"Big Rock Candy Mountain", first recorded by Harry McClintock in 1928, is a song about a hobo's idea of paradise, a modern version of the medieval concept of Cockaigne. It is a place where "hens lay soft boiled eggs" and there are "cigarette trees." McClintock claims to have written the song in 1895 based on tales from his misspent youth hoboing through the United States, but some believe the song, or at least aspects of it, have existed for far longer.
Read more about Big Rock Candy Mountain: History, Actual Location, Recordings, Other Uses
Famous quotes containing the words candy mountain, big, rock, candy and/or mountain:
“I’m headed for a land that’s far away
Beside the crystal fountains.
So come with me, we’ll go and see
The Big Rock Candy Mountains.”
—Unknown. The Big Rock Candy Mountains (l. 5–8)
“In the mountains the shortest route is from peak to peak, but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks: and those to whom they are spoken should be big and tall of stature.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion city of our God!
He, whose word cannot be broken, Form’d for thee his own abode:
On the rock of ages founded, What can shake thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded Thou may’st smile at all thy foes.”
—John Newton (1725–1807)
“Why, what a candy deal of courtesy
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“If I am to be a thoroughfare, I prefer that it be of the mountain brooks, the Parnassian streams, and not the town sewers. There is inspiration, that gossip which comes to the ear of the attentive mind from the courts of heaven. There is the profane and stale revelation of the barroom and the police court. The same ear is fitted to receive both communications. Only the character of the hearer determines to which it shall be open, and to which closed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)