Harry McClintock - Haywire Mac
Posted on April 3, 2006 by goatboy
Harry McClintock, or Haywire Mac as he was known, was original old school. Listening to his songs you feel the dust on your tongue and the rails sliding by as you stare out of a boxcar heading South, North, East or West, basically anywhere away from where you currently don’t want to be. At various times McClintock had been a seamen, sheep herder, railroader, union organizer, cowboy, hobo, and muleskinner. In his lyrics and his voice you hear the timbre of a human who was unwilling to play by other people’s rules when those rules weren’t fair and didn’t make sense.
You’ve probably heard at least one of his songs (“Big Rock Candy Mountain” was used in O Brother, Where Art Thou) but the joy of the 1972 Folkways release is getting to hear him interviewed about the various songs and how he came up with them. Especially evocative is his mention of “dirty” and “clean” versions of the many songs. While the LP contains the clean version of Big Rock Candy Mountain, which is written as a song an older hobo would use to entice younger hobo-wannabes to come along with them and help them beg and busk, I did find the following “dirty” alternate last verse on a website:
The punk rolled up his big blue eyes
And said to the joker, “Sandy,
I’ve hiked and hiked and wandered too,
But I ain’t seen any candy.
I’ve hiked and hiked til my feet are sore
And I’ll be damned if I hike anymore
To be buggered sore like a hobo’s whore
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.
Overall, I find McClintock’s ability to sound happy about having (and wanting) nothing to be a useful salve in our current age of consumerism and greed run amok.
More audio:
Harry McClintock - Subic
Harry McClintock - Halleluja, I'm a Bum
Filed under: Country / Blues, Folkways
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