trying for over a year to find a credible source for the "buggered sore" line, with no success (I've spoken about this with a few hobo scholars and musicians, and they don't know where it came from either). Can anyone provide a source for this? Skrelnek 07:57, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Title

Shouldn't this be at Big Rock Candy Mountains? The real-life Utah mountain may be singular, but the song title and the lyrics are plural. Kafziel ^Talk 13:18, 3 October 2006 (UTC)