Hard Times Come Again No More

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"Hard Times Come Again No More" is an American folk song written by Stephen C. Foster as early as 1859. The song begins with "Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears while we all sup sorrow with the poor." The singer describes sad people suffering from poverty, and begs, "Hard times, come again no more." According to Robert B. Waltz, it is the most popular Foster song with folk revival singers and wasn't especially popular at the time it was written. However, Stephen Foster himself considered it his own favorite of his songs. Sigmund Spaeth regards it as an "adequate potboiler."^[1]

Contents 1 Lyrics 2 Recordings 3 Songs with the same tune 4 Further reading 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Lyrics

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,

While we all sup sorrow with the poor;

There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;

Oh Hard times come again no more.

There's a song, the sigh of the weary,

Hard Times, hard times, come again no more

Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;

Oh hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,

There are frail forms fainting at the door;

Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say

Oh hard times come again no more.

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,

With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:

Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,

Oh hard times come again no more.

Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,

Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore

Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave

Oh hard times come again no more.

[edit] Recordings

• Bob Dylan, on Good as I Been to You, 1992
• Emmylou Harris, on At the Ryman, 1992
• 2nd South Carolina String Band, on Southern Soldier, 1997
• Kate McGarrigle and her family, on the compilation Songs of the Civil War, 1991
• James Taylor, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor, on Appalachian Journey, 2000
• Johnny Cash, on Unearthed, Volume Three, 2003
• Mirah with the Black Cat Orchestra, on To All We Stretch The Open Arm, 2004
• Nanci Griffith, on Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful), 1998
• Renée Fleming on Haunted Heart, 2005
• Ralph McTell, on National Treasure, 2002
• Laura Love, on You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes, 2004
• Willie Nelson with David Grisman, on Darol Anger's Heritage, 2005
• Jennifer Warnes, on Shot Through The Heart, 1979
• Eastmountainsouth, used in the film Elizabethtown
• Side by Side (folk duo), on Side by Side by Song

[edit] Songs with the same tune

• "Hard Crackers, Come Again No More" (cf. Spaeth^[1])
• "Howard Times, Come Again No More" (cf. Keeble - Shiny Bum Singers Parody for Australian election^[2])

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "Hard Times Come Again No More" lyrics and score at a Digital Tradition mirror site
• "Hard Times Come Again No More" at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library