Bob Dylan: Harry McClintock [was] an actor, poet, and painter… and a songwriter. He wrote a song called The Big Rock Candy Mountain from the perspective of a hobo. He gained experience from traveling all over the land with the unemployed. He had great respect for the hobos and bums and became their musical voice. The song Big Rock Candy Mountain is about a heaven for the homeless. The dogs have rubber teeth. The police have wooden legs. The jail bars are made of tin. They’re going to “hang the jerk who thought of work.”
Well, it’s got a catchy tune, and kids loved it, but these weren’t appropriate words for kids. So, they changed it. The cigarette trees became the peppermint trees that you remember. The streams of alcohol — that’s right — they became the streams of lemonade. And that lake of soda pop you asked about is really a lake of whiskey.
People like Burl Ives recorded the kid’s version, and it’s great for kids to learn songs like this, but here on Theme Time Radio Hour we’re all grown-ups. So why don’t we listen to the original version of Big Rock Candy Mountain by Harry McClintock. ~ Phone call during the “Sugar & Candy” episode of Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, airdate: February 25, 2009
Harry McClintock, known at various times in his colorful career as “Haywire Mac,” “Radio Mac,” sometimes simply as “Mac,” and maybe once as “Hats McKay,” (more on that one later) was…
