Days of 49

The Days of '49 - a song that reminisces about the California gold rush. I heard Sandy Darlington sing this on a 1966 Folk-Legacy album. The melody is in Dorian mode of possible Irish origin.

I'm old Tom Moore from the bummer's shore
In the good, old golden days
They call me a bummer and a gin sot, too
But what care I for praise?
I roam around from town to town
Just like a roving sign
And the people all say, "There goes Tom Moore
Of the days of '49."

Refrain:
In the days of old, in the days of gold
How ofttimes I repine
For the days of old when we dug up the gold
In the days of '49.

There was Nantuck Bill, I knew him well
A feller that was fond of tricks
At a polker game he was always there
And heavy with his bricks
He would ante up and draw his cards
And go in a hatfull blind
In a game of bluff, Bill lost his breath
In the days of '49.

There was New York Jake, a butcher's boy
He was always getting tight
And every time that he got full
He was always hunting a fight.
One night he run up against a knife
In the hands of old Bob Kline
And over Jake we held a little wake
In the days of '49.

There was poor old Jess, the old lame cuss
He never would relent.
He never was known to miss a drink
Or ever spend a cent
At length old Jess like all the rest
Who never would decline
In all his bloom went up the flume
In the days of '49.

There was roaring Bill from Buffalo
I never will forget
He would roar all day and he'd roar all night
And I guess he's roaring yet.
One night he fell in a prospector's hole
In a roaring bad design
And in that hole roared out his soul
In the days of '49

Category:

Music

Tags:

• gold rush
• western song
• California
• mining
• 1849
• unaccompanied
• a capella

[captainhow1949]

I had that album from 1966; Sandy and Jeannie Darlington. Wish I could hear it again, part6icularly their "Cocaine" song.