Hunting After Gold

DESCRIPTION: "When I left old New York, to hunt after gold, Chunks bigger than my head I could pick up, I was told." The singer says he has been drunk since he arrived, and lists all the other drunks he has seen. He hasn't found any gold, though
AUTHOR: John A. Stone (Old Put) (Source: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest)
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (Put's Golden Songster)
KEYWORDS: gold humorous drink
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest, p. 89, "Hunting After Gold" (1 text)
NOTES [87 words]: Lingenfelter/Dwyer/Cohen-SongsOfAmericanWest lists the tune as "Combo." I suspect that this is not an actual melody but an indication that the song uses multiple melodies.
Being a nitpicker, I have to comment on the line, "Chunks bigger than my head I could pick up." The specific gravity of water is (more or less by definition) 1.00; that of gold is 19.32. Thus a lump of gold the size of a human head would probably have a mass of 60-80 kilograms and would weigh 120-160 pounds. One would not casually pick it up.... - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: LDC089

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