Emmylou Harris - Hard Times (Come Again No More)

[yueun (柳隱)]

Hard Times (Come Again No More) 

- Emmylou Harris -

 
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count her many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears
Oh hard times come again no more.

It's a song the sigh of the weary hard times
Hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered all around my door
Oh, hard times come again no more.

Though we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay
There are frail forms fainting at the door
Though their voices are silent their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.

It's a song the sigh of the weary hard times
Hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered all around my door
Oh, hard times come again no more.

There's a pale young maiden who foils her life away
With a worn out heart whose better days are o'er
Though her voice it would be singing it's sighing all the day
Oh hard times come again no more.

It's a song the sigh of the weary hard times
Hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered all around my door
Oh, hard times come again no more.
Oh, hard times come again no more...

  (Stephen Foster)

"Hard Times Come Again No More."

Stephen Foster wrote this in 1854.

Hard times, he says, have "lingered around his cabin door."

He also admonishes the well-off not to ignore the poverty around them.

"While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and

gay/There are frail forms fainting at the door."

This tune has been recorded by Dylan, Cash, and Mavis Staples.

But my favorite is by a bunch of New Mexico misfits, the Bubbadinos.

Mark Weber croaks it with soul, as the Bubbas, backing him on guitar,

banjo, tuba, and clarinet, sound like a Salvation Army band in the drunk tank.

The overall effect is oddly dignified.

It's on the album The Band only a Mother Could Love.