Lyr/Chords/Tune Req: Hard Hard Times

Subject: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 02:56 PM

Can't find Magpie on You Tube or google. I just recently heard a gripping version of a song by Magpie, I believe called Hard Times, about working people who just work and work and still can barely pay their bills; I believe it's traditional in origin.

Anyone have it- words/ chords/ or a musical version somewhere?
Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 03:59 PM

Hello Lefthanded,

Perhaps the song you are seeking is a Stephen Foster tune: Hard Times Come Again No More. Look it up in the Lyrics and Knowledge Search in the upper right hand corner of this page. There are lyrics and a tune. No chords. Your can also look it up in www.levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu for a pdf of the original sheet music.

Hope this is what your are looking for. If not, give the Mudcat a little more information and someone will likely find that for which you seek.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 04:30 PM

If it's the Foster version, there's plenty of Mudcat input here:

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=2506

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 04:42 PM

Hi - me again -

Just did a spot of googling, and I think the Foster version IS what you're looking for. Website http://www.magpiemusic.com/schoolguide.html sez:

BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
MAGPIE's program of music from the Civil War era, like their other programs, goes beyond just the story of the war, of the government and the armies, to tell the personal stories of the people of the times and how they dealt with the crisis gripping the nation. The program begins with music from the abolitionist movement and from the Underground Railroad, music borne, as was the war itself, from the malevolent institution of slavery. Many claim that the Civil War was fought not over slavery but over "states' rights"; but the preeminent "states' right" in dispute was undoubtedly slavery. The songs deal with Mary Brown, wife of the famed raider of Harper's Ferry, John Brown, and with the dangerous flight of the fugitive slaves to freedom in the north. They also celebrate the great conductor of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman. From there the program tells the story in song of the soldiers and the loved ones they left behind. The songs are some of the well-known tunes of the day, which described the hardships of army life and of the war itself, as well as the difficulties faced by those "keeping the home fires burning." The songs also express the patriotic fervor that motivated both sides in the conflict. Then the program winds down with songs expressing everyone's weariness with the war, with the exception of one "unreconstructed" rebel, and the hope that these hard times would come again no more in the words of famed songwriter, Stephen Foster.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 04:51 PM

Thanks, this Civil War info is something I didn't know about their program. But the song I'm referring to is not Hard Times by Stephen Foster, which I know and have often heard in song circles.

In the song I'm trying to locate (on one of their CD's but of course I forget which one), the singer talks about working (at a mill?) and never having enough to get by - a real working person's lament that has not become any less pertinant with time, alas. The last line is something like, "even when you pass on , you are still in the hole."There's also some verse about giving your money to the doctor until you have none left , and then you can die if you please. (ha ha)

Roger? Anyone?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 05:50 PM

there is this one

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 05:54 PM

Hard times of Old England?
In Old England very hard times...
Quack!1
GtD.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 06:29 PM

Lefthanded,

Here is another one out of the Digital Tradition

HARD, HARD TIMES

1. Come all you good people, I'll sing you a song,
About the poor people, how they get along,
They start in the spring, finish up in the fall
And when it's all over, you've got nothing at all.

Chorus
And it's hard, hard times!

2. You start with your jigger first thing in the spring
Across the gunn'el you'll make the line sing
Perhaps lose your jigger, get froze with the cold
And that's how you start to go in the hole.

3. When so much fish is caught, then it's put out to dry
The next is the trouble to keep off the flies
It's buzz all around, more trouble for you,
[To keep off the maggots, it's more than you'll do]
And then comes the sun, and it's all split in two.

4. And then comes the schooner, go get your supplies,
A good price this summer, just make it good, boys!
Seven dollars for large, six-fifty for small
Get out your west indie, you get nothing at all.

5. And then comes the carpenter to build you a house
He'll build it so snug you can scarce find a mouse
With holes in the roof and the rain it will pour
The chimney will smoke and it's open the door.

6. Next comes the parson, or so I've been told
Each Sunday he says that he'll save your poor soul
He'll give you a blessing, or maybe a curse
Put his hands in your pockets and take out your purse.

7. Then comes the doctor, the worst of them all
Saying, "What's been the matter with you all the fall?"
He says that he'll cure you of all your disease.
When your money he's got, you can die if you please.

8. The best thing to do is to work with a will
And when it's all over, you're hauled on the hill,
You're hauled on the hill and way down in the cold
And when it's all over, you're still in the hole!

- from Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs
@Canada @bitching @cheating

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 09:33 PM

Discussion and more variations of the "Hard Times" song posted by Roger at this thread.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 03:30 AM

I believe the song that lefthanded guitar is looking for is the Jute Mill Song

( sorry btw Joeclones, I know I shouldn't write the whole address for an internal link but haven't quite got my head around it yet )

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 03:33 AM

actually, on re-reading one of lefthandeds earlier posts, I realise that The Jute Mill song is not the one he is looking for.

Magpie did record an extraordinarily good version of the Jute Mill Song however ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 11:16 AM

And I've heard Barry Finn sing one about Hard times in Old Virginia which I've never got around to tracking down properly (or asking him for the tune and words).
Quack!
Geoff the Duck.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: lyrics/chords/music for Hard Times
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 02:43 PM

Thanks Roger and Bob- that's the one.

I'm printing it out to sing. Sadly, still a timely song.